Wednesday, January 25, 2012

2 Months Home! :)

Well it's been a fabulous 2 months home with our baby girl!  She has come so far in the time we have had together.  She has fit so easily into our family it seems like she has been here much longer.  She is THE HAPPIEST little girl I have ever met.  She continues to amaze us and everyone that has met her.  It is almost like she knew what she didn't have and now that she does have these things, she is loving it and so appreciative and excited about everything!   We all agree that adopting has definitely been one of the best decision we have EVER made!  Seeing new things through her eyes has been so amazing and has made us appreciate each other and just life even more.  She has brought our whole family together in a way I never imagined. :)

Some new things about Charlotte:
1) She loves all of her clothes.  She is such a girly girl!  When she puts on her clothes each day, she looks & calls for "Baba" to clap and smile and tell her she looks pretty.  Then she is off to search for her brothers and wants them to clap too. It is so sweet!
2) She also loves shoes.  Sit her in the floor with a pile of shoes and she will be busy trying on all the different shoes. :) 
3) She is able to communicate very well.  LOL!  1 night she was fussy and Ben and I were trying to sing her to sleep.  She kept crying softly and we kept singing determined to get her to settle into sleep.  Then she had had enough....she put her finger to her lip and loudly said "SHHHHH!"  LOL!
4)  I have gotten her to start saying "mama girl" and we all clap!  She thinks it is fun so she says it often but, it comes out more like "mama, gul, gul"
5) She loves all food we have given her except grapes...it's like she doesn't like the texture and she spits them out after chewing them.  She also is picky about her bananas...she only likes them if they are really ripe.
6) We haven't even attempted to get her to go to the potty again like she did when we were in China.  We hope to try to re-introduce that in about a month.  But now, sometimes she will just bust out in tears when she poops.  It is like she thinks she might be in trouble for pooping in her diaper. I just tell her "it's ok, it's ok" and give her a hug.  Makes me wonder if she had gotten spanked or disciplined for not going in the potty. :(
7) When asked she will point out her hair, feet, ears, nose, hands, & belly.  We are working on her mouth & eyes. :)
8) She is facinated by any family pictures of us.  She will hold them and take them every where with her.  She especially likes the first family photo a friend of mine took on the night we arrived back in the U.S. 
9) She does continue to have night terrors occassionally.  Mainly when she is overly tired or if she is somewhere unfamiliar to her.  She had one of the worst nights ever (3 night terrors in 1 night) when we went to visit my sister in St Louis.   This was our first trip with her and the first time for her to sleep anywhere besides our house. 
10) She loves music and jewelry! :)  She happily dances any time she hears music and she loves her bracelet that Meemaw (my mom) got her, pointing it out to everyone! :) 

Right after Christmas, Jason's parents & sister were able to come for a visit.  Charlotte took up with them fairly quickly.  Letting Shelby & Riley paint her nails and helping Grammy feed Sadie (their dog).  I think it was unanimous that they too thought Charlotte was doing really well adjusting to her new family who loves her very much! :)

L-R Drew, Grammy, Charlotte, Riley, Granddaddy, Ben & in the back are Shelby & Will

Charlotte LOVES her brothers!  When we drop them off in the mornings at school they start pointing to the school and them and saying goodbye to her.  She has now started pointing to herself and then the school....she wants to go to Lakewood too! :)  She cries for just a few seconds every day when they get out but, then its mommy & Charlotte time.












She LOVES to play peekaboo!

We have had a couple of play dates with some of our new friends that are also adopted from China.  Adoption is such a special thing and sharing that with 2 new friends I have met has been awesome!  It is so nice to hear from someone that is a little further along & experienced in the adoption journey. Ms Macy (on the left) lives in McKenzie, about 20 mins away, with her parents & 2 brothers & Ms Molly Kate (on the right of Charlotte) lives in Benton, KY, about 45 minutes away, with her mom & dad & she has 3 grown brothers & a sister that is waiting China to come home probably in June of this year! :)  And the cute boy in the photo is Macy's little brother Brody. :)

She has this sweet, serious look on her face sometimes....love it!  Sometimes I just wonder what you are thinking baby girl!

Charlotte has a LOVE for my camera.  She wants to hold it which I don't want her to do!  Now she comes up when she sees me with my camera and starts grunting and pointing which means she wants it. :)  So cute but, not gonna happen Charlotte.  I need to get her a play camera.

This is her excited/laughing look.  She normally gets big eyes with a look like "oh my goodness" and then she covers her mouth as she starts her giggles. :) So cute!


DeeDee could hardly wait for a nice day to take Charlotte on her 1st gator ride! :)  He thought it might gain him some popularity from her....well not so much.  She did like the gator ride alot though.  Poor DeeDee wants her to sit in his lap so badly but, she just won't have it yet.  She does really well bonding with anyone that can get down in the floor and play with her but, he just physically can't.  In time I know she will let him hold her.

Sweet baby girl we love you so much and can't imagine life without you!  This is her smirk! :)
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Monday, January 02, 2012

Happy New Year! How can it ever compare to 2011!?!?

Sorry I haven't posted as much since we have been home.  I have been sick twice and Jason was sick once and with the holidays....let's just say it has been C-R-A-Z-Y! :)

Charlotte loved her first Christmas!  She quickly got the hang of opening gifts.  Every time she would open a gift, she would get a shocked look on her face and she would ohhh and ahhh! :  It was SO CUTE!  She got the hang of unwrapping so well that later I caught her opening her cousins gift upstairs! LOL!

The picture on the right is of her ohhhhing and awwing when she opened each gift. :)



Things have been going amazingly well.  I am in awe of how this little girl has adjusted.  We love her so much and it is so hard to believe she has only been home 1 month!  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at mccfamily5@bellsouth.net  I would love to help others on their adoption journey. 

When we started looking into Lanzhou & Wuwei, we found there really isn't much information available and certainly not many pictures.  So I am working on getting our picutes downloaded to an online site to share with those that might be interested.  If you have any questions, about Lanzhou or Wuwei, please feel free to email me too.

Things about Charlotte lately:
-Her vocabulary is growing and now she is putting 2 words together. Examples: No Will, STOP Will, Love you, Go Baba etc...  along with mama, Drew, Ben, Will which comes out more like "ill" LOL! :)  She will also try to repeat everything I ask her to say if there is not a big crowd around.

-She has had a couple more night terrors but, I think it was due to new people being around (Jason's parents & sister came to meet her) and just being out of routine. I feel so helpless when this happens though.  There is no consoling her and she seems so scared. :(

-She LOVES to be outside & will cry and point to the door to go out.  Unfortunately, the weather has been unpredictable so we aren't always able to go out.  She loves her swingset!

-She is OVERLY affectionate now and we are LOVING that!  This started right after we got home.  She will pucker her lips & point to them, wanting to kiss whoever she is looking at.  We are a VERY affectionate family but, I don't think she had been used to this much affection at all...but you can tell she loves it! :)

-I am always telling her "I love you!" in kind of a sing songy way, and she has started telling me "love you".  So cute!  She hasn't said it on her own yet, just after I say it first but, it melts this mamas heart!

-She can do the splits which really shocked us. :)  So I think she would do well with gymnastics and, I am planning to start a mommy & me class with her soon.

-She loves her clothes.  Every morning, she gets a huge smile on her face as she holds up her clothes. 

-She loves her hairbows.  If I forget to put in a hairbow or it has fallen out, she will bring me 5 or 6 and motion to do pigtails. :)

-She is very easy going.  She has adjusted to her car seat now and when I tell her "wanna go somewhere with mama?"  She gets excited and definitely wants to go.

-She seems to love all of the boys equally now and they just ADORE her too!  I think the new might be wearing off a tad bit though, thankfully. :)   Drew cried one day this week because she likes their Legos and they forget to put them up so, she has destroyed a couple of their creations...oops!  He asked if he could spank her for getting into the Legos...ugh no I don't think so. :P  I told him he just has to learn to put them up out of her reach.  They haven't been used to a toddler so this is new to them. :)

-This girl LOVES to eat.  I think food must have not been readily available to her.  It seems sometimes that she can't get full.  At night, as we are getting into bed, she will sometimes motion she is hungry.  We haven't noticed any other food issues except that she doesn't seem to be have eatten much meat before at all.  So we have had to slowly introduce chicken and especially beef.

-She repeats motions of people that are around her.  Like, we were in the car with my niece and she had her leg propped up on her other leg and her arms crossed.  Charlotte did the same thing. :)  When she would change positions, she would try and mimick that position as well. funny girl!

-She went on her first John Deere Gator ride with DeeDee on December 30th and boy did she LOVE it!

-She met Jason's parents & his sister & nieces on December 27th.  It took her a while for her to warm up to them but, she really had some fun with them while they were here.



Christmas morning...look at that hair!  Bedheads! :)


She liked her Little Tikes roller coaster!


Opening her Baby Be Blessed Doll.  We picked out the scripture for her doll. :) 



She did NOT like Santa at all!



More of her opening gifts!  She was so cute! :) 
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Wishing you a very blessed New Year for 2012 from our family to yours!