Planning Ahead

Last week I made a list of things still needed for Eva's homecoming and sorted her clothes into those most likely to fit, those that might still fit, and those that will fit at a later date.  I'm pretty much at a loss when it comes to shoes (we have one pair of slip-on sandals) but now have most of what was missing.

The backpack isn't new, I bought it for $5 last November, but some of the contents are new-clothes for the Barbie dolls inside and the one she has received, and toiletry items.

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A fuzzy pillow, new sheets, a snuggly nap blanket, and her own towel with matching wash cloths-I couldn't find any girly sets of the latter, so I just got bright colors that matched.

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Something to swim in at the hotel pool, a rain jacket, and a summer weight nightie (she has a swimsuit and plenty of summer pjs already).

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Cool shades, bracelets, barrettes, comb and brush, and hair bands (almost all of the hair items are from Pretty Baby, our first daughter).

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We have a Chinese exchange teacher every year at my school so, in addition to translating Eva's family photo book about us and her upcoming adoption, he offered to translate communication cards for me.  I'll be laminating them and putting them on a ring to use while in China.  I tried to keep things simple for both of us.

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We also bought this translator from Amazon.  It converts common phrases (they are preprogrammed) into a few different languages, including Chinese.  It can translate from Chinese to English as well.  The reason I went with this one is because it is really small and because it "says" the phrases aloud as well as displaying them in the other language-pinyin in the case of the Chinese.

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