My last post was the day before the 1 year mark of getting the phone call! I totally forgot that date until it had passed, but I had an extremely sentimental moment remembering the abundance of feelings that went through me in such a short period of time.
Fear when I realized it was the department of community services online...shock and awe when she said we had an offer for a girl... sadness that Mak had officially fallen out of our prospects... an un-named feeling when I walked back into the manager's meeting and they were all pretending they didn't want to ask me what that phone call and all the audible crying was about...excitement as I kept hitting refresh on my email waiting for that photograph to come through... anger that I could NOT get a hold of Mike... unconditional hope when I saw those brown eyes...pride showing off the grainy blank and white print out I just made to all the employees at work... certainty that I could picture her in my arms already and terror because I could... fear at the thought that this could go wrong... happiness and love and wholeness when I finally got to see Mike and see his reaction to the photograph... bigger love telling my friends and family... nausea at the thought of everything we had yet to go through... and an instant overlapping of all of the above when I laid down to sleep that night...and hope upon hope...
What a day. Actually, what an 8 hours.
SO worth it.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Big Strides
In my opinion, she has just had three big moments in the last 30 hours!
(Wow! Two entries in less than a week! hahaha)
First stride: She laughed at something that she observed as opposed to something that someone was doing to her or at her. Up until now, she has only really laughed if we were making faces at her, tickling her, or playing games WITH her. Last night, she was watching her friend D dance around and pretend to be a Lego character. She all of a sudden started laughing at him! I asked him to do it again and she laughed again. She never cared that he wasn't doing it FOR her benefit (he was actually demonstrating a character from the movie for my benefit). This made me sooooo happy. She followed this up by seriously trying to mimic him but because she cannot jump, it was just a lot of arm throwing and grunting hahaha.
Second stride: She tried to play WITH someone tonight. We had a friend over for an hour, or so, and normally these two will play independently beside each other, or Dania will watch her play and then play with the toy once E has moved on. Now, as of lately, she has understood chasing games because of E but she has never played with a toy with someone. Tonight, she picked up a block that E was playing with and wanted to add it to the stack. Of course, E didn't want to have help because she is completely capable and promptly tried to take the block from Dania and do it herself, but again, this was a new concept in her attitude and habits.
Third stride: Her first 'mine' moment, or what I imagine to be a mine moment since I can't understand what she is actually saying hahaha! Later tonight, E picked a toy out of the box, a light-up microphone, and began singing and dancing. Dania walked over and began pointing and indicating to me that she wanted it. When I told her that E was playing with it first, she wanted nothing to do with that and did her typical angry tense-up and squeal. She did this several times and I encouraged her to make E's plush frog dance to E's singing instead...which placated her for the moment. I was really curious as to when she would have a 'mine' moment because she spent her first 17 months in a place where she had no 'mine.'
So, in the wake of these strides (again, in my opinion) I have compiled this little comparison photo. Six months and ten days difference. She has 4 inches of height, a few pounds of weight, and an unknown amount of muscle!
She still has that perfect nose and HUGE eyelashes! (That sentence just made me smile HUGE!)
(Wow! Two entries in less than a week! hahaha)
First stride: She laughed at something that she observed as opposed to something that someone was doing to her or at her. Up until now, she has only really laughed if we were making faces at her, tickling her, or playing games WITH her. Last night, she was watching her friend D dance around and pretend to be a Lego character. She all of a sudden started laughing at him! I asked him to do it again and she laughed again. She never cared that he wasn't doing it FOR her benefit (he was actually demonstrating a character from the movie for my benefit). This made me sooooo happy. She followed this up by seriously trying to mimic him but because she cannot jump, it was just a lot of arm throwing and grunting hahaha.
Second stride: She tried to play WITH someone tonight. We had a friend over for an hour, or so, and normally these two will play independently beside each other, or Dania will watch her play and then play with the toy once E has moved on. Now, as of lately, she has understood chasing games because of E but she has never played with a toy with someone. Tonight, she picked up a block that E was playing with and wanted to add it to the stack. Of course, E didn't want to have help because she is completely capable and promptly tried to take the block from Dania and do it herself, but again, this was a new concept in her attitude and habits.
Third stride: Her first 'mine' moment, or what I imagine to be a mine moment since I can't understand what she is actually saying hahaha! Later tonight, E picked a toy out of the box, a light-up microphone, and began singing and dancing. Dania walked over and began pointing and indicating to me that she wanted it. When I told her that E was playing with it first, she wanted nothing to do with that and did her typical angry tense-up and squeal. She did this several times and I encouraged her to make E's plush frog dance to E's singing instead...which placated her for the moment. I was really curious as to when she would have a 'mine' moment because she spent her first 17 months in a place where she had no 'mine.'
She still has that perfect nose and HUGE eyelashes! (That sentence just made me smile HUGE!)
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Busy, Busy, Busy
Yes, I would have liked to type sooner but life (OLYMPICS!!!) got in the way! I also type for my job so, sometimes I just want to hide the keyboard!
First and foremost, Dania is completely healed. She came through that like a complete trooper. The followup with the surgeon was great and he was very happy with how the closure looked. She definitely doesn't have as much food out the nose while eating, that's the biggest change, but she also has been trying to talk a whole lot more. She isn't necessarily making the different sounds that she couldn't before but she is watching my mouth again (I hadn't really realized that had stopped) and she is repeating syllables. She really, really wants to talk. She will need to do a lot of work still. Really, with English, she is only 9 months old.
She also turned 2 last month!!! What an exciting day! I made two cakes, one for her first birthday and one for her second, and we had a little shindig. I know she was overwhelmed with the amount of people. She hung around my legs and wanted to be held a lot while people were arriving and then she stayed quiet and kind of just bounced from person to person. I had asked that if people wanted to bring gifts that they bring books because she loves them so much. I had asked people to think of their fav kids' books or ones their kids enjoyed and to pass on the fun. She has spent so many hours going through all of them over and over again ever since the party!
What I am working on with her is trying to get her to finish the sentences in the books I am reading to her. Kids' books are so repetitive and she definitely knows what is coming next but she doesn't quite grasp this concept. She will follow along with me and then if I leave a blank she stares at me and taps her collar bone because my first strategy was pointing at her hahaha! She will repeat it after me but just isn't quite there yet. The speech pathologist said to make sure we follow her lead in the books and not to force the story to progress how it always goes... which is what we've been doing with the Grover book. She knows what page she wants and what words she wants to hear!
She has developed her temper and her demands of us are growing in volume too. She is thankfully not pulling her hair out anymore when she gets angry... she just slams the floor or tries to hit us. She finally had a tantrum in front of friends so that people can believe me when I say she is feisty and can be very difficult! She is always so complacent in front of people and she did give me a black eye in one of her fits, but having eye-witnesses felt good! hahaha! We try very hard to curb her hitting and we give her options but if she is not happy with those options we do not bend over backwards to change anything.
She is also sleeping in a big bed now - I say as she is currently walking around in her room instead of sleeping - and she usually goes to bed much quicker now. She does not always have a nap, but we give her quiet time and she just plays in her room. I have also developed a theory that she goes crazy around full moon time...she must have Russian werewolf inside her.
I just checked and the full moon is tomorrow hahaha!
On the administrative side of things, I got her a SIN card so we can set up an RESP for her and so that I had another piece of government issued identification for her citizenship application. I have it filled out, just needed the extra ID and a new picture to send with it.
She continues to amaze me, make me giggle, and frustrate the hell out of me on a daily basis and it is the best.
First and foremost, Dania is completely healed. She came through that like a complete trooper. The followup with the surgeon was great and he was very happy with how the closure looked. She definitely doesn't have as much food out the nose while eating, that's the biggest change, but she also has been trying to talk a whole lot more. She isn't necessarily making the different sounds that she couldn't before but she is watching my mouth again (I hadn't really realized that had stopped) and she is repeating syllables. She really, really wants to talk. She will need to do a lot of work still. Really, with English, she is only 9 months old.
She also turned 2 last month!!! What an exciting day! I made two cakes, one for her first birthday and one for her second, and we had a little shindig. I know she was overwhelmed with the amount of people. She hung around my legs and wanted to be held a lot while people were arriving and then she stayed quiet and kind of just bounced from person to person. I had asked that if people wanted to bring gifts that they bring books because she loves them so much. I had asked people to think of their fav kids' books or ones their kids enjoyed and to pass on the fun. She has spent so many hours going through all of them over and over again ever since the party!
What I am working on with her is trying to get her to finish the sentences in the books I am reading to her. Kids' books are so repetitive and she definitely knows what is coming next but she doesn't quite grasp this concept. She will follow along with me and then if I leave a blank she stares at me and taps her collar bone because my first strategy was pointing at her hahaha! She will repeat it after me but just isn't quite there yet. The speech pathologist said to make sure we follow her lead in the books and not to force the story to progress how it always goes... which is what we've been doing with the Grover book. She knows what page she wants and what words she wants to hear!
She has developed her temper and her demands of us are growing in volume too. She is thankfully not pulling her hair out anymore when she gets angry... she just slams the floor or tries to hit us. She finally had a tantrum in front of friends so that people can believe me when I say she is feisty and can be very difficult! She is always so complacent in front of people and she did give me a black eye in one of her fits, but having eye-witnesses felt good! hahaha! We try very hard to curb her hitting and we give her options but if she is not happy with those options we do not bend over backwards to change anything.
She is also sleeping in a big bed now - I say as she is currently walking around in her room instead of sleeping - and she usually goes to bed much quicker now. She does not always have a nap, but we give her quiet time and she just plays in her room. I have also developed a theory that she goes crazy around full moon time...she must have Russian werewolf inside her.
I just checked and the full moon is tomorrow hahaha!
On the administrative side of things, I got her a SIN card so we can set up an RESP for her and so that I had another piece of government issued identification for her citizenship application. I have it filled out, just needed the extra ID and a new picture to send with it.
She continues to amaze me, make me giggle, and frustrate the hell out of me on a daily basis and it is the best.
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