One month in

I can't believe a month has already passed since Sora became a part of our family. Although the first 10 days felt like a month, the last 2 weeks have flown by. It's so amazing to see how far she has come. She seems to have adjusted so well, which we are truly thankful for. Every day she feels more and more like my child - also something I'm thankful for. She already seems to have grown and changed so much since we first met her. Here are some things about Sora at 11 months as well as some ways she has adjusted since first coming home.

* She seems to have a very independent spirit - probably one of the reasons she was walking so early. She also seems so much older than she is. I have to remind myself not to expect too much from her because of this.

*She sucks her thumb - but only while in her crib. If you never saw her sleeping you would never know (well maybe other than the blister she has on her left thumb).

* The child will not sit still. Seriously, she is constantly on the move.

* She has NO interest in books. Sad. We wonder if she was ever read to in Korea. We also wonder if some of it is the fact that she has no idea what we are saying when we read them. I've been sneaking them in though. Before each nap I rock her and she drinks her bottle. It takes about 10 minutes. So I read her books the entire time - and she actually listens and looks at them. It's great. She totally recognizes them now too. Soon I'm going to try to read one to her when it's not bed time and see what happens.

* I love how when I'm rocking her before bed and she finishes her bottle she'll turn in towards me, put her thumb in her mouth and just lay there while I finish singing.

* When she first came home, food was a big issue. In Korea, she was pretty much getting formula every 3 1/2 hour and nothing else. No wonder she is barely on the charts for her weight and still waking up to eat during the night. I had made a ton of baby food for her before she came - and she wanted nothing to do with it. The only thing she would eat sometimes was pears. So we decided to try table food and it made a huge difference. She will eat carrots, green beans, peas, pears, kix, cheerios, bran flakes, crackers, grapes, banana, and a little bit of cheese. I'm sure there is more that I can't think of right now. She didn't like peaches when I tried 2 weeks ago so I need to try again. She'll eat bread some. She also LOVES french fries. We figured that out the first time we went to a restaurant with her. We were just happy to find something to keep her in her seat. She still loves the baby cookies her foster mother sent with her from Korea. It's the last thing we have for her from Korea (food-wise at least) and we let her eat one after each meal. The only baby food I can get her to eat is pears with some rice cereal mixed in for breakfast. She is getting about 4 bottles per day (6 oz each). She was getting more, but the Doctor told me to back off so that she would realize that food is what she needs when she gets hungry. I think she is finally figuring that out.

* The car seat. At first she screamed every time we put her in. She has slowly gotten better and better. She used to start whimpering as we opened the car door. She still doesn't love it. But as long as she's not tired or hungry, she will sit in it contently - especially for short trips. We've also noticed that if we can give her something to eat she will be perfectly happy. The best things are pita chips or fortune cookies - something that takes are really long time for her to eat. It was a great discovery!

* She loves her bath. We pretty much give her one every night because she is the messiest eater ever. I really could give her one after each meal. She rubs her face and then rubs her hands all over hear head. I just can't bear to put her to bed like that. She loves to just walk or crawl from one end of the bath tub - she is crazy. Micaiah will take any chance to take a bath so he is often in there with her. Luckily he doesn't mind her antics. Many adopted kids HATE their baths for a long time. It has something to do with feeling very vulnerable. I'm so glad Sora loves it.

* Sora is great getting her diaper changed or getting dressed. It's also something that a lot of children have issues with. Sora cried for maybe about a 4 or 5 days but that was it. For the most part she will lay still and let us do our work.

* She has definitely bonded mostly to me. I know it's most because I've been her primary care giver. For the past few weeks Damien has tried to do as much as he can to take care of her so she will bond with him. He gives her a bath at night and tries to give her a bottle when he's home. She will let him do everything but put her down to bed. She fights him like crazy. The second he brings her in the room with the bottle she starts to cry. He's going to keep trying, but for now, bedtime is a mommy thing. As much as he would like to be able to do it, we're thankful for how much she is already open to him. Many adopted children won't let the father near them and we knew that was a possibility for us too. We're so glad she likes daddy!

* Sora has been taking two naps a day - maybe an hour to an hour and 1/2 each. She usually only gives a little fuss when going down. If she's really tired she won't cry at all and sometimes she may cry for a minute or so. But we seem to have established a pretty good routine. It's been an adjustment for me to have a child who needs two naps - it really limits time for errands. She wakes up around 8 (sometimes later) and takes her first nap around 10:45am and her second around 3pm. She goes to bed around 8:30am. She is sleeping in the boys room. We put her down first and then they go in about 20 or 30 minutes later. They are doing really well with it and have only woken her up once when they went in. She has been waking up about every other night around 3am. I give her a bottle and she usually goes right back to sleep. I don't need a baby monitor because the second she makes a sound Orin is awake and in our room telling us she is crying. Micaiah is the opposite. She can sleep through anything. On the few nights she has cried for 5 or 10 minutes or so before going back to sleep he has slept right through it.

* She always takes her barrette out! I can't get her to stop. She is fine with the pig tails but will take them out in the car too. :-)

* She is way more interested in playing with anything that isn't one of her toys than a toy. It could be the boys toys, pots, plastic bags (yes, I know that's bad), shoes, etc...

* She is quick! We have to keep the bathroom door shut at all times - it's like a magnet. She's definitely had her share of playing in the toilet. The boys are good about keeping their gate closed for the bedroom, but we're still working on the bathroom. She also recently found out that she can unravel the toilet paper. And she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth!

* Her biggest temptation seems to be touching the frames on our end table. I swear for a while I was worried she would think her name was "no" or "nosora". She is doing better with it and will go over and stand by the frames and then look at me. Of course, sometimes she still touches them. The other thing we are always telling her to get away from is the TV.

* I definitely think she recognizes her name as Sora. Although we didn't plan to call her Sora for a while, we found that she didn't answer to Bada anyway. I figure that is because even when we say her Korean name we pronounce it totally different. So we decided to just call her "Sora Bada" when we call her. It's fun because we totally interchange her names. Sometimes Orin will call her Bada and sometimes Sora. I hope this lasts and Bada can be sort of like a nickname.

* She will mimic almost anything. She waves "bye" and will even sign "more", "all done", "milk" (even though she doesn't know what they mean yet). I'm not sure how many English words she knows yet. The only thing I know for sure that she knows is "kiss." If I say kiss she'll give me one. It's so sweet.

* She still loves to be held. If I sit on the couch she'll wander around and play with no problem. But if I get up and try to do anything she'll chase after me at whine to pick her up. Therefore, I have gotten great use of my slings. We've cooked, cleaned, played games, vacuumed, etc. while having her in the sling. I need to get one where I can wear her on my back since it's sort dangerous to cook with her right next to me grabbing for everything.

* The boys really love her - but sort of ignore her for the most part. Orin will go up to her and try to make her laugh or give her hugs, but Micaiah only really acknowledges her if she is getting into his things. But they are patient (for the most part) with her which I'm thankful for. The other day when our social worker was coming to visit Miciah said he didn't want her to come. I told him if she didn't come then they would take Sora away from us. This actually got him upset and he said he didn't want anyone to take Sora. I was glad this was his reaction. :-)

That's all I can think of right now. I'll have to keep better track for next month!