Packin' on the lbs

Well we finally crammed in enough sour cream, spam, ice cream, whole milk, LOTS of Duocal, cookies, edemame, Costco mini-quiches, peanut butter waffles... Tess finally hit 20lbs 0 ounces last night when I put her on the scale! YEA! I know that this number is really quite irrelevant, but it somehow sets my heart at ease. After several weight checks at the pediatricians over the last 6 months, it is obvious that both Tess and Jude are on a steady curve on the weigh charts. Granted Tess's curve is well below the 0% mark. She is on a curve of her own and steadily putting on weight. She never had a big jump in her weight after coming home from the orphanage like Jude did and like so many other institutionalized kiddos I know of. And she's gonna be a tiny wee one. She's even so small by Vietnamese standards at 0-5% on the Vietnamese growth charts. I'd like to claim that these extra fatty calories were all "good foods and good calories." But sadly Tess's diet and eating habits, although she is eating enough, are still strange. Don't know how much of that I want to get into as it still breaks my heart. But many of these extra calories are honestly anything we can get her to eat at anytime! There's something so primal about a mama feeding her child. And when it doesn't work, it can be upsetting and hurts my heart to the core. So feeding therapy is still underway and is much about me as it is about Tess.

As you can see, her chompers are all coming in. Both babies have been teething constantly since the moment we got them nearly 7 months ago now. Her work in physical therapy is doing excellently! She's running, learning to go up stairs, and climbing like a monkey. Her speech therapy hasn't progressed as well. Thankfully over the last month she is starting to make some noises. We're happy with ANY noises for now as she has always been the quietest baby and really doesn't even hardly cry. Another side affect of living in an orphanage and largely ignored the first year of her life. Babbling and eventually someday words will come too, soon I hope. 6th child and all, she does have a whole houseful of folks who talk for her. Including Jujube who now "helps" her say what she wants. "More" and "up" or he calls her name (more like hollers it!) when he's looking for her around the house. It is too stinkin' cute.

Jujube has been giving a lot of lovin' to Tess these days. Bringing her snacks and smothering her with hugs and usually has one eye on her, keeping track of her. Again, I am amazed that the Lord kept these 2 children together. There are real reasons that she needs him. Through his official classification of being "special needs" he was able to get her out of institutionalized care faster and into our arms where we could sooner start the care she needed. And reasons that he needed her too. She has progressed so rapidly with her physical therapy, that she is that one that finally got him to walk. He now has to push himself to keep up with his very quick sister and his wobbly balance is so much better than it would have been without Tess. All that in 20 short months of God's matchmaking handiwork! I wonder what else He has in store for them together.

Occupational therapy is still is still progressing, and then on Fridays we also have a therapist that works on Tess's cognitive and social development. Add 'em all up and that's 6 therapy sessions a week. I'm exhausted some nights.

And did I mention that I started to home school my 10 year old??? I know... crazy. But necessary and truth be told, I love love Patch's company and spending this extra time with him has been a surprising blessing. God again continues to surprise me with His plan.

We continue to go to the Vietnamese market as much as possible. It's become our weekend routine to find a couple recipes to try, go to the market to get the ingredients then make it our weekend project. I must say I am quite proud of my Vietnamese cooking skills, especially for a beginner. Our older girls have become expert spring roll wrappers! Yummy!! I found a great VN cookbook for beginners, that has pictures of all the ingredients so that we we go to the market, and it is SO much easier to find the ingredients. I mean it can be SO hard to pick out fish sauce in an entire ISLE of fish sauces! Ya, you should just see us towering white-people with two Asian beauties in tow, and our cookbook in hand trying to match the pictures to the plethora of jars. We stick out like sore thumbs, but it sure is fun trying! Jujube looks Vietnamese, but Tess is not stereotypical Vietnamese in appearance. And when we go to the local VN market, the Vietnamese community here still ask us where she is from. Even when we say she was born in Saigon, they still aren't sure and shake their heads and immediately come up with several theories for her irregular appearance. Maybe some Caucasian blood leftover from the French or soldiers from "American War," or maybe she's actually from Cambodia, which is actually quite close to Saigon. They comment on her dark skin tone, her big round eyes, curls in her hair, (I tried to straighten it in these pics) Who knows?! We'll never really know. She's a beauty to us!

Well, I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to continue to blog. Not sure there is anyone out there who is still reading or interested with the daily minutia of a crazy mama of 6.

PS- I HATE my camera. Hate its not a word i use lightly, but in this instance, i am very carefully selecting it. I have these wonderful people in my life that have been blessed where they can afford a nice SLR camera.  Heck, let's just be honest and call it what it is... jealousy! I am so so jealous! My old 35mm (left from my senior year in high school) did suffice when I was doing my photo/portrait work about 10 years ago, but it just doesn't hack it any more. And every thing's digital these days. Still, I LOVE to shop online for a new camera late at night and dream. So still I am using my little digital point and shoot. Not bad for a little pocket camera, hu? Maybe someday...