Girls Gone Wild

Last Sunday we went to a christening for Kai, one of the girls who was a adopted with Sadie. At the reception afterwards, held at a great Irish pub in a private dining room, Sadie and the other girls were the life of the party - and they weren't even drinking. Something about the party atmosphere really inspired the girls to cut loose and have a great time.

We saw a new side to Sadie we kind of thought was there but never saw it in full effect. Sadie worked the whole room all night, table hopping, giving hugs and kisses to anyone who wanted one. At one point she disappeared for a moment only to show up on someones lap 3 tables away.

Either Jackie or I spent the night following Sadie around the room as she visited one table then another. I can only imagine what she's going to be like at her first wedding reception when there's a band playing and people dancing.

When it was time to leave we had to visit each table for Sadie to say goodbye. We left the party to choruses of "Bye Bye Sadie!!" from all of her new friends.

In the cab ride home we were speechless. We'd never seen Sadie on fire like she was at the reception. We were saying to each other "Who is this kid?"

After we got home the party didn't stop - Sadie had her own personal after-party. She took all her clothes off except for her patent leather shoes and danced to her favorite songs for another hour before finally passing out. Should we be worried?

Sadie's own personal after-party...


See the video below of Sadie working the room at the reception.

Sadie works the room

More milestones for Sadie

Sadie saw her first Christmas tree today in the World Financial Center. She wasn't too impressed but did say 'bye bye' to the tree when we walked away. Sadie is hitting all of the 16-18 month milestones including major melt downs and tantrums. Last week we took the train up to Tarrytown from the city to visit friends and Sadie had a great time however on the 40 minute train ride home she screamed bloody murder the whole way. It was pretty bad and pissed off a lot of people - including me - but thats how it goes with kids past their bed time on a commuter train.

This month we are taking her to an adoption clinic in Long Island for her 6 month adoption check up and 18 month baby check up. The clinic is great, Sadie and I drove out there a few weeks ago in a rental car and we saw a great doctor who checked her out and shed a lot of light on her development. My advice to anyone adopting from China is do not use a standard pediatrician to catch your child up on vaccines and to do the initial and early follow up exams. You need to be seeing a doctor who specializes in adopted children and if possible infectious diseases.

Sadie has had a bit of a cough since returning from China and its been an ongoing worry of ours. It was very reassuring to have a doctor familiar with girls from China exam her and tell us her cough was nothing infectious and probably just post nasal drip which apparently is common with some kids. Sadie also only has four teeth on the bottom and the doctor told us that often adopted Chinese girls are delayed in tooth development and need dental care sooner than American kids.

Sadie continues to amaze us with her sense of humor and resilience. The doctor also told us to take her off the bottle so without any ceremony we stopped giving her her morning, afternoon and bedtime bottle and she never once freaked out or asked for the bottle. That chapter is effectively over.

Despite the fact that Sadie is more or less a lit fuse ready to blow at any minute she's still an incredibly loving and sweet girl. I started a new job last week and worked late each night getting home about 7:30 or 8, just before her bedtime and each night when I came in the door Sadie would let out ear piercing shrieks of joy and run to me for a hug. Its pretty intense to be met with that much unbridled love and affection and as good as it feels it also hurts that I have to leave her at all. I'm sure its the same for every working parent.

Even though she's only 16 months I think she'll have a good holiday season and get off on all the lights and gift wrapping. She's also about to get her first real dose of cold weather and its not going to go away for several months. I'm wondering how that is going to effect her mood.

Here are a couple of other recent photos of Sadie:

Sadie loves to read with her mom.

Sadie helps keep my guitar in tune.

Couch climber