Monday, April 9, 2012

How are we doing?

Wow, we've been home a little over a week and life is pretty B-U-S-Y with 2 toddlers and 2 teenagers.  I've started about 3 or 4 different posts but haven't finished any of them!  

Elliana is doing amazing!  She is very smart and picking up on everything.  She's saying mommy and daddy, and ka,ka (poo poo), among a few other things!  Ha!!  She is also beginning to like her bath, which is a blessing.  We took her to a baseball game this week, and to church yesterday.  She did great.  We, of course, didn't allow anyone to hold her or put her in the nursery etc.  She is fine as along as we are holding her and no one makes too much of a fuss over her.  

This past week I had a great pleasure to collect 8 vials of stool.  Yay Me.  It was much fun and when we dropped it off at the lab, they gave us 9 more vials to fill for additional tests.  Can't wait to get started on that.  We're pretty sure she has a parasite or two, so hopefully we can get it  identified and treated ASAP!

We go to the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia on Wednesday for our 4 hour appointment and evaluation. We will meet with the adoption specialist doctor, and occupational therapist and maybe a behavior specialist.  

It's so fun to watch Ellie experience things for the first time.  Carpet and grass are things I'm pretty sure she's not used to :)  She loves shoes (a girl after her momma's heart) and she likes to brush her teeth.  She's slowly integrating into American food, but she still prefers her fruit/veggie pouches, rice and noodles.  We couldn't get her to drink milk, but we did find that she will drink the banana flavored Pedi-Sure, so that's a start.  Hoping the doctors at the Children's Hospital can give us some more insight there.  

She is still playing hard-to get with our son Dylan.  She's allowed Colton to hold and play with her, which is good.  Ellie and Faith play pretty good together.  There's usually a few cat fights too that result in tears, pushing, biting and slapping.  That's all normal for sisters, right?  Hoping to get some additional insight there too, from the folks that the Children's Hospital  :)

The girls are so cute together.  My favorite is when they are both freshly bathed in their little jammies running around chasing each other and giggling.  They wake up in the morning happy and ready to play.  They are almost the same size.  I think Ellie might have a few pounds and maybe an inch on Faith.  I think they are both enjoying (for the most part) each others' company.  I'm sure they will teach each other LOTS of things!  

I'm trying to establish a schedule for them.  Faith was used to 2 naps and Ellie is used to 1 long nap.  Trying to coordinate that has been hard and usually results in 2 tired toddlers. I'll try again today!

That's about all we've been up to lately.  Eat, play, sleep and then repeat! (oh yeah, and laundry in between).  I'll try to post some Easter pictures later and get some of my posts about our trip out soon.  

Thanks again to everyone for your prayers, texts, meals, gifts, etc.  You all have been a true blessing.  

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