The five cutest kids in the world!!

The Beach

We just got home from four glorious days on the Oregon Coast. I grew up spending lots of time here so I knew what to expect regarding the weather, if it's sunny it's probably so windy you can't stand to be out on the beach. If it's cold and cloudy, the wind will probably be gone, but it could be windy then too.

Our four days were fabulous, cloudy but warm in the morning and sunny and wind free in the afternoon. The kids were ALL in the ocean. Scott and I were so curious about what Grace would do at the beach, the sand can throw a kid, texture and sensory things, and then there is the fact that the girl hates all showers and baths. She took off like a rocket toward the freezing ocean and we could hardly get her out!! Grace loved the beach and digging in the sand and smashing her brother's sand castles, she loved running after the sea gulls and watching the kites, she loved it all.

On our last night there we took the kids into the hot tub before bed, Grace was dipping her face in and throwing her head back to get her hair wet, I swear she was trying to get out of my arms and see what would happen. I'm not sure if her fearlessness is good or bad, but when you think about it, she's gone through a whole life loss and change, what else could be as scary as that?

In the hot tub was a whole family of Russians, speaking Russian!! Grace didn't even look their way, she was looking at us and "talking" to us. I guess the language is gone, which is pretty sad, but good in a trasisitonal sensence.

All in all we had a ball, and Grace has one more new experience to add to her list. Plus, in case you didn't notice, my girl rocks the bikini.

Vacation

Tomorrow we leave bright and early for four fun filled days at the beach. Since it is the Oregon Coast we won't be holding our breath for sunny and warm, but we will have a ball digging in the sand and wading in the ocean. Check back next weekend for lots of pics of Magadan girl meets the beach.

An update and frustration

Grace with her first flowers.



We'll start with the frustration, because that is what I'm currently feeling. Being the fabulous adoptive mother that I am (HA) I made an appointment for Grace to see the IA Doc. This is the one that proclaimed her fairly low risk before we accepted her referral. The traffic in our fair Seattle right now is at an all time nightmare level, roads closed ect. so I drop all four boys off at a Saint of a friends and head off, almost 2 hours before the appointment. Did we see the Doc? No, traffic was so bad we couldn't get there in the allotted time. They cut me some slack and gave me an extra half hour, but we just plain couldn't make it. They then asked if I wanted to re-schedule. That would be no, I think my regular pedi can handle this and I'm never spending three plus hours in the car for no reason again. I wanted to cry I was so frustrated, I'm thinking about a nice tall alcohol filled drink after dinner.

Now on to the part people are interested in, Grace. She'll have been with us five weeks tomorrow, it seems hard to believe. Everywhere we go people tell us how beautiful and happy she is, and they are right she is just one happy girl.

Attachment

She is really attached to me, she calls me Mum or mumah, but she sometimes call the door this which takes some of the shine off. Yesterday we went to a birthday party at one of those huge warehouses filled with inflatable things. I wasn't sure what Grace would do, but she was off like a shot and running and bouncing with the kids. She would come to me for a hug every five minutes or so, but she was very happy to just play. We had two female friends over last week and their kids. Grace would play with the kids, but she wouldn't get near the Mom's, only me (yay). Now her attachment to Scott is not so great, she still cries if her holds her or does anything for her and I'm home. He is getting so frustrated and disappointed with this. Any suggestions to help them bond would be greatly appreciated.

Eating

She eats most anything and we are seeing some progress with her food issues. Scott did laugh when I got all excited, she has left food, or people eating at the table three times now. Not in a row, but over the past week. I think maybe somewhere in her brain she is realizing that she is getting enough food. She still freaks if anyone eats and she doesn't have some too, but I'm working on the other issue right now.

Speech

This is my big concern. It seems like she's no longer using the English that she had. She babbles and sings nonsense, like a typical toddler but she is not picking up or using new words. Grace doesn't like to be read to, I mean sit still and be read to, you can read to her while she plays, so that isn't helping. I'm thinking that speech therapy is going to be in he near future.

All in all we have the world's cutest and happiest little girl. She is also very smart and very dramatic. Five weeks in and we know we hit the jackpot!

ONE MONTH TODAY!!!!

Today is the official one month anniversary of Grace. We arrived in the USA on July 14th and she met her brothers for the first time that day so we are calling this her anniversary day.

It seems hard to imagine that she has only been here for only a month, she just came in a took over as if she'd always been here. I still think that if you took her back to the orphanage she'd run in like she'd been on vacation with us and she's finally back home.

We are blessed to have this wonderful child in our family, she is full of life and spunk, and she has TONS of personality. She fits right in with her wild and crazy brothers. Happy one moth in our family sweet girly, we love you tons!

Mission 5 smiling kids, impossible

we try to get a good shot of the kids and it is impossible. I'm sure you are all shaking your respective heads thinking, how can she fail at this, she has the five cutest kids on the planet. I agree, people, this task should be cake, but the kids keep moving! This is the best I can do, (poor M is looking a bit odd and usually he's my most photogenic kid!) , but the rest look nice. 4/5 ain't too bad.

One Month

One month ago today a judge in Magadan Russia announced that we officially the Parents of Grace. It hardly seems possible that we have legally been the parents of the cutest girl in the world for a month.

We aren't marking today as an anniversary of any kind, to us the day she really joined our family was the 14th, the day she came home, met her brothers and we really were all one big happy family.

So Grace, it's been a month and what a month it's been. You have changed our lives forever, for the better, we hope we've done the same for you!

Let's talk about food !

When you adopt there are oodles of books on attachment, articles on the web about attachment, and advice from others about attachment, but ti's hard to find info on food issues. So,..... I'm going to tell you what is going with the Divalicious Miss G. and you all can give me your best thoughts on how to handle it.

First off, I don't think it's a problem, but as her life goes on it could be a problem, and I just don't want to handle it incorrectly and have her end up with food issues. And yes, I do worry more about food issues with Grace than I do with the boys, because girls are traditionally more prone to the big issues later in life.

Grace will eat anything we give her with the exception of most fruits. She ate a tone of steak last night, and I really thought maybe the tuffer texture would throw her off. The problem is that if anyone else in the house is eating, she screams until she eats too. This would be fine, if a snack would fix the problem, but she wants what that person is eating. The other night, we ate while Scott mowed the lawn (It was about to rain and he was rushing to get it done) Grace had eaten a huge meal and 15 minutes after she was done, Scott sat down to eat and she came unhinged. She wanted what he had. She also cries almost every time you take her plate away, even if she is clearly done eating. When she eats she does tend to shovel it in, although we are working hard at getting her to chew and swallow before she crams more in.

I understand that PI kids have food issues, and I want to be sensitive to them, but Grace is not undernourished, she is very healthy, so I don't want to teach her to eat huge amounts. We want to teach her that there is enough and there will be enough food and what a good amount for her to eat is. She will out eat my growing nine year old son and ask for more.

Thoughts, suggestions, should I just not worry about this?

Grace home three weeks today

these pictures were taken yesterday. We spent the day at Seafair watching an airshow, Grace pointed every time a plane flew by, much to her Daddy's delight. she also pointed at the Ducks and said "duh".

There isn't much new to report since last week, she still isn't crazy about her Dad, but she now loves her brothers enough to hug them, a lot! She isn't saying any real new words, but she's trying to say a lot more.

I did want to thank Christen for her comment after my last post. She was 100% right. Before we had Grace home I felt the same way, that people sometimes were looking so hard for problems with their kids and attachment that they were sure to find them. I'm not criticizing anyone, I've been doing it for the last three weeks. And I'm also not pointing the finger at anyone, you know your kids best and I'm confident that you're doing the best for them. But Scott and I did find ourselves in the situation where everyone warns you about attachment and you become very worried about it. We were at the point where we worried about every thing we did and said, we wanted her to be good and bonded to us.

Well a new era has dawned, and we have relaxed. We parent Grace like we do the boys, with a few special consideration, but only a few. I'm no longer obsessing about attachment and worrying every time she sits on someones lap. She is happy and pretty attached to her Mom and those are great things. The more I relax, the happier we all are, especially Grace.