I'm trying to get caught up on our blog. October and November FLEW by, and the year is almost over. Yikes!
The Fall always seems like the busiest time of year, but it's also my personal favorite. I love everything about it - the weather changing, pumpkins and hay bales, leaves turning their brilliant shades of orange, yellow, and red, football season, my birthday :), and the anticipation that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. This year was no different, just busier! Juggling work with 2 children is interesting, to say the least. We have to take it one day at a time, literally, or one event at a time. It sometimes feels overwhelming, but we're hanging in there. All-in-all, we're doing really well and adjusting nicely. The girls are still "hangry" when we leave day care, so we're in the same situation with meals as we were the last time I blogged. She is still eating really well. Olivia is pretty much stuck to me when we are at home, and doesn't really like it when I leave the room. But, she is doing better with that, and as long as I say, "I'll be right back," she is usually fine with it. However, if I leave the room for what she considers a long period of time, she either calls for me, or comes to find me. She doesn't really enjoy playing by herself and would like for one of us to be playing with her. We are still working with her on sharing. She is very possessive, which is normal from her background, and is a survival skill that she had to learn at any early age.
We enjoyed quite a bit of outside play this fall. Our girls love to play outside, and they enjoy riding their bikes. Olivia is doing really well learning to ride, which makes Philip very happy. She continues to be a dare-devil, and we really have to watch her.
In early October, we took the girls to see Disney's "Frozen on Ice." Olivia had never been to anything like that before, and she was absolutely AMAZED. She loves Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and they were the first ones on the ice. From then on, she hardly blinked. What a privilege it is for us to share in her "firsts." Ansley, of course, loved it, too!
One fun story from this particular day was that during the program, Philip got the girls cups with Anna on one side and Elsa on the other (They are the main characters in the movie.). Olivia looked at her cup, and said "Elsa" plain.as.day. We were so thrilled! We had no idea she knew who it was, much less, knew her name.
We also took Olivia to her first pumpkin patch in October, which included a hay ride. She enjoyed that, too, especially picking out a pumpkin and a fun slide that they had.
We also host a pumpkin carving birthday party for our cousin (and major helper-outer), Susan. We typically have soup and chili, and everyone brings a pumpkin to carve. We always have a lot of fun. Olivia wasn't sure exactly what we were doing with the pumpkins, but she enjoyed "helping."
We also made it to a Predators hockey game in October, which was also a first for Olivia. Good news: Bridgestone Arena has Chinese food, and Olivia was so excited! She did pretty well at the game, and enjoyed all the fun activities they have for children. (I have to brag a minute on Ansley. She is a hockey fan and is very knowledgable for a 5 year old. She can tell you most of the players names and numbers. Go Preds!)
Halloween was also a fun "first." Olivia wasn't so sure about her costume at first, but when she got to school and saw her other friends dressed up, she was fine with it. I got pretty emotional when Ansley's teacher sent me a photo of the 2 of them together at school that morning. You can see the happiness in Olivia's face, and it fills my heart with pure joy to see this. This was the picture that she sent me. (The other little girl is in Ansley's class.) Olivia is SO HAPPY!
For those of you who don't know, Ansley is dressed up as Elsa from the movie, "Frozen," and Olivia is Olaf, the snowman from the same movie. To show the popularity of the movie, in Ansley's class of 15, 7 of them dressed up as Elsa.
We had several events to attend, and by the time Halloween night came along, the girls were pretty tired. We enjoyed Trick-or-Treating at a few houses with our baby cousin, Case, on his first Halloween as well. Olivia got the hang of it pretty quick, once she realized that candy was involved. She is a chocolate "chockit" lover! It was SUPER cold that night, so we only made it to a few houses before the girls were ready to head in. Here are some snapshots:
Happy Fall, Y'all!
In terms of progress, she is still doing really well. We did hit a snag in late October. It all revolved around bedtime. She began climbing out of her crib, which we weren't really surprised about. I was hoping to make it to January before moving her to a bed. In the midst of climbing out of her crib, she was also getting really upset and crying unconsolably while putting her to bed at night. Our typical routine was that I would do bedtime, but that began to not work anymore. She was crying for HOURS at a time, which was heart-wrenching, especially since we hadn't seen this side of her. We weren't sure if it was adoption-related, and perhaps we weren't as "attached" as we thought. Was she grieving? Or, was it something else? Was she sick, and we just didn't know it? She didn't have any symptoms or fever. So, for a week, we dealt with hours of crying at a time. It.was.exhausting. We finally had the opportunity to set up her "big girl bed" and get rid of the crib from her room. After that, no more tears at bedtime. Whew-instant relief. Philip has since then taken over bedtime duties with Olivia.
She is very, very independent and strong willed. She has about 14 words (hot, cold, Mama, Da, uh-oh, help, please, up, eat,"I do it," "Let Go," shoes, Elsa, and Anna. Our goal is for her to have 25 by the year-end.
She is still receiving therapy through TEIS (Tennessee Early Intervention Services) once per week at her day care. She is beginning to speak a little more at school, but mainly only when asked to imitate words. She typically does not initiate conversation or words without being prompted.
I still can't believe that 6 months have passed since we met her in China. It is true what they say: the child that you meet in China is not the child you have months later. She is blossoming before our very eyes and is truly a joy. We are blessed beyond measure and can't imagine our lives without her.
As always, thank you for following our story!
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