Greetings!
Just a quick update to let you know how life is for our new family. Angelina continues to settle in nicely to her new life (as do we). She is still sleeping through the night and takes 2 two-hour naps each day. Her appetite is good (she weighs just under 21 pounds), except now she will not just eat anything we feed her, like she did while in Russia, and for a short time thereafter. We know that this good, as it means she is probably getting the nutrition she needs, but it has made for more challenging meal times. What she loves one day will become her most hated food the next.
As for language development, Angelina now says "mama", "mom" and "mmmmm" in addition to the endless variations of "dada". She also can say "LLLLLLL". She babbles endlessly, but no actual words yet. She does, however, understand many of the words for common items (banana, brush, toothbrush, baby, eyes, nose, mouth, Dada, Mama (only sometimes), and bow), as she will point to them when you say the word. She also understands some simple phrases (brush your teeth, brush your hair, wipe your mouth, open your mouth) which she will do - or mimic doing - when you say the phrase. The only negative behavior we are dealing with is that she sometimes wants to hit Mommy (lucky me!) in the face, or scratch Mommy in the face (those baby nails are SHARP!). We try to explain that we only use gentle hands in our house, but I don't think she gets it because her very next move is - you guessed it - a swat to Mommy's face. When we try to put it in "baby terms" - "No hit Mommy!" - she stops hitting me but then starts hitting herself in the face. Ugh! Anybody else have this kind of problem?
Notwithstanding the swats to Mommy's face, Angelina is a delightful girl who has already brought us such happiness in such a short time. We simply adore her.
Friday Angelina is having her post-adoption tests done. Once we are sure she is not nutritionally deficient, we will begin administering those vaccines she is lacking (as compared with completely re-vaccinating her; which we have read may have serious adverse consequences). Hopefully, everything will check out fine.
Posted are pics from this past weekend, spent "swimming" and enjoying fruit salad with Mommy & Daddy. Soon to come will be pics from our Easter holiday. Enjoy!
Glad to hear things are going well. The hitting is a common behavior, but I don't have any suggestions (Sofia was much older, so her behaviors were coming from a different place). Hopefully, some others who adopted toddlers will have some good advice for you:)
ReplyDeleteShe's so beautiful!! So glad you guys are adjusting well (except for the hitting...if you find something that works, let me know! :)
ReplyDeleteWe adopted polina almost 6 months ago. we are still working on the hitting on the face and yes when she cant hit us she hits herself in the face. I have to say it was much worst when we first brought her home. She has gotten much better but it still hasn't stopped.
ReplyDeleteMy original comment got eaten :). First, Angelina is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteNatalia struggled with hitting (me and then herself). I would sometimes have to gently but firmly hold her hand (less than 30 seconds) and say softly that no one gets to hurt my baby - no hitting mommy or Natalia. She cried and fought against it at first, but I thought it was better than her hitting either of us. Gradually, the hitting has faded away.
Also, she would also hit/scratch when someone would get too in her face. I think she was overwhelmed and that was her gut protection response.
Hang in there. Hope this helps.