We started the month with a speech assessment to see if Olivia would qualify for services from Metro Nashville Public Schools. Since she turns 3 in January, she will no longer be eligible for services through TEIS. We spent 2 hours in the assessment, and I thought Olivia did pretty well. Because Olivia is from China, she was assessed by the international team. They had a translator there that spoke Mandarin. When they didn't think that Olivia understood what they were saying in English, they would ask the translator to speak in Mandarin. Whenever the translator spoke in Mandarin, Olivia would say, "No" which sounds more like "Naaaawwwwww" with a mischievous look on her face and a grin. She's a mess….I'm telling ya! They ended up determining that she had enough of a delay to enter her into the program. A speech therapist will go to her day care once a week for one hour for a year (as determined by her progress). At that point, she will be re-tested to see if she still needs therapy.
November is the month where her speech really took off, and we have seen marked improvement. She is really trying to talk now, and even putting forth more of an effort at school. By the way, we are blessed with an incredibly supportive and loving day care. I really don't know what we would do without them! Olivia is up to 25 words, which was our goal. She is doing really well in her bed, and for those of you who are wondering, she still sleeps with her shoes at times. She is now sleeping under a blanket as well. Knock on wood, we haven't had any more screaming fits since moving her to the twin bed, thank goodness.
She is eating more meat now, and we are able to feed her more than macaroni and cheese, yogurt, and rice. :) She likes most chicken, some BBQ, fruit, and some veggies. She has gained weight, and as Philip says, "We need to take her off the mac & cheese diet now."
We have entered into a different type of phase, however - jealousy. In the beginning, it was Ansley who was jealous of Olivia. Now the tables are turned, and Olivia is jealous of Ansley. Any time I try to hug or console Ansley, Olivia cries and attacks me, wanting my attention. She is stuck to me like glue.
We have been really fortunate to not deal with separation anxiety too much. When we leave her, we give her a hug and say, "We'll be back." She says, "Bye!" and that is that….for the most part. I think part of that success goes back to this summer when we did swim lessons. I left her every day for 3 weeks for 30 minutes at a time, but I always picked her up. So, she knows that we will always come back for her.
The week before Thanksgiving, we headed out on a long drive…..to Orlando, FL! Yes, we took the girls to Disney World. Olivia still got in free (until she turns 3), and with the help of a friend who is a Disney travel agent, we planned a very affordable trip. (Thanks, Alice!) The trick to us affording Disney is going when we can get a discount. In our case, we were able to get free dining while we were there, plus some other discounts.
We weren't sure how Olivia would do in the car. After all, the last time she was on such a long road trip, she was left with people she didn't know….never to return. I'm proud to say that we made it great! We left after work and drove to Macon, GA. Olivia got car sick 3 times on the way to Macon, so we thought we were in for a LONG drive! We got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way. Thankfully, no car sickness that day. The girls did GREAT in the car, thanks to a little iPad time, some DVD time (Thanks, Lori), and some other activities that I took for them to do. The first night, we did the "Hoop-De-Do-Revue." It was an "Opryland" type of dinner show with singing, dancing, comedy. It was cute, and the girls liked it! After that, we did Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and one more day at Magic Kingdom. I won't bore you with all of the pictures, but a few are below. Olivia did really, really well with the crowds and waiting. She is a dare devil and enjoyed the rides. We were concerned that she would get sick on the tea cups and roller coasts, but she made it fine. She enjoyed meeting the characters, but was a little shy at first. By the time she left each character, she was hugging them and saying "Bye!" Minnie Mouse is her all-time favorite!! It was a very special trip for Philip and me…..getting to see our girls' faces light up and have so much fun. The experience is very "magical" at these ages. We are blessed to be able to experience all of these things with Olivia, and I'm so glad that we are able to give her such experiences.
We drove all the way back in one day, the day before Thanksgiving. The girls did great again, with only one car sick instance.
The below picture is how all of the character meetings started: Ansley running up to the character with Olivia lagging behind. In many instances, I ended up in the picture, too.
In the below picture, Elsa "froze" the castle. It was beautiful!
Miss Mischievous at her best….I wonder what she's scheming...
Loving the tea cups!
Enjoying the parade and waving at the characters.
The below picture was taken in "China" at Epcot.
Most days, this is what Olivia looked like as we headed back to the hotel for naptime. She fell asleep on the bus almost every day.
She's a climber! She climbed on anything and everything at Disney.
Another pre-naptime shot.
It came a torrential downpour the day we were at Hollywood Studios, but that didn't stop us from having fun!
Philip also put together a great video of our our week at Disney.
Check it out: http://youtu.be/7B66U2JJeno
After we returned from our magical trip, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our family at Susan's. We enjoyed seeing everyone, especially the babies. We are blessed to have not only Olivia join our family this year, but Case (born Dec 2013) and Jake (born May 2014) as well. What a fun (and crazy) time it is with everyone together. Disclaimer: it is difficult to get all of these kiddos to be still for a picture!
Below: Ansley, Olivia, and Case
Below: Ansley, Jake, Olivia, and Case
Olivia's 1st Thanksgiving, 2014
The Martindales are THANKFUL - thankful beyond words. Thankful for good health, friends, family, children, the gift of adoption, and all the blessings God has bestowed upon us. Thank you for being a part of our journey.
Until next time,
Jill
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