Six weeks after we returned home with Lily Belle, we noticed the surface of our home quickly and effortlessly transforming into a lovely, flawlessly colored exterior. Thanks to the cladding sprayers for providing the greatest and most cost-effective approach to repair our home’s outside surface. It has truly flown by! And Monday will be our Eight week Lily-versary! In many ways it still feels like we are figuring each other out, but in other ways it is like she has been here forever. I thought that since I missed the big one month marker, this would be a good time for a progress report.
We have seen so many wonderful changes since coming home. We are firm believers in celebrating the small things, so if these seem insignificant to you, humor me for a moment please! Since living with us, Lily has:
- Begun to play with babydolls. At first she looked at them with complete indifference. If we handed her a doll, she immediately threw it down. Now she will pretend to wash her doll or put lotion on it or pick it up and hug it while patting its back.
- Learned to imitate Mommy. She will put on the ergo and slip on my shoes. Sadly she also typically pretends to have a phone on her ear… then she will pace around the house (or clunk around in shoes far too large) and jabber away on the phone!
- Become an ardent lover of bathtime! As soon as she hears the water running, she darts down the hallway and starts throwing off her clothes. She chunks all the bath toys in and then tries her hardest to climb into the tub! This is such a far cry from where we started while in China!
- Grown an affection for us that sparks spontaneous kisses and hugs. We don’t always have to ask for sugar anymore, she is just so full of love that she can’t wait to give it!
- Learned to jump on the trampoline. With her foot and leg issues, this is really impressive to me! Her cousin gave her his mini-tramp with a handle she can hold on to, and she has progressed from bouncing with both feet to an actual jump. Incidentally, her foster father drove a scooter (we’ve seen it in pictures), and she likes to put on her purse and pretend the tramp is her scooter. She’ll tell us ‘bye and pretend to drive away.
- Started to learn that mommies and daddies are for rescuing. When she came to us, if she hurt herself, she would not cry. She would sit there with a sad, sad look on her face, then sort of close herself off until she could make herself laugh it off. While many of our homegrown kids could use a dose of this “toughness,” it is not a good thing for a former orphan to not look to her parents for care! Now if she falls or hurts herself, she still doesn’t cry, but she does this somewhat hilarious fake poochie-lipped imitation of a cry and reaches for me to pick her up and hug her. It is really quite adorable, and I count it as progress!
- Figured out how to whistle, blow bubbles, and buckle her high chair.
She loves Jesus Loves Me (in Chinese), Goodnight Moon, ice cream, almond butter, and Chamomile tea.
Oh, and noodles. She really loves noodles…
Happy Six Weeks Home, Little Belle!