It took Audrey a good 2 weeks to adjust to the time change, and then she started sleeping thru the night. She loves being in her crib in a room with her big sister Olivia, and she sleeps a good 12 hours straight, thank goodness! She also takes a 1-2 hour nap each day...
The first week in January we started treatment for her club foot. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful orthopedic doctor that specializes in club foot right here at Children's Hospital in St. Louis. People come from all over the world to see him! We have gone there once a week for 6 weeks now and each time she gets a brand new cast while they stretch her foot a little more. Olivia enjoys picking out her cast color each week. Here's the pink, purple, and orange ones...
the remote is a phone)
Audrey has not minded the cast one bit (once it's on, that is!). It only took her a few hours of being down on it to figure out how to walk and even run! No slowing this girl down!
She absolutely hates getting the cast each week, and especially getting them cut off. She seems to do a little better each week though...
She will have surgery this Thursday (putting cuts in some of her tendons to allow them to stretch to the correct position) and then will be in a cast for 4 weeks and we are supposed to keep her as immobile as possible (minimal to no walking). That should be interesting!
Here's her foot before treatment, I'll have to post more pictures after she's all done...
We celebrated Chinese New Year at a friend's house and she picked up chopsticks and started using them with no problem! We were shocked! We didn't realize she had ever used them in the orphanage. So cute!
They also had the sugary little drinks that she used to have in China. She was so excited to see them! She ended up drinking 4 and then didn't want to let the bottles go!
She loved having rice and some familiar foods! She is a pretty good eater overall. She absolutely LOVES fruits and vegetables and could eat those all day. She also likes scrambled eggs a lot. She's not crazy about meat. We also still struggle with her drinking much, since she wasn't used to this in China, but she's getting better. She loves yogurt, smoothies, and popsicles we make out of the smoothies, so we at least try to get some liquids/dairy in her that way...
Watching the first snowfall...
First haircut...
She definitely has some curl to her hair...
She is absolutely crazy about her brothers and sister, and they are crazy about her! She gets so excited when she sees them come home from school! She has picked up quite a few words, and every day it seems like she's understanding more of what we say. She says ma ma, da da, pa pa, night-night, bubba (which Luke taught her to call him!), and sissy (which Olivia worked with her on), no, wow, ooh, among many other words and sounds. She sings "bye bye baby" (her version of "rock-a-bye-baby") and "clean-up, clean-up" to the tune of the clean-up song. She also says quack quack at ducks and also at every other animal she sees -- still working on that one! She will imitate almost anything the kids have her do. She loves music and likes to clap and dance. She is overall very easy-going and she is a very happy baby and smiling all the time! Can't believe this is the same girl we met in China! We are having so much fun with her and we couldn't possibly love her any more!
hanging out with Olivia...
Christmas morning on Grant's lap...
Oh my goodness!!! I just commented on another post of yours (I'm Ashley---just signed in on my husband's account). I did a search online of "Chenzhou orphanage" and came across your blog. We were matched yesterday with a 21 month old little boy in that orphanage....and we are also in St. Louis!! Crazy!! I would love to connect with you sometime :) My email address is pitts-family @ live . com (no spaces). How cool to have someone local who has a child from the same orphanage who is only ~ 7 months older than our little one!
ReplyDelete