June into July. Pictures only.

Dining incognito.






















Sadie likes water - a lot.






















Sadie meets a Polar Bear up close and personal at the Central Park zoo. She cried.






















With Grandma at the zoo.


















Sadie contemplates a move to Jersey City. Nah.






















Gracefully two-stepping across the living room.

An update from the field: Fried Rice, Vomit and Rock and Roll

Sorry for not posting for so long but its been an eventful few weeks as we continue to settle in with Sadie. In the last 4 weeks she has seen all of her early intervention therapists; the speech, physical and occupational therapists and they all give her the thumbs up. It seems Sadie has no major delays and is on track in every way. She has a totally clean bill of health from her pediatrician too.

On one of the last days in China our case worker Ann said to us that Sadie probably had yet to truly reveal herself to us and I still kind of feel that way. Every day she exhibits some new kind of behavior that wasn't present the day before. She's definitely getting more and more comfortable and attached to Jackie and I. We've introduced her to a lot of people over the last few weeks most of whom she really takes to but she always totters over to us to be held for a minute before continuing to play with her new friends.

Like any child she demands a lot of time so the adjustment to our social/work lives has been a bit challenging. Its like a job that never ends - it starts at 6:30 when she wakes up and ends at 8:30 when she goes to bed but its total work and concentration every waking minute. We love it.

Fried Rice
We went to China town last Friday for dinner and ordered Sadie chicken fried rice. When the steaming plate arrived she let out a squeal of joy that was so loud and long that everyone in the crowded restaurant stopped and looked over at us - I'm not exaggerating. Okay, it was a small place but still, she shrieked so loud she silenced a crowd. Albeit small but still, it was only fried rice. She continued to shriek between every fork full. It was the happiest I think I've seen her.

Blowing Chunks
Sadie also had an awesome puke session that frightened us but was generally entertaining and funny to her. We were stuck in traffic on the West Side Highway on our way back from Sleepy Hollow and this happened to be her first car trip. We fed her some nasty jarred baby food on the road out of desperation and by the time we got into town and hit the traffic jam on the west side she was burping in a funny way that didn't seem quite right. It happened to be gay pride day which explained the stop and go traffic on the west side. After the first few lurching lights Sadie started to whine and when I looked back at her she opened her mouth a bit and thick brown liquid started to pour out Linda Blair style. The volume was amazing. She covered herself and what seemed like every inch of the car seat. The scene inside the car became like the scene in the Bonnie and Clyde film with Faye Dunaway after they escape from the ambush and everyone is screaming and hysterical and there's blood everywhere and things are totally out of control. The only difference was we were only moving about 2 miles an hour and it was Sadie's vomit that was splashing around instead of blood. Jackie was gagging and practically climbing out of the window trying to get away from the puking baby. Jackie's sister Beth was in the front seat and volunteered to jump back there and rescue Sadie from her puke covered clothes and get Jackie away from the vomit. We stopped at a light and Beth and Jackie jumped out of the car to switch seats. Beth grabbed a roll of paper towels from the back of the car on the way around and once she freed Sadie from the car seat began the mop up.

Sadie seemed like she had taken a punch to the head and was totally out of it. Beth had stripped off her clothes and she was sitting on Jackie's lap in the front seat of the car in her diaper with her face smeared with brown goo. We continued to inch our way down the west side with all the windows down and with crowds on the side of the road growing more and more colorful as we approached the Village. There were drag queens of every shape and size, most on roller blades it seemed buzzing up and down the bike path along the Hudson. Sadie perked up and was enjoying the show outside when suddenly as we hit Christopher St. and there were hundreds of people swarming across the highway Sadie let out an epic gag and blew chunks like a drunk college coed right into Jackies chest. Another quart or more of vomit spewed out of her. It was incredible. Luckily we had the roll of paper towels at the ready and though we missed the first volley we caught the following blasts in the paper towels. After finishing Sadie laughed the rest of the way home. Finally arriving at the apartment and after unloading everyone the car had the vibe of JFKs limo at Parkland Memorial in Dallas.

J-Pop
It seems Sadie makes friends wherever she goes. Last night there was a concert by Puffy Amiyumi outside our building in the World Financial Center plaza so Sadie and I went down to check it out after her dinner. We were standing way back from the big speakers so her ears wouldn't get blown out but it was still outdoor rock concert loud with booming bass and drums and Sadie was loving it. She was in the baby bjorn thing and she was totally rocking out with her arms over her head and kicking her legs. I was not prodding her at all - she just loves Japanese pop music. Anyway we're standing way in the back of the plaza digging the show when this rock and roll dude comes up to us and he's all excited and he shouts at us "I JUST HAD TO MEET THIS BABY! SHE'S SO CUTE!" Sadie continued to rock and ignored the dude and then then he shouts to Sadie - not to me - "THIS IS TEENAGE WASTELAND IN JAPANESE!!" and he ran off. Sadie watched him go sort of confused but continued to rock out. I don't think she cared what the song was, she digs bass and drums. But now of course I'm going to have to play her the original version of Teenage Wasteland so she knows what it really sounds like.

Its amazing how many stories pile up in a short amount of time. We'll update the blog more regularly.