Day 14 - 12/31

Here is a pic of the girlie with her new cell phone....

Loves her new phone

Today was an eventful day to say the least.  Kinsley came over shortly after 7 AM to spend the day with us.  We got some snuggles in and watched some cartoons before the other one woke up.  At 9 we decided it was time for her to wake up and Kinsley helped me.  Soon our friend, Jen, and her two girls, Charlie and Savannah, came over for a playdate.  Our poor dog was a little uncertain of all the giggling and squealing.  She wanted to get dressed and brush her teeth since she was the only one in her jammies.  Kinsley was wearing a fleece pullover and I was wearing a hoodie so of course, she wanted to wear one too.  And because I was wearing a shirt under mine, she needed one also.  The girls spent most of the morning in the playroom.  They also shared Cheerios with each other and the dog.  There favorite activities seemed to be cheering, playing Barbies, coloring, and playing with play-doh.  There were also several rounds of "Ring Around the Rosie," an obvious favorite of all 3 girls.  She was infatuated with Savannah because she is still a baby.  For snack, Kinsley and Charlie had iced animal cookies while she ate the remainder of Kinsley's strawberry poptart.  Super surprised that she seemed to like this.  We had a couple of dogs and a cat that visited our yard today and all of the girls wanted to look at the window to see them.  For the most part, everyone did pretty well with sharing.  Kinsley's go-to phrase is "Yeah, I do," and Charlie's go-to phrase is "Sure does."  It was pretty cute.  Our new friends left right before lunch.

For lunch, the girls had mini corndogs, applesauce, and stringcheese.  Kinsley also had some mandarin oranges.  We read a couple of books, but by this time everyone was getting super sleepy, so we had a slumberparty.  We all climbed into her full-sized bed.  She was closest to the wall, then Kinsley, then our dog Bessie, then me shielding everyone from falling off the bed.  I was hoping they would sleep a little longer but an hour was all we could get.  At snacktime, Kinsley had chocolate pudding while she ate noodles and vanilla yogurt.  While we waited for Brooke to get off work, the girls had a tea party complete with "cheering" their tea cups.  We also had to give all the Barbies a bath and change their outfits 20 times.  Brooke finally came over and she pointed to her belly and said "baby."  She wanted lots of snuggles with Aunt Brooke.  Due to lack of sleep and a hard day of play, both girls were pretty whiny and fussy.  She thought she needed a blanket to put in her mouth since that is what Kinsley was doing with hers.  Monkey-see, monkey-do.  There were lots of bye-byes and kisses when they parted ways.

She started asking for "bah bah" while we were making dinner.  Chris went to work today.  I can't believe he wanted to miss the mass chaos that was at our house today.  Like Jen said, it just always looks like Christmas with toys strewn everywhere.  While eating dinner, she talked to Chris on the phone.  She had white rice, italian beef, carrots, and green beans.  Heavy on the white rice with 3 helpings.  After dinner, she spent the most time she has with arranging and playing with the Barbies.  She played with the kitchen and set them all around the table with plates and food.  I really had no idea my childhood Barbies would be such a hit.  She wanted another snack of congee and white rice and then it was bathtime.  She has been wearing a pull-up to bed, just in case, although we have had no problems.  It was more of a concern initially when her sleep was so out-of-whack, but now she continues to wear them.  The pull-ups have Madagascar pictures and she has been hoarding the lion ones in her drawer (I guess because she was scared).  The last few nights she has only been wearing the lion ones so I guess she is getting more comfortable.  Before, during, and after bathtime, she was very interested in what color everything was.  She was pointing to things, I would say the English color, and she would repeat it.  We area also working on where her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, etc.  Chris read her some bedtime stories and it's a boring New Year's Eve around here.

Three wannabe cheerleaders

Infatuation with babies
Bessie has a close eye on the cheerios

Ring Around the Rosie - Again

Fun with Play-doh

How long are these hooligans staying?

Snacktime chaos

Parade down the stairs

Naptime - don't they look sleepy?

Tea party

Posing with Aunt Brooke and Kinsley

Coloring is always more fun laying on someone else

Enjoying the Barbies

Day 13 - 12/30

We woke up this morning with no plans, but knowing she would get bored easily if we stayed home all day, we decided to venture out after breakfast.  As soon as she woke up, she was asking to go for a ride in the car.  We find this a little odd since she continues to have motion sickness.  Breakfast consisted of white rice and 1/2 a banana.  I got a few glares over the banana but she ate it anyway. Before we left, we also learned the results from the echocardiogram that she had last week.  The results were good and everything that was repaired when she was a baby is still functioning as it should be.  She still has a heart murmur and they recommend she get an echocardiogram annually.

We opted to drive to Champaign and went to The Orpheum Children's Science Museum.  We had never been there before but saw online that they had an Animal Encounter exhibit at 11 AM which worked perfectly for us.  She did have some car sickness on the way to Champaign but she tolerates it very well.  At the Museum, she got to see and pet a turtle, a bearded dragon, and a corn snake.  After her reaction to dogs, horses, and fish, we were not sure it would be worth our time to visit a zoo, but this morning may have changed our minds.  Obviously, her watching the long line of other children petting the animals may have helped:)  There were lots of cool other activities that really kept her interest.  She rode a slide (which she was not a fan of), played with bubbles, drove with a steering wheel, and played with a train set among other things.  She especially like the colored sand and I think we could have left her there and she would have been perfectly content.  She kept waving and saying "bye-bye."  I think she thought we were leaving and she was staying.  Next, we stopped at Za's for a quick lunch.  She ate some pepperoni pizza and garlic bread.  We made a quick trip to the mall for the sole purpose of letting her ride the carousel.  She got really excited when she saw it, but was too afraid to ride one of the horses so we rode on a bench.  She did not want to get off when it stopped.  In fact, I think she thought Chris should take her again.

She did not have any car sickness on the way home from Champaign.  She even took a short cat nap.  We arrived home just in time for a visit with our friend, Sarah.  She ate some vanilla yogurt for a snack (which she tried to share with the dog).  She crawled around like a dog and also kissed her hand and put it on our dog's back.  She was quite ornery and really showing her personality to Sarah.  I think she was also avoiding naptime, but if it helps with bedtime, we are all for it.  We played with the ball and some of her other toys, showed off her artwork and gingerbread house, showed off her room, and sang "Ring Around the Rosie."  She wanted Sarah to hold her and take her potty.  At least she is consistent and nondiscriminatory with all our visitors.  You can tell she really enjoys having company over.

I needed to do some work but I had a lap helper for most of the time.  She worked on tracing numbers and looking at pictures and videos of herself on my phone.  She would not stay upstairs with Chris for anything.  She ate a pretty good dinner ... fried rice, carrots, chicken, green bean casserole.  She was trying to tell us she was finished, but I told her she needed to eat two more bites.  She cleaned out the bowl (which was easily 10-15 bites) so I was not about to argue with her.  I am not sure how much exposure she has to domestic tasks in the orphanage, but she loves to help me in the kitchen (cook or load/unload the dishwasher), pick up and organize things, help with laundry, and tonight we ran the vacuum.  She wanted her hand on the handle and was pushing it back and forth like she was a professional.  I did not want vacuuming to take all evening so I had Chris distract her with a car ride.  She had her tooth fairy money to spend.  [Side note:  We gave her $1.50 in quarters so that she could go to the dollar store.  She has no concept of money but counted them and knew there were 6 coins.  We needed parking meter money when we were in Champaign and Chris "borrowed" some.  When we got home, she realized there were only 3 coins left.  She was very concerned and kept searching the counter for the missing coins.  Such a smart girl!]  Of course, by the time they were actually ready to leave, I was almost done vacuuming the house.  She and Chris took a quick trip to Dollar Tree.  This was her first shopping experience (other than shoe store and groceries).  I think she was overwhelmed with choices.  Chris said most of the time she had 6 items in her hands.  At one point, she ran to the front to get a cart.  Chris told her she could only get one item.  She picked a hot pink cell phone and has been pushing the buttons not stop since they got in the car and also since getting home.  It makes lots of noise.  Not sure how long the battery will last at the rate we are going.  Tonight for snack she had mandarin oranges and she seemed to enjoy them; not sure why I have not introduced them sooner.

Bubbles

Driving

The air suspended the balls above the pipe

Train fun

Petting the turtle

Petting the corn snake

Petting the bearded dragon

We spent a lot of time at this contraption

Who does not love sand?!

Her facial expression says it all

Posing in front of the dinosaur

Posing in front of the sign

Sitting on the horse for a minute

Then going with the safer bench seat

Posing with Chris

Vacuuming - such a helper!

Reaction to the slide

Turning in circles

Day 12 - 12/29

We woke our girl up bright and early for a trip to Decatur.  She ate congee and fried rice for breakfast and then we were on our way.  We rode with Nana and Smitty to visit Grandma Spencer.  She had lots of fun playing with her sticker book and her alphabet puzzle.  I think I colored more than she did.  She had the most fun running up and down the hallway helping Nana do Grandma's laundry.  By 10 AM she was ready to eat again, and I was prepared with teriyaki chicken, carrots, and more fried rice.   She also enjoyed some of a smores granola bar.  We also played "Ring Around the Rosie."  After getting plenty of snuggles and saying our good-byes,  we headed to Culver's for some lunch.  Equipped with our McDonald's experience, we ordered her 4-pieces of chicken strips.  She seemed to really enjoy them and ate three pieces.  Every time Chris (or anyone else) tried to eat part of her chicken strip, she would scold them by shaking her finger and saying "no, no, no."  She also ate some french fries and some of Nana's vegetable soup.  She again tried some ice cream complete with a sour face due to the cold temperature.  It was a fun experience with lots of laughs.  She even requested Nana take her potty.  We really expected her to sleep on the way home but she was wide awake and taking the scenery in.

As soon as we arrived home, she wanted to eat ... again.  I think we may be changing her nickname from "Miss Dress-Up" to the "Bottomless Pit."  She ate more fried rice and was not interested in taking a nap in the least.  My mom, the other Nana, came over for a little while to play.  We played with the ball, stickers, and practiced counting (her quarters from the tooth fairy).  She also wanted some Cheerios.  We had to play "Ring Around the Rosie," and Nana had to take her potty a few times too.  When Nana left, she wanted me to make her rice.  It would be great if she were on a regular meal schedule, but I hate to deprive her of food when she wants to eat.  It will be interesting to see if she puts on some weight during her visit.  Our dog, Bessie, had her teeth cleaned and 5 pulled today.  The dog is sore and needs lots of rest.  Of course, tonight is the night she is most interested in the dog.  Wanting to stand by her, trying to share her cheerios, wanting to feed the dog, saying "hi bessie,"  saying "hi baby."

Chris' two cents:
Kelsey decided it was her turn to work.  Well, I think she may have stated she didn't think she could catch up with me.  She literally went to the basement desk for about 30 to 45 minutes max and it was torture for one little girl.  I am pretty sure I went downstairs to pick her up 2 or 3 times in that period. Not to mention the 10,000 times that she said her name while away from the basement.  I finally convince her to come with me upstairs to play, however, she had a different plan.  She took me into the kitchen and asked me to make her a meal.  I would normally call it dinner but I think we had dinner at like 1pm so I will just call it a meal.  She ate 2 helpings of fried rice and graciously donated the chicken I put on her plate to mine.

Kelsey finally finished working and come up to encourage her to work on her school work.  She was focused on tracing "M"s and "N"s tonight. By encouraging her I mean she was bribing her by offering to paint her fingernails and toenails in exchange for cooperation.  I think we are nearing bath time to get her down early tonight based on the fact that she got up early and didn't take a nap.  She has been pleasant even without a nap though we all know she is very tired.

Don't forget we are having the open house at Broadway Christian Church on 1/10/15.  It will be in the afternoon and if you are interested please email, comment or message us as we would like to have a rough count.

Catch you all tomorrow!

Posing

Lounging at Grandma Spencer's

The tickle monster

Loves being the center of attention

Wants us to take pictures so she can see herself

Running down the hallway while doing laundry

She found Chris' shades

Selfie with Mama

Snuggles with Grandma Spencer

Culver's for lunch

She is  bottomless pit

Stickers with Nana

School time

Day 11 - 12/28

SAVE THE DATE - 1/10/16

I keep forgetting to mention that we will hold an open house/meet and greet/birthday party/going away party on the afternoon of January 10th at Broadway Christian Church.  It is open to all of our friends and family (and our blog readers).  It would be helpful if you could RSVP by commenting on the blog, sending us an email or text, or a Facebook message so we can plan accordingly for refreshments and drinks.

Chris' commentary from this morning:
Kelsey decided to try a new form of torture today.  She left for work right after I got out of the shower.  Under normal circumstances, I am relatively self-sufficient but we definitely aren't operating under normal circumstances today.  I made breakfast for us and sat down to an uninterested child staring at me.   Obviously I made something other than what she wanted.  She entertained me by taking a couple bites as I spoon fed her.   She also played with it for a couple minutes before showing her disgust with my asking her to eat food she normally likes.  We are in go to work mode so we continued on with the process to leaving.  Brushing her teeth was pretty normal other than she didn't want to brush her own teeth.  She wanted me to brush her teeth.  When you are in a hurry, there isn't time to argue so I brushed her teeth.  We then put her ointment on and got dressed.  It is about then when she realizes that mama was not in sight.  She started by going to our room to see if she was there.  I kept telling her that mama was gone but she insisted we continue our search.  She went to the kitchen, then to her room and finally downstairs.  She even decided to check in the garage.  It was soon after we finished getting dressed in our outside clothes and headed to Effingham.  The trip was good with no gagging noises though the rain was crazy.  We got to the office and she had no intention of playing with any of the things we brought with us.  She didn't want anything to do with any of it.  She instead just made very large circles running around our new office with me chasing after her.  She did duck into a closet at one point which sent me searching the entire office before going back to my office to find her giggling.  She then went into a mama mode.  She kept asking for mama over and over again.  Being the somewhat insightful person that I am, I recognized this was a precursor to melt down mode.  We reached home without any issues and for the following 10 minutes she kept saying mama every 5 seconds until Kelsey showed up.  I am not a doctor but I feel this time would be diagnosed as a stage 5 meltdown (on a 10 point scale)  It was a very stressful 10 minutes.

I worked this morning and ran to the store to pick up a few things.  We are thinking our detergent may be irritating her skin so I purchased some dreft and re-washed everything.  "Mama" finally came home and to the rescue.  Everything Chris showed her for lunch, she said "no."  It took some convincing, but I was able to get her to eat a hot dog, green bean casserole, some mashed potatoes, white rice with soy sauce and 1/2 a vanilla yogurt.  I was pretty pleased but she obviously overate because she kept holding her belly and whining.  We played ball for a little while because she needs some work with throwing and catching.  She is already improving.  Somehow we managed to knock one of her top front baby teeth loose in the process.  She keeps playing with it with her tongue so I'm sure it will not last long.

Chris laid down with her for her nap.  She immediately wanted rice for a snack when she woke up.  It was nice to have no where to be today and have what seemed like more playtime than what we have had.  When she woke up, we played school.   We are working on tracing English letters.  We also did an alphabet puzzle and worked on alphabet and animal flashcards.  We still have a long ways to go.  We also played with play-doh and she showed more interest than last time (probably helped that she played with it over the weekend with Peyton).   We tried playing with the ball but she keeps covering her mouth.  I'm guessing to protect her already loose tooth or prevent others from getting loose.

Mealtime is always somewhat of an issue with her.  She never seems to want what we are having, but we try to not let her push our buttons too much.  We want her to eat well and gain weight while she is here.  She likes to give sass and eye glares but she will usually cooperate with me.  Tonight we had teriyaki chicken, white rice, and carrots.  She did not want anything to do with the carrots but she ate most of them (minus the few that she fed to our dog).  She is still skittish around the dog but is doing exceptionally well.  We even spent some time petting the dog tonight.  She gave Bessie her toys.  Leaps and bounds ahead of where we were a week ago.  Tonight she has wanted to be cradled and talked to like a baby.  She has had Chris and I both do it multiple times.  Obviously catching up on things she missed out on in the orphanage.  We also found out the results of the bone age test.  The good news is that her bone development is delayed (that doesn't sound good, but it is).  Although she is nearly a nine year old, her bones think she is a 5 or 6 year old.  This means she has the potential to grow and catch up to her peers.

After dinner, we had an art project with puffy paint.  I didn't figure she would enjoy it because she does not like her hands to be messy.  She played a little but it was a short project.  More fun artwork for my fridge.  She also likes to ride piggy back.  She just giggles and carries on.  We also tried on our shoulders but not near as many giggles.  She played with her reuseable sticker book again.  She found a dog sticker and wanted to share it with Bessie.  Chris was eating ice cream and she decided she wanted some.  Despite what a disaster the last time was (since she doesn't like cold things), she actually ate 5 bites and then proceeded to feed Chris.  While Chris was brushing her teeth at bedtime, she lost her tooth.  (Just to recap, yesterday she felt out of bed and today I knocked her tooth loose with a ball - poor girl can't seem to catch a break)  I guess the tooth fairy will pay us a visit but I'm pretty sure she has no idea who the tooth fairy is.  It will be fun to see what she picks out at the dollar store with her stash.

Chris took her to work at Vantage

Posing with Chris

"Running" around the office

Having fun with Chris at work

Petting Bessie

Painting fun

I need to wash my hands

Being silly

Sticker fun

Eating ice cream

Notice the hole on the right is new
and she is holding her tooth

Playing catch and Mama knocking my tooth loose