First Snow!

When we woke up on Saturday morning there was a light dusting of snow covering the ground. There was probably just around 1/4 inch depth to this snow but you would have thought it was a blizzard based on the excitement level this brought Rachel and Isaac. At breakfast they made plans to shovel all the snow layer from the grass and patio into one spot and make a sledding hill. They actually attempted to do this but were not too successful (had lots of fun trying though). :) We even bundled Chun Le up and let her walk around outside in the backyard snow for a bit. The thing she was most in awe of were the mittens on her hands...she was not sure what to think about those. Chun Le did enjoy when I took her hands and walked her around the yard in the snow. She got cold very quickly and we came in after about 10 minutes, but it was fun to have her experience her first snow. She would have never ever had snow in her part of China.

An update on how she is doing with sleeping...since the last blog this has been much improved. It is still pretty typcial for her to fuss when we all come upstairs to get ready for bed, but it is not as intense and does not last as long. In fact, she will let us hold/rock her as we stand next to the crib at bed time without too much struggle and will often fall asleep in our arms within 15-20 minutes. The best part is that for the last 4-5 nights she sleeps all night long without waking up! That is a real blessing and has gotten us feeling much more "normal" again now that we are getting uninterrupted sleep. At naptime, we started putting her in the crib with one or two small toys in a sitting up position (rather than lying her down with the implication that she thinks we are "forcing" her to go to sleep--that doesn't go over well with her). This is the same time that Isaac goes to his room for an hour of quiet play and I just sit on Rachel's bed next to the crib with the laptop and catch up on email, read or take a nap myself. Chun Le is doing well with this naptime scenario. She just sits and plays and has even learned to stand up in her crib (did not know how to do that when we brought her home) and walks up and down the railing and just hangs out quietly instead of screaming/fussing in resistance to being put down for a nap. She has not yet slept during naptime, but I figure our goal for her and us is to have a quiet hour during each afternoon and it does not really matter whether or not sleep is involved. This naptime routine is working well for us! We know that she does need a short nap as she often falls into a deep sleep on the 5 minute drive home from picking up Rachel at school, but for now our quiet time routine seems to be the best solution. If she is tired enough at quiet time and once the novelty of playing in the crib wears off, she will likely fall asleep.

My sister Lisa and her family are in from Dubai right now and John did a little "photo shoot" of our family yesterday. He is a great amateur photographer so we asked them to come over and snap a few casual pics for us to pick from to send out for Holiday cards/Adoption announcement. They turned out really nice and I will include a couple of them in this post. Since life is a little busy and off-schedule for us right now we hope to send out a combo New Years/Welcome Chun Le photo card out rather than our usual Christmas letter this year. :)

If we don't post again before Christmas, the Stowers family wishes all of you a blessed Christmas. Enjoy the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord!!!!