Shots, Snow Boots, and Cotton Candy

Friday Saiya had her first doctor’s appointment.  She was there for a checkup and for her last Hepatitis B booster.  As soon as we were taken into the clinic area and led to the scale, Saiya started to cry.  The clinic area looks very much like a clinic and she remembers well the vaccination clinic in China.  They got her height and weight and then moved us to the room (after trying desperately to bribe her with stickers and lollipops).  The doctor examined her and she was being uncooperative for the most part.  Still crying, even though nothing he did hurt her in any way.  Then the nurses came with her shots…  The screaming began and it took two of us to hold her down so they could do both shots at the same time.  She was not a happy camper.  After the shots, she started to throw a temper tantrum and flung her GouGou at one of the nurses.  She picked it up and handed it back to her and I was like “Don’t give it back to her, she will just” ((FLING)) “… throw it back at you…”  Ugh.  But overall the check up went really well!  She has gained 2 pounds and three inches since her physical in China on September 7, nine weeks ago!

I was away for the weekend, and Chris was home with Saiya.  Friday night, Saiya spent the night with my sister who took her to Syrafina’s skating practice Saturday morning.  I’m not so sure Saiya liked it.  My sister said she was crying because she was cold.  She had a hat, mittens, and her winter coat.  Not too sure she will like Indiana in December.  Hahaha!  Poor kid.

Saturday her Uma and Umpa took her to the fair.  She had cotton candy and loads of fun, although she wasn’t tall enough to ride any of the rides.

Yesterday we received her snow boots that I ordered for the Indiana trip.  As I was opening the box, I was very excited and telling her that her new shoes were here.  She was excited too!  I pulled the boots out of the box, unwrapped them and went to show them to Saiya and she made a face and ran and hid behind the living room table.  I called her and she squeeked.  All I could do was laugh.  I don’t think she has ever seen snow boots before.  She kept looking at me like “Those are NOT shoes!  I don’t know what those are, but they are definitely NOT shoes!”  I sat down on the floor and pushed the boot to the side and asked her to come and give me a hug.  She tentatively moved towards me, eyeing the boots the whole time as if they were going to jump out and grab her.  Once she was sitting on my lap, I asked her if she liked them and she said “DON’T LIKE THEM!”  Awwww!!  I said “why not?”  She says “Don’t like them” .  I tried to show her that they were fine and wiggled them onto my foot.  “See?  Shoes!  Does Saiya want to try?” 

So, we put the boots on her and she is stomping around the kitchen with them.  After a little while I tell her to take them off and she shakes her head and starts to cry.  So in a matter of 30 minutes we went from “Oh My God!  Scary Shoes!” to “No, I won’t take them off, they are mine!”  Hahaha!  She was so cute.  All I could do was laugh!

Tiny Dancer

Saiya’s Halloween costume consisted of a leotard and a ballet skirt (along with the ears and tail for the bunny part).  When we put it on her she was twirling and dancing all over the place like a ballet dancer.  So we decided that she was ready to try ballet class.  We visited the two dance studios in our town and we very impressed with Heather’s Dance Studio.  The parents there were eager to talk to us and gave us lots of information about the school and how the whole dance class thing works.  Saiya wasn’t very excited about being there, but I think she will warm up to the idea once she sees kids her age dancing.

So I called and registered her for ballet class.  The teacher I talked to was very nice and informative.  I gave her some information about Saiya and a little bit about her background.  Her class is very small (there are only five other kids in her class) and I really think that she will be able to get the extra attention she needs.

We are very excited about dance class and I hope that she loves it!

A Girl and Her Daddy

Just a cute story about our girl and her daddy…

Yesterday I got home from work a little earlier than my husband (who usually picks Saiya up from school in the afternoon) and watched him pull into the driveway from the living room window.

He and Saiya walked side by side down the driveway to the mail box to get the mail.   Saiya was bouncing along evenly stepped with her daddy and they chatted the whole way down there.  When they reached the mail box, he handed her the magazines and other bulk mail to carry back to the house.  She bounced along beside him the whole way back into the house.  She had a big smile on her face the whole way!  It was too cute for words.  All I could do was stand there and watch the two of them walking side by side.

She loves her daddy!!  To think, in China she would not even let him hold her hand…  My, how far we have come!

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!