Ok so you may be confused by the title, since Memorial Day was in May and it’s now July. Did I ever say I was good at blogging on time? No. But I figured I’d better get this post out before July 4th this weekend.

We went to visit Cliff’s family over Memorial Day weekend, but on the actual holiday we got to meet some VERY special people. We had the joy of meeting Baby Jill and her wonderful family. Sherri & Tim adopted Jill in July of last year. But our two girls are VERY connected, Sherri & Tim used the same agency we did, Jill was from the same orphanage as Boo, AND both girls are of Kyrgyz heritage, plus they live in Cliff’s hometown. How crazy is that?

It’s actually pretty interesting, because we had signed with our agency before Sherri & Tim. But because our dossier originally went to a different region and theirs went straight to Moscow City, they ended up getting a referral for a Eurasian girl before we did. If we hadn’t originally sent our paperwork to Vladivostok (which we later withdrew to switch to Moscow), then Jill would have been our daughter and Boo would have been theirs! But both families feel that we each got the child that was meant to be ours, obviously

It’s just funny because I remember how frustrated I was when I saw that another couple (I didn’t know them at that time) had received a referral that I thought should have been ours! Clearly God knew what he was doing in this situation. Plus we were so lucky, because Sherri saw our Boo when she was at the orphanage visiting Jill and she remembered her! Boo was only 9 months old at that time and Sherri says she remembers how happy and alert she was and that she made great eye contact. Sherri said she would have taken Boo if she could have! She also got a very short video of Boo that she sent to us. We will always treasure having even just a few seconds of our baby girl from months before we met her.

Anyway! We visited Sherri, Tim, JC, Jacob and Jill at their home and had such a great time. Of course the girls pretty much ignored each other! haha, but the boys were so sweet with Boo and played with her. And Jill is just a sweetheart, I even got a quick cuddle! It’s funny to see the girls together, they would have spent 8 months of their lives together in the orphanage. I did get some photos of them and of course will be sharing them with you. Sherri and I definitely plan on keeping in touch (for the girls and ourselves!) and hopefully we’ll get the girls together soon. I’ll have to give Sherri a call this weekend while we are in town again for the holiday and see if they have time to get together again. Thanks so much for having us over Sherri!

{The first photo, don’t they look a little in shock? Silly girls}

{Ok that’s a little better, are they not the cutest?}

{Sweet}

{Here is Jill doing her best Madonna Vogue impression, pretty good huh?}

{Jill wins!}

{Here’s Jill making her move, Boo looks pretty happy about it}

{Smooch!}

{The girls did play with the Vacuum together for a little while}

{Ok we’re done here}

I didn’t get any photos of Jill’s big brothers but they are both as adorable and sweet as can be. They were so sweet to Boo and were the kindest little guys. We can’t wait to see you all again soon!

The week before last was a week of firsts for Boo and I. I had really been wanting to get her into some group situations to try to socialize her a little more and to get her out of the house over the Summer. I’d inquired at a place called The Little Gym a couple of months back but the semester cost was way too high, however I learned they had a Summer program which was a lot less since it was only 8 weeks.

I happened to check their website last week and saw that the Summer session was starting that week so I called and they said we could come for a trial lesson if we liked. So that’s what we did, last Friday we went to their class for 19month-2.5 year olds and Boo had a blast! She absolutely loved it and surprisingly wasn’t shy or bashful at all. I was expecting her to be shy the first time we went like she usually is the first time we go some place new, but she just jumped right in and did everything.

Honestly she was the most interested child there and participated more than the others. There were only 4 kids in the class but I guess the other kids weren’t too interested in a lot of the opening activities because they kept running off or refusing to participate.  Maybe it’s because they had been going there for some time and it was becoming boring, I don’t know. But I know that Boo thought it was fantastic and did all the things the teacher was doing. She loved running around in a circle to warm up and squealed with delight as she did it. We went back again this past Tuesday and she loved it just as much, although I noticed that it was hard to get her to stay on the mat during the opening exercises this week as well as the other kids. I guess once they know how many fun activities there are in the gym it’s hard for them to stay in one place.

Then on Thursdays we decided to start going to Story Time at the local bookstore. It’s not actually the bookstore that’s closest to us but I had heard this one had a great woman that did lots of songs before reading the story. Again Boo had a blast, she had so much fun trying to do the actions for the songs (we didn’t know all of them) and especially enjoyed clapping and cheering at the end of each song. Seriously, if she was going to grow up in America, she would totally be a Cheerleader, she claps, cheers and looking around the whole time at everyone else to make sure they are cheering too. What a character.

On Saturday we went to this class called Kindermusik. While Boo had fun running around to the music, honestly I don’t feel we got much out of it (besides some socialization). Basically the theme was Zoo Train and they would pretend to be on the Train and then pretend to be animals. It’s supposed to be to expose kids to music to help their brain development. Personally I found it incredibly BORING. It did not compare to the fun we had at Little Gym. Plus I really don’t feel she was getting much out of it since she listens to a lot of music at home. We decided to skip this in the future, thankfully that was also a free trial lesson.

But out week of firsts didn’t end there! Oh well actually I guess it did, Sunday is the beginning of a new week isn’t it. Oh well not the point. Sunday we took her to Church for the first time. Not only that, we decided to try to leave her in the toddler/baby room during the Church Service. This was a HUGE step for both us and her. We took her in there and while she liked the look of all the toys, she wanted to stay very very close to me. After a few minutes we decided to just leave the room for 5 minutes to see how she did. Well of course she followed us to the door and then proceeded to stand by the door trying to open it the entire time we were out in the hallway. She never cried (she isn’t a crier) but she couldn’t be coaxed from the door.

We went back in and hugged her and decided to take her with us to the Service. The Service started with people giving a whole lot of announcements and sometimes these involved clapping. Well you know Boo loved that, she stood on our laps, clapping, cheering and smiling so big. Looking around at everyone else to make sure they were clapping too. It was hilarious, she yelled and clapped so happily I just love it. Of course 10 minutes later she was bored and wanted to get down and move around. Clearly it wouldn’t work with her staying with us. I walked her around the Church a little bit then decided to try taking her back to the playroom to see how she would react.

I was relieved to see that she toddled right on in there without any hesitation, apparently we hadn’t scarred her permanently when we left her for 5 minutes. I stayed just a minute then kissed her and told her bye bye and left. I waited to make sure she didn’t cry (which she didn’t) and then headed back to the Church. 15 minutes later I went back to check if she was stuck to the door or whether she had decided to play. I was pleased to see that she was sitting on the floor reading a book. 15 minutes after that we checked again and she was in another area playing with a different toy and we got the thumbs up from the girl looking after her.

After that we stopped checking until the end of service (about 30 mins) and then eagerly headed back to see her. We entered the room and she was focused playing with a stacking toy and didn’t notice us. When she got it all together we clapped for her and she looked up shocked and burst into tears, reaching her little arms our for us! Oh man I felt bad but the crying stopped the second she was in my arms. Honestly I think the crying was part shocked out of her because she hadn’t noticed us come in and we surprised her when we started clapping. Of course the other part I’m sure was relief that we had actually come back for her.

But then she was back to her usual self and we didn’t see any signs of trauma in the following days or nights so that was a big relief. We took her back there today and left her again, this time there was a lovely younger girl there who I think decided to pick her up at some point because when I went to check on her after 20 mins she was snuggled in the girl’s arms being rocked in the chair with her thumb in her mouth and her blankie close, watching the other kids play. This did bother me, because that is what Boo does, she shuts down but doesn’t cry. I went back and told Cliff and we decided to go back and see her because we didn’t want her in shutdown mode for an hour.

We entered the room and she reached for me but didn’t cry. As soon as I had her she started smiling and wanted to explore the toys and room again. I had a feeling that the young girl probably thought she was being nice to her by picking her up to hold her, but being held by someone else just put Boo into survival mode and that wasn’t good. We got her interacting with the toys again and then said goodbye. The second we left the room I saw her turn around to face the toys which was good. When Cliff went back to check on her she was happily playing with a ride-on toy but she spotted him and shouted “Da Da!”. She took his hand and showed him some toys, he gave her some love before leaving again.

Once the Service was over I went back to get her and she was at the top of the slide waiting her turn to slide down. She saw me and smiled and then slid down the slide. She didn’t want to leave that time! She wanted to show me all the toys and continue playing, I actually had to pick her up to make her leave which I took as a great sign. I’m glad she’s going to be getting this chance in a safe environment  and for short periods to learn that we will always come back for her. This was the first time we have left her alone with anyone. For the past 7 months (yep 7 months today!!) she has constantly been with either Cliff or I at all times.

Wow if you actually read all that, Good for you! It was long and I’ve been trying to get it all documented for a week now. To reward you, here is a video from just the other day. Gotta love baby laughter.

If you’re interested you should then watch this video from just 5 months earlier! I’ve posted it before but I can’t believe how she has gone from just learning to walk to chasing us around the house in such a short period. She’s not a little baby anymore.

*Yes this is late, I’m backdating it to Sunday.

Today was Father’s Day here in the US. For whatever reason, Father’s Day in Australia isn’t until September, yet Mother’s Day is the same. We had a great day, Boo was in a good mood pretty much all day and was sweet to her Daddy which was good. On his Birthday she was a royal brat all day, but not today.

I couldn’t have picked a better Father for my daughter. Cliff loves Boo so much and it shows. You should see him light up when she is being sweet, silly, funny, anything! And Boo adores him too, she loves getting cuddles from her Daddy and loves being chased around the house by him (even with a broken toe! more on that later). I hope that Boo and I did a good job honoring her Daddy today, we tried our best to make it a good day.

We started our day hanging out on the bed a little while she gave Cliff his presents and card. Cliff got bacon and eggs for breakfast and very kindly shared his toast with his baby girl. We couldn’t relax too much this morning as we were going to Church. After church we went to a Vietnamese restaurant that we hadn’t tried before and it was hot and popular! The place was packed with large families having lunch. Because it was so busy the service wasn’t the best, but Cliff really liked his Pho which is what mattered.

Boo fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep while we brought her into the house and put her in her crib. She had a busy morning (more on that later too) and was wiped out. I made this decadent pasta dish for dinner which Cliff said he loved. How can you not love cream, butter and cheese huh? It was really good and Boo LOVED it and ate it all by herself.

Overall I think it was a really nice, relaxing day and I hope that Cliff enjoyed it. It was way too hot (99F, 37C) to do a picnic lunch like I thought we could do, but I think the Pho was an even better idea. Cliff is just an awesome Dad to Boo and I know she loves him so much, they will always have a special relationship.

Last week was a week of firsts for our Boo, I will post about our week in another post. I’m so mad I forgot to take a photo of Cliff & Boo on Father’s Day!!! I didn’t remember until she was asleep, I did consider getting her up but thought better of it.

{Then. October 23rd 2008}

{Now. June 5th 2009}

Dear feisty girl,

Yes you are feisty. Sure you look all sweetness as you smile to everyone else, but when you don’t get your way, watch out! Objects start flying around the place and dirty looks abound. But that’s ok, you’re just starting to exert your independence and test us to see what you can get away with. Thankfully your Dad and I aren’t pushovers (most of the time), so there have been some timeouts in your twentieth month.

• First (and hopefully last) night terror. You scared your poor parents to death little girl! Let’s not have any more of those. We promise to try to avoid too much activity and missing naps for quite some time.
• You are little miss independent these days. Heaven forbid your Father or I try to feed you, complete meltdown will ensue if we don’t let you feed yourself. Of course this is one of those times we do let you have your way, because you need to learn how to do these things. But it makes us a little sad that you don’t need us as much anymore. The last few days you have even insisted on holding your bedtime bottle too, at least when you do that, you’ll hold the bottle with one hand and want to hold our hand with the other. You usually get bored of holding the bottle about half way through and will let us take over.
• Sleeping is a hit and miss. Some nights you sleep great, other nights you’re up in the middle of the night for hours, that’s not so fun. But you are sleeping in your bedroom for naps and in the portable crib in our room at night. You still need to be close to us at night time which we don’t mind at all.
• You are learning new words every day it seems. Always trying to repeat things that we say. You even have a couple of phrases that you say… “Where is it/she/he?” “There it/she/he is!” and “gonna getcha”.
  
• You just soak up the signs from the signing dvds. I’m pretty sure you know all but one or two now. Some new ones you added this month are “frog”, “pig”, “cookie”.
• I’m laughing right now, as I type this you are talking on your phone and I keep hearing you say “ahro” (hello) you sound just like Scooby-doo.
• New spoken words “Elmo”, “go”, “bath”, I know there are more but I can’t remember right now.
• You are finally willing to perform a little on command! You will do all your animal sounds if I ask and also point to your body parts. As long as you’re not too busy doing something else that is.
• It’s not new that you are saying “baby”, but it’s the way you say it these days that makes us laugh so hard. I think you’re trying to say it with a smile, but you end up saying it through gritted teeth while trying to smile. It’s like you hate that baby so much you have to grit your teeth, so funny because I know that’s not what you’re trying to do.
• You make us laugh so hard. The other night you woke up at 11pm, I couldn’t resist and I went and got you out of bed and brought you into the living room with Daddy and I. You had your Daddy and I in stitches laughing so hard at you. You are one funny girl.
• You absolutely have tantrums. You like to get your way and are not afraid to show your displeasure if you don’t. You may even show it by pinching or hitting us.  Thankfully they are usually short lived, or else a time-out works wonders. You love getting your kiss and cuddle after a time-out.

I know there is so much more baby girl, but you just amaze us every day and we feel so blessed to be your parents. I know, I know, I say that in all your monthly updates, but it’s true. It takes everything I have to not wake you up once you’re in bed, just to see your smile.

We love you,

Mummy & Daddy.

Here is just a sampling of Boo’s signs, words and sounds.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Sunday didn’t go as planned because we had a rough night on Saturday. Boo had a Night Terror for the first time (and hopefully last) on Saturday night. It was horrible, to say the least. Mostly for Cliff and I, I don’t know Boo remembered it. For those of you not familiar with night terrors, this is not the same as a nightmare. It occurs in a much deeper state of sleep and there is no images involved from what I read.

Saturday had been a long and busy day for us. Boo had gotten up at 6:30am so we could drive to Nashville. We arrived at Susan’s around 11 and tried to put Boo down for a nap around 12:30pm. Of course she was in a new place with new toys and there was no way she was going to sleep. But we left her in her crib until 1:30pm (she did quieten down) at which point I figured she wasn’t going to sleep but at least she had rested.

We went to the park at 3pm for our playdate. Headed to the hotel to check in then straight back out to go to Susan’s for dinner. She had a blast playing at Susan’s with Ben, Aiden and Petunia. But this was all a lot of activity and a lot of new people in one day. We didn’t get back to the hotel until after 9pm and she went straight to sleep once we got there.

Around midnight she woke up screaming. Cliff was awake I think so he got up to comfort her. He said she was standing up in the crib, facing the corner and screaming. He picked her up but she kicked at him and continued crying and screaming. I thought maybe she needed to know I was there too so I asked him to give her to me. She didn’t even pause in her screaming, I started to panic thinking something must be really wrong with her that she must be in pain. I told Cliff to turn on the light, I seriously expected to see her covered in blood or some horrible welts or something that would explain why she seemed to be in such pain.

Cliff turn on the light and I was able to see that there didn’t appear to be any physical problems. I noticed her eyes were closed and I realized she was having a night terror. Thank goodness I had read about them in one of the adoption books I’d read while waiting for referral. I told Cliff that is what it was and asked him to go and Google it on his laptop because I couldn’t remember if you were supposed to try to wake them or not. I was thinking you weren’t supposed to try.

I just kept saying her name over and over, telling her Mummy and Daddy were here and it was ok. She kicked and clawed at my face trying to get away from me. I laid her down on the floor but she started rolling and tossing and I was afraid she would hit her head on something so I put her back in the crib. She just kept tossing and kicking and sitting up and throwing herself down, all the while screaming, it was horrible. Sometimes her eyes would open but she couldn’t recognize us in her deep sleep. I even tried calling her Russian name, thinking maybe that would reach a deep part of her but she responded to nothing.

After 5-10 mintues it finally stopped. She stopped screaming but was still crying heavily, but she reached up for me to pick her up from the crib. I immediately did and held her like a baby in my arms while she sucked her thumb and clung to her blankie. She was still sobbing and trying to catch her breath. It took about 15 minutes for the sobbing to stop and for her to be able to breath normally again. Finally she lifted her head and smiled. Thank God our baby was back.

Cliff and I said to each other that we could totally see where people thought children were possessed by the devil in the old days. I’m sure what they were seeing was a night terror. Because it was like she was possessed and there was no reaching her. I wouldn’t have been surprised if her head had spun around like in The Exorcist! It was like our baby girl wasn’t in there anymore, and it was scary. We were SO relieved when she finally came back to us. But after that and we discovered that they can be caused by over-stimulation and being over-tired, we decided it was best to have a nice quiet Sunday, just the 3 of us.

We were able to get a late check-out at the hotel so we could put Boo down for a nap before we headed home. She was completely back to her normal self in the morning which we loved. We stopped at an awesome Vietnamese place, Kien Giang, on the way back home and Boo LOVED the Lemongrass Beef with Vermicelli that I had. And I have to say I was surprised at how easy it was to feed her with chopsticks.

I’m really sorry we didn’t get to spend more time with Susan, Kelli and Daphne and that we didn’t get to meet Laura. Hopefully we’ll be able to make the trip again in the Fall and we can meet everyone then. But we just had to keep it low key for Boo so that we didn’t have a repeat of the Night Terror. Thankfully last night she slept well. I hope that was the one and only Night Terror she ever has, it was not a pleasant experience. I’m just glad I had read about them in the adoption book, or I would have been beside myself wondering what the heck was wrong with my daughter.