A day in the life of Libby

Libby is a very very busy little girl. Here is a typical day in the life of Libby YanKun -

Libby starts her day off around 7 AM with a little turtle time. Mr. Turtle has a mirror that Libby just loves.



She loves to ride on her dad's shoulders, she can grab his hair...sort of. She certainly can't pull it. She can't ride on mommy's shoulders because she can pull mommy's hair very very hard.


A visit from our friend Chris.


Libby likes to play ball too - mostly she likes to chew on it though, she needs a lot of work on her free throws.


Libby loves to surf the web. She can spend hours googling. Dad is trying to teach her data entry so she can help with the next OHP study.


She is also a great help with the laundry. Her she is helping to bring the laundry down to the basement.



Of course after laundry time it's back outside to do a bit of light gardening with Mommy.




After a day like this......this picture speaks for itself!

Greeting from the Late Shift

It's 2 AM, and we are all very much awake as I write this. Not the kind of awake you might expect at 2 AM, the lazy, soporific, barely awake, awake. No. This is a day is night and night is day awake. The kind no one really talks about when returning from China. Mark and Gretchen, I'm sure you understand this well.

Okay, let me begin by saying that jetlag sucks. Really Really sucks. Jetlag sucks for adults, and if you are 9 months old it is just ridiculous. It is also something that no one talks about and for which we were totally unprepared. (Chris B. if you are reading this, please devote a waiting families meeting to jetlag coming home please)

So we wake up around 2 PM or so and have a normal morning with breakfast and a little playtime




Then libby likes to take several naps and really wakes up around 10 PM...YEE HAW. Then it's party party party until about 4 AM. You see, Libby was a very routine girl, and 4 AM Pacific time is 7 PM in Beijing her bedtime. When we were in china, we enjoyed a wonderful routine with Bath, bottle and bed at 7 PM. We have that same routine, but we have crossed the international dateline. Bummer.

Unfortunately, it seems there are only 2 ways to really overcome jetlag. First, go back to china. But for a lot of reasons including immigration, and grandparents who would probably kill us before we got to the airport. so that leaves plan B. You simply begin waking up early, no matter how much sleep you got the night before, and force yourself into the new schedule. No problem for Kris and I, but how would YOU like to wake a beautiful very peaceful sleeping baby? But tomorrow morning that's just what we are going to do, like it or not. We can't go back to China right now anyway.....our visas have expired.

Good night, and good luck.

Libby at Home !!

Imagine flying for nearly 14 hours in a plane with a 9 month old child. Now, imagine flying 14 hours in a plane with about 15 9 month old children......Sounds fun doesn't it! Flights leaving Guangzhou for the west coast are brimming full of Chinese girls coming home to America. Leaving china was very bittersweet. Kris and I were happy and excited to bring Libby home to her new life in America. But many tears were shed as the airplane took off, and Libby's little feet left the ground of the beautiful country that gave her life. It was one of the happiest and saddest moments in our lives.

Many other tears were shed by the babies unfortunate enough to be awake during takeoff. However, as we took off, I laid my premium economy seat back, popped in a couple of earplugs, pulled on my eye covers, and snoozed. Let me tell you that China Southern Airlines is hands down the best carrier in the sky. Period. They give you earplugs and an eye mask when you step on the plane. If you are lucky enough to be in bulkhead you acutally get a small crib for your baby to put in front of you (we were in bulkhead, not luck though, our intrepid guide Kathy called the airline 8 times. I don't know what she earned for her services, but as far as I'm concerned, it's not enough.

Here's our flight. Libby went to sleep at 8:30 PM just before boarding. Slept through the 9PM take off in Mama's arms. (Mama has excellent arms for sleeping). We put her in the basinet right after take off and she slept until her midnight bottle, went right back to sleep (after a change of course, less fun on an airplane but quite doable). Then she woke up again for her 3 AM bottle, another change and then back to sleep until her normal waking time around 7:30 AM Or so. We played her favorite game (stand, wobble, drool, raspberry....repeat.) for about an hour then landed. sounds too good to be true. I thought so to. I suspect it's not my Karma, I assure you I haven't been that good. It was either Kris' or more likely little Libby's She is an angel.

The flight was that easy. I'm sure there were plenty of babies crying. But thanks to the earplugs and eye mask, I could only hear Libby. If that were'nt enough good fortune, we had another amazing spot of fortune in LA. We nearly missed our flight home from LA and we thought we'd have to stay in LA until Kris found the right customer service agent at United who issued us a first class ticket home. Now I know for SURE that my luck is not this good. I hope that her trip home from china is an omen of things to come for her.

The look on Libby's face when we hit the ground in PDX was priceless! Doesn't she look happy to finally be home with her new family? Kris and I are convinced that she knows that she is home. No more hotel rooms, no more airplanes (at least until we return to Beijing....next summer?). And wait till you see the look on her face when she gets home. See below. She's wrapped in the blanket that Mark, Gretchen and the kids gave her in China. She slept in this very pretty blanket all the way home, and we put in her crib after we got home too. (Thanks guys!!).


A small reception at the Airport for LIbby. on the advice of many people we trust, we
limited the number of airport greeters in order to keep from overwhelming the newest American. Just the local grandparents.


Coming home was really something else. First of all, for a kid who is 9 months old and has never seen a car seat, let me tell you, they don't like them. Kris and I had to pull over twice on the way home from the airport because she got so upset. Fortunately, although libby is not patient, she is very forgiving (good thing - as our friend Annette says - she has been a baby longer than we have been parents).

When we finally got home it was amazing. We put her in her room and she rolled around on the floor squealing with joy. I have learned in my short time as a parent, that there are few better sounds on earth than the sound of pure joy emanating from your child - even at maximum volume.








A little serious playtime with brain enriching fun.



Her first bath at home. Libby absolutely loves bathtime.


Nighty Night baby. It's 4 AM and time to sleep. Yup, 4 AM is 7 PM in Beijing, her bedtime.