FIVE Months Home

Waiting for dinner

I love how the boys always look at HER

Taking time to smell the flowers

Aha!  Discovered the lil' dab of banana pudding at the end

Hip Hip Hooray for Daddy...just finished his big test today!

Sweetness

Likes:

Reading Books
Copying Moma...down to what hand my chin rests on
Lipstick
Going places....especially to get the boys
Being Sung to at Bedtime...her smile is a mile wide
"Helping" around the house
Getting dressed/undressed by herself
Pretending like she does not want a hug or kiss, while secretly waiting for us to chase her down and give her one anyway
Trying New foods....no noodles recently
Being OUTSIDE!
GUM

Dislikes:
Water poured over her head in bath (a new trend)
Being Told NO
Broccoli
Moma leaving (though she really is okay)....she maybe cries with Daddy for 30 seconds and then all is just fine.

We have made leaps and bounds on the sleep front.  She now goes to sleep BY HERSELF after our bedtime routine!!  She is so proud of herself.  We also go to a Bible Study weekly and she goes in to "school" for a few hours. She is so pleased that she gets to go to school and talks about it all week.  Granted she does cry when I hand her to her teacher (who is so sweet to hold her for a bit), but within two minutes of me standing outside with my heart racing, I hear her up and playing.  It has been a great way for our attachment to grow as she knows "Moma back" in a bit.  Florie's English continues to grow in leaps and bounds. I am amazed at what she says and what she understands.
She loves to snuggle, and we get lots of snuggle time in during the day.  She loves to play outside with the boys, and is constantly checking in with things like, "Moma home, Florie home, Daddy home.....then Moma bye bye later, FLORIE bye bye later too?  And, night-night later, bottle later...not now?"  She wants to go over the location/status of everyone in our family many times a day....and so we do.  We look at pictures from her orphanage a lot.  She points at all of us, and calls herself Florie when we are also in the picture. Older pictures from her infancy or toddler years make her stare for a while, then when I ask her who is that, she answers her Chinese name.  I ask her where "insert her Chinese name" is now, and she says Bye BYE. When I ask her if "insert Chinese name" is Florie, she says NO...FLorie here," and points to her chest.  I am amazed by what goes on inside her head.  She has come so far in 5 short months...and she seems to "get it" but, there is a lot more to be "got" as she gets older.  Now we just to continue to work on bonding, security, love, touch, and giving her voice.  (can anyone tell I just went to the Karyn Purvis Empowered to Connect conference?!).
Off to fold laundry before she wakes from her nap!