Same Time Last Year

Hello, dear friends! I am afraid I have been cheating on you a bit. You see, there is this other online community that provides quick connections & instant gratification without a lot of thinking. Yes, blogging has been replaced by Facebook. FB fits in with my new harried, ADD lifestyle - a quick skim of the status reports . . . a few comments and an update of my own, then done! I do prefer blogging and reading blogs, but school has been kicking my butt this semester. I have a completely new prep (Art Criticism!) and another class that I had to do some work on at the beginning. And, we do have two children now you know . . .

And, they are why you are here right?

This morning I was thinking about what we were doing this time last year. Scrambling to get a new copy of Scott's doctor's license that's what. Alia was not even born yet. So many people have coincidences with the timing of their adoptions. For example, our housemates in Kokshetau - the little girl they adopted shares their oldest son's birthday. The only coincidence we have is our dossier was probably resubmitted to the Consulate around the day Alia was born.

This is the earliest photo we have of Alia - she may be around 2 months. The intense gaze has not changed.

Alia taking in the weather this past weekend.

What a year it has been! Alia has now been home for about 3 1/2 months. In fact we had our first post-placement visit last week. The social worker seemed surprised at where Alia is developmentally. I think she is right on track with most everything now. She is crawling on all fours instead of the "military crawl." She goes from crawling to sitting with no problem and is standing really well - even picking stuff up when she is standing. Alia has taken a few steps while she had one hand on the couch and the other on the coffee table. We had an early intervention evaluation done last month. I think now Alia is doing everything the physical therapist said she should be. Yesterday I was reading a book to her and I think she tried to say cat! She has also been saying, "Mama" and "Dada" pretty regularly although I am not sure if she is using those words to describe us.

Alia continues to eat and sleep really well. We are really so grateful for this because it seems like if they are doing these things they are content and then able to focus on the emotional attachment. There is no doubt that Alia is attached to us. She remains very reserved and wary of everyone but Scott, Luca and me.

I don't think I can call Alia a princess - maybe a "spunk-cess"? She is headstrong and tenacious and lets you know when she is unhappy that she is not getting her way. For example she loves to try to turn over on the changing table which is a few feet high. When we stop her and say "No" she yowls and cries in frustration and continues to try over and over. She also has this habit of swatting at the spoon while being fed and reacts the same way when told "no."

Hey! Wake Up!

My mom visited at the end of January. As you can see Alia is starting to get to know Grandma.

Hanging out playing with her basket of toys this morning.

So, what's going on? Everything and nothing!