Happy Halloween - Part 2

 

We took Saiya Trick-or-Treating tonight with my sister and her kids. Saiya was dressed as a bunny. I used some of my sparkly make-up to draw a cute bunny nose and some whiskers on her face. She loved the glitter!! She kept asking me to put more on her. After we were done getting ready, we took a bunch of pictures and headed to my mom’s neighborhood to walk around her development.

Saiya was super excited about being dressed up and got the hang of Trick-or-Treating really quickly. Of course she had two older kids there to show her how it was done. After the first few houses, she was a pro! My child is a trooper! The circle around my mom’s neighborhood is about 2 miles, add in the length of the driveways and such and she walked almost three miles in three hours. We brought along a little cart and by the end of the night all three kids were in it, but they were all great! No complaints, no whining. Just happy kids with bags full of candy!

Getting Saiya to say “Trick-or-Treat” was cute. She would say it loud and proud and bring her candy back to us to put in her bag (which after awhile was in the wagon because it was getting heavy). We scolded her (and the other children) for taking more than one piece at homes where the people were more lenient and the rest of the night, she only brought back one piece of candy from each house. It was so cute! One man actually came up to us and said that she looked at him kind of funny when he tried to give her two pieces and she shook her finger and held up her hand and said “No, only one piece.” It was so funny, we had to laugh! How do you explain to a child that she can only have more than one piece if the people offer more than one piece but otherwise she can only have one piece? That was quite a predicament and a true testament to the language barrier. So, I was feeling bad and told her that she can have two pieces. Not sure if that helped or not, but she was happy to get whatever the people gave her. She would coming running back to us holding the candy high with such a proud look on her face.

I’m sure she must be thinking… “WOW! I love America! And free candy!!”

Rails...

Saiya has been sleeping in her own room for a little over three weeks now.  She has not had any issues and sleeps fairly well.  The night before last, she woke up about 6:30am crying and screaming for me.  So I went to her room to help her go to the bathroom.  When I got there, she was standing on the little mattress that we have on the floor in case she falls out of bed.  I thought it was a little odd since she never got out of bed before, but didnt really think much about it.  I put her on the potty and she started to scream and throw a fit.  She kept touching her nose and wiggled her butt off of the toilet just as I noticed the blood coming out of her nose.  Yup, She fell out of bed.  This was the first time she fell from her own bed, but remembering the night we came home, I knew she landed face down.  So, we cleaned her up and snoozed in my bed for another hour or so before getting up.

Last night I was awoken at 4:30am by the screams of a four-year-old.  She was crying and screaming and when I made it to her room, and picked her up, she was standing on the mattress on the floor again and blood was pouring out of her nose.  She had blood all down her chin, and all over her hands and down her nightgown.  So, for the second night in a row, she fell out of bed.  It took us about 20 minutes to clean her up, stop the bleeding, and calm her down and another 20 minutes to rig up a make-shift rail so we could put her back to bed without having to worry.

Today we went to Home Depot and bought two large PVC pipes and made a more permanent rail for her bed.  They do sell rails at walmart, but they are costly and not very long.  We would need at least two in order be able to sleep well and not worry.  She flops around so much at night that one short rail would not be sufficient.  So, we put rails on her bed...  I'm not sure when we learn not to fall out of bed, but I am hoping that it is sometime before the age of 18...

Happy Halloween - Part 1

We went to Uma and Umpa's house today to meet the rest of Chris's family and spend some time with them.  Saiya did great!  We carved her first pumpkin and she had a blast scooping the pumpkin seeds out of the bowl so we could cook them.  She didnt want to put her hand in the pumpkin because it was WAY too gooey for her liking.  She picked out the cat face, so I carved it into the pumpkin while she scooped seeds.  She had fun.  I dont think she really understands why we are mutilating the poor gourds, but I hope that next year she will be more excited to join in the art part of it.

After pumpkins, she spent hours playing with her aunts and having fun.  I'm glad she enjoyed herself while we were able to spend time with Chris's family.

Traveling Weekend

This weekend was our first weekend traveling overnight with Saiya. We went to Ft Lauderdale for the weekend to spend some time with some good friends we haven’t seen in awhile and celebrate their son’s 2nd birthday. Saiya did great in the car and didn’t seem to mind traveling at all. We pulled in around 7pm and went to one of my favorite places to eat before heading back to their house for the night. Saiya went down pretty easy, although it was a little later than usual, so she was a little grumpy.

Saturday was a whirlwind of activity as we were getting ready for the birthday party. Saiya loved to play outside and spent most of the day running around. There were tons of kids at the party and Saiya did pretty well with them. She didn’t really play with them much, but at least she hovered near them. Haha! When it was time to open presents, Saiya was very confused. She didn’t really understand why she didn’t get any and she certainly didn’t understand why none of the other kids seemed to care that they didn’t get any either. I guess it was too much for her little brain to handle and she fell apart into a bit of a meltdown.

It was strange having to explain to other parents about why she was crying and just pretty much being a brat. I guess, to us, its pretty normal behavior for her, but they seemed a little shocked. After about 20 minutes of her crying, which disintegrated into a temper tantrum, she came back to life and spent the rest of the night playing with the other kids who were still there. Overall, I expected that she would have a meltdown at some point over the weekend. She did really great though, considering it was a strange place and LOTS of strange people.

Sunday we had a nice calm morning and headed for home. Saiya slept the entire way home in the car. We had a nice dinner with my sister and her boyfriend and then headed home for a bath and off to bed. Overall, we had an awesome weekend! I am so glad that Saiya travels well, it makes things easy!

Costume Shopping and More

Yesterday we went to the Halloween store with my sister and her kids looking for Halloween costumes for them.  I was hoping that Saiya would want to be a lady bug or bumble bee or some other really cute thing with wings, but she would just wrinkle her face every time I showed her one of the really cute costumes.  She saw a cat ear set and immediately wanted it.  So we tried it on her and she loved it.  Then she saw a bunny rabbit set and decided that she didn’t want to be a cat any more, she wanted to be a bunny.  I liked the cat better, but she liked the bunny, so we went with that.

After costume shopping, we stopped by the mall for a bite to eat and we looked for a tulle skirt to put over a leotard for the rest of the bunny costume.  I picked out this really cute pink skirt with a big pink bow in the back, and Saiya took one look at it and wrinkled her face and refused to let me see if it would fit her.  We found a whole bunch of skits of various different colors and I selected a white one, a black one, and two pink ones.  Saiya does NOT like pink!  Hahaha!  She took all the pink ones out of the pile and put them all back on the rack!  So we went with the white one.

After we ate, we went back to the teeny-bopper store to get Saiya’s ears pierced.  I let her pick out which ones she wanted.  They had pretty crystal flowers in white, pink, and blue.  Saiya pointed to the flower earrings, but it was hard to tell which color she was pointing at, so we took the boxes out and showed her the pink ones and blue ones.  Saiya picked the blue crystal flowers (just proving that she doesn’t like pink).  What should have taken about 20 minutes took us a little more than an hour.  Of course, as soon as Saiya saw the rubber gloves she started to cry.  She remembered the vaccination clinic in China well.  The first attempt at Saiya’s left ear, the gun jammed and the post bent, so we had to take it out and do it all over again.  After the first botched attempt, the girl got a little chicken-ish and took entirely too long to shoot the other ear.  I guess maybe she thought we would give up and walk away, but we had already gotten that far, and Saiya was already crying, so why walk away and then have to come back another time to go through the whole process all over again.  It got to the point where both my sister and I were about the take the gun out of the girl’s hand and do it ourselves.  Lots of tears, sniffles, two lollipops, and three small pinches on the ear later, it was all done.  I think she should have gotten a free teddy bear or something…

Anyhow, she loves them and she had to show Chris as soon as she got home and keeps saying “PRETTY!”

The Next Powershot!!

This weekend we took Saiya to the park with my sister and her boyfriend.  The park had a basketball court and a tennis court.  We handed Saiya a tennis racket and a ball and she had a blast trying to play.  It has been ages since I have played tennis (and I’m not really all that good at it), but we had fun!  Maybe tennis is in her future??

What to be for Halloween?

So, we have been trying to figure out a way to explain Halloween to Saiya in a way that she will understand.  I suggested to my sister that we all go shopping for costumes together with her kids.  Maybe having other kids picking out things to dress up as will prompt her to want to dress up too.  So today, we were coloring together and I was drawing butterflies for her to color.  (What little girl doesnt like Butterflies??)  So, I found a pair of fairy wings that I purchased a couple of years ago for a Halloween party.  I had her put those on and she LOVED them!!!  She ran all around the house flapping her wings and laughing.  So, maybe we will dress her as a butterfly or bumble bee or lady bug or something like that for Halloween.  :)

On to a Normal Routine!!

Chris started back at work this week.  Saiya has finally come around to the idea of daycare during the day.  She walks with me to the classroom and I kiss her goodbye and she runs off to color or play.  We are finally getting into a normal routine.  Yay!!

Saiya is adjusting really well!  She sleeps in her own room, plays with her cousins, and sometimes eats the food we cook for her.  Haha!  I can say that we are really very lucky parents!  She is so easygoing and doesn’t really mind change that much, so putting her on a normal routine was very easy.

We picked her up 5 weeks ago, she has been home for 3 ½ weeks and she is doing amazingly well!  The time is flying by!

Day at the Zoo

Today Uma and Umpa took us all to the Brevard Zoo.  Saiya had a great time!  She loves animals and even got to feed the giraffes.  She is such a trooper.  She wandered around the zoo in the hot sun for four hours with no complaints!  We got to feed the birds in the aviary, brush some pigmy goats in the petting area, and then she played in the wading pool.  The wading pool was hysterical as her Uma had her splashing and dumping water on everyone, even Umpa, who didnt look very happy.  Haha!  I'm so glad she had fun!

The First Night

Wednesday night we put Saiya down to bed as usual and we were hanging around in the computer room (which is on the opposite side of the house) when we heard her calling, "MAMA!  POTTY!"  Up to this point we were wary about putting her to bed in her own room because we were not sure how she would do if she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  As it turns out, she can be pretty loud if she thinks no one can hear her.  Its funny, she calls and calls, but doesnt move off of the bed.  She only got up when I walked into the room and she went to the toilet and I helped her a little bit, but for the most part, she did it on her own.  It must be left over behavior from the orphanage.  She will stay in her bed and call and call, but not move until an adult gets there.

So, last night we decided to try to put Saiya down to be in her own room.  We went to Walmart and bought her a CD/Alarm clock so that she could fall asleep to "sleepy music" using the "sleep" function so it turns off automatically (which is what we do in our room) and a baby monitor just in case she has to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, we will hear her call for us.  As I was getting her bed ready, she was jumping around and bouncing all over the place.  She had all of her stuffed animals in her arms.  She almost seemed excited about sleeping in her own room.  I piled up the pillows and pulled back the blankets and as soon as I turned off the lights and turned on the night light, she started to cry.  I think it was more because she was tired than because she didnt want to sleep in there.  I rocked her for about ten minutes and then tucked her in bed.  She went down surprisingly easy.  She was asleep in a matter of minutes.

When I got back to our room where Chris was reading, it seemed very empty.  I think she took sleeping in her own room better than we did.  We missed her last night and I was up every few hours to check on her and/or look at the monitor to make sure there was no action on it.  But, she's in her own room, which is better for everyone.  But we still miss her being with us...

Yay!  Progress!