More doctors and more photos.

Another busy week here! Catherine has been at farm camp all week with her friend Dahlia. Today is the parent tour and I am sending the camera with Jason to capture the action. I'll post those next time. Catherine has taken care of her own sheep named Chocolate, milked cows, made food, collected eggs and held a chicken this week! It's a great camp - but a long day for 5 days. I'll be happy when it's over so I can see her again!

We had our international adoption clinic appointment this week - about 4 hours. We loved meeting Dr. Howard and the whole team.  Basic report - Teagan is doing really well!

We got some good suggestions and advice from the team such as keeping life  as"boring" as possible at home ("boring is best for baby" -same routine), making sure Jason and I do the primary caretaking for the next 4-6 months and minimizing others holding Teagan and so on. We'll have to to think creatively on how to balance work and child care on this one.  She did have to endure a very sad and long blood draw. The team really tried, but had a hard time getting the vials they needed. I hope they did get enough as I don't want to put her through that again.   We'll have to return in 6 months to check her titers  (another blood draw) for the vaccinations she received in China to see if they need to be redone. Yes, a Hague commentary on my end.

Here she is exploring the slide at the  park.

And down!

We have our palate repair consult next week, and should have a better idea of when that can be done. The IA clinic recommended exploring the option of not doing ear tubes until we do the palate surgery to minimize the stress for her. The cleft clinic said this was an option, but they prefer to move more quickly on ear tubes if a child has fluid or may be in discomfort. After the appointment Wed, I am hoping we can wait and do them together. We have weekly appointments as it is through August and each one is stressful.

I know I keep talking about her signs, but they are really amazing! She has now learned sand,  fish and bird and horse. Last night she repeatedly made all 3 signs at me when I put her to bed and asked me to show her the photos in the book (of fish, birds, and horses) called "It's time for bed." This was instead of drinking her bottle or going to sleep of course!

In the photo above, she is asking me to sit down on the teeter totter seat next to her (they are in a circle). We bounced up and down for awhile making horse noises and she really laughed.

As I write this, Jason is running with one of our travel group friends, Jim who is in MPLS this week (Natalie's Dad). Wish the whole family was here! We hope to see them next June when we go to Colorado for the reunion with Group 615 (Our travel group for Catherine).

This was our first trip to the rose garden here. I hope we can come back here next week when my parents visit and meet Teagan for the first time.