Certificate of Citizenship

It finally arrived and look at Maisie waving, just like in her referral photo!

Looking at this picture makes us realize just how much she's changed in the two months since we've returned home. In China she was such a serious, cautious, unhappy little girl. Now her personality is really coming out and she's outgoing, bubbly, fun, silly and smiles all the time. We never thought she would change so much and so quickly, it's just amazing. Life is good.

Meeting new friends.

Saturday we lunched with friends Bonnie, Clyde, Bubba Jr. and Charleigh Jo. We haven't seen them since July so this was the first time that Maisie was meeting her new friends. Maisie really enjoyed her time with Bubba & Charleigh and we loved catching up with Bonnie & Clyde and seeing how the children have grown.

I'm ready to go, what's taking you so long??

Maisie really liked playing with Charleigh.

Brandon is a good guy too, he watched over me and made sure I didn't fall or run off.

The children always flock to the biggest child, Eammon!!

I'm out of here, bye!!

A girl on the go!

Maisie is really getting the hang of walking and is just so pleased with herself. I love how she walks around with her hands in the air.

Here ducky ducky

Here ducky ducky.

Look at all the ducks!

Aww, they're leaving...

Maisie has a new word that she's saying and it's duck, oh so cute!!

Playtime

We've slowly been introducing new toys to Maisie. The newest one which we've I've finally assembled is her Laugh & Learn Home which she just adores!! She did play a little with this toy whilst in China as there was one in the playroom at the White Swan, but that one didn't have batteries in it so now that she has one with all the bells, whistles and songs, she's just loving it!!!

Of course we can't forget her all time favorite toy, plastic water bottles, a favorite from the first day we met her. The best thing about the water bottle, it doesn't play the ABC song!

Happy lunar New Year

So not to break with tradition set by both her Chongqing sofa picture and her White Swan sofa picture, Maisie was going to have nothing to do with a New Year's sofa picture.

Other than that little setback, we enjoyed a wonderful evening of food and fun with some other local adopters. Thanks Cindy, Jimmy and Amelia for hosting such a fun party.

Gong xi fa cai!

Our little Valentine

Two years ago today we were accepted by our agency to adopt from China and now here we are with little Maisie. For our first Valentine's Day together we had a pretty quiet day. We attend our Music Together class in the morning but then spent the afternoon playing at home because as you can see from the piccies, Maisie is still a little snotty mess, getting over her cold.

Our big accomplishment of the week is that on her own, Maisie decided that she was done with the bottle and is now on a sippy cup. It's funny to see her with the sippy cup though as I swear, the cup is bigger than her head.

Maisie continues to practice her walking and gets more confident each day. When she's in the walker she actually runs and has a ball racing through the house.

She's still not eating much and what she likes one day doesn't necessarily mean she'll like it or eat it ever again. This week she did eat some lasagna and has added fruit flavored yogurt to her mainstays of chocolate yogurt, pudding, tapioca and of course her beloved goldfish. Speaking of goldfish, Maisie has started signing fish in addition to her other signs of more, thank you, Mama, finished/all gone, bottle and water.

She's becoming very vocal and probably soon will be talking our ears off. Sleep is still a huge issue with her spending part of the night in the p-n-p and the remainder in bed with me. Naps are still a rare treat for me and her favorite place to sleep is still the car seat but only when the car is in motion which does me little good in my attempt to get some rest.

That about sums up our first Valentine's Day together. It will be interesting next year to look back and see just how much out little Valentine has changed.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Love,
Eammon, Lisa and Maisie Miao Miao

It's snot fun

Man is it ever a snot fest here at the Shanahan house. The morning after our visit to the ER I awoke with a horrible head cold. Can you believe it, we're only 40 days into 2007 and I've already had pneumonia, the flu and now a major snot fest of a cold. I swear there must have been a day or two in there when I wasn't sick, just wish I could remember and repeat it!!

Maisie's stomach flu is much better and though still not great, she's eating better and drinking lots of fluids so that's good. The girl seems to survive on Cheerio's, fruit puffs, goldfish and tapioca. Because of the teething and not feeling well, she's been miserable when it comes to sleep and her favorite place, once again, is my chest. So no surprise this morning she woke with a runny nose, cough and cold. On top of that, it's a cold gray day so we can't even warm ourselves in the sunbeams. Oh well, hopefully our colds will pass quickly and we'll all be on the mend soon.

Yesterday, even though I was already sick, Maisie was feeling pretty good so for the first time I put her in a walker.

After the first few minutes of apprehension she figured it all out and had a blast walking around.

It was pretty warm so we even ventured out and strolled around the cul-de-sac. I thought after having her walk around so much it would help her sleep better at night, but no go on that one...

ER

Maisie has been out of sorts for the past few days, most of which I attributed to major teething. Her bottom first molars are almost fully erupted. Her upper canines, upper first molars and final two lower incisors are all pushing their way through. Well Sunday night she was a complete misery, beyond exhausted and wouldn't go down to bed until almost 8PM (usually she's in bed and asleep somewhere between 6:30-7:30PM), only to wake at 9:45 at which time there was no getting her to go back to sleep in the p-n-p. She wanted to either be sleeping on my chest or kicking me in the chest. On top of that, she spent a good three hours in the middle of the night jumping, playing and just generally keeping me awake. Well, come Monday morning we were both quite exhausted but she was so unhappy being in the house, being held, not being held, I put her in the car to take her to story time at the library only to find out it was cancelled. Oh, what to do?? It was a really cold day so we couldn't go to the park so I packed her back into the car and we headed to the mall so that we could walk around and see some different sites. I took her to the mall's play area only to have her scream and hate everything. Oh joy!

We were home by 1PM but I could have sworn it was at least 6PM as I was so exhausted and all Maisie wanted to do was to be picked up so that she could push away and get off so that she could cry to be picked up, over and over and over again. Luckily when I called Eammon, he said he could do some work from the house so he came home early to help me out a little. Once Eammon was home, I took the opportunity for a quick run to the store sans Maisie. As soon as I pulled back into the driveway I saw Eammon holding Maisie, frantically waving me into the house. Seems that the only time Maisie stopped screaming was when she was throwing up all over Eammon. He had her stripped down to her diaper and wrapped in a blanket but needed me to take her so he could clean up the mess. While Eammon cleaned himself up as well as a few spots around the house, I got Maisie cleaned up and into her pj's. She settled down to bed around 7PM only to wake, screaming at 8:30, 10:15, 10:50 and midnight at which point I brought her into bed with me where she settled down quickly sleeping most of the night on my chest. She had fitful sleep, waking screaming like something was biting her, only to settle back down quickly usually after head butting me. Around 3am she was quite fretful so I gave her a light bottle of rice cereal and water which she quickly drank down.

Tuesday morning she seemed better but only wanted a couple of cheerio's and just a few ounces of another rice cereal bottle. I figured that her teeth were still bothering her and decided to follow through with our plans for the day. We were going to the Atlanta China Town Mall with Kathy and Lisa and up until 10:15am, 15 minutes before they were due to arrive at the house, Maisie was doing well. Then once again she threw up, this time all over me!! I had just changed and was leaving a message at the pediatrician's office asking for some advice when the girls arrived and since Maisie seemed to feel better after emptying her tummy we headed out.

The mall is tiny, tiny but they have a good grocery store and food court. Just as we were sitting down to lunch Maisie spit up and seconds later the doctor's office called. Their advice was to just get some pedialyte into her slowly and see if she would tolerate it. I had thought that would be their advice and luckily before leaving the house I tossed a few packets of the dry mix into my bag. Maisie would have none of it though she was not going to allow anything past her lips. Well, I would try once we got home as we weren't going to be out too long. After lunch the girls did a little shopping at the grocery but Maisie was quite chilled so we walked around the bakery, Maisie of course looking adorable as you can see from the piccie Lisa snapped.

On the drive home Maisie was quite miserable but then fell asleep for about 20 minutes. Once back at the house I attempted to give her some of the pedialyte from the bottle but no go, tried to use the medicine syringe, nope on that one too. Put her in the hip hammock as that usually calms her but she proceeded to do her Linda Blair Exorcist routine. After the girls left Maisie went into complete meltdown and no matter what I tried she would not take any fluids yet she managed to throw up again, all over me. All she would do was scream and there was no comforting her. Since throwing up 24 hours earlier, she had taken in less than 8 oz. of fluid, at the most 6 cheerio's and had thrown up 4, nope just as I changed my shirt again, make that 5 times. It was close to 4 PM when I called the doc's office again only to be told that she probably was dehydrated and may need an IV and to take her to the ER. Not anywhere near what I was looking to do, but little M would not settle down and was screaming uncontrollably.

I packed her back into the car and we were off. I can't even tell you how much I hate having to go the ER and the people there. First there was the family that arrived just before us, Mother and Grandmother with seven children all of whom had to be seen by a doctor as they were all extremely ill according to the Mother...Yeah, so ill that the Grandmother had to keep yelling at them to settle down and stop running up and down the halls...Thank you very much!! Then there was the staff...I heard them call for Marissa Shannon to come register, after hearing them call three times and knowing that I should be after the "sick" seven, I asked if they meant Maisie Shanahan and oh yeah, that's how you say her name...Are you kidding me??? Then when the doctor came into the room she sweetly said "Hi there Shannon sweetie." I said it's Maisie Shanahan so she had to leave the room to see if she had the correct patient. Sure enough they had her listed on the board as Shannon Shannon!! Give me a break, to top it off, Shanahan is phonetic, sound it out!!! OY!!

While we were waiting for the doc to come in, I kept trying to get Maisie to drink some of her bottle and wouldn't you know it was after all the waiting that she decided to drink. Well, the doctor was really quite nice and said that Maisie was not yet in need of an IV and now that she was drinking some we could avoid it. Maisie does have a stomach flu and some major gas so it was probably the gas pains that were waking her, making her scream in pain. I called Eammon from the hospital so that he could go out and get some gas relief meds and we headed home. By the time we got home it was after 9PM and Maisie was quite subdued. I gave her the gas meds, some ibuprophen for her teething pain and some more pedialyte and she settled down to sleep quite easily. At 1am she woke screaming so I gave her more meds and pedialyte and she was back to sleep by 1:38, I of course was awake until after 3am but hey, why do I need sleep!

For most of today, Maisie has either been sleeping on me or miserable and screaming. She was up early, around 6:30am but at 8:15, fell asleep on me. She awoke at 10 and seemed OK so we went off to a Music Together class, which was quite wonderful. She participated and did well during the class but by the end just had had enough. Once in the car she was asleep for the 20 minute drive home and then I gave her a little lunch of dry toast (no go), Cheerio's (ate lots) and more pedialyte. After lunch she was wanting up, down, up, down until she finally settled on me for a long nap. All afternoon was a scream fest and nothing I did calmed her down. When Eammon arrived home she was all happy to see him and wanted to be hugged but even that only lasted 5 minutes. I'm ready for another rough night and I can't wait for the teething to be over with. I think her tummy is doing better as she has tolerated everything she ate and drank today so tomorrow I'll add a little more into her diet again.

Well, I'd better get to sleep while I can and before she wakes me up. Nighty night.

Meet the Grandparents

Friday morning Eammon and I had to take Maisie along with her 1/4 pound container of frozen poo to lab so that they could run who knows what tests on the poo and also attempt to remove all the blood from her body. Well with all the blood tests that her doctor ordered, they probably need more blood than the poor child has and seeing that she was so unwilling to give up any, it may take weeks of visiting the lab before they have enough to run all the tests. The time at the lab was horrible, two techs, Eammon and myself all trying to hold Maisie still while the vampire attempted to get some blood. We went to this particular lab because the doctor's office suggested it as they specialize in pediatric blood draws. But after half a dozen sticks, they're not sure if they have enough blood to do any of the tests. Even if they had been able to get what they were looking for that day, it wouldn't be enough to run all the tests and the thought of having to go back again just makes me sick. Poor thing has major black and blue marks on the insides of both arms. On top of that, I can't take Maisie there without Eammon and the lab is only open during business hours...OY!!

Needless to say after such a stressful morning, Maisie was exhausted and fell asleep on the short ride home. I attempted to move her into the p-n-p so that she could maybe, possibly take a nap, but that was not to happen. Instead she decided that she was beyond hungry and ate more in one sitting than we've seen her eat in two full days. She had chicken and dumpling soup with cous cous, at least half cup of cheerios, a container of applesauce AND a full container of yogurt. I don't know where she put it all, but boy was she hungry! I then left Eammon and Maisie home and did a quick trip to the grocery. When I returned home, Eammon told me that my parents would be at our house in about an hour and not to worry, the tornado hit a few miles from them. We hadn't turned on the t.v. or the radio so we knew nothing about a tornado. Funny thing was, my parents didn't know anything about it either until they received a call during their drive up here as people were checking on them. They had left their home in The Villages around 6am and though the tornado hit within The Villages, they didn't happen to pass by that area and knew nothing about it.

Maisie did well meeting her Grandparents for the first time and actually allowed both my Mother and Father to hold her...albeit for short periods of time. It's amazing to see how each week Maisie becomes more comfortable with other people and warms up quicker and quicker. She had fun though during their visit and of course charmed them so that they now know she's the most wonderful, fabulous little girl ever!!

This morning my parents were off early heading home and Maisie and I went off to play with seven of her little playmates. We had a really fun time playing and hopefully one of the smart Moms who remembered their camera will send me some pics which I'll be able to post. And yes Julie, I gave Kacey a big hug and kiss from you. She was doing great with Nana Susan and your trip is much more difficult on you than on her...though I know she misses you. Also, the new haircut is adorable.

On a final note, my last blood test came back normal so all the elevated liver counts were most likely due to the massive amounts of antibiotics I had been taking. I know that my doc was just being cautious, (and cruel subjecting me to all those blood tests) but hmmm, didn't I say from the beginning that the count was high because of the antibiotics!?!?!?