Festival of Nations

Last night was the Festival of Nations at the girls' school. They had a great time! It was really a fun event. Abbie, Lauren and I went early to set up and Quentin brought the two little ones later on. Quentin volunteered to serve one of the dishes in the food area so I had the little ones with me while Abbie and Lauren went off to explore. I really wanted to get more pictures than just these, but Reina was having a great time with "Make Mama Chase Me!" and Alina was raiding the diaper bag for crackers. By the time Quentin's hour long stint was up, I was ready for the little ones to go home=) They stuck around for just a bit longer while I did a quick look at the other booths. After they left I snuck into the gym for a peak at the Aztec dancers. They were amazing! I wish I had been able to see more of the dancers. They had some from China, Africa, Hmong, and some girls from the school did a Carpathian dance. Abbie and Lauren had a wonderful time running around with their "passports" seeing and experiencing a bit of the different cultures represented in their school.

Alina's progress

I haven't written for awhile on how Alina is progressing and where she is at now. She is, in one word, amazing! When we took her from the baby house she was very small. She couldn't stand up by herself, let alone walk or run. And I had no idea how many words she understood or if she could even speak any words (in Kazakh of course). Today she has gained the weight she needed, grown much taller, and is a very healthy little girl. She can walk and even run after her sisters. And she understands a lot of English words! She will follow simple directions, and you had better be prepared if you say the words "eat", "bath", or "shoes"! She will go running for them all=) She is even saying a few words, but only when she wants too. She will not say them when prompted, but just looks at us like we don't know what we are talking about. She manages to communicate what she wants to me just fine with hand gestures and her eyes. She has such expressive eyes.
We are seeing a pediatrician who is familiar with adopted children and have seen no need as yet to go to the International Adoption clinic here. Our caregiver has said that if she sees a need she will refer us there. Alina is on target for her age on everything but speech, but since that is very understandable given until 3 months ago all she heard was Kazakh, we are not concerned at this point. She has proven to be a very bright little girl and a quick learner. I decided to hold off on having her evaluated by the school district to see if she would qualify for any special assistance. If after she has been home for six months and her speech is not progressing I will have her evaluated and hopefully get some help with how to help her along.

Alina no longer has the tantrums when eating. I think she realizes that the food is there and plentiful. I ask her if she is done and if she shakes her head no I offer her one more bite. If she turns away then she is done, if she accepts the bite then we keep going. She is sleeping thru the night for actually about 13-14 hours. Occasionally she wakes up but will go right back to sleep. Our routine at night is a bath, then cuddling time for a bit, then I lay her down with her blankie and leave. Sometimes she babbles a bit, but mostly she just goes to sleep. We are down to one nap a day now, though she is very tired by bedtime. She really could take 2 naps a day still but it is easier on me if I can put both girls down for naps and have a couple hours to get stuff done.

Alina is doing great with her sisters. The older girls are great with her, and Reina is sharing more and more. Considering Reina is 2 I am thrilled! She still is very possessive of what she sees as strictly hers, but now will get a different toy for Alina if Alina is getting too close to "her" toy. Alina has bonded well with Quentin I think. She will now go to him and ask to be picked up if I am busy.

That's it for now!

Snow...

Things I never would have let my older children do when they were little...

Dress up

We played dress up the other day. I wanted to see if her little Kaz outfit would fit her yet. When my mom bought it we thought it would be a year or so before she could actually wear it. That was before we knew she would go thru 3 sizes of clothes in 2 months=) It fits!

Alina has also figured out where the food is stored. I keep her crackers on the bottom shelf so she can get to them easily.

Bedtime

Last night I thought I had gotten lucky and Reina had gone down to bed without getting up once. Then I started hearing loud breathing that I thought was coming from the monitor. I went down to check on Reina and this is what I found.

Everyone's fine....

I think I forgot to mention that after the tests they did on Lauren they really couldn't find anything wrong. She has been feeling fine since then, though we kept her home all day yesterday just to be sure. She missed her first day of swim lessons. Hopefully today she will be fine as well. I am thinking it was just a case of maybe not drinking enough, so we are keeping her well hydrated.

Reina has finally started really sharing with Alina. And she wants us to know it=) She will give a toy to Alina and tell me "I share Alina!" over and over. I then praise her and give her hugs and kisses which makes her really happy. It is pretty cute to watch. Yesterday I took Abbie to her yoga and swim classes while Quentin stayed home with the kids. Evidently he helped Alina to learn how to climb the slide and go down by herself. She is pretty wobbly so needs someone right there to watch and spot her. I had been reluctant to show her how to climb up because I new as soon as I did she would want to do it over and over again. Sure enough, as I am trying to get dinner ready she is climbing the slide. So I run over to spot her then run back to flip the french toast (yes, we often have breakfast for dinner=) ). I finally moved the slide into our bedroom and shut the door so I wouldn't have burnt french toast that no one would eat.