Five Fantastic Months

We have now been togther as a family for five months. To celebrate the three of us went out for Chinese food for dinner. One of our fortunes from the cookies tonight seemed to be particularily well suited for us. We agree, our good fortune IS clearly evident!



It has been another busy month at the Drinkwater house. We are all doing very well, and luckily no one has caught a cold or the flu. Fingers crossed that we all stay healthy this winter.

At the beginning of the month we celebrated the Mid Autumn Moon Festival. This is one of the two main holidays celebrated in Chinese culture. Traditionally, family members travel to celebrate together, eat moon cakes, and gaze at the full moon. So we invited some good friends the Rowans over, and my niece who is attending university in Kelowna. We ordered in Chinese food, ate "moon cake" and went outside to gaze at the moon. We also took the opportunity to take out the Chinese dresses we bought in Beijing for the girls to wear. Don't the girls look super cute?





We decided to make our own version of a moon cake, as many people do not care for the traditional version. Thanks to our friends for making and bringing the cake, it was yummy!



Sylvie is now almost 20 months old. We went to get Sylvie's next set of immunizations, now she is caught up until Kindergarten. We are very grateful we live in a country that provides immunizations for all children. Here she is getting a kiss from Mama to make her owwies it all better.



While there, the health nurse weighed and measured Sylvie. She is now just under 24 pounds and is 80cm tall. She is now wearing mostly 18 month old clothes. She is still wearing 12 month jeans and pants because she has such a tiny waist, but is getting too tall for them. We might have to go find some pants with the adjustable waistband.

Attachment is also continuing to go well. I am always amazed how I think Sylvie is attached, and then another few weeks go by and I realize how much deeper her attachment to us has grown. Sylvie has now decided that her Dada is the best. I have been telling her this for months. He has much more patience than I do, and he is much better at play wrestling and tickling. Thankfully Sylvie agrees now too. Sylvie is doing well giving kisses and hugs now, and is able to sit in our laps and snuggle now for short periods of time as well.




Swimming lessons have finally finished. While Sylvie loved swimming, two times a week was a little much. I would not have believed that it takes as much time to get changed after swimming as it does to have the swimming lesson. And I only have myself and one child to dry off and put dry clothes onto. I am in awe of mothers with more than one child in the change room. Sylvie is now a pro at kicking her feet and blowing bubbles in the water. She loves the water slide at the pool and going in the hot tub. Thanks to Michelle for stopping by the pool to take pictures for us!



However, Sylvie loved the lockers just as much as the pool itself. Hopefully this will not happen to her when she goes to high school in a few years!



We have also started a morning music/art program offered in the community. There is an awesome music teacher who has the children sing and play with instruments and scarves during the songs. I am impressed how she always alternatives between having the children sitting, and up and moving for the songs. Afterwards there is a art project the kids work on, usually seasonally related.



Sylvie is doing well with her speech. She can point to many of her body parts now, after much practice and is working on identifying items in books and on flash cards. She is mostly copying our words, rather than talking independently - although she still uses Dada, Mama, more, up, down, kitty, puppy, hi, bye bye on her own. We were most impressed the other night when we were playing in the living room and I asked Sylvie to go find her pink boots and take them to Dada. Sylvie went to her room, found her boots, and brought them to Cory to help her put them on. Pretty awesome, a two step direction and she was able to follow it (and not get side tracked on the way). I have included a short video of her pointing to her body parts.