Our Family, Our Joy: 8 Months In Our Arms

Well......I was planning to write a "6 months in our arms" post back in February, but before I knew it, it was April!

In the adoption world, people will tell you that you will notice a lot of changes in your child once they have been home for 6 months. Very true, however, we've seen a lot of major changes in Lily between months 7 and 8, so this is a good time to write a post.

In the past month, Lily has stopped crying every time I pour water on her head in the bath tub. She has also stopped crying every time I brush her teeth. Her sleep has gotten a lot better. She has stopped having night terrors, and although she still wakes most nights and cries out, she's more easily calmed.

All these changes have been wonderful, but most importantly........she is happy almost all of the time! She has changed from a meek, quiet, little girl that wanted to be held all of the time, to a happy, fun little girl with a lot of self confidence.

Here's some things we know about our Lily.............

She talks ALL the time! She has certainly made up for her first two months of silence. She also will not let us respond with an 'uh huh', or 'yes'. She wants to make sure we really listened to what she said.

She does NOT like to be told no, or to be corrected. This can cause her to dissolve into tears.

She doesn't like to ask for things. She will just ask questions until you figure out what she wants. She will say, "Mommy, what are you eating". After I answer, she'll say, "but why are you eating that?" She'll keep asking questions until I ask her if she wants one. And, it's not just food. She might say, "why Tyler want to read that book", "but why that book". Again, she'll keep asking questions until you ask her if she wants that book read to her. We're working on this!

She LOVES her daddy! She climbs all over him when he gets home, and will initiate hugs.

However, she will not call daddy "daddy". She says 'hey', or just starts talking. (she does refer to him as daddy when she's talking about him when he's not home)

She loves to sing. When we're out shopping, she will sing at the top of her lungs as she's riding in the cart. She will also make up songs about things she sees around her.

She loves playing with her brothers, and has gotten quite good at ordering them around!

Her English is excellent. People are always surprised to hear that she's only heard English for 8 months.

She has lost all of her Chinese. When she says words like shui for water, or Ni Hao for Hi, she says them with a very American accent.

She does not like to talk about her past. When we show her pictures of her life in the orphanage, she usually just says "I don't know", or "I don't remember"

Here's some pictures of our sweet, scared little girl the day we met her and a few days later