Week 15 Growing Tall

Just a quick update on Gia's growth. Her weight has remained the same since coming home. I know, you're thinking, "Wow, they haven't fed her?!" Wait. She's grown 4 inches since August. I double checked it twice in the doctor's office and had a nurse do it a third time. I am trained at this (anthropometrics that is) as it was part of my graduate research. We knew she was getting tall, but this is amazing! We were wondering if something had happened---she can now open the cookie cupboard by herself and this explain why!

Week 14 Naughty'n Nice

This week was particularly trying as Gia's is exerting more and more independence, says "no" to everything, and has strong opinions about what she wants. Thursday I had to say "no" to her at two different times during the day (well, more than that), and at one of those times she slapped me, and at the other, she bit me. I was pretty shocked that my sweet little girl would do this! She redeemed herself later in the day when I was getting my blood drawn at the doctor's office. She sat by me in the chair, leaned over to watch the technician poke the needle in my vein, and whispered, "Owie? Owie!". It was terribly sweet.

This is the week we also started transitioning to daycare. We went for two hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Friday was her first day alone. It was so horrible, leaving her at the daycare center, even though it was only for two hours. I was sure she was going to hate me for the rest of her life and it didn't help that I heard her crying for me all the way to the front door. But when we came back to pick her up, she didn't want to go home. So I guess it went okay. I still don't like it, but doing the transition slowly is better than doing it all at once. We are planning on sending her for six hours a week until I go back to work in January. That will be the real test--for all of us. Wish us well.

Happy Thanksgiving! It should go without saying that we are very grateful to all of the people who helped us on our journey to adopt Gia. She is a total doll and at times I still can't believe I get to be her mother. Thank you everyone, here in the U.S. and in Ethiopia.

Week 13 First All Cousins Picture

Conor, Parker, Addison, and Gia, all together for their first cousins picture. When I look at this picture I just laugh and feel good that Gia has 3 older boy cousins to teach her all about cars, soccer, chess, and someday hopefully, about boys. We are inside D'Amico's restaurant and in about 5 minutes we leave because the roughhousing starts to escalate beyond acceptable levels.

Week 13 Coke-tastrophe

I am now following a migraine diet, which means all my Diet Coke is stashed in a secret place to be unleashed when I prove this diet doesn't work. In the meantime, my daughter found the secret place and started carrying two cans of DC around the house, unbeknown to me. How does that happen, you ask? You try carrying a pile of folded laundry from one side of the house to the bedroom with a toddler in tow. Oh sure, I could see her head, but that's it. Nothing else was visible over the mound of freshly folded laundry, and I certainly wasn't going to arch my head to see--that would totally destroy the delicate balance.

In any event, Gia made her way to our bedroom, and I can only deduce by the crime scene, shook up the two cans of DC, clanked them together, at which point, they punctured and exploded onto our white carpet. Smart girl that she is, she quietly resumed her spot at my side, and said nothing.

When I saw the DC carnage (again, on our white carpet), I freaked out!! I was careful to direct my shock to the carpet, and not Gia, but it was complete and totally maniacal moaning and screeching. Then came the race against time---sop up the carpet before it stains. Quick as a cougar I raced to the kitchen, got water and supplies, raced back to the bedroom, and started scrubbing harder than I've ever scrubbed in all my 26 years (oops, did I say 26?). Meanwhile, Gia stood by and stared. And then her compassionate side kicked in and she started rubbing me while I scrubbed the carpet. At this point, the whole thing was so ridiculous that I collapsed on the carpet and started laughing. Gia started laughing too, and we left the the rest of the stain for Daddy to clean up. Which of course he did--meticulously. All told, the carpet doesn't look too bad!

Attached is a picture of my lover, whom I'm sure I'll reunite with soon.

Week 12 Cheesey Self Portraits

In an effort to teach Gia about cameras, Rob and I did some self portraits with her. Cheesey, and not the best pictures of us, but still fun. Apparently she did learn something, and that was to lay on the ground and look at me whenever I whip a camera out. I have no idea where the lay on the ground part came from....maybe it has something to do with me crawling on all fours to get to her eye level???

Week 12

Thought I would show you a few of her play date buddies. The little blond girl is Anya, the strawberry blond boy is Thomas, and of course, the mischevious older boy is her cousin Addison. These are not all of her play date buddies, just the regulars. Moms, I have found, are a tight knit community and do lots of things like play dates, classes, parks, and DVDs, to prevent themselves from going crazy secondary to lack of adult interaction. Gia and Thomas got into a physical fight over a toy on Tuesday. I thought it was hilarious and wanted to see who won, but the other, more responsible mother, stopped them. I guess that's the right thing to do (whatever).

Her big developmental milestone this week is being able to console herself when she wakes from sleeping. This is huge!! At least three times in the past week she's woken up from a nap and managed to fall back asleep on her own. It's always a pins-and-needles game for me, so when she relaxes, it helps me relax.

In other notable news, Gia passed her swimming lesson yesterday and can now move to the Tots 2 class. Yeah for Gia! I've signed her up for the Saturday class so that Rob can take her to class (and I can sleep in). It will be so much fun climbing out of a warm bed, layered in a swimming suit, sweater, and parka, and then back again, only in a wet suit. Rob and Gia are going to really bond!!

She has taken to mimicking our every action. Yesterday I was on the receiving end of her pointing and holding her hand up to me. Something I do every day (I guess) when I tell her, "Wait, hold on, don't move. I'm [fill in the blank]." At first I thought it was a pretty bossy, gutsy thing to do, but then I realized, right, yeah, she learned it from me. Thankfully Rob and her grandparents find it humorous (for now).

A few photos are attached. Don't know if you can tell, but in one photo, I've got eight ponytails in her hair. Wonder how I got them in? Two ten minute sessions separated by an hour of play. Unfortunately it took Rob a half hour tonight to get them out in order to wash her hair. Guess we won't be doing that again for a while. In person, the ponytails were really cute. Enjoy the photos!

Week 11 (and some of 12)

Today is the day after the election and I am very humbled by the outcome. While I know people reading this blog come from various backgrounds and typically I don't share my political views, I am extremely joyful that the first President elected into office on Gia's watch is someone who is not only intelligent, well-educated, and a leader, but has ancestral roots in Kenya, the country south of Ethiopia. I am pleased that she will have a leader that she can look up to in more ways than one. It is a blessing for us.

Last week and the early part of this week has been unusually warm in Minnesota, so Gia and I have been playing outside (nice). Halloween was a bust for us (long story not worth sharing), but we did get a chance to go the Grandma's for some M&M (mixing and mingling) time.

Gia's big developmental news is that she now has latched onto a "thing". We were hoping she would find a favorite blanket, toy, etc., to share her affections with and to help soothe her. For the past four or five days she has had her dolly in tow at all times (not ShangHai Barbie, which is the doll that Gia is dunking in the picture above. We did not buy ShangHai Barbie...a gift from a McDonald's Happy Meal. Pause.....wouldn't ShangHai Barbie have dark hair and skin? Just a question).

Additionally, today she stroked/petted/patted the hair of several children at the gym during playtime (obviously younger children who can't run), and she fed her cousin Addison Cheerios along with holding his hand (at which point Addison noticed that her skin was brown and his was white. I was pretty impressed at his use of PC language to describe her skin color). Her social, empathetic, and caring side is starting to come out. It's very sweet and fun to watch. You'll see it also demonstrated in the picture with Quinn. As always, enjoy!