9 Months!

Sofie has been home for 9 months now! I know it’s cliche but, where has the time gone? Sometimes it feels like she is still quite new but usually it feels like she has always been with us. She was born to be in our family, our daughter and Livi’s sister. We love her so much.

 “What are you looking at punk?”

I don’t usually think about it but sometimes I get so sad that we didn’t get to her sooner. We know almost nothing for sure about her life in Bulgaria. She has a scar that isn’t documented on any of her reports. It is a pretty deep and I hate that I don’t know. She still has night mares. Much less then she used too but I’m sure they are built from memories of her past. I hate that she can’t tell me about it. She has had a lot more behaviors in the last few weeks since I’ve been preoccupied with the move. She needs a lot of attention still and reassurance that we can meet her needs.

Enough about the hard stuff… This is a celebration post! 9 months home! She is doing amazing! She is looking plumper although still hanging out around 26 pounds but growing! (I’ll update the actual number tomorrow.) She sang words at music this month! Kendra (her teacher) noticed too and beamed along with me. She helped me celebrate Mother’s Day as a mom to two! Although I haven’t noticed to many new solid words, some are getting much clearer. She does lack the confidence to use much speech in front of others. She generally saves it for when she is home. She had her first dental cleaning and did pretty good! She had her 4th birthday and first one with us! She is putting more things in her mouth. She has had two different textures in her mouth and liked it and even ate bark mulch today! Crazy land!

She is getting more adventurous too! Not sure that is a good thing… 
We love you Sofie! You are perfectly you and we are so thankful for you!

1st/4th Birthday!

It’s my angel’s birthday! She is four years old today! 

I can’t believe she is 4 already. She is still so tiny, but she has spunk! She makes up for her small size with her will to survive, her vivacity, with her spirit and curiosity, with her ability to learn, with her love and acceptance.

Today is so momentous for us and Sofie. It is her first ever birthday surrounded by love and a family. She spent three birthdays in a orphanage where they made a cake she may or may not have gotten to eat, got presents that were never really hers. Last year we had a cake for her and sent our love flying to her across the ocean. It was hard. I ached for her.

This year, I feel fulfilled. My angel is safe in my arms. With the help of friends and family I think we gave Sofie the most perfect first family birthday here in Canada. A HUGE thanks goes out to Sofie’s Music Together teacher who made an exception and led a short music class. Music class is Sofie’s most favorite thing in the world. It was perfect. Sofie was so excited to have Miss K. in her house! All the kids and their prospective parents seemed to have fun too!

The “Hello” song!

Miss Kendra is very animated… Sofie LOVES it!
Tickle time!!!
Fireworks song! 
Sofie was having so much fun.

We had dinner, presents then cake. The house was a little crowded but I think we made do. Sofie did really well. She was happy and engaged the whole time… until about 6:30pm but it was almost her bedtime and she’d been really stimulated for 2.5hrs. I was so proud of her! She is so amazing.

Livi and Sofie started with opening the presents!
Then all the other came to help!… and Sofie played with the wrapping paper.
Cake time! My sister made the music cake!
Happy Birthday Angel. We love you!

And for a short little Birthday photoshoot!

Good morning Birthday Girl!

Frick, I love her 🙂

8 Months Home!

I was too busy yesterday and missed getting this post up! I was pretty busy today too so it might be a little short.

Sofie has been home for 8 months now! Yay! We are so blessed. Like SERIOUSLY blessed. Man we love her. The girls are getting along better. There is much less hair pulling and fighting over toys. Sofie seems to have replaced some of her previous unwanted behavior with pushing and the word “No”. It is a whined “No” actually. I’m so tired of hearing it. Helping her learn to talk seems to be back firing…

Other than the word no we are loving hearing her talk. She has been saying more words this month. She is starting to say animal sounds and even said “boobies” and “Sess” for her Auntie Sessa. We got to celebrate our first World Down Syndrome Day with our angel. We had our first trip to Children’s Hospital and got some wonderful news about Sofie’s heart. We watched Sofie enjoy not understand her first Easter! She didn’t get the whole egg thing but enjoyed the chocolate! She started her first swim lessons. Parent and Tot, but is still warming up to them. I got to see her kick her first ball too! She is so awesome.

The really exciting news this month is how much weight she has gained and how much she has grown! She is up over 26 lbs and 34 inches! That is a pound this month and an entire inch/2.5 cm! The doctors were getting slightly concerned about her lack of growth. She’s only grown about 1.5 cm up until this month. Now a whole 2.5 cm in a month! No wonder her leggings seemed tighter. Since no one has any real experience with such prolonged malnutrition they weren’t really sure if the lack of growth was caused by something more permanent or if her bones were just taking a little longer to accept the nutrition and start growing. I’m so glad her bones are growing now! She is going to be in a size 3 before I’m ready for it! I’ll add a picture of  my chunky monkey as soon as I get one uploaded!