It was the best of caffeine......and the worst of caffeine

I will start with the WORST.....

I am a bad bad mommy! How does this relate to caffeine... well, you may recall about two posts ago I mentioned that my darling girl wanted to play at 3am.. and I couldn't figure out why she was SO WIDE AWAKE at that hour (do you see where this is going?) since normally she sleeps pretty well. Flashback to my kitchen earlier that same evening and there I am entertaining a friend I have not seen in a few months and we are chatting over cups of tea and trying like mad to catch up on everything... okay really its me trying to live vicariously through someone younger and single and smart and going places....and EFP wants what is in my cup.... Vanilla Hazelnut Tea..... so I give her a sip.

She likes it.. of course she likes it! So I pour about half of my tea into her sippy cup - thinking "OK, its herbal tea and it's caffeine-free" and she walks away drinking. She ultimately didn't drink the whole cup - only about 1/4 of it. It wasn't until late last night I read the package - when I was finally able to sit and relax last night and was fixing my tea - and realized that I had given her Vanilla Hazelnut BLACK TEA which most certainly DOES have caffeine in it! I was horrified! I was so upset! In China I saw plenty of babies with tea in their bottles actually - and we have given her Jasmine tea a few times, which I believe does not have caffeine, but I do not now, nor have I ever advocated giving caffeine of any kind to any child! Mystery solved. I will be more careful and read the package more carefully - and stock up on Jasmine tea.

Now, for the BEST...........

We GOT STARB>CKS!!!! Yes that is right! Inside the New Targette there is Coffee from heaven! This is a good thing! Delicious good coffee right across the street.

We strolled over to the new shopping center today and what to my wondering eyes I see... frapp-o-chinos staring at me!
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A fellow China 129 Mom and I enjoying much deserved coffee beverages in the Forbidden City - Beijing PR China! That was great! I am still on the hunt for the elusive size 3 water shoes. Sis was right the new store started out with all fall merchandise and I know that the other two do not have size 3 but I have not tried the one near work, so that will have to be my next stop. I tried online - no luck! I did find cute little sneaks though and I will try to get her teacher to allow her to go in the sprinkler with them. So that is my new shopping news.

On a more serious note... I am starting to wonder about whether adopting actually does affect your hormones or something. I think ever since we came back I have been close to tears (when not actually crying) nearly all the time! I am sitting up here in my office... lullabies of the world softly playing through the baby monitor. Baby is happy, ravioli stuffed, clean from fabby bath and sleeping soundly.. and I am doing this and I turn on the TV to watch Tonight's Episode of Extreme Home Makeover and SURPRISE the family on tonight's episode has a daughter adopted from US and a son adopted from CHINA! I start crying... I mean the families always have stories that make you cry - but I am thinking how wonderful this family is... the dad is a PO and the Mom a teacher... and they have really been through it. The whole house is being demolished and I am sure will be a wonderful house when its finished and they are in the happiest place on earth...

Sometimes I think that having become a Mom and having handed my heart over to a person who is bound and determined to leap off the couch with it... I am just raw all the time. I mean my emotions are all on the surface these days. Out there... I am just a weepy mess much of the time. I read a blog... I cry. I watch a tissue commercial... I cry. I look at my amazing child... I try not to cry.. til later. She is going like gangbusters. In the space of a few days.. she has added freeze dancing to her list of fun things. I made her a shaker toy out of an old plastic container and filled it with different sized macaroni and she loves it. She shakes it I dance, she stops I freeze. She cracks up!!!!!! She can say 'sit' and sort of say 'stand' and she knows what both words mean. She prefers 'stand'...LOL
In fact we are 'working on' NOT standing on the couch, the barney chair, boxes, toys...... etc. it's adorable... but exhausting.