One month in our arms

It's hard to believe that yesterday marked one month that this precious little dumpling has been in our arms.  In that time she has come out of her shell in a big way.  She cried every time we walked into our hotel room in Taiyuan.  Nights weren't easy either.  We occasionally heard her babble. She was grieving, and if you have adopted, you know it's hard to watch.

 Today she's a very different girl, a typical toddler.  She screams when she wants something and screams just to be heard.  It's really nice for when you want to make phone calls.  Um, not really.  She really does pester poor Madeline.  Oy!  She's always wanting what she has and will scream, pull her clothes or hair, or, usually, squeeze her arm.  Yep.  Everything is mine, and I want it now.

She loves her chocolate milk and can drink it by the gallon.  She'll generally eat what I fix the big dumplings.  This girl LOVES to drink water....like all day and a lot....which means lots of pee pee diapers.  I still do put her on the potty to pee, but she drinks so much stinkin' water, I have a hard time keeping up. lol  She's sleeping well, both for naps and bedtime.  We had a few days of big time crying and thought it was grieving.  But my wise sister who has parented this age before told me it just might be that she doesn't want to sleep.  Ding ding ding! We have a winner.  Thankfully those times of crying about sleep were short lived.  She sleeps like a champ without any crying now.  

  Since coming home, she has learned a few basic signs- water, milk, more, please, and thank you.  She can say water (wa wa) and diaper (bi bur) and mommy (though she says mommy when pointing to herself, so she doesn't know it means me yet.)  I originally wanted to her call me mommy because I know she called her foster mom "mama", and I didn't want to upset or confuse her, which it did (upset her) in China.  She says mama and baba but only to babble, not in reference to us.  She babbles quite a bit and will even act like she's having a conversation with you.  It's so funny.  She loves swinging at the park, swimming in the pool, riding in the wagon or on her tricycle, brushing her teeth, dancing to music, and anything she can grab out of her in her sister's hand.  She loves to fake laugh so she can join her brother and sister in their laughing fits too.  She reminds us that we have to check her mouth for loose teeth because both her brother and sister have loosey-goosey teeth that need checking.  Oh she won't be forgotten.  Nope. Well, I could go on and on, but I think I'll stop right there.

As I said in my previous post, I knew I had to start taking some photos of Havi at home because I need to send them to our agency as part of our post placement report.  So one night I decided to take my camera with me on our evening walk.

 I thought I would take this snapshot of the three dumplings together because China wants to see the child experiencing their new culture.  They were thrilled to go on the walk, though not to stop and smile for my camera.  Oh well, it's good enough to send to China.  Done.

 We spotted this small but pretty rainbow as we were nearing home.

Happy 1 month with us, Havi Xue!
You have turned our lives upside for the better, you loud, spunky little girl!
We love love love you like crazy crazycakes!!!!