Erin at Halloween!!

hmmmmmm....Bert has to check her out...is it Erin or a Lion or something else???

Here is a recent picture of Erin and mommy sitting and having some fun on the stairs. We thought we'd do "ponytails" that day -- Erin's first, little single ponytail. Another first was Erin's first Halloween. We carved pumpkins (no kidding...Steve and Sheila, carved pumpkins) and had a greaat time.

Here are a few pictures of Erin "trick or treating" on her first Halloween! She was a real trooper -- and tolerated the furry cosutme very well. She had a great time and was happy that ELMO came along with her to collect the candy! She actually didn't seem to care as much for the candy as she did visiting with the nice people who came out to say "hi" and sit with her for a spell on their front stoop!

It's been 10 months since Erin was first placed in our arms. It has been an amazing time for all of us, and we promise to update the blog very soon with more pictures and more news! We just wanted to share a few pictures of Erin's first Halloween...she was a lion...and gave a solid "rrrrahhh!" at every house we went to. She seemed to have a very good time, trick or treating with mommy and daddy, and her friend from next door -- J.T. (Harry Potter!) and his mommy, Sandi. The neighbors all thought she was so cute, they kept giving her more candy!! Yikes. She seemed to enjoy just walking on into people's houses and/or sitting on their front door stoop. Overall, we all had a blast! Much love, Steve and Sheila and Erin

FINALLY!

THANKS FOR COMING BACK TO VISIT ERIN CASSIDY COGHILL!!!



This is Erin Cassiday Coghill, 4 months after coming home. She is a happy baby, she loves peas and sweet potatoes and rice soup with chicken. She eats a lot of graham crackers and can even say, "cah-kuh" when she wants to! She walks and talks constantly. She is curious and adventurous and loves to swing very, very high at the park! Here she is wearing a t-shirt her friend Justice brought her from Hawaii. Justice is already training her on skydiving techniques and plans to take her skydiving when her "mommy" is ready. She squeals when she sees friends like Justice and will scream outloud when daddy comes home from work each day. She is outgoing, social and knows how to express herself! She loves her room and loves being outside. One of her favorite things to do is "reach" for the sunshine when she sees it coming through the window. What's not to love!

Erin with 2 of her favorite new friends, Veronica (left) and Shirley (right). They hosted a shower/birthday celebration for Erin and she had so much fun! She loves her new friends!

This picture is mommy having fun with a new hat Erin got as a gift. We were going for the "perfect" shot. Guess what? It never really happened b/c Erin didn't really feel like cooperating...but how cute is this?

Daddy and Erin hanging out around her first birthday.

We cannot believe that we have not updated Erin's blog since we've been home! Please know we've had every intention...so, so many times...but adjusting to parenthood has taken more time than we imagined, and we've been "tag-teaming" it for the past 4 months. We are hoping to get Erin into daycare soon...on the other hand...having spent the last 4 months with her has been a real gift. We'll try to include some pictures, and update you as much as we can!

Erin is having fun with daddy in her new LA Dodgers cap. Daddy thinks it looks more "L.A." as a backwards cap! Erin doesn't really seem to mind either way...as long as she can play with daddy.

These first set of pictures were taken around Erin's first birthday -- 8 April 2007 -- her birthday was on Easter Sunday! Since then, she has grown and thrived more than we could have imagined. She is much bigger now...her little legs are getting longer by the second. She is walking, talking and even saying words at times! She says, "dah-DEE" (daddy); "uh-oh;" "tick" (stick); "boon" (balloon); "nah-nah" (nighty-night); and "thith" (light). She mimicks us all the time, and dances whenever she hears music. She is so very much fun!

Little Miss Hollywood!

It has been the most amazing 4 months of our life! We have watched our little girl grow and thrive and explore and learn and love and with every little step...she does what she does with gusto, guts and a willfullness that we can only admire. She is strong and soft and sweet and smart.

Erin and Bert getting to know one another:

Since coming home in early February, Erin has flown to Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas and Arizona. She has been to 4 public radio stations -- all across the country -- and has behaved in all of them (ok, some serious slobbers in the Pasadena station). She has met many new friends and has loved all of her new adventures.

Erin has finally decided that bathtime is fun...and it's so wonderful being clean and snuggling with daddy just before bed!

Erin took a trip to Virginia in March to visit her cousins and Aunties and Uncles and she had such a good time. In May she travelled to Texas to visit more cousins and Aunties and Uncles and here are a few of those pictures.

Erin's first, ever dip in the pool! At first...a little cautious. But by the end....LOVING IT!!

So many of you have called and written and sent the most amazing love gifts -- and we can't thank you enough. We only hope that Erin can meet each and every one of you in person -- and soon! She is growing and changing so fast and everyday she amazes us even more. We are so lucky to have her in our lives...and we promise to keep you posted on how she's doing. Check out rest of these cute pictures!

ERIN AND HER PUPPET!!

Sheila's childhood frind, Jane, made this bigger-than-life-sized puppet for Erin -- and Erin loves to play with her shoes! Erin has never been afraid of her new friend, "Darling" who sits in the living room...and she plans to wear that pretty red outfit when she's about 4 years old!! :)

In addition to travelling across the country in the past 4 months, Erin has had many visitors. Just recently, her new friends Neil and Joyce from Colorado stopped by for breakfast and a few hours of fun. She loves Neil and Joyce -- they brought her fun books and Neil told her all about her fellow countryman, Yao Ming. Apparently, he is taller than both mommy and daddy.

We are sorry for not keeping you up to date on Erin. We will do our best to keep you posted in the near future. Thank you SO MUCH for your calls, cards, letters, gifts and for making her feel so welcomed into her new home!! Love, Sheila and Steve and Erin

Bla-bla-bla-BLAH!

It is Sunday the 4th of February around noon here in Guangzhou, China. It is a particularly smoggy day with what we assume are sun and clear skies somewhere above. Erin is on her daddy's lap, facing him, her legs straight across his chest toward his chin, leaning back on his crossed legs and having a bottle of her favorite vintage: 2-second old formula with a wee bit of Chinese powder rice cereal. She makes these kinds of noises when she's drinking like a "swallow-and-breath" that sound as if she's never, ever, in her entire short life, tasted anything so amazingly good and wonderful -- ever! Afterwards we get a big smile with the head rolling back and eyes closed tight. It's good to be Erin at noon on a Sunday in Gunagzhou.

We took a little trip yesterday to a big park in the middle of the city. It's like Central Park in the middle of NYC -- you can't believe there is this place with trees and flowers and ponds and birds in the middle of such a big city.

Erin took her first gondola ride to the top of a 1,000-foot mountain, for which she cared little. She did seem to like being strapped to her daddy while he traversed trials and climbed many, many, many steps on a beautiful, sunny day. We were aparently up high enough to see real, blue sky -- which was lovely. This is something we really haven't seen since we've been here due to the city's pollution. It's interesting -- the city is stacked high on top of itself with more people and cars than it has space for, yet it is quite clean. People are always sweeping the streets, sidewalks and parking lots with these very long brooms.

Erin went to her first "tame bird show" at the park yesterday. It was all in Chinese so we think she understood more than we did. The birds were cute -- they bowled and roller-skated and went down slides. At the end they would fly into the audience and take money from people waving it around -- of course everyone wanted a bird to come to them, so the money was flying...pun intended.

We took a trip on Friday afternoon to a large department store about 20 minutes away by taxi. Worth noting -- only ride in the BACK of a taxi if you can help it. The lines on the street and traffic lights are apparently all for show. Both bus and taxi rides have been nail-biters.

The department store was amazing. About 11 floors, with a full grocery store on the 5th floor. Everything you'd want and more -- and not too cheap, either. We did see some great prices on good, leather shoes, but alas -- even China didn't have Sheila's size. Erin was such a trooper in the store -- and we were there quite a long time. She slept in her stroller for awhile, then woke up and chilled and looked around without a peep from her. On the way home, in the back of the taxi, we managed to get a bottle down her. After a quick bowl of cereal in the room, she joined her parental units out for some Thai food and a couple of beers...then home to bed. For being such an amazing kand good child that day, we have decided she gets one "get out of jail free card" when she's about 13 or 14 and really does something she shouldn't. We'll remember this day in China, and will forgive her that one time.

While we think she's a cutie pie, we don't expect others to dote over her -- however, Chinese people are always stopping us and smiling with her. Lots of talking with her -- it all sounds like Chinese to us -- wait -- it is! Anyway, everyone is very sweet with her and we love that they love her.

She has recently discovered her daddy's belt buckle and the little snaps that stick out on the side of his jeans. Keeps her occupied for hours. She also like's mommy's hair and earings and likes to "push" mommy's face around so she can reach these things. As a result, mommy has official Erin wounds (little scratches) all over her face.

We gave her some pizza last night and a little bit of spaghetti and she seemed to really like it. Ha. NOT. Just kidding. :)

When she's happy she still grunts and says, "bla-bla-bla-BLAH." We imitate her all the time and she looks at us like we're from Mars. We're hoping she'll get used to us eventually!! Truly, though, she looks at us and responds when we call her (unless she is licking her toes). She has discovered there is a very cute, little Chinese girl who looks JUST LIKE HER in the mirror! She loves her. She licks her and reaches for her all the time. We think this is her first, real, best friend. We have scheduled a couple of playdates for them before we head home on Friday.

We're including a few more pictures -- the first features Erin on one recent cold night in her little, pink-heart jacket that Grandma gave her. It kept her toasty warm.

More to come!! We love you!

Steve and Sheila and Erin

Erin Adventures!

Erin Adventures!

She has been a busy girl since becoming a little Coghill. With all her adventures out, we are so very proud of her -- she takes all the long bus rides in stride, goes with the flow, never fusses, and seems to be happy all of the time. She amazes us.

Yesterday we went to the zoo with some of the other families and saw pandas, tigers, bears, monkeys and believe it or not...a whole area devoted to r-a-t-s! Big, hairy, ugly, gross, giant RATS!! Not sure of their significance in the zoo...all of the families were completely grossed out. The babies didn't seem to care much. We passed on taking pictures of the rats, but we have included a few others.

Lots of Chinese people come up to Erin and smile and nod and say things to us that we don't understand, but it all seems to point to Erin and we think they think she is cute. She does have a sweet personality and a very sweet disposition.

We are starting to learn when she is hungry and tired and so on. She slept from 9pm last night until 7:30am this morning. She seems to be getting over her cold -- we took her to the hotel doc on Monday and he gave us some medicine to help her along. He also removed some clumps of wax from both her ears -- uh, something we have learned she does NOT like. But, the very second it's over, she's like, "ok, cool. that's done. let's play!"

She gets some rice cereal for dinner each day -- and she has gotten better with being fed by a spoon. She had some congee with formula at breakfast -- and she is used to having it only from a bottle...so it may take a little longer to get her used to that by spoon. We are going to spend a little time teaching her to hold her bottle and the "hand to mouth" routine that she currently has no concept of.

She laughs with us now, smiles, gets so very, very excited about things, remains curious and still licks everything in sight. We have a few down days -- no appointments or meetings or anything official -- so we hope to go to the park, take lots of walks and spend some time in the playroom (the hotel has a big, fully stocked playroom for the babies!).

We'll do our best to keep you posted. Know that her pictures do not even come close to showing how precious and adorable and tiny and cute and sweet and soft she is!

love,
Sheila and Steve

Another couple days

Hello, I'm Erin...
















On Sunday we went to a Buddhist temple in downtown Guangzhou. Erin was excited to see the big brass Buddhas and even sang along as the monks chanted. Sheila and Steve took turns climbing the pagoda - where we and took some pictures and video of the grounds and the city.

On Monday we had to go to the police station - again in downtown Guangzhou so Erin could have her passport photo taken. She squirmed a lot - but gave a big smile.

Monday night we went out for Thai food - and when we got back to the room - Erin was all full of giggles and big toothless smiles. I think she's getting used to us - and realizing we're not going away.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we're planning to go to the zoo. Friends have warned us that it's not a very exciting place to visit - and a little depressing - but it's the daily outings that make the time go by faster.