Life Moves So Fast

It's been a little while since my last post, just because life really does move so fast. There is always something new to share, but not enough time to sit down and write. At the moment, Julie is in her crib for her nap, but she's not sleeping. She often plays a while before she sleeps, but today is different. Instead of banging and playing, I hear her reciting the alphabet to herself! I don't know why it tickles me so, maybe because she is doing it independently. Suddenly she seems so grown up. It simply amazes me to witness her growth. I'm probably more affected because of what happened right before I put her down. She signed what I thought was "flower" and pointed to her dresser. I said "flower" back to her, but that clearly wasn't what she was trying to communicate. To help her clueless mama, Julie then said "no" and pointed to her nose. Ah ha! The light bulb went on and I realized that she was asking me for a tissue for her nose! She had been signing "napkin" up by her nose. When I looked at her nose, I saw that she was, indeed, in need of a tissue. Wow. I don't believe she has ever communicated her need for a tissue to me before. Usually she just wipes at her nose with her hand or maybe ignores it. My baby is becoming a real little person!

Yesterday was a big day in our home. One year ago, in Fuzhou, China, we became a family of 3. Yesterday was Julie's Adoption Day, also known as Forever Family Day. I am humbled and awed at the gift God has given us. I thought and thought about how to celebrate, wanting to come up with something profoundly meaningful and symbolic. Should we light a candle and pray for Julie's birthmother, should we look through the many pictures we took while in China, should we go out to eat somewhere, should we should we should we? I got hung up on wanting to think of something that Julie could look back on and feel good about. I was worried that she might think our choice of celebration trivialized the event somehow, or made light of something that has an element of loss for her (loss of her birth country and culture). In reality, I don't know what emotions she will feel about this day as she grows older. Finally, we just decided to wing it for this year. As Julie grows, we can ask her how she would like to celebrate. We ended up taking her to one of her favorite places in the world, McDonalds with the toddler playland. After that we came home and had cake with 1 candle in her piece. The cake was a ring-shaped cinnamon crumb cake. I chose it for the symbolism of the never-ending, unbroken circle, a fitting image of our forever family. Julie blew out the candle, scaring herself quite a bit! We took some pictures to compare to those we took a year ago. I will post them after I get them off the camera.

The day didn't quite end there! We put Julie to bed and came downstairs. A while later, we heard an awful thud. You guessed it, Julie climbed/fell out of her crib for the first time. She was pretty upset about it, so hopefully she won't try it again for a while. We've been having some sleeping difficulties lately. Julie used to fall asleep right away at naptime, but now she just stays awake indefinitely. Sometimes I can rock her to sleep and put her down, but sometimes she just wakes back up. She's not upset about any of this, luckily. However, I think she is too young to give up napping! Those days that she doesn't nap, she is ready for bed by 6:30 and sleeps straight through for 13 or so hours. That sounds pretty reasonable, but is it really ok at age 2.5? When she does manage to nap, we end up with a different problem. We put her in bed at night and she stays up for hours before falling asleep. Last night she didn't fall asleep until 10PM! Then she sleeps late in the morning, starting the cycle over again. I really don't know which scenario is better!? I did notice that she's cutting a 2-year molar, so maybe that is part of it? Although, like I said, she is not upset or in noticeable pain, so maybe not. As one of my friends is fond of saying about childraising, "just when you figure it out, it changes." Well, I'd better wrap this up and go see to my very awake little girl!