Just So Pleased

I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post.  I promised to try a once per week update but I had another surprise Ontario visit, my sister and her husband, and that distracted me.  Dania had soooo much fun with them here.  She has a tricycle now, and a basketball net.  She has tried beaver tails and cheesecake (which she went absolutely mental for!) and has toured the waterfront. 

This kid just constantly impresses me with her adaptability and easygoing-ness (so not like me!)  She takes the visitors with a grain of caution to start and then warms up, but doesn't seem like she is trying to please and is definitely still drawn to her mama and daddy over others.  She is also starting to test us with the things we have said 'no' to her about.  She will wait a day and then try to stick her hand between the dog and the dog food to see if she can get away with it today.  The dog doesn't want anything to do with that, of course, so that is the one thing we hope she will learn to avoid before any of the other little things (pushing on the screen, pulling at the curtains in the living room) where we say 'no.' 

She still LOVES food and wants to eat whatever we are eating (as pictured above) and it has paid off because she has gained over 2 pounds and is now able to wear the 12-month sized tights without them falling off!  They are still quite loose but they stay up so that's what counts!

She walks around the block almost everyday now.  She is happy with her one midday nap.  She has speakers in her room so we can have pre-bed dance parties.  She chases the cat's tail.  She is learning new words almost daily (still not speaking any yet, but definitely can distinguish words we say). 

We are waiting for the Ear, Nose, Throat doctor to call us back, but we have appointments with a pediatrician and an opthamologist in less than 2 weeks.  I am most excited for the eye doctor because I think that will make a huge difference in her quality of life right now.  She looses interest when things are too far for her to be focused on just one item, but for books or other close-up activities, she has to bend over and hold her face quite close.  Plus, she will look adorable in glasses!

Still waiting for her permanent resident card to arrive in the mail so we can finish off the citizenship process.  It won't be 8 weeks until October 16 so we still have lots of waiting time there.  We also have our first post-placement social worker visit scheduled for a week from Monday.  I am excited for D to meet Dania, she has been with us for almost as long as we have been working with Russia and she is excited to meet Dania!

That's the quick and dirty and wonderfulness of it all for right now.  I am also laughing because I have noticed that Dania's mouth is wide open in every one of these photos! hahaha!  What a kid!

Needles, and Grampa, and English, oh my!

What a week!  We had our first major flashback or horror (at least, I think it was!).  We went to the doctor on Monday to get our referrals for the pediatrician; ear, nose, and throat specialist; and ophthalmologist.  She also was given her 18-month needles.  She did not like that.  She was as could be expected in the office and then off for the rest of the day.  That night she would not sleep.  She woke up screaming and would not stop.  I picked her up and she couldn't even look at me and just kept screaming and thrashing her head and hands around.  I had to hold her close to me and I rocked in the chair and sang for a loooong time.  Nothing seemed to be working.  I really think the needles brought back memories from her medical exams in Russia.  It was so not her normal crying.  Eventually, I had to put her back in the crib because she was getting so hot and sweaty.  I rubbed her hair and kept singing and she kept screaming.  Then, she turned her head and looked at me, actually looked at me, and poked her fist up at me for a fist bump.  There was my girl!  She was still upset but calmed down after that!  Phew!

My dad came to visit on a whim too!  That was great for me to watch him watch her.  He looks at her like she is a scientist.  She is very inquisitive and observational and takes it all in and then does it!  I felt bad he had to see her out-of-sorts because of the needles, but she was her giggly self once her legs didn't hurt her anymore!  Dad now knows the train songs and her circuit of the main floor here.  He saw her in the tub, pretty much swimming, and we pushed her up and down the driveway in her car (a purple Flintstone-style car that her legs are too short to work).  Dad got to see her learning her new game.  3-2-1-Kaboom!  All I do is count down from 3, say kaboom and she squeels and falls on her butt.  Over and over again.  It made me realize she is recognizing my words better.

We started to teach her some body part words.  Hair, nose, eye, teeth, neck, ear.  She knows these ones.  She also "says" (more like hummmms) them with the same inflection that I do.  She is so freaking smart!  Everything we were told by our Russian training said she shouldn't have lost her Russian yet but she is already recognizing and trying to speak the English!  She listens (sometimes) when we say 'no,' like, when she unrolled the toilet paper; she hasn't tried again.

Speaking of being told by the Russians, guidelines and rules have changed yet again!  We now have to submit a 3 month post-placement report before the formerly initial 6 month one.  I shake my head but we will do it because we have to.  It just means paying for an extra set of document translation and certifications, postage, and the social worker visit.  If this money actually went to Russia I would say it was a cash-grab, but it does not.  

Lighter notes:  Other things I've noticed this week are, she still likes her moon.  She says 'ha-ka' for anything she wants.  She is faster coming down the stairs.  Her hair has gotten darker and curlier.  She is getting bolder with the dog and approaches both pets a lot more.  She enjoys laying in the tub water now; relaxing with her ears under the surface.  She is bigger but she looks a lot bigger because we were handed-down a bunch of clothes that don't fall off her shoulders or need to be pinned.  She is getting quicker at talking to new people.  She can work her talking Russian dog by herself - and has totally worn out the mechanism inside as it now plays 1 and a half phrases out of the 6 or 7 it initially spoke!  She can walk 3/4 of the way around the block.  She motions to be picked up in the kitchen so she can 'ha-ka' the arrowroots we keep on the counter... clever girl.

                                              Jeans that fit and a sticker from the doctor.

One Month as a Mama!

It has been one month since we became Dania's full-time parents!  The first week is still dream-like as it was in Moscow, but it has been that long already!  She is sitting beside me looking through a book right now-something she wouldn't have done 30 days ago.

This past week has been the week of wonderful homemade gifts!  Thank you everyone for everything but I do love a good homemade gift since it's usually something one of a kind.  She has also been to a few different houses now and was wonderfully well behaved and not over excited when leaving.  One of those houses was Mike's parents' place and there was another dog there, Finn, and she was trying to kiss him like she kisses Leia, even though Finn was much more enthusiastic to return the kisses and would have continually knocked her to the ground if we hadn`t been there. LOL!  She sure loves dogs!

She also loves the moon light in her room.  I put that in just to make a `night`corner and so that she would never be completely in the dark - it`s a sensor light that turns on as soon as it`s dark.  She looks to the light whenever we are putting her down in the crib, wants to see it turn on.  Then, in the morning, when we come in to get her and walk over to the window, she looks to the moon to watch it turn off.  I love it!

I think the weather has finally turned here too and the lake time is done.  We got in one more awesome day (but you never know with the weather here)...

She is starting to gesture for items that she wants and she`s baby talking more.  I am anxious to hear her first English word - I don`t count Mama because that`s the same in Russian!

She also has funny eating habits that she has picked up from us.  When she is taking a mouthful of food she makes a Homer Simpson-esque biting noise.  That was what we did to make her want to eat... kind of like the airplane for the Simpson generation.  And when she has the food in her mouth she always makes the noise, ``mmmMMMMmmm`` in a very sing-song voice.  I was doing that while we introduced new food because I didn`t want her to reject different textures and tastes before she got a chance to actually taste it.  I would make that noise and she would, and by the time she said mmMMMmmm she had tasted the food and was usually ok with it!  Now, at a friend`s house, she tried a sugar cookie and made her noise and the `chef`though it was funny!  Then she started screaming and reaching for the cookie jar!  Her first `LOVE`for food is sugar cookies! LOL!

She is also recognizing a few words.  She knows `bath¸` for sure, and I think she knows `come here`and `Leia`and `hair`.  She loves Pat-a-cake and other rhythmic songs too.  She loves the Muppet Show!

This seems to be a random blog post... no exact point and no train of thought to flow from topic to topic.  It`s kind of the way the day goes with her! LOL!

SO Many Good Developments!

In the last few days I finished Dania's adoption memory box. We really wanted to show Dania that we recognize that she came from elsewhere and has a history before us..even if we may not know much about it.  Hopefully she will appreciate it one day.  Inside, I've included three envelopes for each trips' plane tickets, an envelope of ruble coins, packaging from different foods she and we ate (I wouldn't normally keep food, but it's all crazy russian writing and the yogurt one is creepy!), important documents (our acceptance letters for international adoption, from the province dated Oct 2011; CHOC's application and timeline with all of my handwritten notes; our initial email and pictures from Russia with her info; our court application in English and Russian; the court procedure outline; certificate from CHOC for Russian specific adoption training; certificate from the orphanage for a donation in Dania's name), and a HUGE stack of cards from people all over Canada and the states wishing her a welcome! The memory book won't go in because I plan to read it to her frequently!

I also logged the geocaches that we found, or didn't find but were close to, while in Moscow.  For those who don't know geocaching, it's a worldwide treasure hunt.  People make caches of all different sizes and log the GPS coordinates on an official site.  Every cache has a log that is to be signed and some can have items put in.  Some even have trackable items that can be moved from cache to cache by different people.  Every find or move is recorded on the official website. I had made a trackable item, called Dania, that I wanted to leave in a cache over there that could be seen as her possible route if she had stayed over there.  We could have tracked its every move until it stopped.  Every cache in Moscow was micro sized and I couldn't leave the trackable item (an army tag-like item) inside.  I think I will wait and see what she wants to do with it one day!

We went to Growth Spurts consignment for some shoes and pants and jackets!  Thanks to all who contributed for the awesome credit there and the owner was so excited to finally meet us!  We found some shoes, a denim jacket, and a warm vest that can be worn with her sweater for the cooler weather!

 We also tried Dania at other people's houses this week.  She's never been off her own turf and on another kids'.  She was sooooo good!  After one cranky day, we went to a neighbour's for an adult birthday party.  She was the only kid, so I thought this would be an easy transition to going elsewhere.  She was just like she was at the airport (minus the being tired); she watched everyone for a bit and then started walking around, reaching out to some, and 'talking'.  

We also tried her at a friends' house where there is a boy, E, who is 3 months older and a mountain of toys!  She was quiet for an even shorter bit.  She sat and played with toys while watching everyone else.  She would only walk to me or Mike... but less than an hour later she was EVERYWHERE!  She watched E walk around and (as I'd hoped) decided she didn't need to walk from object to object as much as she has been.  She was going up and down their hall and turning around without even holding her arms out for balance!  It was great!  E even thought she was chasing him! LOL!  Soon, I'm sure of it!  They played together and she felt comfortable going to our friends' arms and was SO proud of herself walking around.  I felt proud watching her!!!  They even bathed together and she kept flipping herself under the water, as per usual, and I think E thought she was crazy.  They did enjoy splashing together though!  That felt good to see all of this because it's 'routine' for us to go over here on Sundays and play boardgames.  For us to continue this, she would have to feel comfortable enough to go down for sleep in her pack 'n' play.  We wanted to ease into it, of course, and will try for even longer next week - as long as she doesn't have a cranky day tomorrow!

 She has also started making a face that looks like Leia (our dog) who has a major underbite because she is missing her top teeth in the front!  I first saw Dania make this face after looking at Leia so I figure she is mimicking the dog! LOL!

 Playing with E!

 

Doing the 'Leia' in her new denim jacket.