Movie Upload is Broken

I have learned that the website I have used to store the movies of Kaitlyn and Emily's adoptions has failed me. If you try and download them, you get a zero byte file. I am trying to find a more reputable site to store them for me. Please be patient with me.

Learning to Push Buttons

Kaitlyn (our youngest) has figured out a new and exciting game. She has determined that Emily won't defend herself very much. Oh, every once in a while, Emily will get in a tussle with Kaitlyn, but most of the time she will just sit and cry/scream/whine. Kaitlyn has figured out that she can take one of the toys that Emily is playing with, move about 10 feet away and Emily will just throw a fit. Kaitlyn won't even play with the toy, she just stands there and watches Emily. Sometimes, it even looks like she has a slight smile on her face.

Yesterday showed us a very good example. Emily is playing with the Brio Train Set, trying to build a really long train with all of the cars. Kaitlyn picks one up and walks away. Emily sits there screaming and crying. After a few minutes, I intervene and make Kaitlyn give it back and attempt to distract her with something else. A few minutes after that, I notice Kaitlyn sneaking up behind Emily. Quick as a rattler, she bends down, grabs one car and then heads for the hills. It is so cute to watch her run, Kirsten and I burst out laughing. Which was probably the wrong choice.

Finally, Kirsten calms Emily down and gets her to try and trade something to Kaitlyn for the train car. Kaitlyn obviously hasn't learned the value of things, because she gave up a nice train car that moves for wooden block with a picture of the Cookie Monster glued to it.

Random Thoughts

I noticed that 18 people have downloaded (or at least tried to download) the little slide show of Emily's Adoption Trip, but that only 6 people have downloaded Kaitlyn's. I figure that people either view the first and decide that Kaitlyn's isn't worth it or can't get Emily's to download correctly and don't try to get Kaitlyn's because of that. If you are having trouble, leave me a comment with your email and I can send it to you that way.

Also, I am surprised at the number of downloads, because I can only think of four or five people that would really care. Interesting.

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Kaitlyn is getting more and more teeth. They are starting to come at a rapid clip now. She has the front 8 (4 on top and bottom) and two molars further back and another 4 to 6 getting ready to break through. Needless to say, she is not as happy as she could be.

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Never buy only one scooter for the girls. This will lead to fights, whining, crying and several minor accidents. This is followed by a trip back to the store to buy a second scooter, which is followed closely by the complete lack of interest in either scooter by both girls.

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If the toy requires some assembly, it is much easier to assemble when the kids are not there. Our kids try and be very helpful, but this conversation was repeated several times. During the assembly of the two scooters.

"[place child's name here], where is the [place part name here, the smaller the better]."

"I don't know."

"Were you playing with it?"

"Yes" (for variety the child may say "I think so").

"Well, where did you put it?"

"I don't know" (for more variety the child may say "I don't remember")

Children at play

As Kaitlyn gets older, she and Emily are playing together more and more. Even Patrick is getting into the act. Here are a couple of pictures of them playing.


They love to play doggies. It is getting to the point that we are starting to hide the dogs leashes.



They also love to play babies. The stroller is not really designed for their size, but it works much better than a real stroller in the house.

Adoption Stories

First, at the request of my wife, I moved the story of Emily's Adoption and Kaitlyn's Adoption to the bottom of this page. She felt it was annoying for them to be at the top all the time, since most people will only want to view them once.

Also, I have recently created a couple of video slide shows that show the story of the adoptions. I have placed them on a web site that provides free image and file hosting called TheUpload. They are in WMV format, so they should work on any MS Windows Computer.

Also, I want to make sure that I acknowledge the musical background, which I downloaded for free from the following site Liu Fang Music. It is a piece entitled "The dance of the Yi People", composed by Wang Huiran and performed as a Pipa Solo by Liu Fang. I hope that covers me legally.

If you click on the links below you will be taken to a web page where you can download the files. Look for the "Download" Button on the right side of the screen a little over half-way down.

Emily's Adoption Show

Kaitlyn's Adoption Show

Where is China?

My oldest daughter is starting to figure out that she is a little different. We have done a pretty good job with trying to explain things and it helps to have an adopted sister. She sees all that has happened since Kaitlyn has come into our lives. Also, we have tried to instill in her a since that being Chinese makes her just like us only with a little extra special something. Being Chinese is a special add-on and takes nothing away from her.

Anyway, I have been making some movies about our adoption trips. Basically just slide shows set to music with a few actual movie clips thrown in. They are turning out pretty good. (I will try and put them somewhere for download). So, Emily thinks the movies are pretty cool and she now wants to go to China.

I have tried to explain that China is far away. She asked, "How far, can we go there tomorrow?" I explained, "China is very far, it is across the ocean." She give me a blank stare for about 10 seconds and then laughs, "You're teasing me!"

I guess that I have told too many whoppers to her. I never could convince her where China really was. She wouldn't believe about the ocean until other members of our FCC (Families with Children from China) explained that China really was across the ocean.