Kinder Graduation

Catching some poolside rays.
At the end of year class Luau celebration last week.
Tessa's letter to her teacher.
Tessa loved the SpongeBob cupcake cake!
Tessa's classroom Birthday Celebration. She turns 7 in 2 weeks.
Tessa fell in LOVE with cousin Maria while they were here in Miami a few weeks ago.
Tessa's creation...her house.
The end to a wonderful season of soccer. This sport helped Tessa in so many ways.
Tessa was a "Children's Doctor" for Career Day.

11 Months

Wow, I really can't believe that we have had Tessa almost one year now. This time last year, I was so nervous, so emotional, and so anxious. It has been incredible these months. Well, so much has happened in this last month. An amazing school year has ended, Tessa celebrated an early 7th birthday in her class, soccer has ended, ballet has ended, Chinese school has ended and Tessa has lost her two front teeth.

Tessa continues to amaze us and is doing very well. There are two things that I worry about: her clingyness and her poor growth. I am working on her clingy behavior; I had thought she was doing better, but both my husband and I have observed her inappropriate affection to people she has known only a short while (minutes). We have discussed boundaries, but I guess it wasn't good enough...so more work this summer.

And her growth....well, everyone has told me "she will grow..." It has been almost a year and she hasn't. I've watched her classmates grow 2-3 inches taller and they are all a year younger, and now much taller than Tessa. So, now that school is out, we've been busy. We saw a specialist yesterday and got a lot of lab work ordered today. We're going to rule Celiac and Lactose Intolerance first. Then we have another appt at the end of the month with another specialist. I won't pursue anything that will facilitate growth, but I want to determine if everything is ok, and if we can adjust her diet to help her absorb enough nutrients to help her grow.

We're getting ready for a big road trip to see family. Tessa is excited about seeing her cousins again. I think she will do very well.

My Special First Mother's Day

I've always considered myself a mother of sorts; mother to our pets, to my guardian ad litem children, and just a nurturer in general, but this was my first Mother's Day in a traditional way and it was very special. Tessa's school helped the children understand the meaning and appreciation of the holiday and my husband helped Tessa help me celebrate this special day.  The school had "Doughnuts with Mom" and the Moms had to guess which works of art were created by their child. And then they sang to us....it was a very emotional morning indeed. And my hubby took Tessa shopping. They came back with a Barbie purse for Tessa, red lipstick for me, lots of chocolate and a beautiful orchid. Then we went to my favorite place in Key Largo. I am very grateful that I can celebrate this day and I honor my mother and all mothers for they are the heartbeat of life.
Oh, and check out Tessa's description of her MaMa. LOL!

10 Months Home

I love this Mug that Tessa made in Chinese School. The cup reads "Ma Ma." A week ago, Tessa asked me what I wanted her to call me: "Ma Ma or Mommy." Of course I said "whatever you want"...she prefers "Ma Ma" and still uses "Ba Ba."

It has been an incredible few weeks. I had an awesome Mother's Day, but realistically, everyday I feel so lucky to have such a beautiful daughter and to have this opportunity to finally be a mother to my own child. And Joey has really fell in love with Tessa; they have so much fun together, laughing and teasing each other all the time.

Tessa has had a few behavioral issues, but she has worked on reducing them, at least for this week!  Tessa loves to talk and occasionally, it is when the teacher is talking and more frequently when her Chinese teacher is talking. She worked hard on Thursday to get her name removed from the board before the Mother's Day event at the school so that I wouldn't see it....but what I did see was Tessa's name on the "good" list while the rest of the class was on the "excellent" list. Her teachers say that Tessa is a great student, but just loves to talk. She continues to make excellent grades and is learning so much so fast. She is not defiant, but when she is focused, she doesn't like to stop what she is doing and will get irritated when asked to do something else. I'm working on this with her and so far, she has responded well.

She has had a busy few weeks again...went on 2 school field trips that I was able to attend...I had a great time with her, but I observed Tessa being a bit too affectionate with the teacher's aid and some of the other parents (whom she had met on other field trips) and she was somewhat attention seeking with some of the other adults. I had a small talk with her when we got home, discussed boundaries with her affection, and she seemed to get it. I also emailed her teacher, who also made the same observations. I continue to monitor for attachment behavior, but quickly ruled this out when the very next day and up to this day, Tessa has reduced and almost eliminated this behavior. I find this amazing! And I am thankful it was not an attachment issue. I realized that Tessa was accustomed to hugging and kissing her nannies and teachers, those who cared for her. So hugging and kissing her current teachers and the parents of the other kids was normal to her, but once she understood that I was her only caregiver and her teachers were "teachers," she stopped her clinging. WOW.

Tessa is a star in soccer! She chases after that ball with lightening speed and is learning to kick the ball hard. She is learning so much about teamwork and playing sports to have fun. I love watching her run. She is doing very well with violin too, but we are taking a break and will start again next month.

We have discovered two more SWI sisters from BeiHai City. One of them, Guo Yong Hua, shared a bedroom with Tessa; she is coming home with her new family this month. We are looking forward to following her journey. I will post a video of Tessa and Yanni singing to her and put up some of their pictures for her gotcha day, so that she can view them, and hopefully these will comfort her thru her transition. The other SWI sister, Guo Cai Hong, will be home in a few months. They are both 10 years old and I'm so happy they found great homes!

Hush a Bye

We're practicing piano again, in the car!

Tessa's Mambo

We are practicing piano! Tessa is learning rhythm, beats and sounds...the Yamaha method. I really like it for her. She recogizes the next song from her ballet class.

Celebrating Earth Day

There is a new beautiful park downtown! Tessa and Lia really enjoyed it. They did somersaults, cartwheels, handstands and splits in the grass, teaching each other and.... trying to out do the other!

Ah, with the girls again for the Earth Day Festival downtown. More fun!
Our community released 2000 ladybugs in honor of Earth Day! Tessa loved it!
Tessa is back to swimming lessons and is loving the heated pool. Here, she is loving her "Princess crowned" towel, a gift from her Aunt and cousin.

Strawberry Fields

The Ni Hao Kai Lan girls at a truck stop saying goodbye to Yanni. They had a great time! Their sisterly bickering lessened the closer it got to the end of the weekend.
We discovered a Thai Buddhist Temple. For me, it felt like we were in Bangkok, for the Tessa, she felt like she was in China. It was quite an experience, here in South Florida.


The girls had a blast picking strawberries. Jean and her girls joined us and it was an awesome day!

Pinked Out with Yanni

OMG! Can't get over cute these turned out. Yanni is here for the weekend. Five minutes into the drive home, they started verbally fighting with eachother....it is interesting to watch them. This time around, I am less stressed over it and find it interesting to observe and learn from their interaction with each other. By then end of the night, they were laughing and playing well, so I'm certain it is a readjustment for both of them.

Ponytail in clover

Tessa is so excited to finally be able to wear a ponytail! I took these on Monday after school; this was the first day she wore a ponytail. These turned out so gorgeous.

Chocolate Bunny

Bunny weekend

Playing "doctor" with her friends.

Tessa enjoyed a great time at Grandma's and Grandpa's.

I Luv U

Lots of Play

Tessa had a great Spring Break. She had a playdate at the Zoo with a classmate from Piano.

We spent a lot of time with some good friends: went to the fair, a play and a brain exhibit at the Science Museum.








































At a Birthday party, discovered that a classmate who is also Chinese and adopted at a younger age, is from the neighboring province of Guangdong. They are close friends. Here he is upset over something and Tessa is comforting him. Yes, I am emotionally touched myself!