What's New?

It's been awhile since I've done one of my "what my girls know and can do" posts, so I figured it was time. I hope no one thinks that I'm being a braggart. That is not my intention at all. This is merely my way of tracking the girls' progress for myself (I have not been such a good journal keeper except when we were in China and I wrote every day) and letting far away family and friends in on recent developments.

Maddie
In two short months, Maddie's language has exploded. I guess it's true what they say about this age level and language acquisition. She speaks in three and four and sometimes even five word sentences much of the time and her vocabulary has, I think, grown very rapidly. Here's one example of her ability to communicate in English. On Sunday, Maddie and Ibby were given balloons by Grandma Sandy, and ever since, they've been dragging them all over the house. On Tuesday morning, I was in our bedroom putting clean sheets on the bed when Maddie came running in holding the weight for her balloon with the balloon no longer attached. "Mama! Mama!" she said. "Uh oh. Balloon! Broke it! Fan!" Sure enough, when I went into the family room, there was the balloon stuck to the ceiling right above the whirring ceiling fan. She is particulary adept at learning rhymes and songs. I bet she knows at least 15 or more songs by heart, and she enjoys singing them over and over. One day, Richard and I overheard her singing about a firetruck. We weren't familiar with the song, but when I asked about it at school, the teachers told me that they had indeed been singing a song about a firetruck. She knows her ABCs and can count to ten. Oh, and she has completely memorized Good Night, Moon.

As you might recall, when Maddie first arrived home, she was asking for food all the time. Thankfully, the food obsession has passed. She eats three squares and two snacks each day and is content with the knowledge that food is readily available and that she will not go hungry. She is not much of a breakfast eater, so we struggle a bit to get enough food in her to last until morning snack. And sometimes she eats so quickly that she will gag herself, so we're working on that, too, but overall, food consumption is going very well. I haven't found a thing she doesn't like except yogurt.

Physically, she's really mastered her walker in the long hallways at school. Instead of one movement forward followed by a long pause, she can now take several consecutive steps/hops forward to propell herself to her destination. She loves to dance and twirl, and I cannot wait until we can enroll her in a dance class.

Intially, Maddie had a great deal of trouble with puzzles, matching, and other visual scanning tasks/games. I'm quite sure she just didn't have much experience and that's why she found these activities difficult. With exposure and practice, however, she now handles most puzzles with ease though Ibby can still outdo her on most of them in speed and accuracy.

Sleeping has never been an issue (thank goodness), and Maddie continues to be a good sleeper...eleven hours per night with a two hour afternoon nap.

As far as attachment goes, I think she's really turned a corner in the past couple of weeks. Though she has always been affectionate with us, her actions and words have shown us that there is a growing love in her heart for her family. She adores Isabel (the feeling is mutual), and it is the cutest thing in the world to see the two of them hug and kiss on their own initiative. It is clear that she knows who Mommy and Daddy are and though she is a very social girl, she is not at all indiscriminately affectionate with other adults, even those she sees regularly. She knows who's who. This is never more evident than when I go to school to pick the girls up, and when I enter the room, Maddie's face lights up, she hollers, "Mama!" and comes running to give me a hug. A highlight of my day, for sure.

Maddie is a kind, generous, funny, and loving child. She pets and hugs and kisses the cats whenever she gets the chance. She is a remarkable mommy to her baby doll, and she often looks out for her little sister, often bringing her a toy or a book whenever she goes to get one for herself. She loves to wear hats and sunglasses. She is a girly girl who loves to carry a purse and likes clothes and shoes, even remarking "cuuuuuuute" when she especially likes something any one of us is wearing.

In short, we think she is quite amazing and could not imagine our lives without her.

Isabel
Isabel continues to be the happiest person I have ever known. She is smiling when she wakes up, and she's still smiling when she goes to bed at night. Her language skills, too, have exploded due in large part, we think, to Maddie's influence (though initially we thought the opposite would be the case). She knows her ABCs but sometimes needs a little prompting when reciting them. She can also identify a majority of written letters which I find quite astounding. I will hold up one of her magnetic letters or write one on her magna doodle and by gum, she can tell me what most of them are. I do not know how this happened! How did she learn that? Ibby can also count to ten although she often likes to start at four and has to be reminded to begin with 1, 2, 3. She also loves to sing. One of the best moments of my day is when the three of us are in the car singing along to the CD that's playing. I am amazed that they not only know the words, but they also get the rhythm and the tune right. Ibby still loves the Signing Time dvds (Maddie enjoys them, too) and though she doesn't use signs to communicate, she knows a great number of them. I dare say she knows all the signs on the first three Baby Signing Time dvds and the first six regular Signing Times. Sometimes she'll sit at the table and just go through a whole slew of them.

Isabel loves to run, and she's pretty fast considering she's got those short little legs. She, too, is a girly girl who loves to play with her baby, pretend cook, and pretend shop. She will often put her purse over her arm, wave, say "Bye bye," and when I ask her where she's going, she will say, "Target." We don't go there a lot though. Oh, no. Not us. No way. She also loves to talk on the phone whether it be her play phone, her hand, a tv remote, or the real phone. When I ask her who she's talking to, it is most often Aunt Pat though sometimes she's conversing with Uncle Bob, Jake, or Grandma. Even though she loves girly activities, she certainly doesn't mind getting dirty, and she loves to skip and jump and climb. Every Tuesday and Thursday, she comes home from school just covered in whatever they happened to be working with that day...markers, paint, etc. And the other day at the playground, I was surprised to see her scale a climbing wall without hesitation or a single stumble.

We are happy to report she's doing really well with potty training. It's been a long while since I've had to change a poopy diaper, and she pees on the potty at least 50% of the time though she only does it when we put her there. She isn't yet telling US that she has to pee.

She has a good sense of humor. Lately, she's been cracking us up by pretending to be a monster. She spreads her legs and crouches over and does this funny monster walk while she claws at the air and makes monster sounds. Speaking of peeing, watching her be a monster nearly makes me.

Ibby is a happy, sweet, affectionate girl who loves to read and cuddle and who adores her big sister. She loves to play outside. Though she can be a bit grabby when it comes to toys, she is learning to share and take turns.

In truth, we cannot remember what our lives were like before this wonderful girl entered in and stole our hearts.

This weekend will be an exciting time for both girls as they are going to be flower girls in my niece Erin's wedding. They love their dresses and look so pretty in them. I cannot wait to get some good pictures of them (Christmas card in the works), and even more, I cannot wait to see how they'll do walking down the aisle, tossing flower petals. I've always said, anyone who has children in their wedding party has to be prepared to expect the unexpected. How bad can it be, right?