First Full Week at Home

In some ways I can't believe we have been home 1 week and in others, it seems like we have been home a lot longer. Bella continues to do amazingly well. She is still sleeping about 10 hours at night and is also taking a 2-3 hour nap each day. She doesn't exaclty want to take a nap, but she does. She is loving her new toys and has already worn the batteries out on one of her favorites (the gear toy). She is almost running and she is trying to jump. So cute because she squats all the way down to the ground and goes straight up with all her might, but only comes off the floor about a quarter of an inch. She is also eating like she is training for a food eating contest. She is really going to town. She is feeding herself with both a fork and spoon. I think this is fairly new for her, but she is going a great job at it. I know of some foods that she loved before we got her, but she LOVES Vitamin D milk, yogurt, pudding, sweet potatoes, watermelon, pancakes, corn, peas, ham, oatmeal, and noodles. The boys love eating dry cereal in the mornings. They usually leave the bowls somewhere in the living room unfinished. Bella enjoys stealing the bowls and finishing the cereal for them. She acts so proud to be carrying the bowl around the house. This morning for breakfast she ate a bowl of oatmeal and then ate 4-5 small pancakes with syrup. I did not think she was going to stop!

She has also enjoyed the pool this week. It was finally warm enough and she wants in it ALL the time. Good thing she can't get out of the house on her own. If we go in the back yard early in the morning, I have to divert her attention away from the pool because she goes straight for it. She wants to jump off the steps straight in the water, but the swimmies don't hold her above the water. Not sure why because she doesn't weigh anything. I am going to have to look for something else to keep her head above the water.

Bella has gotten to meet her wonderful church family as well. We have gone to church the last 2 weeks since we have been back and she has loved the worship time. She just claps and dances to the music. Sometimes I can't believe she is actually with us .... here.

We have also gotten into the full swing of school, preschool, soccer and Tae Kwon Do. Keenan got his stitches out yesterday and was once again a very brave little guy. Michael took him and Bella to the appointment and he said they were so good. He told Keenan if he was good, he would get him a prize. I guess the whole time the dr. was taking the stitches out Keenan never cried, but said "owe, owe, owe."

Today is Aidan's 7th birthday!!!! I can't believe my 4 lb. 10 oz. baby is 7! Their birthday party is not until next weekend, but they got the presents we got them. Keenan's 4th birthday is Tuesday, so we went ahead and gave him an early present also. They had a blast with their new remote controlled stunt cars (Thanks Emy for the suggestion!). Aidan told me this morning that he gets to do whatever he wants on his birthday. I told him I wasn't sure about that and he said, "Mommy, you got to do what you wanted on Mother's Day and daddy got to do what he wanted on Father's Day, so today is my day ... I get to do whatever I want." Can't argue about the logic of that.

One thing the boys still need is their space. They sometimes go hide in their room and close the door. Here is a picture of them hunkered down playing the DS.

This is just a cute picture of Bella in her jammies this morning. We got these in China at a store in Guangzhou that helps support operations for orphans. Doesn't she look cute?!

Wednesday we head to Children's Hospital for her evaluation by the International Adoption Clinic. Please pray for her and us as this is supposed to be a 4 hour appointment where she meets many many doctors. She won't have her appointment with the Cranio Facial team until October to see what the plan is about her palate repair. Let the doctor's visits begin!!