Merry Christmas!

18 months

My big girls weight is 20 pounds 9 ounces 4th percentile, her head is 46.5cm 48th percentile, and her length is 29 3/4 inches which is 6th percentile.

I honestly can't believe Ella is closer to 2 than 1. She is doing phenominal. Her level of understanding is easily above level. She has great communication skills. She knows TONS of words, but many of them sound similar. Usually situationally I can fiqure out what she is getting at. Esecially since she mixes sign language with spoken language and then adds her own gestures. It is amazing how much development I see in her language every single day.

She is WALKING! Recently she just decided she would, so she did. She actually rarely walks and prefers to run. She can also climb pretty much anything.

She loves singing. Up until recently "Wheels in the bus" and "If your happy and you know it", but now she is slightly obsessed with Santa. She loves "Up on the housetop", "Frosty the snoman", and "Santa clause is coming to town."

She still likes playing with babies and trucks the most. She also likes tv. Bo On The Go and Elmo are the favorites.

Less than a year between

Someone stole my precious baby and replaced her with a darling little girl! Perhaps it was Santa!

Pain of adoption

Adoption is painful. I don't know that I could have understood the emotional complexity of adopting before having actually been there. I read a quote that "in a perfect world there would be no adoption". This is true. I am proud to have a gorgeous, wonderful daughter that happens to be adopted. However there is a flip-side to every coin. For me to have my love, someone elses had to be taken. For my family to be created another had to be torn apart. It is hard for me to not think about this. I wonder on a daily basis if her birth-family thinks about her, misses her, or if they regret their decision. I wonder if in several years she will be contacted by her siblings, or the parents that she never knew. Will she hate them? Will she feel like they "gave" her away? At the same time what is my role in the situation. I want more than anything to tell her she was loved and worshiped and she is missed every single second of every single day and have it be true, but is it the truth? The truth is I don't know. There are allot of questions she will someday ask that I simply don't have the answer to. Of course there will also be questions I know the answer to, but may not want to share. There is not instruction book for life after YOUR adoption. Figuring it out will be a guessing game. I just hope I guess right!

National Adoption Month

I just signed up for a blog challenge! The challenge is write a few blog posts this month with a focus on adoption. Keep checking back!

*also know that much of my journey to my adoption is documented under a different blog. www.meandmylittle4.blogspot.com feel free to pop over and read posts from over there is you are interested!

My Little Model

Last month Ella did some modeling for Naartjie Kids clothing. One of the perks to the job is Mommy got a copy of the pictures. Of course I have to share!

Man that is a gorgeous kid!

 

 

15 months, really really late

As noted above I am really late getting this posted, I realize she is now 16 months not 15, but it is what it is. Little miss is getting big weighing 18 pounds 14 ounces (1%), I hae no idea how big her head is as it was incorrectly measured, but my guess is around the 45% mark, and her height is 28 inches (4%). Eight teeth all in the front, still no molars through. She is still not walking although she is close. She cruises furniture and walks with little assistance. Saying she is a climber is an understatement. She climbs everything. She can climb (by herself) up her slide and once at the top can get her feet underneath her. I am constantly reminding her to sit on her bum and have decided that at this point it may just be best to get a recording of me saying it and hit play every time she is in the tub, a shopping cart, on the slide etc. etc.

Can identify her: hair, teeth, tongue, toes, feet, belly, bum, mouth, and of course she can idenify (and VERY frequently does) Mommies boobies.

Ella has always loved animals. Her favorite is our kitty Ollie. She refers to him as our "meow". She also loves the dogs. In general she is pretty nice to the animals. She likes to give them loves by laying her head on them and patting them while saying awwww. She has recently come a long way with large animals like cows and horses. We frequent the local farm where she will now ride ponies and hand feed goats. She will tell you a cow says "mmmm", a duck says " quack", and if you ask her what a horse says she giggles and turns her head back and forth occasionally she will also spit raspberries to imitate them.

Favorite song is "If your happy and you know it" however she only allows you to clap your hands. She just recently started accepting stomp your feet also. The other songs she likes are "Old Mcdonald" with cow and duck only, "Head, shoulders knees and toes",  "5 little speckled frogs", and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". Our car rides are often an awful sounding mash-up of all of these songs to keep her from screaming.

Ella is becoming quite the little Mommy. She loves caring for her baby dolls. She feeds them (while saying num-num-num), she kisses them, loves the, and wraps them up in her blankets.

My kid loves carbohydrates. Who can blame her? She loves chicken noodle soup, noodles of any kind, pancakes, waffles, & pretzels. Ell is also quite the dairy queen and loves yogurt (strawberry banana is her favorite) and string cheese. She clearly has hollow legs and frequently want to eat constantly. She is still on formula and drinks about 22 (give or take) ounces a day. She doesn't care for juice.

One year ago...

Last July 29th I was handed my 4 pound 11 ounce bundle of sweetness and was actually allowed to leave with her! We drove straight to the airport and got on the next plane to Utah. It was incredibly stressfull, but all I wanted was my baby home. Of couse in retrospect this feeling makes me laugh because little did I know in the comming days how many times I would sit and cry wishing we were back in Tampa!

Speech development

*I HAVE HAD THIS SITTING IN MY DRAFTS FOR ALMOST 2 WEEKSWAITING TO UPLOAD A VIDEO FOR IT. IN THIS AMONT OF TIME THINGS HAVE CHANGED EVEN BEYOND THIS, SO I FIGURED I BETTER POST IT ANYWAY!!


At 12 months babies are expected to have 1-2 words to be considered "on task". While Ella has always demonstrated understanding of words her actual language skills have been considerably delayed. It is important to remember she never actually passed a hearing test until she was 5 months old.
And today Ella says...
baba (bottle)
bubu (by-bye) While waving
bubu (bubbles) and yes they sound very similar!
Mama (Mom)
cock (Clock)
pup-pup (her dogs)
Papa (her grandpa)
?possibly kit (kitty)?
Ella
yeah and claps
ha (hat)
hi (while waving)

I'm pretty pleased! Even though many of these sound pretty much the same she clearly knows what she is talking about and gestures along with her words. She also has a "sign" for more (even though it is NOT the ASL sign).

Paper towels.

Learned a valuable lesson. I was cleaning last night, got sidetracked and ended up setting down a roll of paper towels in Ella's room. This morning I knew she was awake even though she hadn't made much noise and I went in to get her only to find...

A crib full of paper towels! LOL 
FYI she wasn't crying because I beat her or yelled at her relentlessly, she didn't understand why I left to get the camera without getting her out! Funny girl.

another now and then...

New pictures...again!

Yes I have Ella's pictures taken somewhat excessively, but in my defense this was a re-shoot from last month when she did nothing but cry!
*Just as an FYI (as I am frequently asked) We use fotofly and fotoflyaway exclusively. They are beyond fabulous!

stat update

Ella finally had her 1 year appointment this week. Her doctor assured me that not only is she doing well but thriving. She is smart is in the normal range with her peers for intellectual and physical development. *as an odd but interesting side note he told me that because she is black her synapses develop faster and continue to fire at a faster rate than her Caucasian peer. That is why black people tend to excel in sports* He assured me that although I have concerns about some of her behavior she is normal. :)

head circumference is 44 cm, from 17.8 at birth. This is the 27th percentile.
height took a huge jump to 27 1/4 inches, from 12 and is now on the chart at 5%
weight is 17 pounds 11 ounces, from 1 pound 11 ounces at birth and is 3%

Her height is the best news. She has visibly had a growth spurt in length and I am now hoping that HGH (human growth hormones) are going to be not needed!

Party!

Ella's first party was allot of fun, and allot of work! I rented a local clubhouse and put up a little bouncy house (thanks to my bro and sis-in-law) and we also had a ball pit. Now that I have done a Birthday party I will know a little bit more in the future as far as what was a waste of time and what wasn't. It's all a learning curve.
Ella really did okay at her party. I was worried as I think she may have some attachment issues. She was overwhelmed at first and cried a few times. But after about 45 minutes she loosened up and had fun. She loves watching other kids play, she just doesn't want to play WITH them. She also doesn't like attention from adults unless she has solicited it.

After the party my sister noticed some weird sores on her sons feet. Turns out her had hand foot and mouth disease. If you have never heard of this it is a highly contagious disease in the chicken pox family. It spreads quickly among young children and seems to taper off at about age 6. Adult cases are extremely rare. We ended up being one of the unlucky ones. Ella came home early from daycare on Wednesday for a fever and just plain miserableness. We did end up in the doctors office for several hours for respiratory distress (caused by the fever). She had that for about 2 days...then the spots. She doesn't have many on her hands or feet but the ones she does are blisters. One on her right heel is about dime size. Her face has lots of little tiny ones. Where it really causes the problem is the ones in the mouth. It's hard to know exactly what is in there because she isn't super thrilled about me looking in it at all. I do know that the inside of her bottom lip is covered in them. They are painful and she still has a low grade fever off and on. It is SO sad! We also had 3 other victims from her party. Two of them being my coworkers children which is really hard because we can't all not be at work and our children can't be anywhere where there are other kids. They also all want their Mommy's.

One year pics

It is official. Ella hates getting her pictures taken, but thankfully she loves cake!

12 months

Wow its been a crazy year! Unfortunately I don't have the little ones stats yet as we haven't had her one year check. I'll update this post when I have them, but I'm pretty sure she is nearing 17 pounds. Ella is wearing 6  month clothes, and some 9s but they are still a tad big. Still size 0 (newborn) shoes and size 2 diapers.  Her hair is getting very long and her curls are getting tighter every day it seems.
Ella is becoming very mobile she crawls now up on her knees instead of like a seal. She can also go from crawling to sitting. Still is trying to pull herself up but not much is easily grasped by her so thus far the bath tub is the only place she can actually do it.
Language is a funny area with her. Currently she is babbling allot, although many times she phases in and out of talking. She can say Mama, dada (don't ask? I think maybe dog), & baba (although I don't know if she knows the meaning). She can wave bye-bye and sometimes hi. She had her own invented sign language. She does ask for more of things by putting her hand out and opening and closing it. She also tells me to hurry by banging her hand on things.

Ella is busy. ALL.THE.TIME. I'm in trouble. She is into everything. How is it that a child that young even knows what things they should and should not have? When I was cleaning up her toys last night I had to set aside her favorites, the hanger, the un-opened capri-sun pouch, and a size 1 flip-flop. She also loves anything she can swing ie: the vacuum cord or any type of strap.
The kid continues to eat like she has hollow legs. Her tastes have changed a bit recently. She will eat most things, but likes meat, dairy and starches the best. Fruit is eh, some veggies are okay. She really likes green beans & carrots. Loves hot dogs and string cheese.
Ella has also started sharing. She likes to put whatever she has in my mouth. Cute sometimes, gross others! Kissing is also her thing right now. She likes long make out sessions with her cookie monster. I'll start digging a hole to hide in now so it is finished by the time she is a teen!

one year ago...

Exactly one year ago today I got a life changing phone call. I was asked if I wanted a one day old baby girl in Tampa. She was very early, and very high risk...

I'm glad I like to take chances now and then!

Hair... the progression

First off let me say that anyone considering adoption should never let the hair of an African American child stop them from from adopting outside their race. It IS a learning curve, but a very do-able challenge! Ella's hair is getting to be so much fun. I love it! It is constantly changing. Here's a walk down memory lane...

August straight kind of crazy hair, would curl on top when wet. Like this from birth.

 Got more and more crazy, but still straight September.

October, vanished. Never treat your child for cradle cap unless you KNOW that is what it is! Scalp eczema made all her hair fall out. I was devastated!

January. Curly fuzz, very little to speak of. Back and sides still very bald.

 Today! Still very short and pretty fuzzy on the back and sides. Curl size varies. Most places about the size of a pencil and very soft.

I just love it!
*also just a side note, Ell is HALF black and half puerto rican. However her puerto rican b-mom has very curly hair also!