The Sweater

When we were in Sauble Beach, Lia started carrying around one of my sweaters. Its an old grey Gap one that I really only wear around the house but is one of my most favourite. So, I decided if she liked it that much she could have it. It goes to bed with her every night, gets carried around the house and occasionally goes outside. Every now and again I catch her sucking on it!!

Initially when I gave it to her she repeatedly pointed to me and the sweater and then to me saying "Mama sweater"  and I would point to her and say " Now your sweater, Lia's sweater". I had to repeat it many times for her to repeat "Lia sweater" like she did not believe that I would willingly give her something of mine that she has seen me wear many times. She still weeks later will hold up the sweater and say "Mama sweater" point to herself then say "Lia sweater" with this goofy grin on her face. Then again, maybe the goofy grin is from the many things that are also now on the sweater... ketchup, soya sauce and I am sure some germ delight.

Its funny how she has lots of toys that are hers, all of which she likes but none I would say she has become attached to.  Its the goofy grin and the way she picks it up and smells it constantly that tug at my heart. It seemed like such a small thing when I gave it to her, little did I know that it would become such a part of her daily life. I hope she knows that along with my sweater, she also has a big piece of my heart.

Here Kitty Kitty!!!

One night this week the girls went upstairs to play. They can play on their own for about 20 minutes before I usually get pulled into some sort of dispute. This is what I heard this week:

Ami-Can Can I am holding on tight to Mobo (our friendly cat), go downstairs and put a treat on each stair  so we can teach him some tricks

Lia-just runs downstairs then up again
Ami-Can Can, we are trying to teach Mobo some tricks, just do as I say!!

Then all goes quite for another 10 minutes where I hear lots and lots of tape being used, I knew something was up as I did not get called and it was very quiet. The girls come downstairs looking like this:

 

They played around for another 10 minutes and I walk into the laundry room to find Lia.....

 

I guess we only had one set of cat ears as yes Lia is wearing devil horns!! And now of course what one sister does for some laughs the other does as well.....

 

I am really happy my 2 girls play together. When we switched our file to request a child up to age four, this is what we had hoped for!!

Just Beachy

We are home from our annual Sauble Beach vacation. Lia loved the beach and we may be getting the sand out for some time to come.

Loving Lia

Loving Lia is hard. Brian and I have many conversations as we try and figure out who she was, who she is now and who she will be. On one end of the spectrum we have a silly girl who slaps her hand on the table and gives us this face.....

She does it to make us laugh and we love it. We call it her General Go Go face. And on the other side we have a little girl who has a meltdown if you can't get her something quick enough or you just pick her up and put her in her chair for dinner. Brian and I will never know who taught her to make the silly faces or even how she went to sleep when she lived in the orphanage. If she was the little girl who only smiled slightly in her referral photos or did she laugh hysterically there as she does here. And how on earth are we supposed to get a high fiber diet into a picky eater who was said to eat "everything"????

We are all having our moments of frustration, all of us. It has been a hard 6 weeks since we have been home. At the end of the day there always seems to be more I wish I could have done in the day. Today was a bad day, good thing we get to start fresh again tomorrow and for 6 weeks she has woken up with a smile on her face (good way to start the day!!). Its hard not really knowing who your 4 year old is. But we know we love her.

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They gave me to crazy people who have tigers living in their house!!

When we first came home I wrote that Lia was yelling at the cats and was very afraid of them. So, I thought an update on this situation might shed some light. She was really terrified at first, I would love to know what she was yelling at the cats. Brian figured out about 2 days after we came home she was calling our orange cat laohu, tiger in Mandarin. Poor Lia thought she was going to be living in a house with tigers!!

Slowly she has gotten used to the cats and we have been explaining they are mao (cats) and not laohu. She will occasionally pet them and has once kissed Pickle Juice on the nose. Yesterday, she picked up a cup with Tigger on it and called Tigger Pickle Juice, silly girl.

An interview with Ami

Thanks to all of you who have asked how Ami is with all the changes going on. So, I will turn to the expert herself.....

Q: Ami, do you like being a big sister?
A: I do like being a big sister but its a lot of work

Q: What do you like most about your little sister?
A: I love when she shares and is nice to us

Q: What would you like to change about your little sister:
A: Well, I dont really like her crying because its really loud and it hurts my head. When my little sister cries a lot it makes me cry too

Q: What did you like best about our trip to China?
A: The bacon (which she ate almost every day for the 3 weeks of our trip)

Q: Is that more or less then meeting your sister?
A: Less (good answer, phew!!)

Q: What was your favourite thing to eat in China (after the bacon)?
A: Dumplings but I like the ones my Dad makes the best

Q: What was your favourite souvenir from China??
A: My crystal balls (the ones that did not forsee our taxi breaking down, can we exchange them??)

Q: Anything else you would like to add about our trip to China
A: I am pretty sure that my Mom and Dad loved it too. Thank you, and I am pretty sure my sister says thank-you too!!

Ami is doing extremely well for all the change. She finished SK last week and will change from Montessori to public school. She is our easy-going kid. So long as we over describe our timelines if we go out and stop to answer her questions, she is a great traveller. Brian and I are trying to send time alone with her each day. Last Saturday we went strawberry picking for our time together!!

a new normal??

We are slowly settling in to a new routine as a family. Lia's birthday passed with some big meltdowns and the refusal of a cupcake (which I ended up eating!!) but she has slowly come around to the joys of Moms baking. Who am I kidding, I don't bake, they were from Metro. The only baking these days is the add water and stir kind. Even the Easy Bake Oven is too much work for me. Around our house Brian cooks and I clean. So far Lia has been eating about 10 foods including pizza, eggs, watermelon but in the last 2 days has decided other foods are actually ok and sometimes even taste good.

We have been lucky enough to come home to lots of food from our families and my Mom did our travel laundry. Kuddos to any family who travelled on an adoption trip with more than one child to drag around!!

Lia has very quickly learned how to use a water gun and loves the kiddie pool. We are maximizing our time at home by Brian taking parental leave first as I only work part time so am home more anyways. We are receiving less threats to beat us up, instead we are now treatened with being bitten, especially when Lia plays tiger. What a crazy kid!! She loves to do stuff which makes us laugh.

This is one of my favourite pictures of Lia. She loves to sit on the counter when we are doing dishes, cooking (Brian that is) or tidying up the kitchen. We are now having meltdown free days and getting to know each other better.