Preschool

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Today was my baby’s first day of preschool! Seriously? How can she be old enough to be going to preschool?

As we were preparing her for preschool we made the mistake to use it as the motivation for doing things by herself. We said things like “you need to go pee all by yourself if you want to go to preschool.” Big mistake. It worked at first but then she decided it was too much pressure and she didn’t want to go to preschool. We laid off for a few weeks and tried to reassure her that if she really needed help her teacher would be there to help. That still didn’t fully satisfy her though.

Last night I sat her down and talked to her about how much fun she was going to have, how much her teachers and the kids where looking forward to seeing her, and how many new toys she was going to get to play with! She had a lot of anxiety about with which resulted in an unrelated meltdown. I was worried.

Even in the morning she was still saying no until I reassured her that I would stay as long as she wanted me too. That fixed everything! Why did I not explain that better in the beginning! Oops. I guess I can’t be perfect all the time. She got excited and walked happily with Jon and I hand in hand!

Marmee stayed home with Sofie while I kept my attention on Livi. Jon had to go to work right away. Livi jumped in with both feet. She hung back close to me for about 30 seconds before taking off her backpack and jacket, switching her shoes and heading off to play. I hung back while she headed straight for the play-dough that was out. She checked back to make sure I was still there a few times but only about 20-30 minutes in I asked her if I could go home and check on Sofie and she said yes! No problem! She waved goodbye from the window and that was it.

When I picked her up, she had stories to tell. She said she had so much fun and that she wanted to go to preschool “again, and again, and again and again!” Yay! I love my big girl. I can’t believe she is in preschool! Where did my baby go! I’m so proud of her though. She is growing up in to such a beautiful little lady 🙂

Lifestyle Change 12.0

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Confession:   I watch Dr. Phil, regularly. I record it even and take his advice to heart.

So, I think it was November or December he did a show on the P.I.N.K. Method. It is a new weight loss program. I bought it. Literally, 5 minutes after I watched the show I went online and ordered it. I NEVER do that. I’m not the biggest impulse buyer and never off of TV. 
Remember when I tried that Lifestyle change in the beginning of 2010? I had lost 15-20lbs on the gyms meal plan and working out, but then we started the adoption and my emotions ate and didn’t exercise… as usual. Eventually, I gained the weight back. Well, I’m trying it again. No big family events are in the works. Nothing was planned in January 2010 either but here’s hoping we have so “surprises”! … at least for a little while. 
I started the P.I.N.K. Method on January 16 and by the morning of the 20th I had lost 9lbs… in four days. It slowed down after that, I think mainly because I was retaining water before my period 🙂 Now, at first I figured it was all just water weight but then I looked up. Usually, you only carry about 3-5 lbs of water weight a day and the reviews on this type of quick weight loss are the best for losing actual fat. So, I’m going with it. Today, after day 7, I’m 11 lbs lighter in total. Pretty happy about that.

There are a few great things that I’m loving about this plan which a lot of others lack. 1) There are no special pills, smoothies or weird packaged food involved. It is just lean protein and a hell of a lot of veggies for the first two weeks. Then I start doing the DVD work outs and get to eat slow-carbs again. 2) It is teaching me how to portion, what to eat to keep me full, and explaining it all… and it is working! I’ve never actually understood the whole calorie stuff and why. I’m learning 🙂 3) The SUPER great thing is my family is all eating what I’m eating… with some extra sauces or carbs but basically it is the same! No cooking two meals! I have a protein, fruit smoothie each morning that Livi is loving and Jon is glad that he is having to eat more veggies too! Plus, it is getting Sofie used to eating veggies better. She can’t chew them raw yet but she is doing great with all the cooked veggies. This is teaching us all how to eat better!

I start the exercise next Monday and am a little worried about it. I’m not good with that part. I need to lose weight. I need to be healthier. I need to be a better example for my kids.  So… I guess wish me luck, again. 

5 Months!

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Sofie has been home for 5 months now! It seems like such a short amount of time but feels like she has been with us forever! We love her so much. She fits in perfectly! And I think we fit in pretty well in her world 🙂

We are all attached to her and she too us. Interesting she has attached to each of us quite differently. With Livi, I notice that she plays really well by her, much better than she does with other children. Sofie likes to play close to Livi and expects her to be close by. She goes to the toys Livi has been playing with. All common little sibling stuff. So awesome! She is pretty dependent on Livi for sleeping too. Not sure if this is a good thing but they share a room so I guess it is a natural progression of the attachment thing. With Jon, Sofie looks for rough housing. I suppose that is a typical Dad role! She is more chill with Jon too. She is calm with him… I can relate 🙂 I’m generally more calm with him too. With me, she is needy. I love being needed by her, most of the time. She likes to be close to me and climbs all over me when we are home. When we are out she is starting to look back for me to make sure I am still around! This is huge by the way!

This past month Sofie had her first FAMILY Christmas! She was a little confused at times but went with the flow. She also had her first FAMILY vacation! We had a big family reunion in Mexico! Despite our worries that she would regress with her behaviors and eating patterns, she again blew down our expectations. Although she did revert to some of her old coping methods during travel, she progressed in other ways on the trip. She ate and drank wonderfully the whole week, enjoyed herself in the water and began saying “hi” much more consistently and clearer! Sofie started her music class again this past week. She was so excited! When she saw where we had pulled in to park she started screeching in her car seat! She did awesome her first class back. She has come such a long way and this class is such AMAZING therapy for her! She fully participated, did all the actions even though it was all new songs, moved her mouth in the shape of the words we where singing and has better rhythm than I do! Seriously. She is a dancer. You can’t help but smile when you watch her. She also had her first experience in snow just a few days ago. She did not think much of it. She did not like it to much but did tolerate standing in it and watching us build a snow man.

As far as her development she continues to progress. She understands us almost completely even though she was ESL. She wasn’t talking any Bulgarian words when we got her but this is still amazingly fast in my mind. She is a climber. I see broken bones in her future. She can get out of her crib despite her sleep sack. She can follow a few simple two step instructions, like “Pick that up and bring it to Mommy, gentle!” That one gets said a lot and comes after she throws something. She is throwing much less and only hits or pulls hair when she is over-tired or hungry which I try to be careful to not let her get. She is playing with things all time now and frequently even appropriately! Just this week she walked over to the toys in a waiting room, sat down and started playing with the doll house totally appropriately and by herself! No prompting! (Remember she had no idea how to play with anything besides throwing things in the beginning.)

She can say a few words now and they are coming out more often. “Up” and “Hi” are her most frequently used ones. “Mama” and “Nay, Nay” come out usually when she is more distressed over something. She can sort of say “Hello” but only with prompting. “Dada” is in her repertoire too. These last two weeks she has been making a ton of new sounds which I’m excited to see where they take us. Still waiting on a speech therapist appointment but I just learned that the health unit offers a free clinic once a month. I think I’ll try to get her in there. She has about 15 solid ASL signs to communicate with and she is working on more. Jon and I should really take a class. Along side her speech development, her oral development is taking off! She has been putting things in her mouth a lot more! She pretends to be feeding herself with a cup and spoon from their kitchen set and has been eating markers!

We saw her pediatrician this past week for a follow up and to get some referrals. He said she is doing really great. We should finally be getting some referrals for a Cardiologist, Optometrist, Ears specialist (just to rule out any issues before we get in to speech therapy too much), Ped’s Dentist and a dietician. She is now in the 5th percentile for weight. She is a whopping 24 pounds! Which matches her 5th percentile of height. She is just about 33 inches. She’s gained over 5 lbs in the past 5 months but only grown 1.5 cm. Dr. PP was not concerned about the lack of growth “yet”. He figures there is probably a lag because of so many years of malnutrition, but we are going to keep an eye on it.

Orthotics were recommended by her physiotherapist but not her Pediatrician. There is some debate as to what is causing her knock-knees. We have decided to go ahead with the orthotics, but wait to get them in the summer before she starts preschool, when she’ll be wearing shoes a lot more.

I should go now since Sofie is sitting on the desk beside me using every bit of self-control she has not to touch the keyboard or screen. I’ve tortured her enough… time to play with my girls!