Life is kicking me in the butt!

Grace on her first Merry go round ride, she wasn't sure about the whole thing.



This week has been difficult, for any number of reasons. Nothing major is going wrong, but all the little stuff is and I just feel like life is kicking me in the butt and winning. I am usually more like Tonya, and happy go lucky, but every once in a while I feel like this. Of course this weekend is Grace's Baptism and my Mom has invited a bunch of obscure relatives over for a meal I'm unprepared for at this moment. I'm yelling Serenity Now and going to Costco to shop. Check back Sunday night for pictures of the big day, and pray that I can survive house guests, a Baptism and and a party.

I LOVE having a GIRL!!!

I admit, I always wanted a little girl. After four boys I am used to, and frankly quite good at, playing trains and trucks and video games and soccer and all the boy stuff mine are interested in. But my heart always longed for a daughter. Well folks, I have one and for now she is a girlie thing (I mean she has four brothers so I don't kid myself that it will last). Don't get me wrong she'll run and climb right along with her brothers when she is out side, but inside she is all about the dolls and the jewelry and the dress up clothes and the tea parties. I am in heaven playing with her. I can still build a mean train track, but finally I get to play some games that I understand. And have I mentioned she LOVES shoes!!!! I bought her the sparkly shoes the other day and she wears them all the time. I have to admit, I even love her Drama. I totally get it, because that is how I feel sometimes. I guess I just feel an innate understanding of Grace that I have never felt with the boys, sometimes I just don't get them. And watching Scott befuddled by Grace, makes me laugh.

Home Two Months Today!!

Today is two months since we arrived home with our precious girl. She has changed so much in just two short months and has come so far from the girl we picked up in a Magadan baby home. We are truly blessed to have this angel in our family and we fall more in love with her everyday!

PERSONALITY

Grace has one and it's a big one. She loves to laugh and will do silly things to get a laugh out of others and just to make herself laugh. She doesn't seem to have the huge personalities with the ups and downs that her brothers do, hers is a nice manageable even keeled one. She is a very happy little girl and she is almost always smiling. She loves her babies, the baby stroller, doggies, and purses and she prefers to wear a dress or skirt.

EATING/SLEEPING

Grace sleeps through the night and naps like a champ. We really haven't had any sleep problems after the first week. This is great because, well, I need my sleep.

The eating issues are getting much better too. She routinely leaves the table when her brothers are still eating(lunch is pretty casual here) and she leaves food on her plate which is huge. She cannot handle someone else eating when she isn't and will throw a big fit if they get something she does not. This includes medicine, which makes me laugh. If she only understood that she was missing out on a bad taste, lol. She eats well with a spoon, but the fork is still a bit harder for her.

ATTACHMENT

I would say she is well attached to me, she runs to me with outstretched arms and squeezes my neck. She loves to be held or to sit and snuggle. She loves to play kisses with me and we give each other tons of kisses. I have let the attachment worrying go for the most part, she knows that I am her Mommy and I will care for her. In the last two weeks she has really let Scott in, she now squeezes his neck too and runs to him for big hugs. She lets him put her to bed without crying, and she will let him hold her for long periods of time, even when I'm right there. This change has made a huge difference, Scott isn't so sad and frustrated about their relationship.

SPEECH

She understands everything we say and easily follows two part instructions. She is saying words, but still only uses about four words with any regularity. We are getting her evaluated for speech therapy, it can't hurt her and if it gives her and little push, then great!

TANTRUMS

She can throw them, haha. When Grace is told no she routinely throws herself on the floor, it is too funny. At first she would cry and whine, but she has discovered that she gets nothing out of that so now she just flops to the floor silently, lays there for a few seconds and then gets up, what a loon. She is all about the drama.

All in all these past two months have gone better than expected. Sure we hit bumps, but for the most part this has been a smooth transition. We count our blessings everyday.

Grace the first day we met her, May 15th. Grace today at two months home.

Home Two Months Today!!! (pics)

The descriptions for the pictures are as follows. The first picture is our referral picture of Grace. We think it was taken when she was 13-15 months old. The second picture was taken by another family from our agency in April when Grace was 21 months old. The third picture was taken the second day we met her May 16th, she was 22 months. The fourth picture was taken by the other family on their court trip in June and Grace was 23 months old. The final picture in this post was taken on our court day, Grace was 2 years and one week old.

HELP

Hi bloggy friends, I need advice once again. Tomorrow is two months since we brought Grace home. My understanding, attachment wise, is that you aren't to leave them anywhere for three moths. What do I do about church? Grace is soo cute and very sweet, but sitting still and being quiet, not her thing. We go to the service where kids can be a bit noisy, but she isn't still, and when you force it, she is loud. Can we leave her in the nursery? Two weeks in a row Scott spent the entire service in the nursery with her, but the next week he said he's stay home with her because it was silly to go to church and sit in the nursery. So thoughts or advice would be great, do you think it will cause her attachment process harm if we leave her in the nursery, one of her brothers will be there.

I have tons of pics and no time so tomorrow for her two month homeiversary I'll post them and more about the girl. This back to school thing is killing me , I have less time now than when all five were home all day.

The Whole Truth

I have to be honest when I talk about the adjustment our little, oops, big family has gone through since Miss G arrived. Grace moved in and was fine, it seems that everyone else has had to adjust. Five of us have adjusted just fine at 8 weeks in, one still has a ways to go. I know you're all shaking your heads and wondering which wonderful member of this family could be struggling to adjust to the presence of one very cute little girl.

If you guessed three year old J, you hit the nail on the head. I naively assumed that J would have a bit of a hard time, just like everyone did when a new baby came along. the thing is, Grace is not a baby. She plays with J's toys and takes a part his train tracks, and basically drives him nuts. He has never had anyone interested in touching his things and he does not appreciate it now.

We were driving one day an J said he didn't like Grace. He couldn't see me face so I smiled and told him he didn't have to like her, he just had to love her and be nice to her. That didn't go over well, so he pulled out the worst word he knew, he said he hated her. I wish I had had my camera to capture the look on his tiny little face. He was mad about this new intruder and he wanted us to know it. At that point I was laughing in the front seat, my poor injured little baby.

He tells us all the time how cute she is and you do find them playing together sometimes. J has also discovered the fine art of bossing the younger sibling, which has helped his feelings of being displaced. He has a new job he can do, keep Grace in line, which he attempts with gusto.

So yes, the adjustment has gone surprisingly well, but I have to admit, I was unprepared for how upset J would be. I also know that soon J and Grace will be best buds, you can see it when they race strollers through the house, he really does like her a little, he's just not quite ready to admit it.

Grace at 7 weeks home

We finally took Grace to see the Pediatrician this week. We're still waiting/debating the whole IA Doc visit. We wanted to take her to our Pedi in a non-threatening situation, so she'd have a chance to see him and get to know him. Scott has noticed that Grace has an eye that tracks slightly off the other, so I took her for a referral to the pediatric opthamologist. I expected that Grace would wail when the Doc came in, he's a male stranger after all, but she just gave him a shy smile and went about her business.

The word from our Pedi is that he is shocked that she lived in an orphanage for two years, she is soo healthy, and he is thrilled with how well she is fitting in and attaching. I brought the boys so they could get their eyes, ears, mouths checked first so Grace would know it was okay. She did great, even turning the other ear toward him when it was time to check it. My girlie is one smart chickadee. While there they weighed and measured the peanut, she is 25.5 pounds and 32.5 inches. Small, 10th for height and a bit above 10th for weight. This made sense since she still fits a lot of 12 month clothes.

Yesterday I took her to get her feet measured, she kept taking her shoes off, which can be sign. She has grown 1.5 shoes sizes in 7 weeks. So that means the girl has grown 1.5 inches and 1.5 shoes sizes in seven weeks, and not gained an ounce. I know, they say you'll be shocked by how much they grow, but I just thought they meant the small kids, who were malnourished and way undersized. Grace was almost fat in spots, she hadn't missed meals, so I thought she'd be a slow grower, wrong! Needless to say, she got new shoes.

Grace is "talking" all the time, but we understand none of it. The Pedi said to wait three months for speech, she needed to time to transition to English and acquire the sounds. She says words and uses them correctly, but only 5 or 6. I know she is frustrated, and we are too.

Attachment is going well, she firmly attached to me, all the time!!!! She is getting there with Daddy, she comes to him for hugs and kisses often now. The only thing she won't let him do is comfort her, but it will come in time too.

I still marvel at how blessed we are, we were truly given an angel.