Christmas Parties 2008

Mia made it to a few Christmas parties this year! There is a group here called IAFA (International Adoptive Families Association) and we went to their family Christmas party this year! We have been members for three years now, but didn't attend a ton of parties, it just didn't feel right till we came home with her! Things went really well, and it was the first time that she just wanted to sit with mom and dad and not run around visiting with everyone. We were pretty happy about it and figured we had turned a huge corner with her attachment to us! After the party we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the FIRST time! Mia settled right in, and took her spot in the chair with Grandpa for a story!

We had a few people over for an open house as well. Luigi's Godparents came, and when they come over you pretty much can't see them for all the gifts they are always bringing! ONE of the gifts for Mia was this amazing doll house! She just sat and stared at it! (We had bought her one almost exactly like it for Christmas so it had to go back!) Auntie and Uncle came over because they were going to Vancouver for Christmas so they brought presents early. Mia got her first dress up clothes, and she loved them! When I loaded the photo, I thought she had chocolate on her mouth but it was actually markers! Did I mention ever that markers are now banned from our house??? Spencer and Steffen never seemed to have a problem, but Miss Mia seems to like to draw on EVERYTHING! Markers generally go all over her face and clothes, pens go on the carpet and furniture, and crayons go places like the tile grout, windows, TV screen and mirrors around the house. Oh, and can't forget the wall. It drives me crazy, so I loaded up all the markers and anything even remotely similar and tossed them!

What to do with the blog???

Well, obviously I have been REALLY BAD at keeping this up to date! I did have a suggestion from a friend of mine (thanks Jen!) and what I'm going to do is update here and there until Mia has been home for a year or so. Then we'll see how it goes from there! My friend Jen said she actually was still checking the blog which was a shock to me, so I will get on here and do some updating with Christmas photos etc and then go from there! So, if anyone is still out there, we'll be back!

Drea

Sleep Update!

Well, things have been rocky this week, even with the awesome new bed! I will get photos up asap! The first few nights were BRUTAL! Then we decided to up the Melatonin, and things got much better! I have to look up some things on Post Traumatic Stress just to see if any of it applies! But from what I read online you just need to adjust the level of melatonin to suit your child. She is able to relax and fall asleep with no problem, its the staying asleep thats the problem! With the extra melatonin she seems more relaxed and I think she is getting a much more restful sleep. I did put a piece of foam on the floor so that I'm not tempted to rub her back every time she makes a noise! So, hopefully things will just get better from here!
We have really noticed that she has calmed a lot in this past month! So thats good news!
Mia is also starting to get quite the english vocabulary! She likes to talk on the phone, and uses her toy phone regularly! She is counting to 10, says thank you always, and often asks me "mommy, where you going?" (which almost sounds like its in a NY accent!) She understands absolutely everything and people always look amazed when I ask her to do something and she does it! I am sad though that she probably won't retain her mandarin, but I think we will put her in Mandarin billingual or at least the Mandarin program at St. Mary's when she is in school. Spencer came home the other day and announced he could count in Chinese, and sure enough he could! I think he got it from one of Mia's videos! He has been really great with her, and Steffen and Mia are the best of friends now! Thats a relief! Anyway, off to sleep, will post some photos in the next couple of days!

Mia's New Bed!

I have never been so excited for a new piece of furniture in all my life! HAHA! I swear, this morning I woke up (at 5 of course!) and seriously felt like I had slept in a bus terminal! Mia wakes up a ton, and while she was awake, Steffen woke up and came in. Then he went back to sleep and she was just settling and then Spencer came in! He decided he needed to use our bathroom and of course flipped on all the lights! Again, just as we were settling in Luigi decides to get up and hop in the shower! It was a fricken nightmare I tell you! Its funny because last night was the first night that Mia fell asleep and Luigi and I were able to watch some TV TOGETHER! What a thought! So, I stayed up till 11 watching nothing important of course, and should have known that I would pay!
So, Luigi and his dad are out picking up the mattress set, and tonight will be the first night back in Mia's room! Woo hoo! I am hoping it won't take long, but I guess I have to be realistic! she has really started to seem a lot calmer over this past week, so here's hoping! At least sleeping in her room, we can cut down on some of the traffic from the boys!
Wish us luck! Just watch, she'll freak at even having to go to sleep in that room again and my whole plan will be down the tubes! Photos will follow as soon as we have it set up and bedding on!

First Halloween!

Okay, its been really hard for me to keep up this blog! Right now, all three kids are asleep and I'm hiding in my closet eating Haagen Daz ice cream when I really should be sleeping! Mia is still sleeping with me, but Luigi has taken over on the weekends! It was a huge help for me since I have been like a zombie for weeks! We ordered her a big bed this weekend so starting in about a week, we'll be sleeping with her in her room to at least get her used to being in there! Then I figure we will slowly ease our way out! The sleep has really been the hardest part of the whole adjustment for us! I honestly feel like having 3 is better, I think that maybe Spencer and Steffen would get on each others nerves so much, and fight. Now they have a bit of a distraction so if they are tired of each other, they have a new kid to play with! Its working out quite well actually!

Anyway, Mia had her first Halloween and she dressed up as Tigger! She absolutely loved wearing the costume, and actually would wear it around the house just for fun! She is pretty easy going most of the time, she is a bit bossy sometimes, and definitely has no problem getting her point across when she wants something! She did great for Halloween, we only took her in our cul de sac, but she got right in there with her treat bag, and had a fun time. She wasn't too happy when I cut off her candy supply for the night though!

On another note, we got our cardiology appointment and its right before Christmas which is faster than I thought it would be. I'm not sure what to expect, but we're going for a chest x-ray some time this week, so I am just thinking they will just tell us how things look and will take a look at how she's healing. I don't have any concerns about her health at all, but of course, I'm no expert!

Before I head off to bed, I had to say that it was daylight savings today, and for the first time we were those people who FORGOT to set their clocks back! So, Luigi took the boys to hockey this morning and were an hour early! I took Mia to run errands and couldn't figure out why all the stores were still closed! LOSERS! So, it was a really long day! The kids were up at 6 (no wonder I was exhausted!) and thats why everyone went to sleep so well tonight! I managed to get Mia down for a nap, but when the boys came home from hockey, it was like a herd of elephants going through the house! Needless to say, the nap was cut short! Anyway, night all!

Stuff

Well, we decided that we should tone things down a bit, and what happens?? My friend calls with box seats for the Celine Dion concert at the last minute! How could I turn that down? It was a great concert! I was supposed to see her when I went to Vegas for my 40th, and the night before, she cancelled for some throat thing, so this was great. Luigi did well with all three kids, it was a good thing they had an exhausting day and went to bed really easily! Spencer had a halloween party so he was tired when he got home, so all was well!

Our appointment with Dr. Baxter went well. I don't know how they can do an OT assessment really well when Mia doesn't understand what they're asking her to do, and when she is completely playing shy! Anyway, she is pretty much on track for her age which is amazing! I think she might be behind on a few things like putting blocks together and things like that just because she hasn't been exposed to those toys before. The medical part was okay, she freaked when they wanted to weigh her! So we had to go together and then subtract my weight! Lovely! Anyway, she is right around 10 kg so thats 22 lbs. Just a tiny peanut! I have to call them back for her head measurement and they didn't attempt the height so I'll have to do that one at home! Dr. Baxter said we will most likely get in to see the Pediatric Cardiologist before Christmas so thats good news too!
The kids are getting along better, Spencer's favorite thing is to carry Mia around! And, Mia and Steffen remind me of me and my brother (who are also only a year apart!) because I can't leave the two of them alone together for one second! They are always getting in to trouble! I think Steffen thinks its fun to get Mia to do bad things, because she doesn't know better yet, so its fun for him to have a partner in crime, and someone else to share the blame! Hopefully this will pass, but I have to say I'm happy that they are enjoying each other instead of fighting, so thats a bonus. (I have to post the latest photos later since Miss Mia is sleeping!)

Technical difficulties!

Possibly due to lack of sleep, I attempted to change something on the last post, and lost the whole thing! Will update hopefully tomorrow! We have our appointment at the Adoption Clinic and get an assessment with the OT and a complete physical. Then we can see where we go from here! I can't imagine that they are going to have any concerns! I think that Mia is actually going to really surprise them!