Daily Baby Readiness Update

We're actually starting to get some stuff done.

We've put together the Ikea crib and dresser/changing table (take that Russell Crowe ). The baby's room is actually starting to look like a child could live in it.

Today we bought a car seat that is airline approved, as well as two baby gates, one for the house and a travel gate for going to Grandma's.

We were literally getting dizzy from looking at all the models of car seat at Baby's-R-Us, so I called Catherine to get her advice. I happened to catch her at the home of her friends John and Rochelle, who have a daugher, Elise, who is almost exactly Yu-Da's age. They were able to give us a solid recommendation (shown here), which we took.

We're also starting to learn the basic baby signs, using the Sign with Your Baby books. Both Catherine and Rebecca seem to have had good success with the baby signing. The Sign with your Baby approach uses American Sign Language. I'm surprised at how easy it is to learn. I learned a few signs just hanging out with Catherine and Rebecca for a few days over the last two years and I still retained them ("more", "milk", "please", "thank you"). The books say that starting even with a child as old as Yu-Da can be helpful--I'm hoping that's the case.

We also loaded up on China guide books, phrase books, and maps. Can't be too prepared.