wynn2minn - China Adoption Journey

All She Needs are the Boots

2011-10-22T08:19:00.000-05:00

My Little Pony, for real

2011-10-09T19:19:00.000-05:00

Ann and I needed some time to do heavy-duty cleaning and re-arranging here at the house today, so Grandpa Ken and Grandma Barb graciously picked Wynn up mid-morning. She had quite an adventure today - they went on a hayride, picked pumpkins and painted them, and Wynn got to ride a horse!

Apparently Wynn is something of a 'natural' in the saddle; she had excellent position and full control of the horse (Miss Chevious) from the get-go. Barb & Ken's friend who owns the horse said that Wynn was handling the reins properly all by herself - not needing any intervention - and with just a couple more hours' practice could be riding around solo.

Tonight, Wynn's reading the Fleet Farm toy catalog and making the clicking noises you use in the saddle...

Our little girl is all business - wearing her Pony shirt of course. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie seem to approve.

What does a rock star do?

2011-10-05T21:42:00.000-05:00

She's got the moves already...

She's so much like us

2011-10-02T21:04:00.001-05:00

Ann and Wynn realize they're wearing matching outfits for school.

After we tuck her in at night, she often likes to read quietly for a little bit and listen to her music. Several times last week I found her in a similar pose, fast asleep with (literally) her head in a book.

Loving Yinghua Academy!

2011-09-28T22:40:00.002-05:00

Here she is Monday morning, at our front door in her uniform and ready to go to her new school.

Any worries we had about Wynn transitioning into Yinghua were put to bed Monday afternoon; she adores the place. This morning as I dropped her off, she was skipping all the way to the front door of the school. She has art and music classes several times per week, gym every day, an hour plus of math every day, and of course all the Mandarin she can drink in. She's already begun showing off what she's learned; last night she wrote the characters for 1 through 6 for us, and then used wooden building blocks to make the symbols, too.

* proud Baba smile *

Friday afternoon I'll pick her up a little early and we'll go to her ear doctor for the post-surgical follow-up. She's not complained of pain at all over this past week - had some dry skin back behind the ear a couple nights ago, which Vaseline took care of. No fever, nausea, or any other complications, and she never needed the Tylenol with codeine that she was prescribed. (In fact, she only had a pain reliever Wednesday afternoon, and nothing since.)

She is one tough cookie.

I'm hoping she gets the all-clear to start swimming again Friday! I'm missing our Friday Family Swim Nights!

First Day of School, Take 2

2011-09-26T08:01:00.002-05:00

When your first day of school is in late-September, you leave when it's dark out.

Snazzy new uniform, though...

Feeling MUCH better

2011-09-25T22:09:00.002-05:00

The bandages were off Thursday morning and she had a wonderful time with her Grandmas Thursday and Friday. She did need more nap time these past four days, but otherwise she was active and up to her usual activities.

She's not reported any pain or nausea, and has had a normal appetite this whole time. She's taking eardrops three times a day to prevent infection, and we'll get a follow-up appointment scheduled in the next few days. She's got packing on the inside of her left eardrum which will dissolve over the next couple weeks; right now she's a little hard-of-hearing on that side because of all that stuffing. Outside, there's only a small patch behind her ear where they shaved off hair and a teensy scar; if you weren't looking directly at it you'd never see it. We have to keep the area dry until the follow-up appointment, so we carefully wash her hair - and no Family Swim Time. That's probably been the biggest disruption this weekend.

Ann and Wynn toured Yinghua Academy Friday afternoon and she got to meet her teacher. The first day at her new school is tomorrow! Hooray!

The Second Ear Surgery

2011-09-21T17:16:00.001-05:00

Here's where they're going to be working...

Mmm...a bomb pop is just the thing after 17 hours with nothing to eat or drink

Can we go home, already?

I'm home but still really tired

The day started far too early; check-in was at 6:15, and neither Ann nor I had gotten adequate sleep last night. The staff at the Ritchie Surgical Center was well-prepared, however, and the check-in process was smooth. We were never sitting for more than five minutes between seeing nurses, specialists, or the surgeon.

The surgery, while taking about 2-1/2 hours, went even better than expected. As planned, her surgeon took a tiny, thin layer of muscle tissue from just behind her ear and used it to patch the tear in her eardrum. The drum tissue itself had some areas where it had calcified, but there was more healthy tissue there than originally thought, so the regeneration process will be faster and stronger. The tiny bones in the inner ear that transmit sound from the eardrum to the auditory nerve were all in perfect working order. Some bony deposits in the inner ear were removed, which should improve aeration and eliminate the "in a tunnel" sound that Wynn has probably been registering on her left side.

No tube was put in on the left; we want the drum to heal up first and then see if anything else is even needed. As you can see from the photos, she has quite a bit of dressing on her left side, but that will be coming off later tomorrow. There is also packing inside her head which will dissolve over the next couple weeks.

We got home about 2:00 - Wynn fell asleep in the car on the way home and had a nice nap on the couch, too. She's been logy but still cheerful and able to tell us if she needs anything. A Matchbox race car from the hospital and a Fashion Rarity My Little Pony from Grandma Marilyn have kept her occupied, and she's had a good appetite, too, already eating mashed potatoes, half a banana, some pancakes, and apple juice. And unlike last time, no problems with nausea.

We have pain meds ready if she needs them, but since we got home she's had no complaints, and her temperature has been running as expected; no fever. She'll need eardrops for a week to prevent infection (and she really doesn't like eardrops), but outside of that the only prescription is good food, good rest, fresh air, and taking it easy for several days.

Kindergarten Switch!

2011-09-18T22:30:00.000-05:00

Here's what the building looks like without snow.

From back in January - Wynn had a great time.

This is what we in the education business call a "text-rich environment". No worries about how much teachers can put up on the walls here...

A sudden change of fortune Friday night - we got a call from Yinghua Academy, the Mandarin immersion school from the Minneapolis district asking if we were still interested in having Wynn attend!

As you recall back in January 2011, we toured this building and put Wynn in the enrollment lottery for getting into one of the two Kindergarten classes they had available. In February we found out her number was too high, and so we began the enrollment process for our local White Bear Lake elementary. Well, it turns out that Yinghua was able to get more money and more native-Mandarin teachers, so they now offer four Kindergarten classes.

Still, it took two kids to leave the school before Wynn's number finally came up to the top of the list.

Ann and I had to wrestle hard with the decision Friday night and Saturday morning - Wynn just left the preschool she'd attended for four years and all her friends from there; she's been so enthusiastic about her teacher and being in a big building these past two weeks; and the building where she's at does get good test scores and has a strong community support base. Plus, it's literally five minutes' drive from our house.

Yinghua has a solid math and language program, also very strong test scores. And she would learn Mandarin now - White Bear doesn't even touch it partially until middle-school. Yes, the commute would be longer for both me and Ann - her especially; the school's about 10-15 minutes on the far side of my office. Certainly the parent profile of this new school is different - they've seen a huge number of adopted kids. We'll be among fellow travelers at parent meetings.

We don't have any reservations about Wynn's resilience or her ability to thrive in a new environment - but it is going to be hard on her this particular week, with her second ear surgery on Wednesday (more on that later). She was so gung-ho on making new friends here in White Bear, and now she's going to have to say goodbye already.

But we drove her past the new school Saturday afternoon, and will be taking her there again Tuesday evening for "curriculum night." Ann is going to try to arrange a walk-through at the school with Wynn Friday afternoon to meet the teachers & staff. Wynn's first day will be next Monday, the 26th.

With our acceptance, we've already fired off a list of questions to the administrator on how to get Wynn up and running, figure out her speech-therapy schedule, set up extended-day hours, and such. We've got to pick up fresh supplies again, and this school has uniforms that we have to scramble to find in her size. Can't say I'm looking forward to all the paperwork, either, both on the admission side for Minneapolis and the transfer-out side for White Bear.

Still, a new door has opened on Wynn's future. It's what we wanted for her in the first place. And when something as pleasantly unexpected like this happens - like how we were matched with Wynn in the very beginning - we have to jump through that door.

Don't Hold Me Back

2011-09-08T21:23:00.000-05:00

Our little rock star gave us an impromptu performance the other night ... I sure hope her kindergarten teacher is ready for this kind of creative energy!

First Day of Kindergarten!

2011-09-08T21:20:00.000-05:00

She has been pumped up for this day since about the middle of last week; literally skipping around the block last night as we took Shadow for his walk!

No anxieties at drop-off, great report from her teacher, pickup was easy as pie. She said, "Kindergarten rocks!"

Eardrum update, August 11

2011-08-11T21:51:00.003-05:00

Wynn had her follow-up appointment Tuesday, and essentially we know now what we believed a week ago. Wynn will need reconstructive surgery on her left eardrum; they'll use a thin snip of muscle tissue to rebuild her eardrum & serve as a medium for regeneration. The procedure will take 3+ hours but she'll get to go home after surgery.

They tested her hearing again, and the audiologist found that on her right side, where the tube insertion was successful, the excess fluid has drained nicely and Wynn's hearing is on par or a little better than other kids her age. (Huge sigh of relief.)

On her left side, it seems the fluid has drained too, and she is actually picking up some sound; this is good news for the surgery as it means the little bones of the middle ear are still hooked up to the eardrum, and that part of the eardrum is at least trying to do its job.

The surgery is scheduled for September 21, which gives Wynn a chance at settling into her new Kindergarten routine and Ann a chance to settle into routine at her new school position, too.

Meanwhile -- Wynn's been taking swimming lessons, and tonight was the final lesson in her first course. The kids in the course got to ride in a foam canoe, apparently! And our Wynn more than passed her test - she floated on her back without needing a foam support; while on her back she was able to swim and change direction; and then she flipped over and swam for about 15 feet to the other side of the pool! Her teachers are very impressed at what she's learned in just the past 4 weeks.

While she is definitely ready to move on to the next level, the schedule for next month's course runs right into the ear surgery, so she'll have to pick it up in October. However, Ann and I take her to the YMCA on Friday night and Sunday morning for family swim time, so she'll still get to practice her skills.

Eardrum update

2011-08-04T21:58:00.004-05:00

We got the news we were pretty much expecting to hear at today's eardrum follow-up visit. Her right eardrum is healing up nicely and she's able to hear a much more complete range of sounds on that side. However, she's effectively deaf on the left side.

The left eardrum has a substantial tear which has been there for years. The examining doctor today was able to see right through it into the inner ear (using his normal scope.) The drum membrane is scarred and brittle, so it's not doing its job of vibrating when sound hits it and sending those vibrations into the little bones of the inner ear which are wired up to the brain. No idea what the cause of the tear was; obviously it wasn't there when she had tubes put in back in September 2007. Sometimes there can be a weak spot in the eardrum tissue and once a hole develops it can tear just like in a piece of fabric.

Surgical repair is the plan. There are two options - but we probably won't know which one we have to use until Wynn is on the operating table and the surgical team is attempting the repair:

1. "Patching" the tear using a small amount of tissue they would harvest from Wynn's jaw muscle. This would be a very thin layer of course, and it would serve as a base for her eardrum tissue to grow into. This surgery would take about an hour and recovery time would be a week or so.

2. A "lateral graft" - which is more like a total rebuild if they find there isn't enough viable eardrum tissue remaining to make the "patch" work. More muscle tissue would be needed, and the ear would need to be packed up for about 3 weeks to heal. This procedure would have her in surgery for 2 hours or more.

To make sure there aren't any other surprises hiding in her inner ear, after the exam we were sent downstairs to the Children's Hospital radiology department for a quick CT scan of Wynn's head. The rad tech was great, showing Wynn all the parts of the CT scanner, how the platform raised and moved through the machine, and what she'd need to do. (She loves to see people doing science and having scientific tools explained to her.) I put on a lead suit and stood next to my daughter as she got strapped in and the machine started its work.

Wynn was very, very good at keeping still, and the whole time she had to be strapped in was less than five minutes. No complaints, and the tech said she got good images.

We have a CD with the data, and a follow-up visit with the ear doctor next Tuesday to review it, determine the next steps, and probably get the repair surgery scheduled.

The start of the school year is coming up fast for Wynn and Ann - of course we'd like to get through this development as soon as we can to make kindergarten as enjoyable as possible.

Swim, Wynn, Swim!

2011-07-31T16:34:00.002-05:00

Wynn has been swimming four days a week lately - two nights of lessons and two family splash times. She's loving it, and we're loving watching her have fun learning something new.

Update - Eardrum Repair

2011-07-30T15:43:00.002-05:00

We have an appointment this Thursday, Aug. 4 to follow up on the puncture & scar tissue in Wynn's left ear. Hoping we'll have a plan of action after that meeting.

Meanwhile, she seems to be healing up just fine on the right side. She's not cranking up the volume on the TV anymore & is able to hear me whispering to her.

She's wearing wax earplugs for swimming and baths (and she's really learning a lot in the pool!) Friday nights & Sunday mornings are Family Fun Super Splash Time :)

Not According to Plan

2011-07-26T13:28:00.007-05:00

Wynn was a great patient this morning: genial to the nursing staff, uncomplaining for having gotten up early and skipping breakfast, and not afraid in the least (she had been asking questions of us for the past week, and I guess we answered everything she wanted to know.)

We arrived at Gillette Hospital at 6:15, by 6:45 we were in pre-op, and by 7:30 I was suited up in white Tyvek and holding Wynn's hand as she drifted off to unconsciousness.

We'd barely sipped our coffee and tea when our pager went off and the operating-room nurse was telling us that the procedure was done and Wynn was moving to the recovery room.

The surgeon, Wynn's ENT specialist, came out to tell us the procedure did not go as planned. While he was able to insert a tube in her right eardrum, on her left side he said there was tissue scarring and an open hole. She will need some reconstructive work done there, but this was not the right time for that procedure.

In a couple weeks we will take her back to the ENT clinic for an additional exam and surgical consultation where the next steps will be determined.

Meanwhile we are hoping the tube on her right side will relieve the fluid imbalance there and improve her low-frequency hearing. Wynn's speech pathologist suspects we will see another significant improvement in her speaking clarity when she is able to accurately hear all she is saying. (If this is the case, it may be that continued speech therapy will prevent having to operate again on the back of her palate this winter.)

Everything is dependent; her hearing affects her speech, but the problem with her hearing comes from the same root cause as her speech issues; that is, her palate muscles aren't strong enough to do all the things they need to do. We do what we can to help her get stronger, but we're anxious that exercise alone won't get her to where she needs to be.

---

We were back in the pre-op room with Wynn shortly after 8:00, where she was trying to eat a blue popsicle but not having much success keeping it down. She had a blank look on her face, locked on the TV where Dora the Explorer was playing. The nurses checked her over and gathered her post-surgical documents, and by 9:00 we were on the road for home.

She barfed twice in the car. Thankfully Ann was sitting next to her, with a little pan to catch the bright blue goop in.

Wynn was parked on the couch out on the porch for the rest of the morning, watching some TV, napping for a bit, working on a paint-by-number set, and playing with My Little Ponies. Her tummy was still queasy for a few hours, but at 12:45 she was able to eat some soup, and she's working on a slushy-pop right now.

We'll keep watching her through the afternoon - will she crash or will she bounce off the walls? Will she be going to preschool tomorrow morning?

In Case You Haven't Heard

2011-07-12T14:51:00.003-05:00

We've been noticing that Wynn says, "What?" an awful lot and sometimes needs us to say her name two or three times before she turns around and acknowledges us.

Then we had a storm.

Wynn, Shadow, and I were home the other day when a thunderstorm rumbled through. Shadow was shuffling around, spooked by the noise, so I explained to Wynn that he was afraid of the thunder.

"What thunder?" she asked.

Uh-oh.

This morning we took Wynn to the ENT/audiologist's office, and (after removing a TON of wax from her ears with a tiny vacuum) they confirmed that she has significant hearing loss in both ears. The good news is that it has nothing to do with the nerve; it's all about fluid building up behind her eardrum, which is fairly common among kids with cleft palate.

She'll be going in for surgery in two weeks - a quick insertion of tubes in both ears. She won't have to stay in the hospital overnight, but she will probably spend the rest of her summer swimming lessons with earplugs in.

She is not excited about having surgery and is already arguing her case by pointing out how she can already hear better without the wax and by telling us that she doesn't want super hearing because it might make things too loud in her ears.

We're just glad this is a relatively simple fix and that we'll be able to get it taken care of before she starts school in the fall.

Wynn's in print!

2011-06-23T06:41:00.001-05:00

Teachers, be watching for the TREND catalog to arrive in your mailbox around the 4th of July...

Wynn's on the inside front cover...

And the page 4-5 spread!

Copenhagen Trip - Conclusion

2011-06-21T15:27:00.005-05:00

This was an amazingly great vacation, and we wouldn't hesitate to come to Copenhagen again. Denmark is such a friendly place, and so easy to get around in. There's plenty in the city we didn't see, and outside of town there's of course Sweden as well as other museums and castles on the Danish side.

We came out really well on budget, too, spending only about 60% of the cash we'd expected to use. Having that kitchenette in the hotel room was a real money-saver - and we still got to experience fresh, healthy Danish food. Ann appreciated the ability to just relax - read - and not have to rush anywhere. Wynn loves spending every hour with us. And I light up exploring a new culture and figuring out how to get around.

Ann finally got the time and space to read a few novels just for enjoyment, instead of for school

Monday morning we set out at 7 am for the train station, catching the 7:11 to Copenhagen's airport to allow plenty of time for our 10:15 to Amsterdam. (I like lots of time in airports...) And it was good that we arrived early, because when we went to the KLM/Air France/Delta counter to check in and drop off our luggage, the agent couldn't find our reservation.

Turns out Delta had cancelled the Amsterdam-Minneapolis flight we were supposed to be on, and rebooked us on another flight instead. (They emailed us, but in the middle of the night Copenhagen time, so we didn't have a clue...)

Instead of being put on a Delta flight directly from Copenhagen to Atlanta or New York, instead we were routed on a British Airways flight to London's Heathrow Airport, to connect to Delta's London-Minneapolis nonstop. It would add another 2 hours to our travel time, and we didn't have seat assignments on the Delta flight, but our little family is a band of explorers, after all, and what choice did we have?

It gave us an extra half-hour in Copenhagen's airport, which may well be the nicest airport on the planet. Wood floors, friendly security agents (great with kids), a full-on shopping mall airside, including an H&M, lots of places to eat, plenty of windows and sunlight and green plants. And enough seating for everyone to be comfortable.

Plus, a teensy Little Mermaid on the international wing for little girls to pose next to...

None of us had ever been on British Airways or through Heathrow before, so this was going to be interesting

Spare time to goof off at Copenhagen

Arrival at London was a little early, but the way Heathrow is set up - with five different terminals spread around the outside of the property instead of next to each other - required a long shuttle bus ride from BA at Terminal 5 to Delta at Terminal 4. (But we got to see all sorts of airplanes really close up, so I'm not complaining about that.)

Where we will complain is about the decidedly third-world setup for transfer passengers at Terminal 4, and how Delta and its partner airlines manage their London operation. We waited in line in the bowels of the building for a half-hour, bouncing from unmarked line to unmarked line and among three staff before obtaining boarding documents - but still not seat assignments.

We hoofed it up to the gate level to get to the gate for seat assignments (our worry being that we were going to be split up with neither of us next to Wynn) - to find no agents at the gate. I stayed at the gate area with Wynn while Ann ran back to a Starbucks for drinks and a sandwich - by the time she returned a few agents and another hundred passengers had shown up, all wanting to ask questions. (No monitors or self-service terminals for passengers to figure things out on their own - and the computers the agents were using were laptops, with tractor-feed paper printouts to try to determine last-minute seat assignments.)

These weren't Delta staff, by the way, rather a mix of Alitalia and contract agents, whose fist language was not English. The Olympics are in 14 months, are these people going to be ready?

We did end up sitting near each other - Ann and Wynn together, with me in the next seat across the left-hand aisle. Wynn was awake most of the way, only sleeping for the last two hours of the flight. We landed at Minneapolis about 5:20 - and waited another 15 minutes for the jetway to be repaired so we could get off. At least we didn't have to wait for our luggage!

Wynn likes having the personal touchscreen system - she hung out with Elmo most of the way over...

We finally got home about 7 pm last night (or about 2 am Copenhagen time) - I was in bed and passed out by 8:30 (and down for the count as well); Wynn and Ann only got a couple hours' sleep and have been up and down all day today.

Even though the last bit was messed up, we still got home safe and sound with all our stuff, and having had a marvelous adventure. Tomorrow, back to everyday life.

Copenhagen Trip - Day Six

2011-06-19T13:31:00.006-05:00

11 pm last night – looking toward downtown under clouds. Copenhagen – the city of steeples.

We decided not to go to Malmo this morning, as we hadn’t really finished our souvenir shopping in Copenhagen. The stores in Sweden weren’t opening until noon, and we would have had to buy both roundtrip tickets to cross the Oresund Bridge, as well as transit passes in Malmo, since the places we were most interested in weren’t easily connected on foot. And we would’ve needed to convert more money, since neither Sweden nor Denmark use the Euro, and neither country wants to use the other’s currency. By the time we got back to Denmark, the stores that were open here today would have closed...

The weather was cloudy and sunny with gusty winds and occasional sudden drenching downpours, or, as it goes, another typical day. Ann remarked we’d be huddling under an awning in Sweden, too, if we’d gone over there.

Instead, we headed back downtown and worked our way from Central Station out through the shopping streets and back.

These polser trailers are EVERYWHERE - you can get your sausage fix at pretty much any public square in the entire country. There's even one set up at baggage claim at the airport...

Wynn found several more elephants to pose with:

Posing with some kind of royal elephant-dragon-griffin critter in front of City Hall.

The Stroget after a nice stiff rainshower. Not nearly as many tourists out on a Sunday morning; it was a good idea to come back here as we could really take the time to look instead of just get pushed along by the crowd.

We went into Tivoli Gardens again (the Copenhagen Card gives free admission, so why not?) and had a very nice Scandinavian lunch. The music stages all over Tivoli were featuring high-school and college bands and singing groups – a very Glee-kind-of-vibe going on, including the songs being performed (“Forget You” – but since this is Denmark, the uncensored version… yes, with little kids walking all over the place… no, nobody got fired or even seemed concerned… the adults and teenagers seemed to be enjoying it…)

After returning to the hotel, I picked up a few last-minute items for dinner and treats to take back to the States, and then we went for a swim in the hotel pool. Ann & Wynn took a nap afterward while I worked through the leftovers in the fridge.

Tonight we’re running one last load of laundry and have the suitcases opened up on the floor, figuring out what gets packed where. We’ll head out bright and early to the train station – leaving the hotel about 7 am; our flight leaves at 10 for Amsterdam, where we have about 2 hours to connect, and then a 9-hour flight back to Minneapolis.

We still have Danish cash to blow at the airport – here’s 91,50 DKK just in coins to burn (that’s almost US$20). They don’t make 5 Kr coins for some reason, just 50 ore, 1 Kr, 2, 10, and 20. At 50 Kr (US$10) they switch over to bills – under that it’s only coins. And they won't convert Danish coins back into US$ at the Travelex at MSP...

Here's one last photo from downtown

This will be the last posting until we get back to the States. Happy Fathers Day, Happy Gotcha Day, and wish us good luck on our travels tomorrow!

Copenhagen Trip - Day Five, Part Two

2011-06-18T14:29:00.004-05:00

Everyone needed more rest after naptime, so I popped down to Netto for some ground beef, pasta sauce, and rotini, and put together dinner here at the hotel.

Afterward, no one was up for another train ride, so instead we walked over to the harborfront to see today’s cruise ships pull out of port. The rain really started coming down hard so we took cover under a tree. The gals were wearing hoods, but I had the umbrella, so I ventured out to take some shots...

Several reproduction sailing ships puttered by with dinner parties going on

We found a few more statues along the cruise ship dock, including a pair of elephants. The shops here are open every day so perhaps we’ll visit tomorrow night to buy grownup-size T-shirts and other souvenirs. Remember I said earlier that most shops are closed on Sundays - these cater to the international travelers. Prices that we could see through the windows (everyone was closed by the time we were there) weren't too bad compared to downtown.

Our neighborhood after a rainburst, with the sun coming out brilliantly. The condo buidling attached to our hotel is hosting a midsummers' eve party tonight - the families there have put up a party tent and bouncy house for the kids, have a couple big grills going, and are having a cosy, neighborly good time together.

Kung Fu Panda 2 opened here on Thursday and the movie posters are everywhere. Wynn's thrilled of course - she saw it a couple weeks ago in the States - and can't help but show off her kung-fu moves...

Tomorrow is our last full day here. In the morning we think we’ll be going over to Malmo, Sweden for a look-around. Tomorrow night we'll pack our bags and get to sleep early...

Also, we’ll be celebrating not only Fathers Day, but this will also mark four years since Wynn joined our family!

Copenhagen Trip - Day Five

2011-06-18T08:36:00.006-05:00

Afternoon post!

Another slow start this morning, but we weren’t too ambitious today. Took the train down one station to Norreport and walked a block over to the Kongens Have park and Rosenborg Palace. Yes, Wynn got to walk around a castle today!

Copenhageners like to spend their Saturdays hanging out with family and friends, and the scene in the park this morning was fun and peaceful despite the occasional short spatters of rain. We saw some of the Royal Guard get ready to march from Rosenborg (the “old palace”) to Amalienborg (the “new palace” out by the open water.)

The palace was built 1606-1634 and used as the main residence until 1710. It was re-purposed into a royal museum for the public’s enjoyment as early as 1838. We walked through the main two floors – saw artwork, thrones, decorations, and armor - and down in the basement, where the crown jewels and other priceless treasures are displayed.
Afterward, we walked back to Norreport and had lunch at a very slow McDonald’s, then, strolled around the pedestrian streets a bit more. Time to start shopping for souvenirs…

Norreport station entrance; shops along either side of the street. Car and bike parking right down the middle of the street.

Here's the value menu - divide Kroner by 5 to roughly get US$ prices - so a hamburger is US$2 - a Coke is $3

More painted elephants!

Here's a Chinese-run Danish gift shop on the Stroget - where we decided to drop some change for a T-shirt and pencil set for Wynn. Keepin' it in the extended family, you know... She got real chummy with the lady running the shop, of course. Didn't get any freebies, but she did tell us the shirts shrink a lot & recommended the bigger size...

Radhusplasen - Copenhagen's city hall

This is a Netto supermarket. The sign in the window says, "open daily 8am- 10pm" which is a big deal as shops here have only recently been permitted to even be open on Sundays.

A bus ride back home put us here a bit before 3 pm; Ann’s taking a nap and Wynn’s watching TV quietly. We’ll probably go out to dinner tonight.

Copenhagen Trip - Day Four

2011-06-17T14:39:00.007-05:00

A late start this morning – we didn’t get out of the hotel until after 10:00 am – but we managed to cover a lot of ground nonetheless.

Our exploration today took us first to Copenhagen’s Central Station – a vast and magnificent building from 1911. Virtually all the long-haul, regional, and local trains pass through here and the place is alive day and night. There’s a small shopping center inside the main hall, and hotels ring the station for blocks around.

A big model railroad diorama inside the train station - how perfect! For 20 DKK you can run the trains around, too.

Our next train took us 35 minutes west to Roskilde (pronounced ROASH-keel, rhymes with “roast eel”), the ancient capital of Denmark. Narrow streets, cute houses, six-hundred-year-old graveyards, ethnic restaurants – plus the home of one of Europe’s biggest annual music festivals (happening in another few weeks), and also home to the Viking Ship Museum.

Inside the museum they’ve partially reconstructed various vessels that were recovered from the fjord outside. They’ve also built a new vessel using ancient plans, and sailed it all over the North Atlantic.

While the reconstructed ships are quite delicate, most of the museum is actually hands-on, and there are a couple replica boats in the main hall kids can romp around in.

Here's the replica longship the researchers built and sailed - the performance was better than anyone had expected. These guys were really tough to have this in the open ocean!

Wiped out, passed out on the train back home.

For dinner tonight: fresh Danish strawberries, mixed greens salad, multigrain toast, and chicken breast sauteed in creamy sweet Danish butter.

The train back to Copenhagen delivered us straight to our home base, and after cooking dinner we headed out again to Central Station and across the street to Tivoli – the famous amusement park. It’s not terribly large, but the location downtown can’t be beat, and there are dozens of restaurants, several live performance stages, thrill rides, and private halls for ticketed concerts. The mix of food, activities, and people-watching appeals to little kids, teenagers, and grown-ups equally. At night the entire place is lit up with thousands of electric bulbs on every tree, ride, and building.

We walked all over the grounds, and Wynn got to go on a couple kiddie rides. We left about 7 pm – the crowd was getting pretty thick as we headed out – it’s a nice Friday evening and Tivoli is the place to be to start the weekend.

In front of the Chinese Pavilion - they stage pantomime shows here. Wynn wants to go back tomorrow for more rides...

Copenhagen Trip - Day Three, Part Two

2011-06-16T14:49:00.006-05:00

After dinner (leftovers from all the cooking we’ve been doing) we took the train one stop down to Norreport and walked a couple blocks to the Rundetaarn (Round Tower), an astronomical observatory built in 1642 and dedicated to Tycho Brahe.

Happy ballet dance on the train platform

"Rush hour" in Copenhagen is office workers walking across downtown to the train stations. Hardly any auto traffic on the streets. How refreshing.

Awesome. Older than almost anything in America. Taller than the churches in the name of science (although there's a church attached to it - remember where the money was...)

There is a spiral ramp leading almost all the way up (to make it easier to move equipment and supplies); stairs for just the last two floors. On top, you can walk all the way around outside. It’s Copenhagen’s Space Needle!

I love how the evening sun illuminates the brickwork and Wynn in this shot.

The city views just can't be beat from here. You can really see how the people go about their lives and their work.

Since virtually all the stores downtown close by 7pm, we took the train back to our station and walked around the residential neighborhood on the other side of the tracks. It’s the embassy district – hello Russian security dudes – and packed with international schools and gorgeous condominiums, dripping with history and architectural detail on the outside, sleek furnishing and modern design on the inside.
Wynn’s in bed; we’re running a load of laundry and relaxing with books while a rainshower passes through. Tomorrow we are thinking about visiting the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, about a half-hour west of here; we’ll see how the weather holds up.

Copenhagen Trip - Day Three

2011-06-16T08:43:00.004-05:00

Bonus afternoon posting!

We all got plenty of sleep last night – Wynn was snoozing until after 9 am, and I managed to get a good 8 hours in.

Our travels today put us on a bus downtown to the main square of Kongens Nytorv, and a short walk over to the historic neighborhood of Nyhavn (new port), where we took an hour-long cruise along the waterfront and canals. This was definitely the best way to see the sights! The castles, important public buildings, and cute upscale neighborhoods all face the water somehow. We covered a lot more ground by not being on the ground, and Wynn had a great time.

Magasin du Nord - the Nordstrom's of Denmark, with a Byerly's supermarket in the basement

What you don't see in this photo are the three busloads of tourists behind us - Koreans, Chinese, Italians, Germans. Everyone is trying to communicate with each other in English, since that's the 2nd language everyone knows... really neat, actually

Most of the buildings along the canal are from the late 1600s - mid 1700s

There are several royal palaces around town; this is the main one, with the national cathedral in the center of the photo

Commercial buildings along the canal - this is where the city was founded

Stock exchange on the left; parliament / supreme court on the right. The tower of the stock exchange is a bronze sculpture of four dragons whose tails intertwine!

We had lunch at a little family café a couple blocks off Nyhavn (the restaurants along the canal are really marked up, but once you move into non-tourist territory, the prices come down…) where Wynn tried smorrebrod – an open-faced rye bread “sandwich” – with toppings of cold-boiled egg and shrimp, and loved it.

We then walked along the shopping avenue called Stroget for some people-watching, and finally caught a bus and train to get back to the hotel about 2:30. Ann’s taking a catnap, and Wynn’s zoned out with Disney Channel (Phineas & Ferb, dubbed in German…)

Depending on how everyone wakes up, we may head back downtown after dinner for a little more sightseeing…

There are elephant sculptures all over town painted up in different schemes as part of a fundraiser to protect Asian elephants & build a new wing at the zoo. Wynn has decided to pose next to every one she sees...

The little building in the middle is an espresso stand. There is cafe seating all over the square here, and a fountain across the street. The only Starbucks in the country is at the airport...

Meh. Someone's getting tired.

Easy-to-use public transportation. No gates or barriers like in Chicago, Tokyo, Hong Kong - it's all on the honor system, apparently, although we see everyone using their punch-card passes.

Copenhagen Trip - Day Two

2011-06-15T15:42:00.007-05:00

Our neighborhood is infested with dragons! They perch on the lampposts and watch us all day and night!

We headed out about 10 this morning for a trip north to the town of Helsingor (pronounced Elsinor) to check out the castle where the play Hamlet was set. The train ride was about 40 minutes and so smooth that Wynn fell asleep on the way. Helsingor is situated at the narrow sea passage between Denmark and Sweden, and a castle fortress was built there from the 1500s to tax traffic passing through.

These two totally rock the scene even when they're not trying. In fact, Wynn is fast asleep here...

The train station is lovely, and the town cute as a button. While the castle is a big tourist draw, and the ferry service keeps a steady stream of traffic flowing through, it’s still a working residential community.

After arriving, Wynn and I gathered tourism brochures while Ann searched for restrooms. She discovered the toilets in the train station required 2 kroner to access, and (along with a German tourist) became trapped when the door to exit became stuck. They managed to free themselves with some trans-Atlantic teamwork of latch-picking and brute force…

Our little family walked the kilometer from city center to the castle and we wandered around the grounds for about 20 minutes before walking back to get some lunch at a sweet old sidewalk café.

There was a science & industry museum in town, but we weren’t sure where the bus would drop us off, so instead we hopped the train back to Copenhagen. Both Wynn and I nodded off on the way – so that was probably a good decision.

After a nap, Ann cooked some dinner, we had a short swim in the pool, and then we walked through the park and along the waterfront just south of the hotel. There is an old military base about 2 blocks south of here which is now mostly running trails and forest, several interesting churches, and a mighty fountain of Gefion, the goddess responsible for creating the island Copenhagen sits on.

We got some family pictures of us with the Little Mermaid on the way back to the hotel, too. Tomorrow we’ll likely have some time on a boat, and see the sights in the central city.

Finally, a good photo of the three of us on vacation...

Copenhagen Trip - Day One-and-a-Half

2011-06-15T15:38:00.003-05:00

Ann and Wynn slept well through the night. I woke up at 2:30am local time & couldn’t get back to sleep (finally had a nap this afternoon.)

Here’s a photo of the twilight at 11:30pm …

And here’s how light out it was at 3:00am. I could read a book on our balcony with how bright the sky was. It was clear through the night – but the stars never came out.

This “Midnight Sun” business is seriously cool.

Copenhagen Trip - Day One

2011-06-14T15:36:00.003-05:00

Our flight from Minneapolis left on time at 9:40 pm last night. Wynn was dressed in her pajamas to be ready to fall asleep on the airplane. Ann was packing a melatonin sleep aid, and I was carrying Tylenol PM, plus sleep masks for all of us.

Wynn stayed awake while we waited to board and as we taxied out for takeoff. Our seats were the middle three in the row on our 767; as it was a night flight it didn’t really matter about getting a window seat, yet we didn’t have to share space with anyone else. Wynn was out within 20 minutes of takeoff and stayed asleep until about an hour before landing, so about 6-1/2 hours. Ann got about 5-1/2 hours of zzzzs, and I managed to get about 4 – off and on, not in a solid block. (I just couldn’t figure out where to put my long legs…) That’s a personal best for Ann and me on long trips, and nothing surprising at all for Wynnie.

We got into Amsterdam about 15 minutes behind schedule, each of us still a bit tired and hungry despite having varying amounts of food on the flight. (I was the only one of us still awake for the dinner service; Wynn didn’t really eat her breakfast sandwich.) With about 2 hours between flights, we had enough time for a sorely needed McDonald’s break (as it was about breakfast-time back in Minnesota) before going through passport control and another security scan.

The scanner we went through at Amsterdam was an old-school magnetometer, so passengers weren’t being asked to take off their shoes. Wynn danced through it and got a beep; she had to go through again – and got another beep. We took her shoes off and put them with the bag going through the x-ray. Ann went through to the other side with no problem while I stayed behind (with 10 people behind me) – and Wynn froze up, utterly refusing to go through the scanner. Ann was encouraging her to walk, the security agents were getting antsy, and there were now 20 people behind us. She wasn’t listening to either of us, so I gave her butt a little push and she tottered through the portal without a beep. We collected our materials at the end of the line, and Wynn started crying the big tears of embarrassment and being scared and not wanting to be forced to do something.

The KLM flight to Copenhagen was a breeze; partly cloudy skies and good views of northern Europe for a short hop. Wynn was back in good spirits and being charming for the cabin crew, and arrival at Copenhagen airport was drama-free. I picked up rail passes out in the ticketing lobby and we took the train to the Osterport station – the neighborhood where our hotel is. It was a 15-minute walk from the train station to the hotel, something we do regularly in our neighborhood, but after 12 hours in transit, those cobblestones were a rough slog.

Our hotel room is quite nice – full size bathroom, a functional kitchen, plus a separate bedroom. There’s a Netto grocery store just around the corner (bigger than a convenience store, smaller than a ‘real’ grocery – kind of like an Aldi, but with name-brands) where we picked up chicken, eggs, bread, milk, vegetables, and juice so we could make our own dinner tonight. It’s nice after a day of hard travel to have a home-cooked meal.

It was about 7:45pm local time when we finished dinner, but our internal clocks haven’t tuned to local time yet – and sunset here is about 10 pm. So we walked several blocks down to the harborside to see the Little Mermaid statue. Wow, they aren’t kidding about the “little” part. Plenty of tourists around to take pictures of her, though. Wynn wants to come back and pose on the rocks near the statue.

She finally got into bed about 10pm local time – that’s about 3pm Minnesota time. Sunrise here is just after 4am – but we’re hoping to all sleep in late tomorrow.

There are places we’d definitely like to see on this trip, but for now we’re going to take it easy – more of a picnic-in-the-park trip rather than a race-around adventure.

It's 10:45 pm Danish time - about 3:45 Central time. This is probably when we'll be posting each day, so please check in with us each afternoon!

Heading out on her next trip...

2011-06-13T17:55:00.003-05:00

We leave tonight in a different direction - east! We're on our way for a week in Copenhagen, Denmark!

We'll stop for a couple hours in Amsterdam, reaching Copenhagen mid-afternoon. Check in with us every day!

Hong Kong Videos

2011-06-11T22:05:00.006-05:00

Here's a shout to the good work being done over at weninchina.com - lots of helpful travel tips and cultural insights for adoptive families.

Fresh videos were recently posted to show other families some of the fun and interesting things in Hong Kong. This is just some of what we were describing back in November...

Her first modeling gig

2011-06-11T21:22:00.003-05:00

The educational products publisher I work for prints a new catalog twice a year, and we like to keep the presentation fresh each time by adding new products, changing the organization of products, showing examples of how our materials are used in the classroom, and using fresh pictures of kids using our goods.

A couple weeks ago our creative team asked me if Wynn would be interested in posing for photos for this summer's catalog. Well, from watching the videos posted here in the past few months, you can definitely tell she's got the taste of the show business bug...

Getting set up in our library, doing color and lighting checks. I wanted Wynn to experience the long stretches of not much happening in between short bursts of picture-taking. She was a great sport about it - stayed where she needed to stay, and took direction very well.

And here she is posing with my coworker Yolanda. They're playing teacher-and-student. We got great poses and product interaction from both of them.

The catalog will be arriving in teachers' mailboxes in early July - I haven't seen the final layouts and cover yet, so it'll be a surprise to see where Wynn shows up!

Pre-K Graduation!

2011-06-08T23:05:00.005-05:00

Wynn's preschool graduation event was tonight - quite the production for two classes; about 30 kids total. Everyone got to say a few words about what they liked best:

No anxiety about standing in front of a microphone at all. The gown swallowed up her arms and almost the rest of her body, too.

Wynn with her teacher this year, Miss Amy.

And here's proud Mom and Baba with Wynn in her cap and gown.

And just because, each class did a couple musical numbers. Here's a video of Wynn's Elvis piece, done with the other friends from her classroom. The cap just would not stay on her sleek hair - but trouper she is, she kept singing and dancing...

Riding her bike

2011-05-09T22:20:00.002-05:00

It was a nice evening, so I went for a walk and Wynn practiced riding her bike up and down the street. She has gotten so much better at it since last autumn...

Dance Recital!

2011-05-02T06:38:00.005-05:00

Sunday Wynn participated in her school's Spring dance recital. She had such a good time, and it is amazing to see how much she's learned since last Fall. She was thrilled to get to wear a costume (although not so happy about the scratchy stitching; however, a real trouper when the music started to play.) We're glad she has the attitude of being there to have fun.

Her team did three routines: one ballet, one pop-culture, and one tap number. Here is a video of the ballet number:

Kindergarten Round-Up

2011-04-28T19:31:00.003-05:00

Tonight right after work we went to the elementary school that Wynn will most likely be attending this fall. It was an open-house night for all the new kindergartners.

The teachers had all sorts of activities ready for the kids to do. Ann and I checked out all the materials up on the walls; the Smartboard setups; the books and games in the cubbies. We're both in the education business - this is what we do when we walk into a school...

Wow, she has really become skilled at coloring in the past several months!

Playground equipment of awesomeness!

Big grassy lawn and ball field out back, too.

The sun finally came out when we got home, so I took Wynn and Shadow for a walk around the block and down to the neighbors' dock.

Easter Haul

2011-04-26T22:35:00.003-05:00

The Easter Bunny needed a pallet jack to move Wynn's goodies Sunday. I could see the divots on the lawn.

Obligatory fresh haircut and springtime outfit.

Best. Excited. Shot. Ever.

Amazingly, she has excellent self-control around all these sweets. She only wants one piece of candy after dinner. If she was the only one eating the stuff, it would easily last until Halloween... but that's not the case. I think Ann and I will be spreading the loot around before we go into sugar shock.

Our little explorer

2011-04-26T22:27:00.002-05:00

Five months of winter. We're all a bit stir-crazy, wanting to get outside. As long as it's not snowing at this moment, we'll call it spring. And we need to get back into shape, because we have another big adventure coming up... but more about that in another post.

For now, any chance we get we're outside getting our legs in shape. Wynn can't ride on my back anymore because she's getting so big! So it's "walking practice" for her, too.

At the nature center...

At the University of Minnesota...

And we even hauled her bike over to (the mostly dried up) White Bear Lake for a little ride this weekend.

Future Gopher

2011-04-02T16:46:00.007-05:00

We took advantage of our first warm, sunny Saturday of spring by going walking on the U of MN campus. Wynn was thrilled to be hanging out in Gopher Country and announced that she's going to go there. "But I'll be off to kindergarten in the fall," she reminded us.

By the look of her, she's ready for life on campus already. She'll be getting into her first pick-up game of frisbee on the quad before we know it.

Walking over the Mississippi on the Washington Ave. Bridge

Relaxing behind Coffman Union

A Smoothie Would Really Hit the Spot Right About Now

Relax, Mom, there are no classes when the sun is shining ....

Good with Words

2011-03-27T15:53:00.001-05:00

So, Wynn strolls into the living room, looks at us and says, "Is anyone available to read me a book?"

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T07:34:00.000-05:00

Ah! Caught up!

2011-02-21T20:17:00.005-06:00

Ann checking out her new BlackBerry and Wynn in a sunbeam - before Winter came back...

We're members of the Minnesota Zoo, so we thought this Saturday, "hey, why not check out the Zoo before we get cooped up by the storm tomorrow?" Yes, we and every other family with young kids were thinking exactly the same thing, and we all showed up at 10 am. (Why do you people have to have strollers the size of SUVs? Why can't your kids keep their grapes and trail mix to themselves? Why are your children climbing on ME?)

Too cold, too loud, too windy, too tired, too hungry. We need to re-think our Zoo-going strategy, and we're not going to tell any other parents our new method, because the minute we do, it's all over the Internets and then it's no fun anymore.

Wynn did like the bit about posing with Snoopy, but if you think we're going to Valleyfair anytime soon, guess again.

Catching up: Chinese New Year & Kids Reunion!

2011-02-20T15:07:00.004-06:00

For Chinese New Year weekend, we had our now-traditional get-together / celebration potluck with the other Twin Cities families we traveled with back in 2007, plus a few new families who've adopted since then.

Wynn and Jenna, the Guangxi Girls, are back in action! As we compare developmental notes with her parents, both girls still have that South China spark of confidence, intelligence, and charisma. With every opportunity we present them, they take it and run.

Check out Josh's pro chopsticks skills!

A bowl of tangerines / oranges is a traditional Chinese New Year centerpiece which symbolizes long health and many children. Learn more about CNY at my weninchina.com article...

All the kids work on an art project to create their own dragons.

Group shot of all our beautiful kids!

Chinese Immersion School

2011-02-19T19:08:00.002-06:00

At the end of January, we visited an open-house at Yinghua Academy, a Chinese-immersion charter school in the Minneapolis district, in the Nordeast neighborhood. In fact, this was the first Chinese immersion charter school in the USA just ten years ago. Today it has grown to about 360 students in Kindergarten through 8th grade (so about two classrooms for each grade). We had heard great things about the school, so we wanted to see if it was the kind of place Wynn would do well in.

For the younger grades, the school teaches everything except gym, music, and art entirely in Mandarin Chinese, right from Day One. Most of the kids who go there are not Asian, but they figure things out really quickly.

A very text-rich environment - some pre-printed materials there, but most of what we saw on the walls had been adapted from English-language material.

Students' work was displayed EVERYWHERE on both floors. So much creativity!

A half-hour demonstration was performed in each Kindergarten class to show the kids and parents what a typical instructional activity looked like. The teacher and her assistants led the kids through a "morning greeting" activity, and then a short lesson which incorporated learning the names of various animals and the words for run, jump, and walk. Wynn held back for a couple moments to observe what was going on, and then she jumped right into the activity, raising her hand and volunteering. She had a great time. And her speech clarity in Mandarin was really quite good after she had some practice - as good if not better than her English clarity.

Enrollment at the school is done by lottery, as there just aren't enough classrooms to accommodate all the demand. We had already filled out the paperwork, and put it into the basket after the demonstration - yes, we knew this would be an ideal place to challenge her (even if we didn't know how the transportation was going to work.)

On Friday, Feb 11 the lottery was conducted and results posted on the school's website. Unfortunately, Wynn did not get the lucky number - they received a record number of applications this year. If the school were twice as large, she would have gotten in.

She's disappointed. We're disappointed. It would have been a great match. So Plan A for Kindergarten isn't going to work. It seems Plan B (continue at her excellent preschool, which offers a K program "on paper") isn't going to work either, as there hasn't been enough family interest there to get a class going for the 2011-2012 school year. So we're going to have to develop Plans C and D in the next few weeks...

Catching up: Hard at Work

2011-02-18T22:22:00.002-06:00

Wynn's always been curious and clever, but in the past few months we've noticed her mind really beginning to bloom. As she becomes more confident in reading, her speech has improved. She's known for a while that numbers have an abstract meaning, but now she's adding and subtracting. Her coloring books have gone from random scribbles to fully rendered scenes.

As you saw in yesterday's post, she's making up her own games, too. And the great part about this is, she's really enjoying this. TV is not all that interesting to her anymore (except for Scooby Doo); she'd rather work puzzles on her Leapster or draw or write.

She's working on some TREND Wipe-Off(R) Books here. She's figuring out what the activities are with very little guidance from us - she's reading enough of the words and using the examples shown to determine what she needs to do on that page.

Each day seems to present a new skill. We are so glad to be able to experience this.

Catching up: Happy Birthday!

2011-02-17T22:33:00.002-06:00

Wynn turned 5 this January. Her schoolmate Peter has the same birth date, and his parents gave him a big party at the Shoreview Community Center with a magician, cake, and a couple hours in the five-story-tall jungle gym / super slide / Borg Cube they've got there. So she got to play with all her friends at a birthday-themed party.

For her own birthday party, we kept it low-key - just the family.

Shadow at the ready to help with the cake. Wynn blew all the candles out, and ate the piece with the biggest frosting.

Wynn made up her own party game. She cut out little airplanes and had each of us color one.

All lined up on the runway, we each had to close our eyes, take our plane, and stick it to a world map.

A modern update on "pin the tail on the donkey" by our little jetsetter. Again, entirely her own idea - no coaching from me whatsoever. But hey, that's my girl!

Catching up: Christmas!

2011-02-16T20:24:00.004-06:00

Photo essay: 3 relatives' houses over 2 states in 3 days. You'd think everyone would be beating a path to our door, since we have the only grandchild...

Well, couldn't take her sledding in Hong Kong, anyway.

Handmade dragon cap by lolly-tots of Portland, OR - we picked it up at the Saturday Market.

Trying out the microphone on her new cash register. It talks back in English, Spanish, and French Canadian, eh. Reads credit cards and scans barcodes, sort of. Not really. A 5-year old just doesn't need that kind of power. But she can now say "credit approved" in three languages.

Hm. I wonder what I'm going to get next?

Whhheeeee!! The polar bear is actually a puffy pillow. More than once I've found her fast asleep smack on top of it. It is pretty comfortable.

Hard at work with a new K'nex building toy. Check out the awesome pigtails, too. Her hair is long enough now that we can do all sorts of fun things with it...

Lots of catching up to do!

2011-02-15T20:46:00.002-06:00

Life with Wynn moves really fast nowadays. We've been scrambling ever since we got back from Hong Kong - Christmas, birthday, meetings, overtime, conferences, fighting colds, and so on. Well, time to get everyone caught up.

Tonight, we'll step back to December 15 - Wynn's first dance recital! A little bit of ballet and a little bit of tap, set to holiday tunes, with some of the kids from her daycare. She was so excited!

Here's a little bit of video:

Last Day in HK

2010-11-26T03:32:00.006-06:00

Since it's traditional to stand in long lines on Black Friday, we did. Except the line we stood in wasn't to get a great deal on a DVD player at Best Buy; it was to ride a glass-floored cable car for 3.5 miles. Up the side of a mountain. To see a giant Buddha (and a Starbucks!) at the top.

Scroll through the pictures and say, "Whoa!" a few times. And, yes, it was awesome!

Happy Thanksgiving - this is how to spend it

2010-11-25T07:10:00.006-06:00

Our morning routine stayed the same as it has been all week; get up, eat a small breakfast here in the hotel room, get cleaned up and then head out on the MTR somewhere. Today, back to Central on a rush-hour train.

Next, we switched modes to double-decker bus for a cross-island express (the subways don't extend to the southern part of Hong Kong Island.) We got to see a bit more of "downtown" HK; the Admiralty, Wan Chai, and Happy Valley neighborhoods.

We went through a tunnel for several minutes that punches through the mountain ridge we stood on yesterday. We emerged into a completely different version of HK...

Suddenly we were out of the built-up city and hurtling on narrow two-lane cliff-face roads through tiny little harbor towns. Glad we weren't the ones driving... Within 20 minutes of leaving Central we were at the end of the line, in a little town called Stanley.

Stanley is a laid-back little market town / artist colony / rich-folks getaway / old fishing village with a take-your-time, no-haggling ethic. Several blocks of the town are a rabbits' warren of little shops and stalls - the same kind of merchandise we saw at the Ladies' Market a couple nights ago, but some much better-quality items too, and none of the chaos.

We had a little brunch at the Delifrance and wandered out to the waterfront. There, we finally got down to the Pacific Ocean beachfront - we've been near the ocean so many times (Seattle, Vancouver, Tokyo) but never actually at it. So this year, we've stood on the beach for our first times on both the Atlantic and Pacific.

Here's the beach. The water actually looked inviting; the sand was rather coarse with lots of broken shells - and broken glass. This wasn't a swimming trip, though. (We got our pool time later this evening...) The temperature was in the low 70s today with gentle breezes from the ocean and light haze.
We did some shopping, sat for a while in town and watched people go about their daily lives, and Ann got cornered by some more middle-schoolers on assignment to practice using English.
We had pizza at a place called Pizza Express - which was actually a pretty classy restaurant with really excellent thin-crust pie.

As we looked around during our "Thanksgiving Dinner," we thought back 10 years ago to the frustrations we had trying to have children and the troubles that were just around the corner. We would never have imagined how our lives would change, or the places it would take us as we became parents.

We are thankful for Wynn and the honor of being the parents who raise her. We are thankful for the ability to take her around this world and show her how all sorts of people live, to keep her connected with her Asian roots - and to grow new roots ourselves. We play the "what will she grow up to be?" game often - this trip is showing us some of the people she may become, and we're thankful for that, too.

Hong Kong Has Its Ups & Downs

2010-11-24T07:10:00.005-06:00

One of the things we've noticed about Hong Kong is the unbelievable number of escalators you end up riding every day. All the buildings are tall, so you're always going up a floor or down a floor, and most of the subway access points involve getting on at least two escalators.

Today we decided to keep count of the number of escalators we rode. The answer is written under the pictures. Formulate your best guess before taking a look!

sixty-four!

The View from the Top

2010-11-24T00:19:00.014-06:00

Even though it's kind of a hazy day, we decided to take the tram up to the peak and check out the view. It was, in a word, spectacular.

The Visitors' Center

Smiling on the Plaza

A Nice Couple Stopped and Took a Family Picture for Us

(So, of course, Wynn stuck out her tongue.)

Wynn found the playground!

The middle school kids found Ann to

interview/practice their English on.

Just to get a sense of perspective of the height ...

The city below us

On the ride to the bottom, you go backwards !

Tuesday: Jet Lag Eases Its Grip

2010-11-23T05:44:00.018-06:00

As I looked over our last few postings, I realized that we talked about sleep a LOT and only posted pictures of Wynn passed out. Well, we've gotten our internal clocks more or less synced up with the time zone, so we can talk about experiences beyond who got how many hours of sleep. And we can post and actual picture of Wynn in fully-awake mode:

See? There she is, with Hong Kong Island in the background.

We took the train to the south end of Kowloon this morning and had dim sum at a lovely little restaurant that Scott had read about. VERY different from yesterday morning's experience at the hole-in-the-wall congee shop. Today was all fine china and linen table cloths. The entire meal was only about $25 for the whole family, and they even made the food into cute little shapes: tiny hedgehogs filled with egg custard and homemade coconut/marshmallow desserts shaped like bunnies (the most sophisticated take on a Peep you'll ever find). We had bao, spring rolls, jasmine tea that tasted like flowers, and a steamed flour roll with pork (basically, thick-cut bacon wrapped in a thin layer of gluten - yummy!).

The "grass" by the bunnies is actually cotton candy

formed into tiny little filaments.

After dim sum, we rode the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island. Wynn liked riding on the ferry but started to complain that her stomach hurt; we soon found out why as we stood in an extremely ritzy shopping center and she proclaimed, "I really need to poop." Scott whisked her off to the restroom, and business was attended to. She felt perfectly fine after that.

We rode the tram across Central Hong Kong - a cheap and efficient way to get a look at all the little shops and neighborhoods. (We were on the tram for almost an hour, and it cost about $1.50 for the whole family.) It's funny to see how the streets are arranged by the products they sell; one whole block will be dried seafood products, the next will be nothing but tires, then a block of cooking oil shops, and finally a street filled with pet products. Even the top-notch malls are arranged this way: Clinique is across from Origins and next door to Shisedo and L'Occitane.

The view from the tram was fascinating!

After resting back at the hotel for a bit, we went across the street to the Langham Place Shopping Center. It has about twenty different restaurants in it; tonight we chose MOS Burger (a Japanese chain - really tasty with thick-cut fries) and Haagen-Dazs for dessert.

We'd heard so much about the night markets, and since we finally reached the point where we can stay awake past dinner, we strolled over to the Ladies Market. It's kind of like the most crowded day you've ever spent at the State Fair. A lot of people love shopping at these markets, but we agreed that it was mostly stuff we weren't interested in... knock-off designer hand bags, souvenir t-shirts, etc. We didn't buy anything there. We did, however, walk up to Pioneer Centre, which Scott had read about on the internet. They had three shops specializing in (surprise!) airplane models and other merchandise. We settled into one little mom and son shop; they were extremely helpful, and Scott was completely knowledgeable about what he was and wasn't interested in - and what constituted a fair price. Let's just say Scott was elated with the things he found, and the mom & son probably high-fived each other when we walked out the door.

Like a light, part 3

2010-11-22T16:43:00.002-06:00

Trouble with lights is they switch on as easily as they switch off.

Wynn was up at 1:30 this morning.

We got her back to sleep sometime around 3:00. Here's hoping that it bodes well for the day...

Like a light, part 2...

2010-11-22T07:11:00.002-06:00

The haze which had covered the city all day broke right after we had dinner. Our hotel room has a very nice view to the other side of the harbor (although we can't actually see the water from our floor.)

Every night at 8 pm, the various buildings along the harbor run a laser-light show. Took a while to build up, and it looked better through our own eyes than through a camera's lens. I fiddled around with the exposure settings and ended up with a few neat photos:

Wynn slept through the whole thing, of course. Ann crawled into bed about 8:15 and promptly began sawing logs. I hope she's not awake at 4:30...

I popped across the street for some shelf-stable milk for breakfast just now while everyone else was asleep - and the mall is packed at 8:30 pm. I imagine the "night markets" are also in full gear, but we will have to wait until we can keep conscious into the evening.

Still, we've held up much better at this point on the trip as compared to our Tokyo trip last year. I'm nodding off as I post this so perhaps I'll get a full night's rest (it's almost 9: 30 pm here right now...) --Scott

Like a Light

2010-11-22T04:47:00.006-06:00

Even Wynn eventually has to give in to the power of jet lag. She's been vacillating between tons of fun and weepy/sleepy most of the day. She took a two-hour power nap this afternoon, and roused herself enough to go on the subway to Tsim Sha Tsui so we could get a look at the harbor. She passed out on the bed at six o'clock; we're hoping this doesn't mean she'll be up and ready to go at 3 AM.

The Lit Up Streets Outside our Hotel

Monday in Mong Kok

2010-11-21T22:57:00.015-06:00

Sleeping, all the way from Tokyo to Hong Kong

Our first morning in Hong Kong was spent walking around our neighborhood, getting our bearings, and starting to adjust our internal clocks, which are running about 14 hours off from the clock on the wall.

We're staying in Mong Kok, on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The neighborhood's claim to fame is its population density - about 360,000 people per square mile. To say that it's a lively place is definitely an understatement. I'm glad we did a trip to Tokyo last year; coming here first would have been overwhelming. But we're familiar and comfortable enough in big Asian cities that we can handle this. Actually, my initial reaction is that I absolutely love this place.

Mong Kok at Midnight

The Congee Shop Where we Ate this Morning

Don't ask us what it's called, because everything was in Chinese. It was packed with locals and tourists, which is typically a sign of a good place to eat. It was yummy. :-) Wynn liked when one of the cooks walked by with five roasted geese to hang in the window - and when the dishwasher lost control of the hose and ended up giving a shower to half the dining room. Everyone just laughed, and the owner got the mop.

Simple, but Delicious

Hello Kitty Christmas Display = Wynn's Happy Place

We're Here!

2010-11-21T11:08:00.003-06:00

Wynn slept pretty much the entire trip from Tokyo to Hong Kong, and Scott and I got a few more hours sleep as well.

Our hotel is gorgeous and very conveniently located. I just took a shower (in the marble bathroom), and we're looking out the windows to see the view. Of course, it's 1 AM here, so the view is mostly of the city lights, but we can tell it's beautiful already.

Here's to winding down and getting some more sleep - laying down this time.

Pictures tomorrow ...

2/3 There

2010-11-21T02:22:00.002-06:00

We are on the ground at Tokyo/Narita.

The flight here was uneventful.

As usual, Wynn was a good little sleeper, once we told that she WOULD be napping. She probably got a good 4 - 5 hours sleep on the flight.

I got about 2 - 3.

Scott got none.

She was charming for the flight attendant and the folks in security and, of course, made friends with the people behind us by playing peek-a-boo. She's such a good little traveler. :-)

Our flight for Hong Kong leaves in a little under two hours, so we're free to roam the familiar halls of Narita: vending machines that sell a drink called "Sweat", toilets that play music when you flush, wasabi-flavored Kit-Kats... Japan is just so stinkin' charming.

Here's hoping we all get some more good sleep on the next leg of our journey.

BTW: The last thing I did this morning before I left our house was lay flat on my back on the living room floor. When Wynn asked me why, I told her I wasn't going to get to be flat again for about twenty hours, so I was enjoying it while I could. Let's just say I can't wait to get to the hotel.

And the next destination is...

2010-11-19T16:34:00.001-06:00

Hong Kong!

We leave tomorrow & will spend Thanksgiving week there.

As usual on these journeys, we'll try to post daily.

Another Random Video

2010-11-10T20:26:00.002-06:00

We're getting into "training" for the next big trip...

Random Wynn Video

2010-11-06T22:41:00.002-05:00

She's simply doing random things. And she could go at it like this all day, too...

Trick or Treat!

2010-11-01T17:51:00.009-05:00

Goin' to Kowalski's to Score Some Treats

Halloween Costume Party at CTC

Less than Happy

Baba to the Rescue

Ready to Hit the Road

Happy Birthday, CTC!

2010-10-09T17:14:00.013-05:00

Today was the Children's Theater Company's 45th birthday celebration, so we went out for lunch after Wynn's theater class this morning and then made our way back to CTC for some fun - and cake!

Lunch at Pho Hua included mango bubble tea, which she LOVED! We decided it's like having a smoothie with Gummi Bears in it. Who's gonna argue with that?

Getting inked at CTC. She chose a puppy. A fine choice.

Our Little Monster

We don't know the name of the actor in the lion suit, but, whoever it was, they made Wynn about as happy as I've ever seen her. She was kind of shy about going and standing by the actors, but once that lion tickled her cheek with the end of its tail, she was totally in love.

Pounding on the drums in Sherwood Forest.

(We hope she doesn't have a future in percussion.)

Gone Fishin'

2010-08-19T12:20:00.003-05:00

Wynn went fishing for the first time this morning. Grandpa came over with waxies, bobbers, and all the other necessary supplies. We walked over to our neighbors' dock and started casting.

Apparently, we live on a very good fishing lake - and the Disney Princess fishing pole is a winner. It got to the point where every cast ended with a strike. Some of them just ate the worm and took off, but, in the course of about half an hour, Wynn and Grandpa landed twelve fish: sunnies, crappies, and Northerns. Six of them were keepers, so Grandpa took those home to clean; we'll be eating them for dinner later today.

In true fisherman style, Wynn has embraced the art of exaggeration and claims that they caught "about 35" fish. I reminded her that it was twelve, which is still pretty impressive.

She was not at all squeamish about handling the worms; in fact, she thought they were pretty cool. (Not at ALL like her mom in that regard.)

I couldn't find the camera, but here's a grainy cellphone picture of the great fishing adventure...

Killing Time at YVR

2010-07-07T14:14:00.005-05:00

His name's Quatchi.

He's a Sasquatch.

He has been living in the discount aisle of a drugstore in downtown Vancouver for several months now.

He's Wynn's new best friend.

And he's providing the entertainment at the airport as we get ready to head home.

The Accent is on "Eh"

2010-07-06T16:20:00.011-05:00

Another busy day in Vancouver, starting off on a different trolley line and heading to the magnificent Stanley Park. The park is named after the same fellow that the Stanley Cup honors, it's that big a deal.

Stanley Park is to Vancouver as Central Park is to New York, except with beaches, mountains, its original plants and animals, and a lot more room.

One of Earth's most perfect spots. I shot a whole panorama from here, but we're only permitted to show you a little bit. The entire city is set out before you.

A significant chunk of the park is dedicated to teaching visitors about Native (or as they say here, Aboriginal) culture. The tribes are still a big part of local culture and their members are part of everyday society here.

Ginormous cedar trees that are hundreds of years old, and ferns as big as a sofa. The leaves on the maple trees are bigger than dinner plates.

The outer point of the park marks the deep water and passage out to the Pacific. Back toward Downtown, sheltered coves sport sandy, sunny beaches and even hardy palm trees.

We keep finding little urban treasures as we snoop around the neighborhood, like a Korean grocery store just a block from the hotel, and ample supplies everywhere of "coffee milk" just like they had in Japan. We ate dinner at a hole-in-the-wall noodle shop just under the Korean grocery, and there are at least a dozen other little cafes in a three-block stretch that we can see from our window that we'd love to try out.

Alas, our time here is drawing to a close, at least for this trip. We're already figuring out where we'd stay and what we'd see the next time we come to British Columbia - and how soon we can make it happen.

We're glad we stopped in Portland first, as the Weather Channel says it's in the mid-90s there right now. Here it's still been in the 70s with the heat due to kick in just after our airplane takes off!

11,391 Steps

2010-07-05T23:15:00.029-05:00

Our Day, Pedometer-Measured for Accuracy ...

Walked to Canada Place to Check It Out

Had a Picnic in a Super-Huge Lawn Chair in Front

of the Olympic Torch

Hopped on a Trolley for a Kitschy Yet Informative Tour of the City

Got Off Trolley and Humored Wynn by Letting Her Play

at a Bus Stop that She Found Strangely Fascinating

Laughed at How Smug She Gets When She's Setting the Agenda

Lunched and Shopped on Granville Island.

(Crowded but Fabulous)

Got off the Trolley Again in Gastown.

Boosted Canadian Economy via T-Shirt Purchases.

Grabbed Some Dinner at Japadog.

Why Don't We Have These at Home?!

Swam in Hotel Pool

Rode to the Top of Vancouver Lookout to Take in the View

Watched Wynn Fall in Love with the Vending Machine at the Lookout

You Give it Money, and it Gives you Candy.

And Scott Did All THAT on THIS Foot.

First Photos from Canada

2010-07-04T23:53:00.010-05:00

Mind you, I shot most of these amidst agonizing pain. The rest, the pain was only mildly dreadful.

Classic mid-50's architecture right outside our window, beautifully contrasting with the Maple Leaf.

Gastown, the founding neighborhood of the city at the bottom of the hill from here. The clock is steam-powered and performs a tune at each hour.

The gate to Chinatown, the neighborhood just south of Gastown and just east of our hotel.

Apparently, there's a terra touristica non-grata in the couple blocks between Gastown and Chinatown - where the druggies and homeless populate. Kinda like Portland, between Pioneer Courthouse Square and the Greyhound station... well, that's the easiest grade back uphill. We went through it without realizing...

After we got back to the hotel, finally got our room, and I'd had a few quality hours with the ice pack, the three of us went downstairs to look around our own block. There's an IGA supermarket on the ground floor, and a number of excellent hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants all within a stone's throw. Looks like we're going to have some more good eating!

Our room is equipped with a full kitchen, so we picked up some basics to make our own breakfasts. We love to snoop around grocery stores wherever we go; especially moreso when outside the country.

Hey, isn't that New Brighton's own Old Dutch Potato Chips? Why yes, they're a leading brand in Canada!

You have to appreciate the honesty of a country that tells kids and parents exactly what the deal is with their breakfast cereal. No sugar-coating the truth here; erm, well, yes, precisely. Sugar-coating it is. We Americans can't handle the historical truth of what this cereal came from and what it stood for!

And to those English-only proponents, what are you afraid of? After all, General Petraeus is in charge of the NATO brigade in Afghanistan; shouldn't the Cap'n know how to talk with our allies as well? Frankly, I think it'd be a better cereal-eating experience if it were packaged in French back in the States! C'est crounchifique!

The Walking Wounded

2010-07-04T19:44:00.004-05:00

We arrived safely in Vancouver around lunchtime, found our way to the train, and got ourselves to our hotel. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we checked our bags and went for a stroll down to the Gastown historic district.

On the way there, Scott stepped in a hole in the sidewalk and twisted his ankle. Luckily, he didn't fall (He was carrying Wynn in the backpack.) He yelped but kept on going, and eventually we found a lovely cafe called Brioche, where he put his foot up for a bit and enjoyed a meatloaf and bacon sandwich, claiming that protein would help cure him.

We strolled around a bit more (Well, Scott hobbled, and I strolled.) We got back to the hotel, and our room still wasn't ready. They have a nice private lounge area, so we went a sat there until they could bring us our keys. Wynn danced around the lounge, Scott winced from time to time, and I sat there and wondered When will our room be ready, already?!

Finally, they came and gave us our keys. The room was worth waiting for - it's fantastic; we have a full kitchen that's much more stylish than ours at home - and our own washer and dryer. And we're next door to a really nice grocery store. All good.

Scott took off his shoe and sock, swallowed massive amounts of Advil, and put an ice pack on his ankle. It's about the size of a softball. We're hopeful that an evening of rest will fix him up, because a foot injury sure throws a wrench in the spokes of our "walk 10,000 steps a day" vacation.

There are bus and trolley tours of the city available, so we may end up doing that tomorrow. For now it's rest, ice, and cable TV.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

(By the way, it's 66 degrees here today and totally gorgeous.)

Our Last Night in Portland

2010-07-03T23:01:00.004-05:00

We had dinner last night at The Original, a retro-fusion-local diner/restaurant a few blocks north of our hotel. It was good. We ended up there again tonight (... thanks to the $120 restaurant gift card our hotel gave us - Thanks, The Nines. We appreciated it.) We ordered completely different stuff, and it was still very good.

They have very fresh, very good food in this town, cooked creatively. Love the restaurants, love the dozens of food carts all over the downtown core.

After dinner, we walked the couple blocks to where we could see the front of Voodoo Doughnut. Jinkies, the line was even *longer* than it was at lunchtime. Meh, forget the doughnuts. We had NikeTown to explore!

Two floors of mostly empty space and dramatically-used catwalks.

Nike is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, the suburb off to the west, so this is the "flagship" of their retail spaces. Well, it was very dramatic. And it had a lot of architectural elements going on.

We could be forgiven for thinking maybe there'd be something more interactive than trying to find the staircase to the second floor. Like a place to shoot hoops or try out the yoga gear or kick a soccer ball. Or somewhere to test new designs, or create your own apparel. And maybe it could have been bigger. Like a LOT bigger.

Maybe we're jaded with having the Mall of America at home - or having seen how retail is done when you mean it, like in Tokyo. I think the Nike people have been to those places, too. This was a Foot Locker with a much higher rent per square foot.

1. Wynn didn't want to look at anything in whatever spot we happened to be standing, rather she kept pointing at some distant place, urging me to take here "there."

2. We didn't buy anything. Not inspired...

We walked down to the river to try to see Mt. Hood, but the clouds were still not fully dispersed off to the east. Big points to the city for the redevelopment along the river, though. Clever floating walkways along the eastern shore - attached to pilings so they can float in place regardless of how high the water is. Lots of people jogging, biking, walking their dogs. No mountain view, though.

After Wynn had gone to bed, I went to the drugstore for a bottle of milk and then to the business center to check our tickets for tomorrow morning. This is the view from the front windows of our hotel. Imagine if you will a large volcanic mountain covered in fir trees behind this office building.

Maybe we'll catch a glimpse on our way to the airport...

Portland: come back again? Yes, but we'll set up base in a different neighborhood and rent a car for the next time.

Saturday Like the Locals

2010-07-03T16:15:00.009-05:00

The Portland Saturday Market takes place year-round under the Burnside Bridge on the east end of Downtown. We walked over this morning when it opened at 10:00 and enjoyed browsing the 150+ vendors and food carts. Wynn got a hat that looks like a dragon's head, and Ann picked up a nice necklace.

We walked west a couple blocks to the famous Voodoo Doughnut - following our noses - and saw that the line stretched all the way around the corner. Yeah, no. Wynn was tired and a bit cranky - and strapped to my back; we weren't going to subject her to an hour standing in the sun. They're open 24 hours though, maybe after dinner tonight we'll try again?

After some more shopping and browsing in the Chinatown and Pearl neighborhoods, we ended up back at Pioneer Courthouse Square, having hot dogs from one of the food carts, listening to live music, and watching the people.

With some food in her, Wynn's mood picked up, and we goofed around at one of the many fountains in the square.

Taking a little mid-afternoon nap break before further adventures. The weather is really clearing up, and I see mountains out the hotel room window, so we'll need to try to find a place we can try to see Mt Hood!

A Shout to our Wells Fargo Followers

2010-07-02T22:08:00.003-05:00

Before dinner we walked to the south side of downtown to the Wells Fargo tower, where we read we'd find a museum showing some of that company's early history. We told Wynn we'd show her where her "Molly" pony worked.

Inside the main lobby we found a very nicely curated exhibit featuring a stagecoach used by the company in the mid-1800s, artifacts and reproductions of items used in the Gold Rush and Pony Express, and a re-creation of an early office, with a working telegraph.

Wynn liked riding the stagecoach:

She also got to try out a saddle, and took a touchscreen quiz about riders for the Pony Express. (She can spot a touchscreen from a mile away, as we talked about in May's visit to the Shedd Aquarium...) We didn't see Molly, but we learned about another pony, Lightning.

Finally at bedtime, the sun decided it would make an appearance. Figured we should post a few shots of what Downtown looks like properly lit:

Exploring Portland Neighborhoods

2010-07-02T16:02:00.008-05:00

The rain was coming down in buckets this morning after breakfast (not what the forecast had said,) but instead of trying to tough it out in the hotel room, we borrowed a couple umbrellas and jumped on the MAX and Portland Streetcar up to the Pearl neighborhood to the northwest of Downtown, home of the mighty Powell's Books. Wynn figured out there had to be a kids' section and soon we were picking books to read while the rain kept up its beat.

By 10:30 our tummies (still not on Pacific time) were telling us to find food, so we hiked east about seven blocks to the Chinatown neighborhood.

And had lunch at Ping, where we had absolutely delicious pork bao, grilled chicken skewers, rice, and toast with coconut jelly. We ordered seconds on the bao...

Wynn getting her groove on to some old-school James Brown

After lunch we spent time at the Lan Su Chinese Garden, built 10 years ago in cooperation with artisans from Suzhou, China. It is said to be the most authentic Chinese garden overseas. It takes up an entire city block and is utterly gorgeous.

Can NOT get Wynn to pose for a nice, proper picture anymore.

We are taking a breather now before heading back out for some afternoon adventuring. The clouds are beginning to break up, and there's still much to see.

First Class All the Way

2010-07-01T22:24:00.014-05:00

Today we flew to Portland, OR for the first stop on our west coast summer vacation. Thanks to the fine folks at Delta, we were upgraded to first class, so Wynn is now officially spoiled in yet another way. She has already announced to Scott that she "... really likes sitting up front." The best part for us was the legroom (and the never-ending stream of snacks and meals that kept coming our way), but Wynn was mostly in love with the fact that she got her own great big breakfast tray. I think she spent about an hour proudly pouring the milk on her cereal, smearing butter on a bagel, and eating an entire container of cream cheese by licking it off her fingers. I don't know that she ate very much of the meal, but it sure kept her quietly occupied for a nice long time.

Scott and I both encouraged her to cuddle with her blanket and take a nap on the plane. No dice. She was well-behaved but definitely awake for the whole ride. The nap finally arrived as we rode the light rail from the airport to downtown.

We've gotten out and seen a bit of downtown Portland today. After having been in Chicago, we tend to look at a city map and see things as bigger than they are; our experience so far in Portland has been that everything we want to see is easily walkable from our hotel. That said, my pedometer did register about 10,600 steps today, so we've gotten our fair share of exercise.

There's a lot of public art to be seen in downtown Portland, and Wynn is charmed by all the fountains. Scott gave her a penny to toss in one and explained the concept of making a wish. Her wish was for a hug from Shadow. Her favorite artworks are the bronze animal statues across the street from our hotel. She jumped up and down with glee and giggled as she saw each one.

For dinner tonight we somehow managed to step back in time and found an old-school Chinese restaurant; seriously, it was straight out of the 60's. It had that funky old decor, and the dishes themselves looked like antique store finds. It was in an older building that you could tell had been something else at some point, but we're guessing this part of it has been a Chinese restaurant for at least fifty years. The food was quite good (as Scott calls it "Chinese-Chinese, not American-Chinese").

Wynn, who is going through a picky phase, rejected all but the outside of the dumplings and the noodles from my soup. The fortune cookie was, of course, to her liking.

Surgeon Says ...

2010-06-29T12:01:00.004-05:00

Wynn does not need to have surgery this summer! :-)

Both the speech therapist and surgeon were very impressed with the progress Wynn has made since February. She's picked up a few new sounds and is using a predictable sound-substitution pattern for the ones she's still working on. All good news.

Everyone was quite impressed with her recently-acquired ability to drink through a straw. (Which Wynn LOVES doing. She gets such a thrill from being able to drink from a juice box - just like the other kids.) From the prize basket at the end of her successful visit to the doctor, she chose a bright red silly straw as her reward. She's now happily using it to drink apple juice with her lunch.

Grandma and I have both told her how proud we are of her for all her hard work at speech. She's such a determined (and stubborn) little person, and that's helped her keep at it in speech therapy.

She's not out of the woods yet. There are still sounds to work on, but, for now, we can sign up for more fun things to do and enjoy the rest of our summer. Theatre camp, anyone?

(In other news: When Wynn and I got home from the doctor, we were greeted by Shadow, covered in blue painter's tape. He had it stuck to his paws, his chest, the sofa, the living room floor, the coffee table, and his stuffed squirrel. When I laughed and asked Wynn what she thought Shadow had been doing while we were away, she replied, "Um, I think he found the tape.") Yep. Good guess.

Happy Camper

2010-06-28T20:45:00.007-05:00

Last week Wynn went to theatre arts camp at the Children's Theatre Company. In short, she had a blast. It was an absolute duck-to-water situation as she and her fellow campers took classic children's songs and acted them out. We've always known that she's an adept mimic and a bit of a goofball; theatre camp was a place where someone with this particular skill set can shine. And shine she did.

Each class ended with a ten-minute performance for the parents. By week's end, every man, woman, and child in that room knew what animal Wynn was going to choose to be, no matter the song: a gecko.

She'd come home each day and act out highlights of that day for her Baba, always taking a deep and sincere bow at the end - and waiting for the applause to subside before standing up.

My favorite thing from the week was when they taught her the three tools people in the theatre have in their toolbox: the body, the voice, and the imagination. Of course, she has a fantastically-elaborate way of explaining this concept, complete with gestures and dramatic shifts of intonation. I just love seeing this little cleft-palate, speech-therapy girl talking with such enthusiasm about the importance of her voice. Beyond the sheer fun and confidence-building of the week, I think camp really added another layer to her motivation to keep working hard on her articulation.

One happy consequence of theatre camp was that, due to its late-afternoon dismissal time, it forced Wynn and me to go out for dinner every night last week. We started out small with a McDonald's Happy Meal, but things improved greatly as the week ran its course. Wynn had a yummy sandwich at the cafe in the Institute of Arts, tried some sushi (thanks to Uncle Paul) at Obento-ya, and downed half a mango smoothie at the ChinDian Cafe. By Friday, she was thoroughly spoiled and responded to my suggestion that we just grab some tacos with a whiny, "Awww, I want to go to a real restaurant." We may have created a monster here, but at least it's one with good taste.

There are other camps at the Children's Theatre this summer, and Wynn has told me, "Sign me up," but we have to wait to hear from her surgeon whether or not she'll need an operation this summer before we can sign her up for anything fun. We go in tomorrow morning for another camera-up-the-nose assessment. Fingers crossed.

Spoiler Alert

2010-05-31T20:18:00.004-05:00

Several friends had cautioned us about seeing Shrek Forever After with a young 'un, since theirs had gotten scared and needed to leave the theater. Still, Wynn insisted that she wanted to go.

I talked to her about the fact that others had been scared, and she assured me that she was brave. I asked her what she would do when the scary parts came on, her answer: "Sit on your lap and think about that they are in the movie and can't get us."

So we went.

She'd never seen a Shrek movie before, but she caught on to the story pretty fast. When the squadron of witches showed up, she turned to me and said, "I know why they got scared; those witches are mean." But she kept right on watching.

When the fire-breathing dragon started breathing fire on Shrek and Fiona, I figured Wynn would change her tune vis a vis the whole being brave thing, but I was wrong, and she kept watching.

For the most part, she found the movie enchanting. She liked seeing the scenes of the Ogres as a family, and the humor of Donkey and Puss in Boots was much appreciated - especially when Puss in Boots had put on a few pounds and couldn't roll over on his cushion.

The only time in the entire movie when Wynn looked worried was when, through the cruel trickery of Rumpelstiltskin, the "true love's kiss" between Shrek and Fiona didn't work to break the spell.

As Shrek explained the reason for its failure, "Fiona doesn't love me," Wynn turned to me aghast. She'd seen them as a happy couple early in the movie, and it distressed her so to think that they were no longer in love. That's when she needed a comforting hug and the reassurance of, "I'm sure Fiona will fall in love with him all over again."

I held her tight and teared up at her never-ending supply of sweetness.

Dim Sum and Then Some

2010-05-16T14:42:00.012-05:00

This morning we took the L to Chicago's Chinatown and had dim sum at the Phoenix. There were carts filled with all sort of goodies, but Wynn's favorite by far was a big bowl of congee - the rice porridge she'd eaten as a baby in China. She wolfed down the whole bowl, just the way she did in Nanning when we first adopted her.

Here she is skewering a spring roll ...

Then we spent the afternoon at the Shedd Aquarium. It's a gorgeous facility filled with sea creatures from all over the world. Wynn's favorites:

1. The touch screen displays (or anything with buttons to push while completely ignoring the fish) ...

2. The part where you could dress up like a penguin and go down the ice slide ...

Chicago: Day One, Part Two

2010-05-15T19:26:00.007-05:00

After Lunch and an Hour in the Pool ...

Ready for Dinner ...

Pizano's Pizza on State Street ...

Yep, That's Chicago ...

We sat down with the map this evening and figured out that we walked about four and a half miles today. Add to that the time in the pool this afternoon, and it's no big surprise that we're kinda tired.

A friend back home recommended Pizano's for dinner; it was voted the #1 thin-crust pizza in Chicago, so we headed there for dinner. It's tiny with wood paneling, decor straight out of the 60's, and pictures of sports stars and celebrities plastered all over the walls. In short, it's exactly what you imagine a Chicago pizza place will be. We walked in, looked around, took a sniff, and siged, "Yessss."

The staff was wonderful and brought us some crayons for Wynn to color the paper tablecloth with while we waited for our food. (The wait also gave me some time to explain who Mike Ditka, whose picture hung next to our table, was for Wynn.)

The pizza has a "butter crust", which is yummy - more akin to pie crust than what you normally associate with pizza. We could literally smell the butter in the crust when they set it on our table. Mmmm. Scott and I dug right in. After I'd polished off my first two slices, I noticed Wynn was just pushing hers around on the plate. I asked her why, and she said, "This is yucky pizza." I told her that Baba and I disagreed. And then I ate every bit of hers off her plate. Figured I'd earned it after all that walking.

The Windy City w/ Wynn

2010-05-15T15:31:00.008-05:00

Walking on Air at the Willis Tower ...

Checking Out Millennium Park ...

The Pout Which Can Only Be Broken with the Promise of

Swimming in the Pool after Lunch ...

Accentuate the Positive

2010-05-06T20:12:00.011-05:00

Back Story -

Several months ago, Wynn and I got home from school and found that our dog (Shadow) had chewed her stuffed horse and left its mangled body all over the living room. I scolded him and told him he was a bad dog. It made quite an impression on Wynn, and she has mentioned the time I called Shadow "Bad Dog" several times since.

Our Conversation in the Car Tonight -

Wynn: Do you think Shadow was a good dog today?

Me: Yes, he was probably a good boy.

Wynn: Well, you know, when he is a good dog, you should say good things to him.

Me: Really? What kind of things should I say?

Wynn: Like, "Oh, Shadow, you are such a good dog, and we love you."

Me: Yes, that would be nice to tell him. But what should I say if he was a bad dog?

Wynn: Well, when he is bad you should still say good words to him. Because sometimes he does bad stuff like chew on toys or Baba's blanket, but you should still say good words. Not bad words like, "Shadow, you bad dog!"

Me: But shouldn't I tell him that what he did was bad?

Wynn: Yes, but use nice words like, "Shadow, you good boy, why you do bad things?" That way you won't hurt his feelings, because when you say bad words like, "You bad dog!" you might hurt his feelings, and then he will say, "You hurt my feelings."

Me: You're right. I wouldn't want to made Shadow sad, but he needs to know that I don't like when he's bad. Wynn, what would you say to Shadow if he chewed up your gecko?

Wynn: I would say, "I love you, Shadow, but don't chew my gecko."

Me: What if he got your alligator and ripped its head off and threw the stuffing all over so you could never play with it ever again?"

Wynn: Oh, no! No! That would make me SO sad.

Me: Me too. So, what would you say to him?

Wynn: I would use nice words. I love Shadow and don't want to hurt his feelings.

At this point I'm thinking that Wynn is the kindest, most forgiving soul on the planet.

Me: Oh, Wynn, you are such a sweet girl for not wanting to hurt Shadow's feelings.

Wynn: Yea, 'cause if I use bad words and hurt his feelings, he might bite me.

There Was Sun. There Was Fun.

2010-04-05T09:44:00.014-05:00

Easter weekend was one big Wynn-o-centric photo op.

Here are some highlights ...

Where Bubble Blowing Meets Tai Chi

Highly-Focused Bunny Coloring Time

Getting Smooched by a Pooch

Hunting for Eggs

Finding a Basket with Enough Candy to Feed a Family of Five

Flying a Kite

(She's pointing her finger to tell Grandpa and Uncle Paul

where to run next.

She loves giving orders.)

Looking Cool on Her Tricycle

Up her nose with a rubber hose...

2010-03-02T21:12:00.006-06:00

In between all the Chinese New Year activities, we also paid another scheduled follow-up visit to Gillette Children's Hospital. Our objective at this visit was to find out how well Wynn's palate was working, and not just by listening to the sounds she makes when speaking. This time, we were going for video!

The endoscope itself, about the size of a power screwdriver. The action end, however, is the thin wire extending out on the right.

After a short speech evaluation, where Wynn showed us which words she can say the "B" and "P" sounds particularly well, we moved over to an exam room where we encountered this computer workstation and the nasoendoscope. I have to admit I wasn't quite sure how big the wire was that we were about to snake up one of Wynn's nostrils, but when I saw it was only the size of a thick strand of spaghetti, I was immensely relieved.

(Yeah, I admit I was thinking co-axial cable instead of fiber optics. Shows me for not Googling the procedure beforehand. Hey, I'm a busy guy.)

Most of the time we spent in the exam room was actually waiting for the hospital IT people to get the new release of recording software to work right. The procedure itself took about five minutes: first, a quick spray of lidocane up Wynn's left nostril (since we'd taken that bead out of the right side a few weeks before...), then the speech pathologist snaked the line into Wynn's nose.

All of us - Wynn included - watched everything happen on the screen next to us. The thin cable has two fibers: one serving as a flashlight, and the other as a camera lens. After one big sneeze, the end of the cable was where it needed to be, and Wynn started talking. "It tickles!" she said...

The illustrations I've seen in textbooks which try to explain what the tongue, palate, and throat do during speech have always seemed a little abstract. Watching all the parts moving around, I finally 'get it.' The back of the palate is supposed to connect with the back of the throat to block airflow going up into the sinuses. With the video, you can see this happening.

In Wynn's case, it hadn't been happening, which is why her B and P sounded more like M. She was 'faking' the sound. However, we'd noticed in the past few weeks that she was occasionally beginning to speak some clear consonants ... we've been practicing rhyming, like her favorite funny phrase, "Shadow likes to NIBBLE on a bowl full of KIBBLE."

Sure enough, after a couple minutes of speaking "mama" and "mall", she'd connect with a clear "baba" and "ball." And right there on the screen we could see the palate making contact with the back of the throat.

Her surgeon reviewed the video. "Well, that's not so bad, then." In fact, the team was pretty impressed with Wynn's progress over the past few months.

Most importantly, it means we can put the question of whether she needs surgery on the back of the palate off until this summer. And that's a real relief.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2010-02-28T15:53:00.008-06:00

Year of the Tiger, of course

The full moon tonight marks the Lantern Festival and end to the 15-day Chinese New Year holiday season. This year, Wynn celebrated with a couple different activities.

A week ago Monday, we got together with the other family who traveled with us in Guangxi province, another family from our trip who went through Anhui province, and a third family who adopted through Sichuan last year. The kids colored dragons, listened to stories, and we all had a fine feast.

The Guangxi Girls - Wynn and Jenna - masters of The Force! Jenna is about a half-year older than Wynn. They both enjoy being in charge - they know the family routines; the rules of the games; what the pets should be doing; where we should sit. No need for whining or temper, as Guangxi Girls know how to get their point across matter-of-factly, using just enough charm or cool logic to convince you.

Last weekend, I took Wynn to Como Zoo. She specifically wanted to see the tiger (that's him in the first photo) and we wished him a Happy New Year. We also checked out the tropical plants in the Conservatory, noting which kinds grew in China; looked at the golden carp and talked about why they're considered lucky; and shared some stories about when we came to adopt her.

Quite a few other Asian families were at the zoo, too, doing the same things we were. I worry sometimes that we're not giving her enough exposure to her birth culture, but over the past two weeks of watching what other families are doing and seeing how Wynn interacts with other kids - Asian and everyone else - it feels like we're doing a good job.

Con Artist

2010-02-25T20:07:00.004-06:00

Wynn and I have been playing with her Disney Princess Memory game a lot lately. She's graduated from Chutes & Ladders and has moved on to games like Memory that require a bit more sophistication (Crazy 8's and Go Fish are also in the new line-up.)

The Memory game, which we used to call Concentration, has emerged as her favorite, so she and I sit on the floor together after dinner many nights and spread the cards out on the floor.

Because she is a kind soul who revels in everyone's success, she likes to help me out when I get stuck. If I hesitate the slightest bit before flipping the card for the match, she points to it and says, "That one." When I flip it for the match, she gets all excited and cheers for me. She has done this for several weeks now, so I've gotten lazy about trying to remember where Mulan or Cinderella or whoever is hiding; Wynn will show me the way.

Yesterday, we were playing again, and, true to form, she steered me to the winning card a couple times. The third time I hesitated, she pointed to a card and said, "That one."

When I flipped it over, it was NOT a match.

What?!

I looked up at her in confusion, and she was beaming with the most magnificently mischievous smile ever.

She'd done it on purpose.

"You told me to flip the wrong card!" I said in surprise.

"I know," she giggled.

"Now I won't know if I should flip the card you point to anymore."

"I know," she said again as she tipped over laughing.

She's four years old, and she worked the long con. She strung me along to get me to trust her, and then she pulled the rug out from under me.

We've started referring to her as Little Danny Oceans.

Ah, Farewell, Florida ...

2010-01-30T17:57:00.017-06:00

Today's our last day in Florida. Up and at 'em and on a flight back to the frozen northland tomorrow morning. When we broke the news to Wynn, she said the only thing she could say under the circumstances: "Awwww..."

She's already told us NUMEROUS times that she wants to come back to Florida again sometime, and so do we. For now, let's focus on the fun we had today.

The morning was rainy and windy but not too cold, so we took another walk on the beach to look for shells and listen to the waves. We love that Wynn is so ridiculously enthusiastic about such simple pleasures; she's never even heard of a theme park, and we're going to keep it that way as long as possible.

We checked out the shops in downtown Fernandina Beach, drank coffee, bought some t-shirts, and bumped into another family with an adopted daughter from China.

Naps were enjoyed back at the hotel room; Wynn passed out on the floor with her gecko and snored away for a solid hour.

For dinner we went back downtown and strolled through the historic district looking at the quirky old houses and trying to wrap our minds around residential streets lined with palm trees. Most of the restaurants downtown post their menus outside - French cafes, a Philly Cheesesteak stand, an organic bistro with a chef's garden out back, and an assortment of pubs and seafood diners. We decided to try an adorable little place called Karibos (and it's neighbor Karibrews) that served up fantastic sandwiches - I had the Cuban, Scott had softshell crab, and Wynn dug into quesadillas. Our experiences with dining here - and the fact that we've been able to get so many wonderful, fresh meals for $20 - $30 for the whole family really makes us want to come back here again - just to explore all the great looking restaurants we've passed by.

The biggest treat today for Wynn was some quality splash time in the hotel whirlpool. We went out as the sun was setting, and the warm water and bubbles really hit the spot. Wynn giggled with glee and she clung to Baba. At one point she proclaimed that the whirlpool was SO much better than taking a bath.

It's been a great trip. We've started referring to it as our January Thaw and are already talking about doing it all again next year.

For now, all Scott and I can say is, "Getting up and going to work on Monday is NOT going to be easy."

Leaving Our Mark on the Beach

Wynn & I Doing a Scene from The Birds

The Crab Scott Ate for Dinner

Splish Splash!