Three months...

Fun at the water park!

She still loves the water

Blowing bubbles with Dada at the BC Adoptive Families Association Picnic in Kelowna

Peek a boo!

The Before Picture "Just about to get my 4 shots!" Sorry, no after picture, Mama was too upset!

Camping at Lac Le Jeune with friends

Climbing is my new favorite activity


Three months home…
This week marks three months we have been together as a family. We can’t believe all the changes that have taken place over these few months. We feel so lucky that we were allowed to raise this child, we feel she was meant to be part of our family. Her smiles and giggles are contagious to all those around her.

We are amazed at Sylvie’s deepening level of trust in us as her parents. We have only been part of her life for such a short time, but she now relaxes into our arms and seeks us for comfort. She smiles and giggles when we come into her room in the morning excited to see us. She comes to give us hugs, kisses and cuddles. Since mama is home all day with Sylvie, she has developed a preference for mama doing many things for her over dada. While this is hard for mama (sometimes I really need a short break) and dada (he really wants to bond with her) we know this is par for the course in attachment (start with one person and build outward). We have responded with dada being the one to give her a bath at night and read storied to her, he is also and giving her favorite foods of the moment, which right now is cheese(cheddar, edam, gouda, feta, parmesan, cottage any kind).

This month has been a good month for Sylvie with health check up’s. She has continued to grow, she added 4 cm to her height in six weeks, and has also added a little weight to her bones. Mama would like her to gain a bit more, but not sure how that will happen since she is already eating like a horse. Maybe she just has really good metabolism. We also heard back on her EKG, and it seems that her heart murmur has corrected itself, and no treatment will be required - yey! Sylvie also had her hearing assessed and it was determined she hears well, so hopefully her English language development will continue to grow and expand.

She has really shown an interest lately in climbing things and standing on anything to give her a new height perspective. She is stepping on her toys and pulling pillows down to climb on top of. We went to an indoor play center and she loved climbing the padded apparatus and sliding down. Mama was ok with this since everything was covered in mats, so she wouldn’t hurt herself if she fell.

Sylvie has been chattering up a storm this last month, she babbles throughout the day and has discovered how to shriek (she can hit amazing supersonic high pitch levels). She can say Mama, Dada, hi kitty, nana (for banana), ball, book, and up. She meows at the kitties when they do and they are the first thing she looks for every morning. She has been trying to imitate the words we say, sometimes we can hear her clearly, and other times we can tell she is copying the number of syllables. She tries to say bottle, uh oh, diaper, gentle, cracker when we prompt her.

Her receptive language is also developing. We were so excited the other day when she was a bit fussy and we asked if she was hungry and wanted to eat. Sylvie responded by putting her hand to her mouth and making eating noises. We were so proud, over the past few days she continues to respond to this question, so we are confident she understands. Additionally, when we ask her to go find the ball, she will walk over to her toys and find one of her many balls she likes to play with.

Sylvie now uses the signs for “more” and “all done” when we are eating. She also has a sign for “hungry”. When people arrive or leave she knows to wave, and often does it without any prompting. I will try and get a video clip of her waving, occasionally if I prompt her to wave by moving her arm. She will then grab her own arm to make herself wave, it is so cute and makes all the adults laugh, so I am sure we are now reinforcing the behavior. Sylvie can also blow kisses, and when we put her in the crib at night or leave, she often independently blows kisses to us.

As for the adults, we are doing fine in our new role as parents. We think we are very lucky to have a toddler that sleeps through the night, and takes a nap during the day. Sleep is definitely essential for parenting, we’re not sure how parents do it if you don’t get enough sleep. We are lucky to have family and friends who also have small or younger children to get together with, and we have been the recipient of many toys and baby gear that has outgrown others. We are blessed to have a supportive adoptive families’ community to get together with every month. For anyone who is thinking of adopting, or waiting, we strongly recommend getting out there and meeting other adoptive families BEFORE your child(ren) come home. These friendships are essential in the first few months home.

We hope you have enjoyed the updated pictures of Sylvie. We will try to update more often, but who are we kidding! We are too busy running off to the water park or meeting our little friends to play.