Cruisin'... the next frontier

I've been told before that you spend a great deal of time hoping your children will talk, crawl, walk... and then after they've been doing it for awhile, you pine for the days when they couldn't!
So it is in our household. I had a few precious weeks where I was reasonably certain that if I left Kiyomi on the floor and stepped out of the room for a second or two, I would find her in the same place I left her. Those days are already a distant - albeit plesant - memory.

Not only has she pretty much mastered the crawling thing, she has now taken to cruisin' around furniture - her high chair being the favourite piece. In fact, she spent about 3/4 of an hour last week, cruising around it, and singing to herself.


She's also been spurred on by a gift from our friends Tim, Alison and Tessa - a rather nifty Fisher Price walker-contraption that actually starts to sing when she bumps into things. Unfortunately, Kiyomi hasn't quite figured out that when you hit an obstacle, you have te reposition the walker to get around it. Rather, she's taken to backing up and having another go at it. Either that, or she just wants to make it sing again! Good mommy that I am, I pretty much wind up laughing at her until she gets a little frustrated, and then I redirect the wheels.

Other than working on the walking thing, we've been partaking of typical summer activities - wading pool, park, library, walks, runs to see the ducks. The highlight of last weekend was a trip to the fair. The SuperEx is in town, and just happens to be a couple blocks from our front door. So we headed there to see what Kiyomi thought of the lights, rides and general fanfare. It was kinda like letting a gambler loose in Vegas! There was a combined awe and barely contained excitement that came out every now and again with a few yelps and squeels. Unfortuantely, she was a little too young to get on any of the rides, but she had a blast watching her friend Ella on the ferris wheel and merry go round. She also really enjoyed watching the cops give a hard time to some teenagers who had been smoking pot right around the corner from the merry-go-round... but that's probably a tale for another day.

I have also been through my first full week 'solo'. Some things are easier than I thought they would be, others are harder. Needless to say, I have now been introduced to Teletubbies! I don't understand it, and that baby in the sun still freaks me out, but it buys me 10 minutes or so to get dinner started.

Kiyomi has also become a rather consistant ultimate fan - largely against her will. She's made it out to every game (thanks to relatively good weather, Nana, and a couple teams worth of willing baby-sitters). She seems to enjoy it, especially when Nana or aunty Sue are there to run her around. We'll have to see how this week goes as we're now into playoffs and have 6 games in the next 7 days. Hopefully, she won't add any more bites to her growing mosquito bite collection (bad parents, baaad parents)!

This week has also marked the next step in the paper chase with the citizenship application finally filled out and in the mail. The government has a test for assessing its employees' capacity to learn a second language. I've never taken it, but I've been told that the test is effectively in Kurdish and a large part of it is testing your ability to retain new words. I've decided that the government actually writes up all its immigration and citizenship forms in Kurdish first, and then gets someone who only speaks French to translate them into English. That is the only possible explanation for the vagueness of the questions and the strange rationale for the needed supporting documentation. I actually had a CIC employee tell me on the phone that a passport is not a sufficient proof of citizenship. When I asked - and it was in fact quite politely - whether it was indeed the case that only Canadian citizens could get Canadian passports, and whether that would not be proof of Canadian citizenship, she responded - no word of a lie here - that a Canadian passport was insufficient documentation for a citizenship application! I think she was a little offended by my giggling.

Just a little side note for those of you in the process - if you don't have one already, invest in a small home photocopier/scanner thing. It's been invaluable with all the paper work.

The parting shot for tonight (if I can get it to work since blogger's been giving me trouble) is a little priceless (apologies to uncle Kenji, but it had to be made public). Good night from Ottawa.

Locomotion and puppets

Well, really a pretty average week in the household... crawling, standing and puppets!

Yup, you read right. In the last week, Kiyomi has started standing on her own for longer and longer periods of time. She has also, unfortunately, picked up this really fun game where she free falls backwards with the full expectation that someone will be there to catch her. She laughs, while she's doing it! We're not sure if she's laughing because she's in free fall, or because out of the corner of her eye, she can see an adult or two dive across the room to make sure she is indeed caught. All I can say is that this does NOT bode well for her teenage years!

Impatient with the fact that she can't actually walk yet - and eager to get her hands on the KT cat's tail - Kiyomi has started to crawl. Who knew that a four legged creature could create a four legged creature out of our little girl?!

So, we now add crawling to her expanding repetoire, which at the moment consists primarily of wanting to walk (assisted of course), launching really messy foods like spaghetti across the room, saying "cat" (although we have no idea whether she actually associates it with the cat since she called a dog "cat" the other day) and generally making all sorts of crazy, funny faces. I tell ya, what's not to love!

The standing has also created a new challenge for bedtime, as it seems she's mastered the ability to pull herself to standing in the crib. Now, normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but for the fact that she's extraordinarily proud of herself when she does this. The bedtime routine usually has Kohji or I laying on th ebed beside her crib reading and waiting for her to fall asleep. We try to ignore her rather than interact so she settles in with Elton. Well, it's hard to ignore it when you glance over and are eye to eye with this huge grin. Once you laugh, you're sunk because she takes that as a sign to giggle at will!

We had a great visit with Nana. Not only did she help with the baby, she helped put together Kiyomi's room, including making curtains. Much appreciated by all, but especially Tamara. It was a nice way to transition into full time "on my own". Mom, you'll be missed!

Yesterday, we headed off to the Puppets Up! Festival in Almonte - a pretty little town about 45 minutes from Ottawa. Now, it's not that we wouldn't have considered the driving 45 minutes to a puppet festival before Kiyomi (usually at the prodding of uncle Phil). But let's face it, we probably would not have spent a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon driving to Almonte for it. My how things have changed... Of course, it would seem there isn't much we wouldn't do for this little face (see again comment above re: teenage years).

The Festival itself is quite fun, although probably more interesting for the older (4 and up) crowd. All of Almonte gets into it. They close the main street to traffic and puppets rule the roost. There are a number of theaters set up, all within easy walking distance, and puppeteers from all over spend two days entertaining. The highlight is the puppet parade down main street.

We've also discovered that Kiyomi seems to really like music (thanks in large part to the musical potty that Nana got for her). You haven't lived until you've heard the "Toilet Paper" song over and over and over... and over.

However, throw in a couple of baby maraccas, and it doesn't seem to loose it's charm ... quite as quickly.

On that note, the parting shot for today is a little baby boogie. Good afternoon from Ottawa.

Cows and bears

It's amazing to think that we've now been home for three weeks. The time has flown by but at the same time it already seems like she's always been with us. She's tons of fun, and I'm sure every parent thinks this but she seems to be learning things so quickly!

Last weekend we took a trip out to the Central Experimental Farms just a 5-minute drive away. Kiyomi had a fun time having a staring contest with the cows (the cows laughed first), but she was a little unsure about the calves who were doing lots of mooing. It seems she's a no-moo girl.

Kiyomi's grandmother (Tamara's mom) joined us on Wednesday for a little Kiyomi visit until this Friday. As easy as Kiyomi has been on us for the most part, it's been very nice for these two first-time parents to have another set of hands around, especially for Tamara's first week on her own. Plus Kiyomi's been having lots of fun with Nana saving some of her biggest smiles for her. It also means that Kiyomi's earned a few new nicknames. She's already called "baby", "cutie", "stinky", "boo", "the destroyer" and perhaps a dozen others, and now she has added "Muckaroo", courtesy of Nana.

Kohji started back at work this past week and while it was hard for him to leave every morning, it made things a little easier having pictures of Kiyomi at work. The picture appearing here is the one he has on his computer and he says it makes him smile every time he looks over. It is hard for him though, as he feels that he's missing out on so much every day - not only spending time with her, but all the new things that she learns every day!

For example, this week, she started standing on her own for long periods of time. She can't pull herself up to a standing position and when she realizes she's standing she starts falling over, but if she's got something in her hands to distract her, she can stand on her own up to a minute at a time.

She also learned to play peek-a-boo. We had previously played a game with her where we cover our heads and say "Where's Mommy", and she pulls the blanket down to reveal us and we'd say "There's Mommy!" (thanks to Jen & Rick for this game!). We also occasionally put the blanket on her - "Where's Kiyomi" and she would pull it down and we'd say "There's Kiyomi!". Just this week she started putting the blanket on her own head and pulling it down. It cracks her up.

She's also started being able to walk holding only one of our hands. She also started clapping, and just a couple days ago she learned to get up to a sitting position from lying down. Tamara's mom has been laughing at Kohji because he wants Kiyomi to slow down her advances - she's growing up too fast!

We're also discovering that Kiyomi is likely destined to be a Southpaw. She reaches for most things with her left hand and pretty much feeds herself exclusively with her left hand. I guess Ned Flanders will have one more customer for his Lefty's store...

On a final note, Kiyomi has also taken to a little bear named Elton. We introduced Elton to her about 10 days ago and he's now become an important part of her bedtime routine. She gives him a few kisses, and then likes to cuddle some part of him as she falls asleep. It's nice to see her make a comforting friend, and above all....it's very cute to watch.

China packing list

http://mediamax.streamload.com/kojtam/Links/EB7F1B1A27

As promised, above is the (somewhat massive) list of things we took to China with us with some commentary on things we didn't need and things we didn't use but others did.

Enjoy, and have fun shopping for bigger suitcases!

Top 10...finally!

Sorry for the delay on this, but here it is, the top ten lessons learned from our experiences in China:

10. You don't need to bring your entire kitchen! Many of the lists circulating tell you to bring snacks for yourselves, food for the baby, formula, etc... While you might want to bring a little bit of this, just in case, if you are going to be in Beijing or any other major center, you won't have any difficulty finding food for yourselves and the baby. There are grocery stores, and you can buy Doritos or Heinz baby food if you want it. So leave the suitcase full of food behind. The only thing we used of the food we brought for ourselves were a couple of granola bars and we had one night where we huddled in the room over Cup of Soup and Nutella and crackers. For the most part, even our in-room meals were either room service or instant noodles from the local grocery. For Kiyomi, we used the Arrowroot crackers, the babymums and cheerios. For convenience sake, I would say it was nice to have all that close to hand, but the rest, you don't really need to bother. I think everyone in our group felt that we had brought too much stuff and that things could more easily have been bought there on an as-needed basis.

9. Expect the unexpected and go with it. It's absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to control all the variables, even though your guide will do her best to control most things. So, if the trip day's excurtion takes a little longer than planned or the restaurant was not exactly what you had in mind, don't fret too much about it. This is possibly your only chance to be in China and visit the land of your child's birth.

8. Chances are good that if you forgot it at home, you can find it in China. You aren't heading into the backwoods. If you happen to forget the baby wipes or didn't pack enough underwear, you can find it there. As long as you have the adoption paper work and your passport, you'll be fine. It's nice to have the stuff you want from home, but don't stress about remembering everything and don't stress if you've forgotten something.

7. You will get alot of advice from adoptive and non-adoptive parents alike - and I mean ALOT. They mean well, are trying to be helpful, and they know a hell of a lot. Be gracious. If you agree with it, take it with you; if you don't, just listen. And in the end, go with what feels right for you, your family and your baby.

6. Bring a tupperware tub for doing dishes in the bathroom. Makes it way easier to ensure you're sticking to bottled or boiled water for dishes. Also worthwhile to bring a small bottle of laundry detergent. It's possible to get laundry done, but the hotels seem to be developing a monopoly on sending out laundry, it can be expensive, and even if it is arranged by the guides it can be inconvenient to have to be in your room at the appointed times.

5. We were very happy we brought the laptop - not only for blogging, but also for emails and Skype. It was nice to have the contact with home. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Skype is a voice over internet thing that allows you to talk long distance for pennies. It's free software, easily available on the internet (www.skype.com). We called home a number of times and probably spent less than $3 Cnd for over at least 2 or 3 hours of talking. If you end up calling someone with skype on their computer, it's free! Well worth lugging the laptop.

4. Getting the third airplane seat for the trip home was well worth it! The travel agent also gave us the tip to book seats in the middle row - the two aisle seats and one in the middle. If the plane isn't full (and ours wasn't), chances are good no one will be seated in that extra seat and you can get 4 seats in a row. It was great to have Kiyomi sleep for 5 hours lying across those two middle seats instead of on our laps. Even if you don't book the third seat, ask the agent to book you two seats in the middle row with one seat between you. No one is likely to book that empty seat between the two of you and then you'll at least have one seat for her. Many couples booked their two seats on the side of the plane (window and aisle). However that means having a baby on your lap for 13 hours, and that's no fun.

3. We were happy to have brought lots of stacking bowls with lids, lots of baby spoons and baby washclothes. The bowls were used for carrying around lunches, dinners, etc. The breakfast buffets are fantastic, so we often grabbed food for Kiyomi's dinner from the buffet, put it in a plastic bowl with lid, and stored it in the room fridge. I brought 6 baby spoons, and was down to two by the time we left. We used the baby washclothes for everything from dishes to bath time. They're a perfect size and dry quickly.

2. It is really worth it to make use of the resources you have while there - the guides, other families. We found it really helpful to talk to people about everything from poops to feeding to fevers. Everybody is going through the same stresses and asking the same questions. Biggest tip here is don't be afraid to talk about anything and everything with your travel mates or the guides - from your tummy troubles to baby's constipation.

1. We were very happy we went a few days early to get used to the surroundings, get over jetlag and get to know some of the other couples. We also appreciated the chance to get to know some of the other folks from Ottawa before we went. Given how foreign everything will seem (including looking after your baby!), it's very comforting to have some familar faces around you. HIGHLY recommended.

That's about it. Some of you have asked for packing lists. We'll try to provide that in the next posting. Hope this has been of some use (and if not, please refer to #7!)

Fish & Lions

Well, Kiyomi had a successful debut at the Dovercourt Pool yesterday. The facility has an excellent toddler pool which is quite shallow and has warm water. They even supply the toys! Kiyomi had a fun time splashing around with Mom and Dad and watching the other little kids play. It's clear that she enjoys being in the water, and doesn't even mind when she splashes up a storm and gets water all over her face and in her eyes. As you can see she modestly decided on the one-piece though it was a little big on her and the suit often became and off-the-shoulder model...

As reported on Wednesday, she also got to open the giant lion that Tamara's Dad sent. Unlike with the giraffe, she was a little apprehensive with this one. Clearly she knows her herbivores from her carnivores. After a short while though she successfully tamed the lion and it has now become one of her favourite toys. KT the cat however seems somewhat defensive about this large new competitor on her turf.

Kiyomi also received her very first piece of identification this week. Last week she applied for her OHIP health card and she received it in the mail this week. She is now a real person, though hopefully we won't have to make use of this card too frequently! Now we're waiting for her Permanent Resident Card and her Social Insurance Number Card. Once we have her PR Card she can apply for citizenship so that she can become a real live hockey-loving, poutine-eating, complaining-about-the-weather Canadian! She can't wait.

Speaking of health, she's still doing really well. We think that she's gaining weight - she seems a little more "robust" (chubbier) than when we picked her up though we haven't had a chance to weigh her. She eats and drinks well. Sometimes she really struggles to "do her business" building up tears and sweat in the process. We're not too worried for the time being though as her poops are regular and well-formed.

As for her folks, Mom seems to have finally kicked the cold she had, with only a few tenacious symptoms remaining. As for Dad, he's healthy except that every new trick Kiyomi learns seems to involve a sore back for her parents. Formerly it was Kiyomi walking with Mom or Dad holding her hands. More recently, it's having Mom or Dad tossing her into the air, which never fails to result in all sorts of giggling.

Today is Kohji's last day off work. Come Monday, he'll be back behind a desk and Kiyomi and Mom will have to look for mischief on their own. Stay tuned.

Turtles and Giraffes

Who knew that all those stories we heard from parents about babies and car rides would hold so very true. Kiyomi's definitely a big fan of the car, including her very comfy car seat (big thanks to Catherine and Lauren). She makes no fuss getting in and is as happy as a clam once she's in.

When's she's not sleeping that is.

Thus far, she hadn't lasted much more than about 10 minutes in the car without falling asleep. We'll be happy though once she crosses that 20 lb threshold though so that we can face her forward. It's not a big deal when there are two of us adults in the car as someone has to get in the back anyhow and can see what she's doing. However, when there's only one, it's a bit of a struggle to crawl into the backseat of our 2-door Civic to get her in the seat and then not be able to see what's going on with her while we're driving. Having her face forward should make things much easier.

Kiyomi's also had a few adventures in the animal world in the last couple of days. Yesterday our friends Jan and Alex took us out on a little trip to Little Ray's Reptile Zoo which is a very cool place that few non-parents have heard of. "Little Ray" himself started out with an educational program taking reptiles and birds around to schools and such to talk about animals to kids.
Well the program was so successful, and people kept asking him if he could take care of that alligator they bought for their kid but has just eaten the family dog, that he started his own little zoo. Now the place has all sorts of turtles, snakes, lizards, geckos, fish, crocodiles and birds of prey in a very cool and interactive environment. They had a petting show where you got to hold and pet tarantulas, lizards, skunks (descented) and alligators, and another where they fed the 450 lb crocs who jumped out of the water to grab the food, and a raptor show with a barn owl and a hawk flying inches above the heads of the audience! Kiyomi couldn't keep her eyes off the barn owl as it flew around and around.

The other animal adventure came via a rather large package we received in the mail from Tamara's Dad. Apparently Kiyomi's Grandad had to win a bidding war on eBay for this little prezzy. Kiyomi helped open the box, and to her surprise, out popped a giant giraffe! And when we say a giant giraffe, we mean a GIANT giraffe. It's about 10 times the size of Kiyomi! Surprisingly Kiyomi didn't seem intimidated by the size mismatch at all and took to it right away. The giant giraffe has since been joined by a giant lion which was also sent by Tamara's Dad. Kiyomi's doing her best to keep the lion from eating the giraffe...

This morning we walked up Bank street to Tamara's work and said hello to all her friends at work. Kiyomi as usual was very happy to meet people and did her best to draw smiles from her new friends. This afternoon Jan and Alex popped by for a walk out to the ice cream store and tonight we're off to Kiyomi's fourth ultimate game. Unfortunately she has yet to see us actually win a game, so hopefully tonight we'll show her that there's more to the sport than showing that we can be gracious losers!

We're hoping to make it out to the Dovercourt pool tomorrow for her first swim. Hmmmm...one-piece or bikini?

Name change

Now that we're all back and settling into some kind of normal, we thought it appropriate to rename the blog! Let's face it, it's not about us anymore - we're parents, we officially have no identity that doesn't involve our daughter.

And the truth be known, we know you're all tuning in to check in on Kiyomi (and make sure we're not messing up too badly on this whole parenting thing).

So, the new name for this little blog is Kiyomi Tales (formerly Kohji and Tamara's Adoption Adventure). We'll still keep you filled in on all the adoption related stuff (and for those of you reading this who are about to embark on a similar adventure, we're planning on doing a top 10 lessons learned list as well). However, much of the content is going to be about our little girl and everything that she teaches us.

Hope you still enjoy!

Approaching normal and hat wars

Well, we've been home a little over a week and things seem to be settling into some kind of normal. Although Kiyomi seems to be changing by leaps and bounds every single day, and it's pretty amazing to watch.

The last few days, she's been focussed on locomoting in any way possible. Her favourite though, is grabbing on to hands and toddling around. Luckily, neither Kohji or I are that tall, so there hasn't been a need for hunched over backs. She's pretty determined little girl, and when she decides she wants to toddle... she lets you know that this is what is going to happen.



She also continues to be a very social little being, preferring company to being stuck with just mom and dad. She's been to a couple of ultimate games, a bbq with Kohji's work colleagues and has entertained a few visitors here at the house (note that she is doing the entertaining, not us).

We're also engaged in an ongoing war with Kiyomi about the wearing of hats. We've tried all sorts of hats with her but she has steadfastly refused all of them, struggling with all her might to remove the offending articles from her head. This has been a problem since it's been sunny almost every day that we've been back in the city and she loves going out for walks (as do we!). Occasionally, we do enjoy a small victory, but as you can see, she continues to struggle to free her head...even in her sleep.

Otherwise, she's a happy and healthy girl. She eats, poops, drinks, pees and sleeps well, and that's really all we can ask for.

We're also doing well. Every day gets a little easier as we continue to establish patterns. She's still sleeping very well which makes things a whole lot simpler for us since neither of us seem to function too well without a good sleep. She definitely enjoys being out and about which is good since so do we! Fortunately the weather has been fantastic so we've been only too happy to go for walks, go shopping, head to parks, etc.. We certainly have our moments when we can use a break, but fortunately for the time being we have each other to trade off whenever these moments arise. It will be more challenging when Kohji's back at work next Monday.

In the past few days we've taken her for her first hike in Gatineau Park, namely around Pink Lake, taken her to a couple of nearby parks including her first ride on a swing, took her to brunch on Sunday to a local patio, and she had her first ice cream last night at dairy queen.







She and KT the cat are also getting along famously after a rather rocky start involving her first being quite frightened of KT, and KT being none-too-pleased with this small creature grabbing her tail.


In the next few days we're hoping to take her to a pool, to set up an appointment with the Foreign Adoption Clinic at CHEO, and to establish a good solid routine here at home. We're also hoping to move her into her own room to sleep soon. Thus far she's slept at the foot of our bed as she had been needing some back-patting in the middle of the night. However, she's largely grown out of that stage so we'll (hopefully!) be moving her next door, and Mom and Dad will have a snorfle-free sleep soon.

First Birthday

Not sure how many people are still interested in this blog now that it will get a lot more mundane with daily life and annoying little baby stories that only parents really find all that funny. However, it's become a bit of a habit and a nice record keeper, so the blog lives!

The sleep strategy seems to be working, although it seems a little cruel to be keeping her awake in the afternoons, especially when her little head starts to bob and weave, desperately looking for a place to lay down. However, it has meant that she sleeps from about 9 until 6, with a few snorffles in the middle of the night that are easily resolved with a little patting. Thanks to this, the fatigue fog has lifted, and I can proudly say, that I haven't lost anything in the last 24 hours (I'm still looking for the clippers I lost on Saturday)!

This week's big events (other than a rather leaky diaper that proved to be quite the challenge for us new parent types) were Kiyomi's first birthday and a surprisingly easy trip to government offices to get a health card and SIN for the latest Ottawa resident. The former was an unexpected surprise, as we had been lead to believe that this can often be a hassle. My compliments to the Service Canada folks who were helpful and courteous, even though you can tell that something new (processing a SIN for an internationally adopted child) was outside the bureaucratic box. My advice to anyone else who has to do this, bring every piece of paper you have, and when in doubt innundate them with paper.

We also decided at the last minute to have a few folks over the celebrate Kiyomi's first birthday (if for no other reason than to have pictures), so a few friends who hadn't yet met her popped over for cake. We also got a fantastic phone call from cousin Mika, who sang Happy Birthday (or at least a portion of it) all by herself!

It was a very low-key affair, and more than anything else, a last minute excuse to introduce Kiyomi to a few friends. She had chocolate cake and was the life of the party (with her friend Ella) until she conked out because we hadn't let her sleep all afternoon! I fear we have a party-girl on our hands.

She also has been opening birthday gifts over the last few days from all sorts of people. It's an embarassment of riches, actually, but nice to know that we're not the only ones who are spoiling her. Of course, she generally seems more interested by the paper than what's inside, but she's learning.



She also made it out to her first ultimate game on Monday night, and seemed to at least fein interest in the game. Aunty Sue came to the game to do some side-line babysitting, which was most appreciated. Kiyomi seemed generally a little confused about why mommy and daddy would spend all that time running around a field chasing a frisbee.

We are also dealing with our first case of the sniffles - runny nose, congestion. Kohji, engineer at heart that he is, seems to be a big fan of the' snot sucker'. I will admit, he is much more proficient at it than I, so I'm happy to relinquish that particular bonding moment.

Fogs and airplane rides (unrelated)

Well, we're back and doing reasonably well (although neither of us should be operating any heavy machinery for the time being).

Friends of ours warned us that the "good sleepers" while in China had the potential to be not so good sleepers back in Canada, and, alas, so far, Kiyomi has decided to follow this adage. As a result, we’ve been operating in a bit of a fatigue fog the last couple of days. Hence the delay in posting here.

The trip home was relatively uneventful, although really long. We were all a little shocked by the insanity that is the Beijing airport. There are no real lines – rather you join the throngs of people moving forward towards the departure area. Oh sure, there are signs that seem to indicate some sort of order – indicating “something to declare” or “nothing to declare” – but they are largely meaningless. You simply join the crowd surging forward, and try to resist the urge to “moo” as you join a human cattle drive!

The plane ride itself was also rather uneventful, though very, very, very long. Kiyomi worked on her audience most of the trip – smiling and scrunching her face up whenever she caught someone’s eye. She even charmed a priest on the Toronto-Ottawa leg! She had a couple of fussy moments that were resolved by walking the aisles, and expanding her audience. All in all, we were quite relieved that there was no real crying fits and she didn’t seem to have any difficulty with the take-offs and landings. She even had a good long nap, helped along by the fact that we scored a middle bench – so four seats – all to ourselves. Tip for those of you travelling in future – if you are thinking of getting a seat for the baby (which we did), request the middle row, and specifically both of the aisle seats and one other. That way, if the plane isn’t full, it’s more than likely that no one will be in that 4th seat! Worked like a charm for us.

We were able to meet up with Ojiichan, Obaachan and aunty Miyo during our stopover in the Toronto airport. It was a brief visit and I’m afraid we were a little too exhausted to be great company, but Kiyomi made a few smiley faces and it was nice to see family.

There was also a small contingent to greet us at the Ottawa airport, and aunties Laura and Sue brought slurpees for mommy and daddy (yum!) It was also really nice to come home to a contented cat and a clean house (thanks to uncle Brahm for that!) Kiyomi was a little unsure of everything, and a little clingy once we finally got home, but all in all, she did pretty well considering everything she’d just been through.

We managed to keep her up until 9 p.m., after feeding her some of grandma’s lasagna, but she finally conked out. Unfortunately, she was awake at 1:30 in the morning, and not at all happy about where she was and what was going on. There was some floor walking and rocking chair rocking until dawn, when we finally gave up and got on with the day.

The next night was marginally better. She still woke up at 1, but this time, she seemed reasonably content to babble and play in her crib until 3, when she fell back asleep. Unfortunately, it did little for helping Kohji and I get over jet-lag.

The sleep strategies continue, however. Yesterday, we limited all nap time. She only slept for about ½ in the afternoon, and we kept her awake as long as possible. Unfortunately, I abandonned Kohji as it was impossible for me to stay awake, so I napped for about an hour and a half. Kiyomi made it to 7:30, mommy and daddy until 8. Let me tell you, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve gone to bed while the sun was still up. Luckily, the” torture the poor child by forcing her to stay awake” seemed to work, as she slept until about 5 this morning. There was some minor snorffling that required some back patting (we’ve moved the crib to beside the bed, so we don’t actually have to get up!), but it seemed to be a full night sleep. We’re feeling less foggy headed, but could have happily slept several more hours. Hopefully, the strategy will hold strong and we’ll be able to keep her up a little later tonight, she’ll sleep a little longer at night, and all will be right with the world (ya, I know I’m dreaming in technicolour, but you gotta hope!)

The hardest part of being back so far has been the lack of sleep and copping with jetlag. So far, we've all been healthy (knock on wood) and Kiyomi seems to be feeling comfortable and secure as long as we are around. She's still a little apprehensive when we leave the room, even if she can still see us in the kitchen (but, after what she's been through, who can blame her). Hopefully, we can get things back to an Ottawa time zone soon and settle into a routine to increase the comfort level for all of us.

All in all, though, she seems to be adjusting as well as can be expected. She's even starting to see eye to eye with KT the cat. She wasn't too sure what to make of the strange furry beast at first, but now she's even happy to see the cat - as long as there is someone else nearby. She seems comfortable in the house, and we are bit by bit trying to develop a routine. We've already been to Loblaws, taken a few strolls through the neighbourhood and Kiyomi's gone for her first run in the baby jogger.

We're also slowly introducing all the new toys and gadgets, and so far she has three favourites - the pail and shovel from uncle Brahm, the Pop-A-Corn car from Alex and aunty Jan, and the rocking chair from Lindsay. Actually with that last one, she's figured out that when she rocks hard enough, she achieves locomotion, so she's been puttering across the kitchen. When she gets faster at it, the cat's in trouble!

And for us, it's a treat to be able to drink, and wash dishes in, tap water, have laundry at our disposal and the comforts of home. Being in China was amazing and getting the opportunity to visit Kiyomi's country of birth was phenomenal, but living in a hotel while you're trying to get to know each other is a bit of a challenge.

Tonight, Kiyomi heads out to her first ultimate game (assuming mommy and daddy can get their acts together). We’re hoping she’ll be able to read a disc better than mom, and given how she's learned to chuck things from her high chair, it's obvious she's working on her hammer already!

Tomorrow (July 18th) is Kiyomi's 1st birthday (as well as uncle Brahm's)! Nothing special planned, although apparently she gets pretty darn happy if daddy pretends to sneeze in her face, so maybe we'll spend the day doing that!

Good afternoon, from Ottawa (ahhh)!