Celebrating 2 Months as a Family

2 months together~Really?!!?!!  I cannot believe we have spent 2 months loving on each other and getting to know one another.  In many ways it seems like we have been a family forever.  Ava is a perfect match for Matt and I and having Ava with us seems so natural.  In other ways we are still learning a lot and adapting to our new roles of parents and child.  We thank God everyday for bringing us together so that we could be a family.  It's unbelievable to think that we come from 2 different continents, thousands of miles away from each other BUT God had big plans for all of us...plans that could only be accomplished by bringing us together and HE made it all possible.

Ava's 2 Month List:

1.  Dance Party!!  You LOVE to dance!  We have family dance sessions almost nightly and many other break out sessions during the day.  This is one of my favorite things to do with you and it is also really good exercise for mama~it takes a lot of energy to keep up with your moves :)

2.  Favorite Movie:  Baby Einstein videos.  You will rarely watch any other TV show/movie for more than 2 minutes, but the Baby Einstein videos are something that you will watch all the way through.  It's fun to watch you sing, dance, and laugh along with the video.  

3.  You love books!  This is equally as fun for mama and baba.  Not always will you sit and listen to the book being read but you are listening even when you're walking around the room.  Your favorite book is "I Love You Stinky Face".  You bring this book to mama or baba at least 4 times daily :)  We have recently started going to the library for toddler story time.  You have so much fun sitting (or walking around the room) with the other kids, listening to stories, singing, and dancing.  

4.   Favorite Foods:  You go through an entire pint of Banana/Strawberry yogurt weekly.  You also love whole milk, Goldfish Crackers, Raisins, and Icecream!!   

5.  You went on your first road trip during the last month when we went to Kansas for Easter.  Mama and Baba were really nervous about how you would do since you get antsy just going across town, but you did fantastic!!  You definitely got tired of being in your carseat after a while but for the most part you sang along to the radio, watched DVDs, and read books.  You slept for only 30 minutes on the way to Kansas but slept for 3 hours on the way home.    

6.  You enjoyed your first Easter celebration with both grandparents, lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins.  You spent the weekend meeting and getting to know your extended family at the farm.  It was so fun to watch you interact and play with your cousins.  Lots of Easter Egg hunts with Lau Lau and Pappy and they also found out you love pinwheels and wagon rides.  You also enjoyed a city wide Easter Egg hunt where you gathered lots of candy and brought home a stuffed bunny.  Luckily you are not that into candy yet (probably because Mama and Baba don't offer you any) so we have lots of left-over candy.   

7.  One of the not-so-fun new things for this last month has been your innate ability to throw tantrums.  I say innate because I certainly didn't show her how to do this ;)  It doesn't happen a lot, but we probably see at least one tantrum a day~some days are worse than others though.  Communication is definitely improving between all of us, but it seems that a lot of tantrums are occurring because you are not getting what you want.   Sometimes this is because you can't have want you want, but other times I am sure we are not understanding exactly what you want.  We anticipate that as our communication continues to improve, so will the tantrums.  Believe it or not, we are very thankful for our strong, independent daughter who feels free to voice her opinion even if she has to use a tantrum to do so.   

8.   Sleep has definitely improved over the last month, but you are still not sleeping through the night every night like you were in China.  Typically you wake 1-2 times during the night.  You are fully transitioned into your own room and going to bed is no longer a battle.  There seems to be a pattern of waking around 12 and 4am.  Sometimes you wake us up crying, but other times your cry sounds more frustrated/mad and it can take a little while to get you calmed back down so that you can fall back to sleep.  I have a hard time imagining and thinking about what your sleeping situation was most likely like in the orphanage.  We want you to know that no matter what time of day you need us we will always be there for you~even in the middle of the night.

9.  You and Jack have become good friends.  You both still need your space at times and don't hesitate to let each other know when those times are.  However, for the most part you love being around each other.  You get lots of kisses from Jack daily and it's fun to hear your laugh when you are being attacked with Jack kisses!!  You love to pet Jack and laugh with joy when you get to pet him for a longer time.  You and Jack frustrate mama because I am trying to keep your's and Jack's stuffed animals separated but you guys keep sharing with each other!!  I think mama is loosing this battle :)

10.  You are talking/singing non-stop!!  It still sounds like a lot of babbling to us, but sometimes you look so much like you know what you're saying that we often wonder if you are talking in Mandarin to us!!  LOL!!  You are learning more words all the time and will often repeat words back to us.  Some favorite new words this last month are:  light, fan, cluck-cluck, more.