Week of September 3 - Nostalgia, Memories, and Keepsakes

Well this week I thought it would be good to take a slight detour in the blog and take advantage of the excellent history about Emily's early days in the orphanage (courtesy of Half The Sky Program and YiYang SWI). As a direct result of Emily's orphanage having a Half The Sky Infant Nurture Center Program in place when she arrived there, Nancy and I have these wonderful photos of Emily begining at 1 week of age (we also have the HTS Nanny's twice monthly progress notes as well). [More importantly, Dad finally got off his lazy bunns and ran the photos through his high res scanner to make digital masters for future use. Go DAD!! and about time too!!]

So, without further delay, let me introduce you to Emily at 10 days of age :-D

This next photo is particularly cute as it shows Emily with her HTS Nanny at 10 weeks of age. That little rattle the Nanny is holding is a favorite toy for Emily too.


This next photo is a cutie, with Emily doing her (now famous) little motor-boat lips. She still does this by the way, and now a days she includes all the exotic sounds that can go along with it. Don't ya just love the poofy clothing!? Makes baby look big, even though she is actually a petite little bean.


I just love this next photo, at 4 months of age. She just looks sooooo cute propped up in a sitting position. First time I saw the photo, I was wondering who put the big pink hat on her head, but that is actually just a proping pillow behind her. with angle of the shot and the warm color tones (probably no flash used on this one) it just looks like a little munchkin with a giant hat. Note: she can't sit up by herself, but the selective use of pillow, box, etc behind her makes for an impressive effect. :)


This next photo was taken at 5 months of age, and this one is very much Classic Emily. See, Emily is a real "attention to detail" girl, and anything you give her will be held and carefully inspected (front, back, top, bottom, sides, .... then rinse and repeat the process some more, and then some more just for good measure) to her personal satisfaction. As we can see, even at 5 months of age... this trait was well progressed as she gives the little hammer a right and proper examination. Hehe... once again, looking at the photo closely, you will see that the Nanny has her sitting in a little push cart (but that she is in fact strapped in :)


At roughly the same age as the above photo (5 months), below we have a really adorable photo of Emily interacting with her HTS Nanny. This photo really gives you the scale to see what a tiny little munchkin she was at that age.


At 6 months of age, we get a really great photo here of Emily with the toy that her Nanny says is her very favorite. Note: this is the same rattle from the photo above (at 10 weeks) of age. I guess Emily did indeed think this toy was a "keeper".


And, last but not least, the next photo shows Emily at 7 months of age and sporting her trademark little tongue sticking out. The Nanny wrote several times that this was a common expression for Emily to make when she was happy and interacting with her Nanny. Seeing as I have a number of photos with that very same expression over the last 5 months myself... I can validate the Nanny's claim here :)



It was only a few short weeks after this last photo (above) that Nancy and I were in Changsha for "Gotcha Day". So I think it is fitting to complete this weeks blog by posting that first "Gotcha Day" photo (below) of Emily right after she is received in Mom's arms.

We Gotcha!!!!!!