My little girl is growing up....

After our big weekend, we followed it up with an 18 month visit to the pediatrician. While I was looking forward to going and finding out how much she had grown and gained, I wasn't looking forward to the 4 vaccinations were we gonna have to get.

They measured and weighed her and she had grown nearly an inch, she's now 31 1/2 inches and gained 1.5 lbs and is now topping the scales at 19.4 lbs. So, she weighs just a little more than her age...she'll be 18 months on Friday....the past 6 months have gone by way to fast. I wish I could freeze time and keep her this little forever.

While she is growing and gaining, she is still small by the charts, but the dr is very happy with her progress. She also said that Jetta is doing very well in the way of learning and development, which again makes me very happy.

Once we got all that out of the way, it was time for the vaccinations. Of course the first one wasn't bad, but the final 3 caused a bit of trauma. However, as soon it was over, I scooped her up, cuddled her and within a minute or so she was fine. She was a real trooper. Of course, I'm sure it helped that I had promised her pumpkin bread from Starbucks. So, as promised we stopped on our way home and she barely ate two bites and she was out. Fortunately she has not been crabby or running a fever from the vaccinations, so short of the boo-boo of the stick, she is doing great. Short of going back for the second dose of the flu vaccine, we are now good until her 2 year visit.

This picture is from a few weeks back, but I absolutely love it and think she looks so adorable, that I wanted to share it. Its so hard to believe that just 6 short months ago we brought her home and she was a baby and today, she is a toddler. I am so grateful to have her in my life and couldn't imagine my life any other way. She has been such a blessing and has brought me more joy that I could have ever anticipated.

A few more pics of Wrigley...

A day at Wrigley....

On Sunday before we headed back home, we took a tour of Wrigley field. I had arranged for all of us, Shannon, Jetta and I to tour Wrigley. As you all know, Shannon is a die hard Cubs fan and I figured he would enjoy a day at the ballpark (behind the scenes).

I think he enjoyed it alot and might have even learned a few unknown facts about the ballpark and the Cubs. Wrigley is a no frills, no thrills stadium, but its history is what makes it Wrigley.

On the tour we were able to go to the bleachers and get a great view of the entire field, then over to the visiting teams clubhouse, which was very small. It is hard to believe that these multi-million dollar players enjoy going here. The clubhouse is so small that once all the players and the media gather in there, you would be lucky to be able to move around. After leaving the visiting players clubhouse, we went to the suites, which by no stretch of the means are suites. I think my kitchen might be bigger than the entire suite. However, it would still be fun to watch a game from one of them. Then we moved onto the press boxes and again, these were very small and no frills. We got to see where Harry Carey sat and called all those games. After that we moved down to the Cubs clubhouse and was sure it would be much bigger. As pictures will show, it's not much bigger than the visiting clubhouse. The thing that was most shocking was, if the players want to take some practice swings, they have to come back into the clubhouse, drop down a net, and a white board that protects a flat panel tv on the wall, pull out the batting t and swing away. Amazing....not what I would have expected. You can see the net in the clubhouse pic. I'm pretty certain, both the visiting team and the Cubs all look forward to going to other stadiums, but at the same time appreciate the "old" time feeling at Wrigley. Lastly, we got to go to the dugout and see the field from a players prospective.

The whole tour was great and we had a perfect day to do it. I will attach some pics from the day. So, Jetta had a big weekend, starting with the Cubs/Cards game on Friday at Busch, Saturday with her Guangdong sisters and then Sunday at Wrigley.

All in all it was a great weekend and am so glad we got to do all those things with her and are able to share the memories with all of you. Thanks for following along.

More pics from the reunion...

I'm not sure what is going on, but I seem to be having trouble with posting pics. So, forgive me for the arrangement of the pics, but still wanted to share them, in order or not. It also seems that I can't get the text to stay together and is breaking up in strange places. I've never had this problem, so not sure what's going on.

Also, sorry that I had to post two group pics in order to get a shot of all the girls, but they were all spread out and we weren't able to get all 8 in one shot, but still wanted to share the pics so you can see how they have all changed.

Baseball pics...

For some reason I had trouble adding the pics to the baseball post, so I decided to post them separately. Here they are.

Guangdong sisters reunite....

This past weekend was our much anticipated trip to Chicago. We headed up north to meet up with the families we traveled to China with. We have been waiting for this weekend for quite some time and it was better than I could have ever imagined.

When we first got there, we were expecting only 7 of the 8 to be there, but to our surprise, the 8th family was able to attend. It was a great surprise and now we had the entire Guangdong 8 back together. We were the first to arrive and was able to chat with the Sgarbossa family and share a few happy tears. It was so great to see them and to be able to share with them this very special moment. The last time we had seen them, we were rushing off the train station, so it was nice to see them again and not have to rush off.

As the families began to arrive, it was so great to see all the girls and how much they have grown and changed. They are all doing so well and have definitely adjusted to being a part of our families. They all know exactly who mom and dad are and getting around very well.

They all seemed to enjoy each others company. I'm not convinced that they remember each other, but from time to time they would seem to watch each other as if they either recognize that they all look similar or possibly that they remember each other. I'm hoping as time passes and we continue to get together, that they all remain close, as this is a bond they will always share.

As the day progressed, we all just chatted and revisited some of the memories we had from China, as well as how each of the girls are doing now. It was definitely nice to be back in the United States, in a much calmer environment, more adjusted to having the babies and to be able to enjoy the moments together.

I believe we are already planning a possible Chinese New Year get together, as well as another visit early next spring. This time we will travel to Peoria to the Humbles, who have graciously offered to have our next gathering. The Sgarbossa's hosted this one and I am very grateful for their kindness to open their home to all of us.

I will post some pictures from the day and of all the girls. Feel free to go back to some of my earlier posts to see just how much the girls have changed. This almost made this whole process feel as if it has come full cirlce....while we still want to travel one day to China with Jetta, this made this all seem so much more real. While I know the past 6 months have been for real and the whole process really did take place, going back, seeing all the girls again and all the families brought it all the way back around for me. It definitely feels more real and am so grateful to have had such great families to share this whole experience with and look forward to many more get togethers and to watch our girls grow up together.

Friday night baseball.....

Well, this past Friday night was Jetta's first Cubs/Cardinals game. While she has been to a game already this year, this was the game we have all been waiting for (well, at least mom and dad have been). As you'll notice in the pictures, Jetta has her very own Cubs/Cardinals jersey. We have had this idea in our minds for a very long time and was glad to finally put it to use.

We purchased the jerseys over the past couple of years, but finally had them cut apart and sewn back together. We figure since mommy is a Cardinals fan and daddy a Cubs fan, we had to keep it fair. So, once we had it sewn back together, I had her name put on the back and '08 for the year she was born. Once we saw the final product, we loved it.

So, now that the jersey was all done, all we needed were tickets to a game. Shannon was able to get us tickets and good tickets they were. We headed to the game early in hopes to get there in time to catch batting practice. We made it in time to see the Cubs, but not the Cardinals. We took Jetta down by the dugout, in hopes to get the jersey signed. While that didn't happen, we did manage to get a game ball tossed to us from one of the pitchers and then one of the managers came out, saw her and was commenting on how cute she was.