October Update

We had a doctor's appointment today. For more immunizations. Boo. But we are now caught up. She has a couple more but we have to wait until enough time passes before they can administer another. Phew! Glad that's done. Immunizations are such a stressful topic. Give them? Don't give them? If you do, you stress about the effects. Blech. Glad that's over with for the most part.

Here are her latest stats:

Height: 35 ¼" (50th percentile)
Weight: 32 pounds (85th percentile)

She has gained 8 ¼ pounds and grown 3 ¼ inches since coming home 8 months ago. I talked to the doctor about her overall development and she said she was impressed with how far she has come. I told her my adoption agency suggested I get an early intervention screening done and asked her where I should go. She said Children's Hospital was the place to go but they currently have a 6-8 month wait. She went on to say, though, that she didn't think it was necessary. She said that in the office today she heard her say please and thank you, she witnessed her getting water from the cooler and then throwing away her cup when she was done. She saw her running and interacting. She saw her allowing me to assist her. She heard her count to ten. She named a few other things but basically she said that in her professional opinion, Naomi had no developmental delays. In fact, she said she is more advanced than some of her older American-born patients. She said if anything I might want to consider having her screened for speech. I thought that was interesting. I know she babbles a lot but I figured she was making up words because she didn't have the vocabulary. But I think the doctor thinks she is trying to say things in English and we aren't understanding her. I guess. I don't know. She's only heard English for 8 months. Should we really expect a toddler to be speaking a second language fluently in 8 months? Maybe we should. Who knows. I guess I will take her advice though. Wouldn't hurt to get a professional opinion. I had also planned to get her ears pierced while we were there but they just stopped offering that service. Darn.

Some of her new words:

ello (yellow)
gee (green)
adotter - helicopter
eat (she use to say tea for eat)
frafee (coffee)
chee (cheese)
baa
adoodoodoo (cock-a-doodle-doo)
froo froo(woof woof)
say (same - she says this when she notices things are the same)
whitty (pretty)
shee (sheep)
geeyah (giraffe)
moon
dow (down)
uh,too,fee,fo,fi,si,se'en,ay,nigh,teh (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10)
kyoo (thank u)
tarowdisaway (throw this away)
innatracan (in the trash can)
bight back (be right back)
my ("MY mommy!!!")
ki (cry)

She also says this all the time: Adoo-adoo-ad0o-ad00!! (This translates to I have X and you have X too. She will find similarities and let me know they are the same. For example, the other day she said, "Adoo adoo neck adoo adoo" meaning, "I have a neck and you have a neck, too." She does this all the time. The other night she said it to Neigh and then ran over and pointed to the horse in the puzzle.)

She has a lot--A LOT-- of words. I don't write them down now as I hear them because I can't keep up. I read somewhere that a typical 2 year old has about 50 words. She definitely has 50. I am pretty impressed with that. What I am working on is getting her to say more phrases and maybe even some sentences. As I mentioned, she babbles on and on and it is oh so cute (and I try to get as much as possible on video--must back up those files!) but I know it would help with her tantrums if she could express herself better.

She has gotten super picky about food. She will literally cry if I put something green on her tray! She likes spinach so she won't cry about that but I expose her to a variety of vegetables every week and she makes it clear that she is no longer a fan. I sneak them into foods and smoothies whenever possible but I think it's important to like vegetables and even to learn to eat things we don't like because they are good for us. The rule in my house is you eat what is prepared for dinner. Mommy is WAY too tired to prepare separate meals to cater to our different preferences. I know she likes meat and bread and sweets. The meal often has those elements and I will also include a toddler-sized serving of veggies on her tray. She can have seconds on bread or meat after she eats the veggies. To reduce her/our carbohydrate intake I now prepare my bread products with coconut flour. I also do this cause I suspect she or I may have wheat intolerance (testing pending) but also because grains just aren't that great for you. I am looking forward to trying almond flour as well. Changing over from wheat flour (and eliminating other grains from my diet) has contributed to my 10 pound weight loss. Almi still eats grains, though, in the form of sandwiches for lunch-- on rice cakes or gluten free bread (the quickest thing I can make for her since they don't heat up food at her daycare) and she gets additional carbs from fruit and rice and cereal. She also has occasional sweets, like the Skittle she earns for going peepee in the potty. One for peepee, two for caca. Though I discarded all the yellow ones cause I read that yellow dye is worse than all the others. :)

What else?

Well, she is basically potty trained! Yay!!! She can nap and go through the night without having an accident. Though I don't dare risk going diaperless at night, I will for naps. I haven't bought new diapers in a couple of months. So thrilled about that! **edited** I put her down without a diaper right before I came to edit this to prepare it for publishing. Wish me luck! ***another edit*** she seeped out a little bit. I think the key is they need to be out of a crib. She definitely knows when she needs to go but if she is stuck in a crib she can't get out and go. I will wait on no nighttime diapers until she is out of a crib. Also, what's the deal with feet pajamas?? They are such a pain with kids who are potty trained! She has to get almost completely naked to go potty. Brrrr. Why don't they make feet pajamas in two pieces?!

She sings all the time. I can make out the following songs: The Alphabet Song, Frere Jacques, Clean Up (from daycare: Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up. Everybody do your share) and The Wheels on the Bus. So cute!

She is SUPER DUPER HIGH ENERGY!! She moves and talks constantly all day long. She dances, jumps, sings, cries and snuggles all in a 2 minute time span. We both collapse on the weekends and nap. Me for an hour or two, she typically for three.

I put her in bed anywhere from 7:30 to 8:30 but she sometimes doesn't fall asleep before 9. My computer is in the room next to her bedroom. Even when I put her to bed at 7:30, sometimes she will hear me in there around 9pm and call out, "Mommy! Mommy!" I will respond with "Night night, Almi" and she will stop calling me and go to sleep. Knowing it takes her awhile to fall asleep, I am on the fence between putting her to bed earlier or just letting her stay up til she's more tired. Usually I just base it on how tired I am and how much I have to get done. If I am exhausted, she's in bed by 7:3o with no bath. If I am more energetic she may get a long bath, have time to play with Neigh and then go to bed later. I am just so thankful that she plays quietly in her crib for the hour she needs while she gets sleepy. She does not cry or insist I stay in the room or ask to get out of her crib. Grateful, grateful, grateful!!!

She has become great at stalling at bedtime. She needs to go potty or she needs Baby or she wants water. I just started singing Rock a Bye Baby to her at night instead of Lullaby and Good Night and she loves it! When I finish she will always whisper "mo" and I will sing it again. The first night I sang it around 27 times! :) But now it has been whittled down to 2 or 3. My voice gets tired and I want to tuck her in and get things done but I am really trying to enjoy the moment because she is growing up so fast and soon these special night time rituals will soon be a thing of the past.

She has quite the personality. She is energetic, loud, dramatic, bossy, musical, smart, athletic. She is a lot of work!! She can be demanding and whiny and sneaky and disobedient.
She is a lot of fun!! She is happy and playful and snuggly and funny.
I hear that age three is easier than two. I hope so!! Or at least age four is supposed to be wonderful. I am enjoying a lot of age two but, man, two year olds will wear. you. out.

And it's really just that I stay tired. Single parenting on a teacher's salary and no family is. no. joke. I am praying I can make it through the year in one piece and then next year I will most likely move where I can be closer to family or to a city where I can afford a housekeeper, nanny, etc. I am aware of my limitations and I am not embarrassed to say that I need help!! I recently had a lightbulb moment and decided to ask my students' parents for babysitter recommendations. One parent wrote me and said she had a girl who has babysat off and on for them for 3 years, is patient, half AA/half white and voted for Obama. I thought those were funny but great details and I can't wait to call her!

On most days after teaching 21 Kindergartners I can barely muster the energy to cook dinner and give Almi a bath. I have very little left over for playing with her, let alone doing all the things I really want to do like bake, do art projects and cool exploration-type experiments. I had/have such high hopes of doing all these cool things and making her gifts and clothes (after I learn to sew) but with a full time job and no help it just ain't happenin'. It sucks. I sound like a broken record with the constant complaining about this but I do know that this is a process. She has only been home 8 months. I have only been a parent for 8 months. To expect that this would be a well-oiled machine already is setting myself up for disappointment. My goal is to go into our second year together being able to do the things I always dreamed of doing with my daughter. She will be home a year in March. I expect by next summer we will be cooking and doing projects all summer and I won't be working and she will be turning three so it should be so much better. And I should be starting the next school year with help in place. That is just 9 months away. Just pray for me that I can hang on til then!!!!

Meanwhile, I remind myself that I am not perfect, no one is. I remind myself that most parents feel stress. Lots of people are struggling financially right now. I remind myself that there are millions of single parents out there with many of the same challenges. I remind myself that losing your patience/temper with your child is bound to happen. I remind myself that when I find a renter my mortgage will be cut in half. I remind myself that my daughter is happy and healthy and that is what is most important!

Hey, Pumpkin, it's time for our photo shoot. Can you put on your shoes?

OK, Mommy!
Yay! We're outside! I'm free!

It's beautiful out here. I can dance on the lawn! Look at my moves, Mommy! Woo-hoo!!

Wait. What? You want me to sit down with the October sign?

Just sit here? Are you kidding me? This is so boring!


Mommy, I don't wanna. I really don't like this! I don't like being still!


Nooo! Waaaaahh!


I just wanna have fun, Mommy! Please don't make me!


Say that again? You'll give me a Skittle if I sit down with the sign?


Fine, here's your picture.


Now I'm outta here!


More? We weren't done? What do you mean I have to smile also?


Fine, I'll sit here. But I won't smile!!


And I'll wrinkle up the paper, too!


I'm sorry, that wasn't nice. Let me smooth it back for you. Is that how it looked?


OK, here you go. Better hurry up and snap it!


You liked that one? Good!


We're done!


We're done! We're done! We're done!!


Can we go inside and have breakfast now?