Willow and Her Daddy

Willow has decided that she likes spending time in Daddy’s office, where she pounds on Gong’s keyboards, lies down on Waylon if he’ll let her, and spins a disk or two of “Schoolhouse Rock” from time to time (she likes the retro sound). In the first photo, W and G are wearing matching Hu-beiby t-shirts designed by our friend Lana Le, a designer and illustrator. (Hubei is the province from which Willow hails.) The second photo is pretty self-explanatory. Like her father, Willow is a fan of electronic gadgets. Make no mistake: The portable DVD player shown here is now officially Willow’s. Just try to wrest it from her chubby little hands. Go on. I dare you.

Happy Mother’s Day to Me

No gift could be greater than this one.

The Universal Language of Giggles

She: Only 18 months old, adopted Chinese girl in America for only 5 months, has a vocabulary of only about 8-10 (partial) words, started walking only weeks ago and still falls down a lot

He: 5 years old, 100% biological apple-pie American boy, has well-above-average mastery of language for his age, can run and jump for hours on end

They: Despite so many differences, they have figured out a way to have non-stop fun together, as evidenced by high levels of giggles and squealing

In the very short time they’ve known each other, Willow and Dash have accomplished what is perhaps fairly rare and improbable for kids of this age and lifestage difference…they have become great friends. Even though they have not shared a single conversation together (and probably won’t for a while since Willow is, quite literally, at the bottom of the language learning curve), they have managed to converse with aplomb using the universal language of giggles.

Dash, an amazingly kind, generous, and gentle boy, has affectionately taken Willow under his wing. As you can see in the video, Willow couldn’t be giddier about this.

Willow and Lulu take a meeting

Willow and her exquisite little cousin Lulu met recently. As you can see here, though the two girls are only a year apart in age, Willow looks like she comes from the Land of the Giants, while Lulu hails from Lilliput. My friend Lynn called Willow’s gaze “knowing” in this photo, and that sums Willow up pretty well, in our opinion. It is astonishing to me and Gong just how much Willow comprehends.

Bonus: Willow’s starting to say words, or at least the beginnings (or sometimes the ends, or sometimes the beginnings and ends but not the middles) of words. On the current play list are “iiiiiiiiiii” (with a big smile and waves) translating to “hi,” “jack” for “jacket,” “aba” for “a bath,” “ba” for “ball,” “ummk” for “milk,” “ook” for “book.” We are most impressed with her growing vocabulary.

Here are two more photos of our family’s little cuties for your enjoyment:

A Hard Day

After much soul-searching, we decided that Belle was not the right dog to join our family. The good news is that another family is eager to meet her. But giving her up, even after a few days of living together, was tough.

A two-year-old German short-haired pointer, Belle is an energetic young thing. But it wasn’t her energy that forced us to come to the decision we did. While with us she exhibited pretty severe separation anxiety (to the extent that we feared she was going to pitch herself through a glass window when we left the house; her brief foray into our traveling tent crate resulted in it being rendered completely useless from the force of her breakout), and she and Waylon were not doing well together, causing Waylon much anxiety of his own (lots of food possession issues, etc.). In deference to our wonderful boy Waylon and also considering our need to at times leave the dogs in the house while we go out and do things (with the comfort of knowing that they are not a danger to themselves or anything else), we decided that Belle would probably be better off with a family who could more effectively deal with Belle’s separation anxiety (read: a family with older children, perhaps). So, so long, Belle, you pretty, pretty thing. We are wishing you great joy with your next family, whom we hope will be exactly the right one for you and who will find you quickly. We wish you great large fields to run in, big, cool ponds to swim in, and as many rawhides as you can eat.