One month as a family - doctors appointments - developmental evaluations

So we have spent one month as a family and many things have changed.  Polina no longer rocks herself to sleep, she lets us rock her.  She goes up and down stairs without help.  She loves her dad!! And she no longer goes up to random strangers for hugs.  Polina has had the most amazing transition.  We kept her home for about a week and she was doing so well we started venturing out here and there and she has done awesome.  Last week we went to my moms work, the holiday luncheon at Brett's school, Jaxon's Christmas program, and the Holiday sing-a-long at Brett school.  She has been a rock star everywhere we go.  She dances and claps her hands when she hears music.  She went out to recess with Brett and his friends and acted like she owned the place.  On Sunday we went to Brett's basketball game and afterwards we stopped at the mall.  I took her to Stride Rite to get fitted for shoes.  She picked out some silver sparkling tennis shoes with pink flowers on the toe.  When the lady put them on her, she just pranced around the store so proud.  There was no way I could leave there without those shoes.  Polina has wonderful eye contact.  She takes a bottle at nap time and night time.  She loves to explore our faces when we are giving her her bottle.  She can say about 10 words so far.

Last Friday we had our doctors appointment at the International Adoption Medical Clinic.  Everything went great.  As far as they can tell Polina is healthy and has had all of her immunizations.  She is small but that didn't seem to concern him.  I think she is small because she is such a picky eater.  Couple that with being in the orphanage and that seems like a recipe for a small child.  Anyway, I was so happy that everything looked good.

Today we had 2 ladies come over to evaluate her development.  They had absolutely no concerns with her development at all aside from speech.  They want me to give her about 4 months to learn the language and they will come back and see how she is doing.  I was so proud of Polina when I was answering their questions about her development.  They said, had I not told them she was adopted, they would never have guessed.

Suffice to say that this has been one of the most amazing months of my life.  We love being with her.  She is so happy and loving and dramatic and entertaining.  I just smile as I write this.  I love hearing "eww" with big eyes when she sees something new.  And I love hear those big laughs when we play with her.  Here's to a wonderful Christmas and a very special new year.

Polina loves to pretend to talk on the phone.  She goes crazy with hand gestures.  I laugh so hard.

This is my first attempt to get a bow in her hair that stayed!  Don't you love the outfit?  Her dad bought that at Babies R Us.

Polina has worn the boys out!

Polina dancing while waiting for Brett at the holiday luncheon at the elementary school.

One week at home.

I am soooo tired!  Christmas season is not the ideal time to bring a new toddler home. 

Here is how our first week went.  Our family and friends met us at the airport which was awesome!  It was so nice to see everyone and be able to share Polina with everyone.  She was such a trooper.  After all that travel she was smiling and hugging everyone.  She opened a couple of gift with a big "Ohhh".  She fell asleep on the way home and we put her in bed and she slept until about 3:30am.  As soon as she was up, she was exploring and happy.  That night family came over and the Sykes family.  Polina turned on the charm and received her gifts with a big "OHHH" "EWWW".  She even gave Mike a big hug.  We had decided to start our "cocooning" on Monday when everyone went back to work.  That has worked well for us.  I take Brett to school every day which is about a 10 min trip to help her realize that we will go back home.  She still gets nervous and starts to rock.  We have had people bring dinner every night which has been a God send!!!  That has been such a big help.   I have read so much about attachment and know the importance that I wear myself out trying to take every opportunity I can to work on it.  By the end of the day I'm exhausted and in bed by 8 or 9pm.  Polina is slowly warming up to Joe but still gets nervous if I leave the room.  I hope this changes soon as I need the break sometimes.  There have been times throughout the week where Polina has tried to reject me as well (ie. I put her on the slide and instead of sliding down to me she looks away as if to tell me to go away.)  She also gets really mad at times and will try to hit me in the face or pull my hair.  This has not been too frequent though, most of the time she is super sweet and wants to play and hug.  She loves to go outside and she loves to dance.

Today is Joe's birthday, Brett has a basketball game and homework, and Jaxon has 2 birthday parties to go to.  Did I mention that I'm worn out?        I have added some pictures to previous post. 

 

                                      

We are home..

We made it. Princess P couldn't have done a better job! More later.

Headed Home

so it's late and we are still packing so no time to blog but sufice it to say that we had another great day at Red Square with our friends Allison and Chuck and little Sarah.  We leave at 1:30pm tomorrow and should be in KC at 6:40pm.  Unless otherwise stated, we will be on United flight 3629.  If you would like to meet Princess P we would be happy to see all of our friends and family at the airport.

see you then.