Sora at 1

Sora is 1 today! I know we've only had her for about 2 months but I still can't believe she's already a year old. Of course, we have known of her since she was 4 1/2 months old and I feel like even though we missed much of her life during that time, she was still a part of ours.

Ironically, I couldn't get her birth mother out of my mind today. I can only assume that this was a difficult day for her. I have some many questions about her - where she is, how she is doing, if she is happy or sad? In many ways I wish I could meet her. But for now I'll just have to keep praying for her.

I wrote down a few things about Sora now at 12 months. We gave her a little cupcake to enjoy tonight but she wanted nothing to do with it. Part of the problem I'm sure was because it was past her bedtime and she was tired. We'll try again when we have a real party for her. I've interspersed the pictures of her *not* enjoying it throughout the post. And a cute one during the day today.


Sora absolutely loves high fives. We give them to the boys quite often when they accomplish something and she's totally picked up on it. Often times you just have to smile at her and she'll raise her hand for you to give her one.

She is signing some. Her favorite is "more" (used when she's eating). She does it very vigour sly at first when she's very hungry until she gets some food in her tummy. Unfortunately she does it for quite a few things. Like, she doesn't do the sign for "eat" yet so she'll just start signing "more" when she's hungry. She can sign please when I ask her to. She knows the sign for milk but she doesn't do it yet to ask for milk...just when I sign it to her. She also signs "all done" by shaking her hands up and down. I hope that she will continue to learn more so that she can communicate until she begins talking.

She is so sweet. Seriously, not much else to say.

Such a good baby. She rarely cries (although she whines) other than when she wakes up and wants us to get her out of the crib. In the description of her that we got in her referral it said, "She gets fretful when she is hungry." I think it's the perfect word for her. But not only does she get fretful when she is hungry, but also tired or just wanting to be held.


Still sleeping well. The boys our in our room for now, and Sora has been sleeping most days until 8:30am or 9am.

She can wave "hi" and "bye" but doesn't always do it on command. Often someone will wave bye and they she'll wait until after they have left to wave back. However, she has also gotten more comfortable with strangers and will almost always smile at them if they smile at her.

The boys still call her "Bada" most of the time. They call her Sora some too, but I think it's so cute that they still remember her as her Korean name. I think it will be a great nickname for years to come.

She does NOT smile for the camera. I shouldn't be surprised because she wasn't smiling in ANY of her referral pictures. But it's so hard to get a good picture of her. She just sort of stares with a blank look. I can only get smiles if she's laughing as she walks toward me.

She loves music and head bangs as soon as a song comes on. It also sometimes helps calm her down if she is crying in the car seat.


She still only wants me to put her to bed. This week we're working on a compromise. Damien holds her and gives her the bottle while I stand right over her and read books to her. (That's what I do when I put her to bed). Then I stand right behind her while we sing so she can look at me the entire time. She still wines and fights it some, but she's getting more comfortable which is great. I can't wait until she feels secure enough with Damien to let him put her to be by himself.


Sora has realized that she LOVES to eat. Obviously her foster mom didn't try too hard to give her food because she eats so much now. The only baby food she has is in the morning when I mix some sort of pureed fruit (applesauce, pears, peaches, etc.) in with rice cereal. She will also have some sort of cereal (Cheerios, kix, bran flakes) and maybe a banana too. She eats green beans, carrots, corn, and peas as finger food, as well as cheese, white and sweet potatoes, peaches, mandarin oranges, pears, macaroni & cheese, re-fried beans and pretty much anything else we give her. I don't know where it all goes! But let me tell you, she is the messiest eater I have ever seen. I reserve the messiest items for dinner because we've been giving her a bath every night because she's so messy! She is drinking about 24oz of milk per day. I had been mixing her formula with breast milk that I had pumped, but I just ran out so now she's getting half whole milk and half formula. She seems to be handling it well and I'll continue to up the milk until she is totally weaned from the formula.


She has grown so much. I know it's because she's eating more food, but we can tell how much bigger she has gotten since we first met her. Other people have even noticed. I can't wait to weigh her and see what it is.

The two main things she gets into is the TV and the frames on the end table. She knows she isn't supposed to get into them. In fact, she will deliberately go hit the TV or knock down a frame when she wants attention. Say I'm reading to the boys, or on the computer or doing dishes and she tries to get my attention and I ask her to wait, she will go right to them.


She mimics EVERYTHING. Although she isn't mimicing things we say all that much, she does mimic almost any action. It's amazing.

She loves to watch people. If we go to a restaurant we'll just turn her high chair around and she'll stay like that much of the time.


She is shy of strangers. It's so sweet because if Damien or I is holding her and someone else comes up and talks to her she may or may not smile, but she always buries her face into our chest. Sort of to say, "This is my mom," as well to reassure herself that we are there and that that person isn't going to take her.

She still sucks her thumb only when she sleeps. When she first came home she developed a huge blister on her thumb...I'm sure she was sucking it much much more and harder than usual to comfort herself because of the changes. Now it's back to normal which I think is a good sign that she is comfortable.


She generates SO SO SO much attention. When Orin was a baby we got tons of attention. People stopping us and telling us how cute he was. But not only is she really cute, but she is also obviously different from us which draws a lot of attention. I'm still getting used to it.

She still wants to be held a lot. Sometimes I can be doing things around the house and she will either play or just happily follow me around. Other times she'll follow me around whining, "Maaaaamaaaa". Eventually I put her in either my sling or backpack. She seems to be more fussy in the evening while I'm trying to cook dinner so almost every day I have her on my back from about 4:30 to 6pm. I don't mind to much though and I can see how happy she gets when she sees me taking it out.

She is slowly enjoying books more and more - well at least the ones I've read over and over. I have about 10 books that rotate through when she's drinking her bottle before bed. So we read almost every one each day. I think her favorite is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See."

For attachment and bonding purposes, we haven't put her in the nursery at church. Unfortunately, there is no cry room so it makes things a little difficult. She'll make it through about half of the service, but then once she has had her bottle and eaten her snacks (and is past time for her morning nap) she will get restless and start babbling too loud and one of us will have to take her out. Of course, not before everyone around us is smitten by her cuteness.


When she is walking towards you she almost always smiles and throws her head back as she walks. It is too cute but also often throws her off balance which is hilarious. She also walks into things because her head is up and she is not looking where she is going.

She is not trying to say too many things. She says "MaMa" very clearly for me. She seems to have tried to say "Orin" a few times but it sounds more like "RaRa." I would love if that sticks and it because her nick-name for him.

We received her permanent resident card in the mail this week. The funny thing is they used her passport picture which is actually the youngest picture we have of her! I'm glad she'll be able to see it one day.

When I read her animal books I can tell that her favorite animal is the Lion. She's recently started walking around just roaring all of the time. It's pretty funny.

Although she's grown a lot it seems, her 6-9 month clothes fit best. The 12 month PJs are good as well, but the dresses are just too big!

She loves Orin and Micaiah...most of the time. She likes them to smile and kiss her (within reason) and will usually smile. But if she is not in the mood, watch out, because she will quickly yell at them if they even look like they are going to touch her. Luckily that isn't too often.

She has finally realized tickling is fun. When we first brought her home it's like she had no idea what we were doing when we tickled her. She must have never been tickled before. But now she laughs and loves it.


Happy Birthday Sora!!!!!