It was clearly too hot to try to get good August photos. (click to enlarge and see how sweaty she is)Although she looks totally adorable here:
New Words:
MINE!!!
MY!!!
appoosaw (applesauce)
beh-wee (belly)
toe
hay (hair)
mow (mouth)
wa-oo (water)
seerill (cereal)
Melmo (Elmo)
Ah-nuh (Tatiana, her friend and my Goddaughter)
lieeyah/li-ee (light)
neigh (for horse and the sound they make)
buh-ee (bunny)
cat
woun (around)
low (loud)
appee (happy)
ba (bath)
ow-sie (outside)
pah-ee (potty)
baywe (bear)
shir (shirt)
see? (when she wants to see out the window)
key
shwirshwir (sticker)
yayaya (she says this when she wants me to turn on some music)
lello/yellow (this is her word for phone and usually she says it to remind me if i have it--if we are going up/downstairs or if we are leaving the house)
and some two and three word phrases:
soosee (excuse me--she says this when she burps and when she wants to get by!)
goo gull (good girl)
faw dow (fall down)
mo pea (more please)
yeeyo (here you go)
I doe no (I don't know) complete with arms bent off to the sides (cute!!)
derde mommy or derdah baby (I think she's saying there's my mommy or where's the baby)
dinda wah-oo (drink the water)
taya showah (take a shower)
goya pahee (go to potty)
Serious language explosion!! I know there are even more words that I am not getting down. Most of her new words she got from me and not from her time at daycare. I wonder if it's because of all the repetition I do and there are so many new ones with fewer exposures at daycare. I will be interested to see what happens in the fall. I'm not sure where she learning it all but I know this is the last month of word posts! Too many to write!!! I'm proud of my big girl!
Along with nose, eye, ear, toe, hands, belly, teeth and hair she now can identify:
foot
arm
knee
tongue
Stats: According to my scale she's 29.4 pounds. Doctor's appt. is coming up.
Other:
* She continues to be fearful of loud noises and strange sounds (sirens, ambulances, helicopters, airplanes, etc.) But she will also pretend to be afraid just to get a hug and a kiss.
* She is starting to show empathy. I love this. She will come and check on me and rub my back and ask me if I'm OK. "Ishy? Ishy?" I honestly don't know if this is the correct usage of that Amharic word anymore but we use it to to ask if someone (me, her, her baby) is OK. If I seem upset or if a plane goes by overhead and she's a bit upset about it she will come and check on me. She will also check on kids who are hurt or comfort her baby.
* She spontaneously kisses things she loves. Stuffed animals, bath toys, Mr. Bunny, books, her Elmo toothbrush, Mommy :)
* She spontaneously gives me hugs and says "I luh loo" a lot now! I was teaching her to respond to my "I love yous" with "I love you, Mommy." She now will do it from time to time unprompted! She can say "I luh loo" but with the extra word in there it becomes, "I luh Mommy." Man, that makes my heart melt!!!
* She fell off a chair and bumped her lip and it bled. Oh, how I hate to see her in pain!! But she is a tough little kid. She rarely cries when she falls or gets scrapes or bumps into things.
* She is refusing food now like a typical, picky toddler. She also seems to stop more often when she's full. She will eat and eat though just to be social (just like her mom) and she loves sweets.
According to my scale she hasn't gained much weight this month but she's still as thick and solid and as heavy as ever. We went out to dinner with a woman I met when I started the adoption process with Gladney and she brought her daughters to the dinner. Her younger daughter L. is three (she adopted her from Ethiopia when she was 19 months like I did). L is a year older than Almi and weighs a pound less! Her daughter was so delicate and feminine and I have the sumo wrestler kid! LOL I will most certainly be putting her into sports ASAP. She's big and she's strong and she has tons of energy. I think she will be really, really good. By the way, she loved the Ethiopian food. I need to figure out a quick way to make it cause it's way time consuming. I'm thinking a crock pot would be the best way!
* For over a month she has been going peepee in the potty!!! As long as her diaper is off and she's not wearing anything, she will go. She has even pooped in the potty three times! I bought her some big girl underpants but she still hasn't learned the concept that she's not supposed to go in them. Naked? No problem. Diaper? She will occasionally ask me to take it off so she can go in the potty and her diaper remains dry. Big girl underpants? Accidents 100% of the time. We have a ways to go but she is getting there! I am soo excited at the prospect of being done with diapers!
* We can hang out together and just have fun together. We have little games we play, jokes we share and little inside jokes. I love it. She can be so much fun and she's barely talking. I look forward to more as she grows.Other
* We have been together six months. Unbelievable!!! It was so unbelievably hard in the beginning and it's still hard but we are really starting to get into a groove. I liken our situation to the way Dustin Hoffman was in Kramer vs. Kramer. Remember that scene at the end of the movie where he can make French toast without getting eggshells in it? That is so me. In the beginning I was so all over the place with trying to figure things out and now I can do things so much more smoothly--without the eggshells. :)
* The hardest part I find is that I continue to lack balance. I can't find time to do anything that makes me feel whole and that is really difficult. I am enjoying motherhood but it's practically all I do now. That and cleaning. :-/ It's as if a part of me died when I became a mother and I miss her. In my prior life I had hobbies that I don't have time to devote to anymore. I find this very hard. If I can swing it financially I plan to hire a babysitter 1-2 times a week in the fall. Wednesday nights to meet friends out for happy hour or dinner, Saturday night for dates and/or Saturday afternoons to do whatever I wish. If I can find time for myself I know I will enjoy parenting even more. I am more than just a mother but for now that's how I am defined. I strive for wholeness and I am pretty sure I will be pretty balanced by the end of the year. Bottom line: the happier I am, the better parent I will be.
* Which brings me to my next point: I am finally starting to feel like a mother! I'd say it's at about 90%. I still look at her and can't believe she's my daughter. Sometimes when she's acting up I wonder to myself if she would be doing that if she were with me since birth. Sometimes I am astounded by her beauty and I think I see myself in her but then I remember that her features--her eyes especially-- are unique to her heritage and I am reminded about the adoptor/adoptee dynamic. I don't like feeling this way but it's real. At this point she was still at home with her birth mother longer than she's been with me. She was in care for about an equal time. When her time with me exceeds the time without me I bet I will feel more like a mom and less like an "adoptive" mom. She, meanwhile, has gotten very attached and can be quite possessive. When friends get too close she clings to me and says, "Mine mommy!" She is always telling people who I am too. She pats me on the shoulder as she looks them in the eye and says, "Mommy" or sometime cute like "Assa Mommy." It's too cute and I love how she is understanding that a mom cares for you and loves you and she wants everyone to know that I am already spoken for. :)
Going back to work was hard. As you know the daycare wasn't open on time and at the 11th hour I had to hire someone to watch her. The babysitter is Eritrean and was speaking to her in Amharic and Almi seemed to understand what she was saying! For a last minute find (thanks, Tami!) she really worked out well. She even cooked for me! Oh, if she weren't twice the cost of my daycare I might try to figure out how to keep her. The new daycare is supposed to open on Aug.30th. We'll see. I did take a peek in it and it's so cute! She is going to love all the toys and books and the sand&water table. The daycare is right down the hall from my classroom so I am looking forward to peeking in on her during the day. With all the stress of it not opening on time, I must admit I am happy it is right there in my building.
On a totally separate, unrelated note, the nanny said I should shave Almi's hair so it will grow in thick and even. She pointed out where it's thinning in the front by her temples (just like mine) and said, "Yeah. The new hair when it comes will be very nice." I actually considered this when I was in Ethiopia because it was so uneven but I loved her curls and didn't want to part with them. Had I done it then it would be all grown back in now. I don't want her to go to daycare bald but I bet next summer I might wish I had done it now. Any truth to the old wives tale that hair grows in thicker and healthier if you shave it?
My active, energetic girl.For comparison's sake, take a look at the first monthly update. It was done back in March. And her March photos. Awwww... she was so little!
6 comments:
I love this post!! I love your eggshell reference! I love the photos!
I hope the daycare is open soon! What a huge blessing having her so close to you.
I hear you on the time to yourself. It will get better, especially when she's older and can go on playdates alone. This period is temporary but so hard. I think you are so wise to realize you need time now to focus on your own happiness. You are so right, it will make you a better mom.
Regarding hair: I've heard it doesn't hold true and I believe it. It looks like she has hair a lot like Q did at that age. She definitely has his hairline! It's an age thing. The texture and thickness will change with her age. If you shave it now her new growth will be different but the new growth will be different if you don't shave it too. Q still has a high hairline but his hair is incredibly thick. We never shaved it as a toddler. He asked us to shave it when he was 4 and we did and it grew in the same as before because at that point he had already lost his baby hair.
She is so beautiful!!!
I love the word list too! Wish I had done that.
It's great to see how much she's grown and how well she is doing -- especially in the speech department! I hope when my girl comes that she will do as well. She'll be a little older though -- two probably -- when she comes. But seeing how much you enjoy this little funny interactive girl makes me even more confident in my choice to change to a toddler request.
I hear what you say about losing a part of yourself. I have a five year old and I'm still not quite myself. I have a couple of things that I do that are me, but I always have my guy in tow, so there's always still that responsibility. But the upside of parenting is that you can teach your kids to love the same things that you do. I'm teaching my guy to love hiking and camping. And when he's a little bigger, we will get climbing wall memberships. And when he's even bigger, maybe kayaking. I took him out skiing before he turned two. So it is tough at first, but it slowly but surely gets easier, and you start seeing more of your old self.
BTW, I hadn't realized that Almaz had been with her other mother so long. That is so great. It makes a huge difference on attachment and health. I hope my girl is still with her other mother and spends very little time in the orphanage. The more one-on-one time she has in infancy, the better she will do (usually).
Take care,
Melissa
You guys are doing great - such a big difference between the new pictures and the ones from March!
I definitely hear you about the time to yourself, that's been one of the harder parts for me too. Hope you can figure out how to find that balance soon.
I can tell you are getting more into the groove and not getting the eggshells in the batter. I was thinking about it the other (not the eggshells). Just that you sound different than when you first got home with her. :)
I hear you on balance - I'm still working on it. I "think" it will get easier as they get older (although I am just guessing).
WOW! 6Months was a big kicker forward for us too- developmental overload!
Potty- I waited until he could fully grasp what I was asking him to do. "Keep Diapers Dry". He was sort of institutionally trained- so he'd go when he was on the potty but diaper always wet. (Teg was a bit older though too). As soon as her receptive language is grasping the concept she'll get there.
Instead of shaving it. Try adding jojoba oil into the thinner areas of her head. It's a remarkable turnaround in my guys thinner spots over the past 6 months.
Naomi has blossomed so much. You are obviously doing a fantastic job and are a terrific mommy.
I love your updates - so much detail - I am jealous ;-) I am overdue for our 6 mth blog update...
Biset has similar hair to Naomi - It's growing long in most parts, so I'm not going to shave it in case it makes no difference or changes the texture.
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