The kids are napping so I figured I better do a quick post so you all don't think we're in a Chinese prison somewhere. Sorry it's been two days, but we were moved to a new room and it doesn't have wireless Internet. So to blog, I need to go down to the bar on the 3rd floor.
I don't really know where to begin to explain how things are going. Things are better in some ways and worse in others. Livvie's grieving has definitely gotten better and she is much happier overall. She is a silly, funny little girl. She's not crying when she wakes up with us and mostly just crying at bedtime. And the girl LOVES to eat! She can pack away more food than I can. And she will eat pretty much anything (big change from our picky little Turtle).
But on the bad side, we are starting to see more of her true personality and are learning quickly that she was spoiled rotten by her nannies. She is used to getting what she wants, when she wants and if she doesn't .... meltdown city! When we first got her referral and the paperwork said "she is sometimes obstinate", we laughed and thought it sounded cute. Oh boy - not so cute in person. Stubborn, Stubborn, Stubborn. And she is already trying to play Cale and I against each other when one won't give her what she wants. We constantly have to leave restaurants, parks, stores because she doesn't get what she wants and then throws a fit. We know things will get better with some consistency and routine, it's just going to take time.
Here's what we know so far:
- She's a girly-girl. When I give her the option of pants or dresses, she will always choose the dress and bright socks (sound familiar Annie?) She also loves makeup and has to play with all brushes when we get ready in the morning.
- She loves to sing and babble. Developmentally, I would say she acts like a 1 1/2 year old (which has been tough since 1 1/2 year olds get into EVERYTHING!!)
- She LOVES to take baths and play with the stacking cups in the water. She laughs and laughs when we let her splash us.
- She's picked up on sign language like crazy. She knows the signs I taught her for "more", "eat", "drink", "potty".
Overall, things have really improved since the first day, she's started to trust us and I think is slowly starting to realize we're not leaving. We're so looking forward to getting home and getting back into a routine. I think she'll really blossom with some structure...it's tough to set any sort of routine living out of a hotel.
