I've Been Home 3 Months!

It doesn't seem possible that Grace has been her 3 months. In some ways, it seems like she has been with us forever, and in other ways, I am just getting to know her. She has changed so much since the first days when we picked her up and she seemed like such a baby. Here are a few highlights:

1. Grace still loves to announce to the world with pride her bathroom adventures. Strangers often will be told about the little toilet in the family bathroom at Kmart or that she went "aka" all by herself and washed her hands. In the past few weeks, though, she has stopped requiring an audience to go potty. She goes by herself now and then announces to us, "Gracie went potty all by herself!" We also have stopped catering to her bathroom whims like we did when we were transitioning her from the orphanage diapers to big girl underwear. Now, she goes to the bathroom before meals and we don't let her get down during the meals to go again. We finally figured out that it wasn't that she needed to go, but rather, she wanted to be the center of attention and the bathroom always made us focus on her.
2. She doesn't speak in Bulgarian anymore except to say these words: As te obichem, leka noshte, aka, tate, mama." In fact, this week she seemed to actually realize that everything has two names. If we said, "Voda." She would light up with enthusiasm at the Bulgarian word for water and point to her cup, but she can't even tell us the Bulgarian names for things anymore. Just like she understood English before she cold speak it, she has lost her speaking vocabulary in Bulgarian but still understands it. I wish we had taken more videos of her speaking Bulgarian when she was first home. We kept trying to catch her in one of her speeches when she would ramble on for several minutes as if the person understood, but the minute the camera went on, she was done. She still loves listening to the Bulgarian song CD, and she sings the words to some of the songs, but that is the only time we hear her really speak Bulgarian anymore. I was really anxious for her to be able to communicate better with us, but now I miss hearing it. She still has the cutest Bulgarian accent, though.
3. Grace surprises us with her vocabulary everyday. Verbs and pronouns are being used occasionally now and she relays stories adding new words faster than we can keep up. Today she told Adam and Daddy about the trolley that she saw and explained that it was taking the kids home. She asks, "What's that?" and "Where's ____?" all the time, too, even when she knows the answer. I have been turning it around and asking her questions lately, and she has come up with interesting answers. When I asked her "Where's Daddy's truck?" in response to her query she said, "Behind Daddy's car." So I asked, "Where's Daddy's car?" and she said, "Behind the garage." So I asked about Adam's car and was informed that it was behind Daddy's truck. So, she knew exactly where each of them parks everyday in the driveway. She also knows the names of some of the letters and associates them with people's names. So the J is for Aunt Jill, the P is for Paige, the L is for Uncle "Lally", etc. and she can pick them out everytime she notices them on signs, cereal boxes, or in books. Grace hasn't figured out colors yet. She knows Daddy's truck is purple, the grass is green, and school busses are yellow, but she just can't figure out all of the shades and variations.
4. Grace is particular about her clothes and has her definite favorites: jeans with a belt, dresses with tights, and her Minnie Mouse pajamas. We still can't seem to keep most jeans up, even with a belt, but she doesn't seem to mind tugging on them all day so she can dress like Mommy. She also loves pockets and puts little pads of sticky notes and her chapstick in her pockets to carry around.
5. Grace prefers being outdoors all the time and does anything she can think of to delay coming into the house. During this nice weather, she has been trying to befriend the squirrels in our tree. The minute she sees one, she runs over to him and announces, "Hi, Mr. Squirrel, I'm five!" while the poor squirrel is scurrying to safety and she is running around the tree saying, "Hey, Mr. Squirrel, come here!" She also looks through her picture books from Bulgaria and tells Daddy that she wants to go play in the sand. Yes, we have been looking at swingsets and sand boxes.
6. Grace eats very slowly...We wonder if that is part of the reason that she is so small. She loves to talk during meals, gets tired of feeding herself, and wants us to shovel it in for her. She eats a lot if you feed her to finish up, and we have been doing that about half the time just to get her a few extra calories. She also likes the toddler Ensure type drinks and we add that to her daily snack to be sure she gets plenty of vitamins. I'm hoping she learns to eat more quickly before she starts preschool, or she will eat only a few bites for lunch everyday.
7. At night, Grace rocks with Daddy or I before bed, but she only falls asleep in our arms about 3/4 of the time. We have figured out that she will fall asleep without self-soothing (rocking behavior) if we hold her until she is very relaxed. Nearly everynight around 2:00 a.m. she rouses again and we can hear her thrashing around and whining in her bed. If I go in to see her she tells me in a panicked voice, "Potty, potty!" so I rush her into the bathroom. She really is wanting to stay dry at night, but even with the 2:00 a.m. trip to the bathroom she is soaked by morning. I don't think her little bladder can handle sleeping through the night even though she really wants to stay dry, and she wants to drink a small bottle of water right before bed every night.
8. Grace has always liked buttons, computers, and phones so she really likes that Mommy has found a few games for her to play on the computer. She especially likes the alphabet game that says the names of the letters and shows animals for each sound. She tells me, "Don't touch...Gracie computer" and I have to remind her that it is Daddy's computer, which she doesn't like at all.
9. The highlight of most of her weeks is Baby Talk. When we first started attending every Thursday and the lapsits on alternate Fridays, Grace fit in very well developmentally with the 0-3 year olds in attendance, but the last couple of weeks have been different. She is one of the few who will sit during the story time. She will answer requests for songs to sing, and she loves to help Miss Susan pick up shakers and toys. Her favorite toys are these little waffle blocks which she is getting better about sharing. At first she would push the littler children away from "her" toys, but I haven't seen that for a while. Grace likes to be on stage and stands next to Miss Susan sometimes as her little sidekick during her favorite songs, The Wheels on the Bus, Hurry Hurry Drive the Firetruck, I'm a Little Popcorn, and The Shaker Song. She likes shakers so much that we made our own out of plastic Easter Eggs at home. When it is time to color and glue at Lapsits, she really lacks the fine motor skills of many of the 3 year olds, and has a hard time drawing anything but circles. It is amazing how much she has learned in just a few weeks, though, and going to Baby Talk gives me a chance to sit back and really notice her weekly progress. Grace is such a little socialite, that I think she is going to love going to preschool in August, and hopefully she won't be so stressed by the Kindergarten expectations the following year.
10. Anytime that Mark and I are hugging and sometimes just for fun, Grace runs up to us and puts her hand up for her ritual group hug. She puts one arm aroung each of our necks and pulls our faces tight against hers while we all sing the song that she made up, I love you. As te obichem over and over before she showers us with kisses. It melts my heart.

Well, Grace...Happy 3 months home! I hope that you someday will know how blessed we are to have you with us and how thankful we are that God took care of you while we were searching to find you. You have such a wonderful, loving, gentle spirit that amazes us every day.