Percussion is her specialty

Experience

The museum of musical instruments in Scottsdale is just the place for a music lover.

Xmas eve

Who could resist?

Sharing

Gimme five!

Life with dog...

This is a match made in heaven ...

Wow!

It's not snowing or raining! I'm at a playground for the first time in a month or so. This one is right near my Nana's house. And would you believe, I'm saying at least 100 words now? My how time flies...

LAX-Phoenix

We finally got out of the rain two days ago. The plane was delayed, but the wait in the airport wasn't bad since there was a little dog to play with. But after that, would you believe they didn't even give me a seat on the plane? Some other people came along, and I had to sit on my mom's lap. Sure the lady across the aisle thought it was brilliant that she let me sit on the tray
table, but I didn't even have a seat belt. What's up with that?

And baby Nel

During our stay in LA. Nel is Rikki's Jiangxi sister. Good thing we had good friends to visit since it rained for about four days straight. Literally the sun first appeared when we got to the airport. Does a rainbow make it all better?

Fun with Claudia ...

Starting on a big project...

Here we are at the Getty Villa escaping the LA rain...

LA here we come...

Goodbye zero degrees, hello monsoon!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Even the members' lounge has a Christmas tree. We went to the Museum of Science as Industry which was displaying Christmas trees from around the globe. This one was in the better-lit and less-crowded members' lounge.

I bought a premium membership here because it includes free parking, so we can drive from garage to garage in the winter without having to step outdoors. It has been cold lately. Brrr. Though today will top 30 degrees!

Miss Rikki is talking up a storm. When her Uncle Ted arrived yesterday, she called him Poppop. Only off by one generation. This morning after being offered quiche for breakfast, she decided to order something different: "Cheese!". This morning she put her own shoes on and when we remarked on it, she said "Shoes on!". (This is her next stage of speech development - linking two words - so we were pleased.)

Saturday we are off for warmer climes and cannot wait.

Goodbye Ji!

We are really going to miss our nanny, who is moving back to Asia. Tomorrow is her last day. We will miss you Ji!

Motherhood

This looks how I feel...

Hapukah!

It has been a cold week, so we pulled out this snowsuit. And we lit hanukah candles all eight nights. And Rikki wants to wish everyone "Hapukah" which I think is a great abbreviation she came up with for happy hanukah!

After

My new and improved winter look.

Before

Snow baby on the first major snow of the season. (See the snow on the trees?)

Heavy Lift

Here's a girl with the strength to signal when she's finished eating...

Dumpling in a Blanket

When Panpan first joined our family, we would struggle to cover her with a blanket every night. Within minutes of tucking her in, we would peer into her crib to see that she had flung off the blanket or rolled over it. But a few weeks ago, she started becoming obsessed with blankets - especially ours. At first, her aim was a little off. We would find her sleeping with the blanket over her face.

But soon she figured it out, and now one of her favorite pastimes is getting in bed, putting her head on the pillow and her feet under the blanket. She will even do this with a dish towel on the couch while drinking her milk.

Isn't it great to derive so much pleasure from life's daily routines? I can't wait til she learns to clean up.

Happy Hanukkah!

We hope you love your presents as much as we loved ours. Keep on grooving!

Pam, Davis, Olive, and Rikki Panpan

Much to be thankful for...

It has been six months since our little dumpling first joined our family in China. During that time, she has gained six pounds and grown three inches, learned to roll over, sit, stand, crawl, walk, run, and dance. She now, amazingly, can say more than 50 English words - including "phone" (one of her favorites), "more" (which she often pronounces "moy" and uses when she wants food or drink), and "eyes" and "hat" (both of which of she will point to upon meeting a new person), and at least four words in Chinese. She now calls for her sister "Ola" and her nanny "Aya".

She has gone from a village in Jiangxi province to the capital, Nanchang, and then to Guangzhou. And from there to our home in Chicago, and then on trips to the Bay Area, New York, DC, Youngstown, and now, with the Jenkins family in Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving.

She has taken music class and gone to summer dance, ridden on swings and slid down slides, made multiple trips to the aquarium and the Children's museum, laughed at her reflection in the Bean, worn mittens, met cousins galore, B...man after B...man and a few babysitters too. She has eaten and eaten and eaten - especially in certain growth phases like she appears to be in now. Either that or she got the memo that the Thanksgiving holiday is for gorging.

She has spent time with both of her Nanas, but the name she learned first was PopPop. I was amazed when we first walked into Nana and PopPop's empty house in Pittsburgh (they were out to dinner) that she blurted out "PopPop" though she had only been here once, for less than 24 hours. Though it made me sad too that she never got to meet her Pops.

It was just over a year ago that he left us, and it was around the same time
that a precious girl in the Jianxin orphanage was being put into the adoption queue to become his namesake, Ms. Rikki Panrae Burdman.

Amazing that exactly six months from the day the Chinese adoption became official here she is, in Davis' arms, wearing a darling pink dress and patent leather shoes (sorry you can't see those in this pic), munching calmly on a roll, and delighting us without end.

Touring.

And here she is showing our friend Joel around Chicago. Next she will give him a tour of the Art Institute.

Long week...

It was a long week, and I knew people were checking the blog because of the inquiries I got about the missing Halloween pictures. They are now fixed, so please look below.

The morning after Halloween, Rikki awoke with a cold, but she is on the mend. Her mom is having to adjust to the cooling weather, though it was pleasant in the high 50s today.

She has lots of new routines, including words like "up", "more", "all gone" and "again" (pronounced "den"). We will try to capture some more video soon.

The trio...

It only took us about 10 minutes to get everyone in formation and facing the same general direction ... after making a conquest up the steps of this Dearborn Park home.

Puppy unveiled...

Here is Lizzie, Rikki's regular playmate, in her full puppy regalia, after what seemed to Liangliang and Panpan like a very long wait.

And then...

They were joined by Yuanbao (aka Lizzie) though she wasn't ready to show her full "puppy" colors yet...

Then Merlin came along...

This is our neighbor Liangliang, 14 months, who Panpan met in the South Loop Park. He was ready for an adventure.

Ready for the Streets...

Here they were ... ready to meet the streets (and the condo corridors) of Chicago on Halloween afternoon: Ms. Olive and her little sister giraffe.

While it lasted...

This was her costume at the music together Halloween party. Couldn't get a good shot. We saved her real costume for the outdoors tonight.

Ready for anything

It went from 78 degrees to the 40s this week. Fortunately we have several pairs of mittens and Rikki was pretty fascinated by them this week.

Goodbye summer

After 78 degrees on Monday it is getting chilly and windy. On Weds we lost Rikki's first pair of mittens to a big gust. A gentleman chased them across Michigan Ave while I hung on to the stroller, but no luck....

Remembering Pops ....

Or Rikki meets Dickie. We spent last weekend in Ytown for my dad's unveiling. We were sad that he is gone, and we hope he knows what a fine new granddaughter he has. (In addition to his fine grandkids in DC).

Father daughter walk

While on our travels, we stopped in Pittsburgh to visit the Jenkins. Mom and Linda met us there. Here are Rikki and Davis strolling the grounds of the Frick Museum, where we had a lovely lunch.

Going to school

Max took his baby cousin on a tour of his new school, where she gave fist bumps to all of his teachers and his classmates. Max showed her his fist bumping technique. She was also especially fond of the steps.

Aunt

It's cool to have an aunt, but especially one who looks so much like my mom.

I'm holding my bowl sideways so that everyone can see all of my strawberries - or at least the ones that haven't spilled on the floor. Uh-oh!

Sitting

Skylar showed me lots of fun toys, but probably my favorite thing was sitting on one of her chairs. I love to sit but few chairs are low enough to fit me.

Love and Bumps

And from our guest blogger Cousin Ruth (Skylar's mom), here is today's
posting ...

>
> My new cousin Rikki is kind of small but she sure is cool. She even
> knows how to fist bump.
>
> Love and bumps,
>
> Sky
>

The baobao

Rikki calls babies "baobao" from the Chinese and that's what she said today over and over upon meeting the six-day old Sarah - who makes her look like a giant! So great that friends my age continue to have kids!

Cousin Skylar

She is my new role model, and her dad is so cool he can hold two of us on his lap. Wow!

Carousel

This was her first ride on a carousel, but she insisted on getting off and staying in my arms as soon as it started moving up and down.

Another shot

Little sisters

Rikki and I met my friend Teresa's new twin daughters and she got to play big sister. The twins are six months old and were born shortly before our trip to China. They flew in to see their grandparents in the U.S. Both moms had the inspiration to dress the kids in the outfits that our friend Sarah had sent. They really looked cute together!

Mixed metaphor or getting ready for Halloween?

Princess Sox fan dines on mac and cheese.

Check out my new chair!

This kid is fascinated with chairs and anything sittable. Good thing her sister Olive donated her Scooby Doo seat to the cause.

Now, if we could just get her to sit still ; )

Sisters

Here are a couple more adorable shots of the two sisters shot by Lizzie's mom Chen. I can't say they realized that history was being made a few yards away (i.e. the finish line of the Marathon) but we are glad they play so well together.

Marathon

We went to the Chicago marathon with our friend Lizzie and her parents. We can see the racers approaching the finish line from our window but we wanted to get a little closer and enjoy the 80-degree weather before winter sets in. I'm sure the runners wished it has been about 20 degrees cooler.

The two girls are becoming best friends. InChinese they are meimei (little sister) and jiejie (big sister) because Lizzie is one month older.
Their nannies organize playdates almost every day.

Bye Bye Choo-Choo!

I still haven't had much luck capturing her chatter on video - as you saw previously, she is too obsessed with the iPhone for me to hold it in front of her for that long. We had an evaluation done, and her speech/language is indeed delayed -- as compared with American children living in a home since birth. But for an adopted child coming from an orphanage and spanning two (or three counting Jiangxi dialect) languages, she is about on target. So as long as her understanding and her vocabulary keep expanding, we wont' worry. But we will be happy when she clearly differentiates between mom and dad.

Though the chatter video has not succeeded, she is fascinated enough with trains that I was able to capture this footage of her waving goodbye to a train passing by. We were playing in Grant Park. The weather lately has been lovely -- hitting the 70s every day. I'll take as much of this as I can get.

Another Oldie But Goodie...

This picture even pre-dates our trip to New York City, but ... so what? At least the three older people haven't changed in the meantime. It was great to join our friends Peter and Connie (pictured) for a picnic near Logan Square's farmer's market. They were here visiting their daughter Dalia and cousins. The weather cooperated nicely. We ordered a cheese crepe for Rikki, but I guess that the gruyere they meant when they said "swiss cheese" was a little too refined for her tastes.