1 month ....

It is hard to believe that one month ago today, on November 10th, I had known my sweet little Sera for only a day! It is also hard to believe all that followed with the passports, visas etc.. and that it is all resovled and we are home. The last month truly does feel like a big blur and that it must have been a crazy dream, but then I look at this new smiling, happy little face in my house and know that it was all WORTH every bit of the trouble!!

At first, she hated me completely and totally and would only let me touch her to wipe her bottom or take her out of the tub and dry her off. She did know I was her new mommie and she wanted none of that! Any other time I picked her up, she slapped me silly and tried to gouge my eyes out.... Well, unless she wanted to eat breakfast.... Then she was OK with eating all my food and hers! :-) Aubri was much more appealing and was even the same size as most of her caregivers. She loved her sister and wanted that HUGE white momie to go away! A month truly can change a lot!

In this past month, she has learned to come to me with smiles and kisses for no reason other than to receive them back. My first kiss was due to her copying Andy and then she decided that I might be worthy of one when I gave her good food or put her in clothes she liked. Then I guess she decided it was OK anytime. I love each and every one!!!

I will not say that we are really "bonded" though because she still prefers to go to sleep on her own and hates to be cuddled when she is tired. She will cuddle when it is on her terms and she is awake, but if she is tired, she only wants her thumb and to quite violently rock and bang herself into sleep. It is very sad to watch and even harder to take when she pushes any attempt to soothe her away. It is NOT soothing to her.... It will take time, lots of time and love.

On the up side however, she loves to go to daycare, loves to have Aubri bring her to my classroom and will giggle and laugh EVERY time we come home! She seems thrilled that we come home to the same place every night. I truly can't blame her and coming home makes me want to cheer and smile each night too! Hotels are nice, but HOME is best!

She loves to play with her sister and brother and will happily join in whatever they are doing. She is a pretty mellow kid and is generally quite happy and able to amuse herself easily with whatever toys ( or bottles and plastic wrappers) she encounters. She also loves to cart around a purse filled with cars she keeps taking from her brother and delights in making him upset that she has them! It truly is his " just dessert" so to speak, because he does the same thing to Aubri!

Food continues to be an issue. She LOVES it! She no longer screams when we eat the food off our plates and do no feed her every bite she sees, but she will quickly steal her siblings food if they leave it unattended for a second! She must have any apple that she sees and they have to be out of sight unless I am OK with her having it. She literally would eat 3 or more in a sitting if she saw them. I truly do know this because she did! I was sick and went to lie down for just w few minutes and Aubri watched her for me. She thought apples were good for her so she just kept letting her eat...Thank goodness I got up, because we had a whole bag of them! She initially would not not tell me she is hungry in any way, other than to point at food and grunt and scream if it was not given to her. She may have been saying something in Chinese, but I could not decipher it. She has started signing please after she points and will laugh and laugh when it is given to her. She is very lpleased with her self for being able to have some power and get what she asks for! ( See I really do have to keep food out of sight!) She tries to say eat please, and it comes out like "eeta peeza". Just precious!

She is trying to imitate words she hears and really delights in it. She is a very good little mimic and can copy mannerisms perfectly! She doesn't hear all the sounds or cannot say them, but she really is quite clear in most everything she tries to say. She uses English words/ attempts for doggie, Bella, go , bye bye, hello, eat, please, no, car, school, Andy, Mommie, uh oh, wow, good girl, good job, potty, shoes, apple, drink, and sometimes Aubri. She still prefers to call Aubri, jie jie. Aubri likes that so it may stick at home. She tries to copy words at daycare too and her daycare provided says that she is very easy going, but very curious and eager to learn. I can believe that!

Walking is soooo much better!! She walks with a narrower stance now and much less like a toddler just learning to walk. We have her walk everywhere, and she loves it! She is rarely carried and it has helped immensely with her balance. She is almost able to go up our garage steps on her own without putting her hand down on the stair as she puts her foot there.

We have her one month post placement report done next Saturday. The social worker is new to the agency and I have never met her before.

Thankfully I am starting to finally feel more like myself and have some energy to clean up the house a little bit. These kids sure can make messes quick! I am finding myself very surprised though, that the laundry is trying to overtake me. I thought I had a godd routine planned, but it is not cutting it! Maybe it isn't really just the addition of one more person though, because we are now wearing all winter clothes and they are so bulky. New routines are in order if I am going to be able to keep up!

I am hoping to try to catch up some tomorrow, but I am not going to hold my breath, since we may be without power. The ice storms are coming in fast and heavy and we have no school tomorrow because of the ice accumulations everywhere and because it will still be icing all day tomorrow. That is nice to have a day off work, if I can get something done, but if my washer won't work because we have no power again...... I will be unhappy.

As you can see from the photos above, Sera, or YangYang as we call her at home, is a camera ham just like her siblings. She is just too funny! Since I have been a bit under the weather and just trying to keep my head above water.. I haven't taken too many pictures. I need to take more photos, because soon, probably late January or early February that sweet face will look different. Shriners is going to take her and I know they will do a good job. I will miss this face though!! I will not miss having to clean her eyes and her lip, though, because she gets MAD at me every time... This sweetie can get "goupy" so quick!! I know she will be much happier to not have Mommie always coming at her with a baby wipe!

I did manage to get photos taken for a Christmas card and got them ordered on Saturday. ( No this photo is not one of the card photos) I am praying they get here in time to send out and have delivered by Christmas. IF not, though, I guess most people will understand.

It is 1 am and we still have power, so I am going to quit pushing my luck and put one more load of laundry in and hit the hay!

I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday, wintery and icy weather!! While I don't like the power being out, I love it! It is just beautiful!