Proud to be Canadian!

It's official!  Dania is Canadian!  We got the certificate in the mail yesterday and it was issued November 12!   Only 4 days shy of 15 months of her landing on Canadian soil and she is now Canadian!  I was so happy when I walked in the door and Mike said, "guess who is Canadain?!?!"  She had no idea why I was making her hold the certificate and smile but she did it anyway and looks SO proud!

Home, Sweet Home

I only just realized that our recent trip to Ontario had us flying back to Halifax on the exact day, but one year later, that we landed in Halifax with Dania.  I remember bringing her home that night and giving her a bath and putting her to bed and checking on her a few times (before crashing so hard that I didn't hear her cry in the night!).  This time it was Dania who had the wonderful feeling of coming home because she understands what a home is now.  It provides comfort for her!  She even says now, "me, home!" and nods her head enthusiastically.  If I hadn't been so tired at the airport, I probably would have been a bit more nostalgic and emotional!  Ha!

The travelling was fine other than having too much stuff and not enough arms since Dania's aren't going to carry anything!  She was not shy around Aunty Kitty and Grandpa when she saw them right away and even performed all her wacky dance moves for their entertainment.  She went down to sleep okay (I do not think she ever slept really deep because she was always very tuckered out from all the excitement and has been sleeping 12+ hours a night here AND 2+ hour naps in the afternoons).   In the morning, she wasn't shy around Gramma either and made herself right at home.  She even surprised me by walking around the next day asking, "where Meeko?"  She had already adjusted to a different dog and learned to say his name!  We went to the beach with Grampa and visited her Great Grandparents and then headed North to my favourite place - the cottage.

Uncle Fil was an excellent driver and I will never be able to thank him, Kitty, and Mum enough for the constant availability of a car for us (and for the delicious lunches and dinners!  I dreamed about those burritos and will totally make her next grilled cheese like the lumberjack).  We hit the rock in the early evening and she grasped the fact that she needed to wear a life jacket in order to be by the water in a timely manner.  She LOVED the boat ride over to the cottage and throwing rocks into the lake!

But she did not love the water!  I thought for sure she would be fine but I think it was the fact that she couldn't touch or see the bottom that frightened her because she didn't even like it when Katie or I jumped in.  She actually refused to say 'go' for us to run and jump.  She completely tensed up if we put her in unexpectedly and just cried when she was expecting it.  I did make her go in everyday though.  Floated around with her to different things and tried to make it happy but didn't push it for more than 10 minutes each day.  She was quite content to sit in the boat and watch us.  She also gets cold so flipping fast!  I mean, c'mon, her limbs are as thick as bananas!

We did discover the game 'where's Elmo?' at the cottage and we would hide him all over the place and she learned to look up and down and in all kinds of different spots... also to follow some verbal clues if she was struggling.  It was hilarious to watch her and she played it for hours each day and got progressively MORE excited each time she found him.   She slept pretty good up North.  Everyone does though.  It's the air - it makes you sleepy.

After the cottage trip, we just stayed at my childhood home and visited people and places within the city.  I would have loved to venture further to visit more people but I knew that with her it would be harder.  I also didn't want to over 'schedule' us and wear myself out too.  I will never have enough time with 2 weeks to see all the awesome people back home!  We did travel to Mississauga and have a lovely dinner on a yacht - I felt fancy there!  It was pretty and sounded so nice when you were in the downstairs of the yacht (yes, downstairs; there were 3 floors) and the water lapped at the sides making nice ambient noise.  Dania liked this boat too.  I'm pretty sure she wanted to jump off (even though you couldn't see the bottom... I don't think she registered that and just saw the water!).  It was something different and enjoyable and I can't wait to brag to Mike!

We went swimming at the Gretzky Centre with GG Miklos, went to friends' homes and met two gorgeous new little boys and played with their older siblings, impressed people with her gymnastic skills, ate a lot of chicken wings, started saying all kinds of new words (she said 'Howie' after seeing a grey striped cat!  I was so touched that she clearly missed her kitty!), went to the zoo and kissed a lot of animals and reptiles!

Seriously, the woman from Ray's Reptiles wanted to keep Dania as part of the show!

We got lost in Brantford because so many intersections have changed, hesitated to hug people goodbye but never to kiss people goodbye, ate blizzards on Children's Wish day, and discovered the greatest place on Earth:  A splash pad.

Water shooting in my face from a million different angles?  Yes, please!

My favourite part of this trip home was seeing how much she remembered from the last one - which was baffling to me.  She went there 2 months after landing in Canada and wasn't understanding English fully yet, hadn't really laughed until that trip (C and K were the laugh-riot trigger!) but still remembered where the 1 toy at my Nana and Papa's place was or the mini-trampoline and how she used it before she could even jump!

Other fun developments that have happened since this trip include her playing the crowd now (she changes the tone of her voice and everything), SINGING!, and starting to recognize emotions.  Man, she really is adorable...especially when singing... I just have to say...

Now that we are home (which included a crash lawn mow, unpack, laundry, weeding, and grocery shop) she is starting to get into her clingy mode because Daddy isn't here... He called the other night, completely unexpected, and she was so confused because she is so used to Skype that she kept looking for him but couldn't see him and only sat there and said "Ga-Ga" (her Da-Da since she started that before the cleft repair).   It was funny.   He actually called twice and I have to say that I probably sounded like that drunk girl at a party because I was so rapid-fire full of stories of all she has done and interspersed with sappy "I love you's" that I'm sure I could have been an SNL character.

Now that we are back though, I have checked the status of her citizenship package and am happy to say that it is being processed (now, that could mean processed and then sent back because of an error or processed because it is good) so, it is at least there in the correct facility.   I have also called the ophthalmologist since it has been over 3 months since we were referred to the Kids' Hospital eye doctors... the receptionist told me that her file shows the referral and that this clinic has a habit of only contacting you a month before your appointment.  I figured something had been misplaced because I'm used to having a call with the appointment date being eons away.   So, those are my serious sides of Dania tasks and they have been done.  Now?  Back to chalk drawings of Elmo, great books, and somersaults on the lawn!

Week 7

Can you believe that is all it has been???  I'm soooo antsy for that permanent resident card!

Well, this is a big week coming up.  We have our social worker 'play date,' (we've been calling it that because we both know that there aren't any issues and this added first report is unwarranted) tomorrow.  We have the eye doctor on Tuesday and the pediatrician on Thursday.  I'm hoping the pediatrician will have a better idea for a timeline for the ENT doctor since my GP said he really doesn't know or have a patient reference.  He just sent the referral to the hospital at the same time he sent the pediatrician and eye doctor. 

We've been putting sunglasses on her to try and get her used to wearing something.  It will be interesting as I'm sure she will need glasses... Oh!  My favourite is when I get her dizzy during our prebedtime dance parties and her one eye goes all wonky from being unable to focus!  WoW!  The first time I saw that I kind of had my heart jump into my throat!  Hilarious now, though!

Ok, so this week we took her to the community pool to try her out and she loved it.  I had a HUGE round of "oh, she's so small," in the women's locker room.  Sigh.  Just the beginning.  I told them the quick version on her story and she pointed out her eyes and they all forgot how small she was.  Beautiful.  I suspect we will get a lot of that now that we are going out more with her.  Just have to say that aunt Candy made her a monkey hat and it was almost too small so she's not THAT small!  (Such a cute hat too!  Dania could pull the ears when asking where her ears were!)

We also had our first round of strangers mentioning genetic looks too!  LOL!  We went to vote and she received a future voter sticker, which she was completely enthralled with, and just sat quietly and played in a chair off to the side with whomever wasn't in the booth, and the lady running our poll was so impressed with Dania's calmness.  Then Dania started 'flirting' a little - her definition of flirting is to show you where her hair is and ask for a fist bump.  The lady kept telling her how pretty she was and made comments about whose side the looks came from... we just smiled and laughed.  As I buckled Dania into the car I conspiratorially stated how we were going to fool a lot of people in the future and it will be our joke to giggle at afterwards!  I think that's the angle I'm going to go with for those situations where we don't bother explaining since it really doesn't matter to a 2-minute stranger.

We also went to our first party with her.  This was a birthday party for our friends' daughter turning 3.  Dania had met 3 of the kids that would be there and we dressed her up in a cute outfit (now that some of the bigger clothes are fitting!) and went over wondering how she would react since it was the first big crowd of little kids since the orphanage.  Well, she spent the night trying to kiss the dogs (3 of them ranging in size from 6 pounds to 85 pounds), slowly circling the whole scene, and playing beside a kid who would sit still for a few minutes.  I was soooo happy and, again, impressed with how well she did!  She honestly did not seem upset in the least and also didn't seem like she was out to please anyone (a coping mechanism I'm on the look out for) and just had fun!  She had no problem going to sleep after and also didn't shy away from people.  She is so amazing.  Yes, I'm biased, but I really have to wonder what's going through her head, and I know others think that too, but she is just so chill!  She also expressed an affinity for the kid-sized foam chairs so we had to go get her one.  I was looking up where to buy them and at one place they happened to be on sale so we just went for it and I am so excited for her to find it in the morning!  She sat and bounced herself in it for a long time.  I'm hoping she will sit with her books in it. 

She is starting to point to thinks in her books now.  She loves flipping pages and is pretty rough with the cardboard books but she will point to something specific and say, "ghka-ghka," and wait for me to say the name of the picture and then turn to another.  Things like that make me antsy to get to the ENT doctor but I have to remember that she was losing her Russian and then gaining her English.  A normal human, on average, wouldn't start the 'ga-ga-ing' at specific thing like she is saying what it is at 7 weeks.  She really could still just be absorbing.  She makes the L, M, K, G, H, sounds so it's just a matter of practice and exposure.

Ok, That's all for tonight... well, it's morning now, but we spent the Sunday night at our friends' playing board games and we put her down there and then do the sleep transfer after a few hours and I just HAD the need to blog right now!  I wanted to get this stuff in before all of the appointments.  This will be a big week for entries, I'm sure.

xoxo

 Her new "uh-oh" face.

 After swimming.

 Daily walks with sunglasses now.

 

Being pulled around by Erik at the party.

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.

 

7 Nights and 7 Days

Well, it has been a whole week since landing in Canada.  What a flipping great week!

After getting over the sickness, we have a rough routine that we follow.  I say rough because she still will need more sleep sometimes.  Her train is her favourite toy and she plays with that nonstop.  She likes to 'dance' to the music it plays.  She also has been meeting new people, experiences, food each day and taking it all in good stride.  She has only one 'big' new event each day, or every other day, and she has been enjoying it.  Sometimes, she takes it all quietly and just watches, but other times she will just walk right up to the person and babble. 

After visiting our neighbours' kiddy pool I realized she must miss little kids.  She crawled right over to J, our neighbours' little guy, and started interacting.  She also watched our other friends' little guy when he came over and rode her train all over the place.  The next day she started getting on it on her own and can almost maneuver it around - her legs are just a tiny bit too short.  She does seem to be overwhelmed a little when parting from the kids, but she is such a remarkable kid that she continues to impress me with her resilience and acceptance. 

She keeps trying new food and simply spits out what she doesn't like or what she cannot chew properly.  She likes steak, oatmeal, yogurt, and soups.  She does try to eat a lot with her hands now, which is so great, but she also needs to learn to put her cup down after she drinks instead of pitching it over the side! hahaha!

I crocheted her a little hat that is similar to the ones she wore in the baby home, and it's so cute.  That's my one self-promote thing this entry! 

I made her a photo-book about her journey to us. Only her part as opposed to the many years before her.  This will go in a box I am compiling of her experience.  A memory box to show we appreciate her beginnings to us.  I will also put copies of what is not 'confidential' documentation.  We had to copy all of the documents we brought home, the certificates, the court decree, the application for adoption...everything, and will send it to CHOC next week to close our file!!!  CLOSED!  Other than post-placement reports (at 6 months, 1 year, 2 and 3 years), we do not have to deal with the agency anymore.  That seems crazy!

We also applied for her provincial health care card.  We can do that because we have declared her a permanent resident as of right now.  She will receive her permanent resident card in a few weeks and we will be able to apply for the actual card as opposed to just the number and papers that we have now.  When we receive that card I will also start the next steps in the immigration process.  I am going to call them (now that I have a file number and can get through!) to clarify if I need to resend the forms we already filled out because we didn't have any specific information for her at that time and she was just Child Miklos Bathurst.  I hope not because it's just more chances for it to be mailed back for silly reasons like no signature from my 18-month-old. 

18 months old!  Tomorrow!  That's how old she is!  WOW!  She has probably had more firsts in the last week than she has had in her previous 17 months!  We love her.

She has had one freakout, but we bathed her early and got that calmed down.  Otherwise, a normal day has her waking up and breakfasting, then playing for about 3 hours before a nap.  She will then wake up and have lunch and play.  She might have an afternoon nap but she usually sups around 5:30 and then bathes around 6:30 and to bed around 7:30.  Oh, there was the one night when neither Mike or I heard her cries!  Mum stood in our bedroom door and asked us if we were going to get up or if we were just playing a game with each other to see who would get up first... we didn't hear her either.  We both felt bad when we learned about that!  Hasn't happened since, thank goodness!  That was also the only time she woke up for real during the night.  Thanks Mum!

Her baths are the best!  She throws herself backwards (the first two days had her hitting her head on the tub bottom but she didn't care!) and then rolls over and sits up with water dripping all over her face and she LOVES it!  She does this over and over and it is hilarious!  I will get it on video soon.  We also took her to the lake today and she liked that!  I could tell she was a bit colder but she definitely liked it!  She was squealing and she was trying to walk instead of throwing herself backwards.  I am so glad she liked it because I love swimming and we have that perfect lake right close by!

That smile, when I first walk in in the morning, sets my mood for the day and it is fantastic!