Saturday, April 19, 2008

A Few More Pictures

In my previous post, I forgot to mention her most often used word that she speaks, uh-oh. She doesn't realize this is only for accidents because she'll use it after throwing something on the ground, on purpose. There's also another word she uses, that were not too crazy about, especially when she's playing with her cousins. MINE

Here's a few more pictures I wanted to post, but didn't have at the time of my last post.

With Beads


The next 3 pictures were taken around Easter. The first of these 3 is with Natalie, who is also from China. Her parents live in Owasso and travelled right after we did. You can find there blog here.

Natalie and Alyssa


Hunting Eggs


Hunting Eggs


With Bunny


Alyssa and Daddy


Family of Three


The last picture is of Alyssa feeding the ducks.

Feeding the Ducks

Friday, April 18, 2008

Long Overdue Update

Since I started my A Photo A Day blog, I've neglected to update this blog. Alyssa has done a lot of growing up since then. So, I'll try to update everyone in one big posting.

Alyssa is sleeping through the night. She's been doing this for quite a long time now and we're greatful to be getting our sleep too. She always seems to wake up in a good mood, and sometimes she'll play quietly by herself in bed before we notice that she's awake.

We had a new social worker for our 6 month post placement report and that went smoothly. Our previous social worker was VERY difficult to get in touch with and tended to drag her feet with everything she did. The new social worker was pretty easy to reach and the whole thing went quickly. When she visited, Alyssa went right to her and sat in her lap for quite some time. She was impressed with how well Alyssa was doing and didn't feel that she was delayed at all.

We've taught Alyssa a few bits of sign language for things like "all done", "eat", and "more". It's been nice for her to be able to tell us these things until she learns to speak them. Here's a picture of Alyssa giving the "more" sign.

Signing More


She loves music and often will break into a dance when she hears something she likes. We'll be watching TV and a commercial will come on or a show's theme music and Alyssa will start boppin' up and down and leaning to one side. It cracks us up sometimes.

She's also saying a few words now. She can say mama and daddy. She calls Shawn's dad "papa", and she usually whispers this for some reason. Since Shawn's mom keeps her while we're at work, she's sees her papa a lot. We're quite certain that her papa is going to spoil her rotten. She says a few other words that we recognize and there's some words that we don't quite understand too.

I'll end this post with some more pictures of Alyssa, starting with her Easter picture with a live bunny.

Easter Picture


Alyssa In Yellow


Wild Hair


Up Side Down