Preparations...

OH, it's gonna be another BIG party!!

 I believe I said last year's party was big as we were making up for missed birthdays. Well, I have no rhyme or reason now, other than she deserves it, and we have so much fun doing it!

Stay tuned, we have some awesome plans in store for her

CARNIVAL SPECTACULAR!

Post Placement Report #3

43 months

Celebrating 9 months in Canada!

The largest change we saw this term, was her growth. Literally flying out of size 4, into a 5. I am pretty certain the absence of parasites is the cause of this growth spurt.

She is now rocking the scales out 38.6 lbs and 40.5 inches, reaching a percentile of 86% in both height and weight! Did I mention her shoe size is 11!?

Her punctuating is improving and her vocabulary growing every day. The word of the week is 'Delicious!'

She has also found her independence, wanting to do almost everything by herself. Butter her toast, walk downstairs, up a hill etc. without a hand, getting dressed...  "I do it Mommy!'

She is also breaking free of her shyness. She now greets people with a 'Hello', or 'Bye', and very rarely buries her head into my leg (hip now!) anymore. The restoration crew that has been working on our house, has been getting a kick out of her. They can't believe how talkative and energetic she is. I explained that this is all new, although I don't think they believed it for a second!

Pictures from the last few months. (Some new ones, and some old ones from FB for those of you are not FB members.)

Ladybug painting



Zahra with 'B'.



First time skating!

Crafting machine at Strong Start

Mommy allowing me to jump on the couch.

Fashion/weather conflict - caught in the snow.

 

OUT TAKES

 

'Attractive'

The Perfected Pout

She has perfected the 'Pout' ladies and gentlemen! 

In all fairness, I don't think she was feeling well. Her entire morning seemed off. 

This is not normal behaviour for her, and she was SO dramatic about it, of course I had to take photos! 

(Secretly though, she thought I was texting.)

What is this all about? 

She didn't want to listen to the playgroup rules and hold Mommy's hand down the stairs to go to the library. 

My reaction?

'That's fine. We will wait here until you decide you want to follow the rules.'

Her Response?

As seen above. Only she kept doing the 'Huff', and dramatically changing positions, and forcefully crossing her arms.

She played this game for a couple of minutes, and then tested me further by attempting to go down the stairs by herself. That resulted in me lifting her up and carrying her back to the playroom, losing her library privilege. Not saying a word, I quietly placed her on my lap and she had a little cry/cuddle until she got distracted and got up to play.

She was sad at the end of the day that she didn't have any books to leave with, and at this point we discussed why, and how we could correct it for next time. 

I love easy, pivotal parenting moments like this. 

No skin off my teeth to miss out on library, but a great opportunity to teach a lesson in listening and consequences in a way that will have great impact on her, as she really enjoys library. 

I don't think it will happen again. 

'F' Words

(NO, not those kind of F Words! ;) Luckily, our struggle is with the pronunciation of the good F words and NOT that she is saying the bad ones!

Since we have had our IDP, we have had an assessment with the speech therapist and have also gotten Z's hearing tested. All is well with her hearing, and while her language is great for an internationally adopted child, we have decided to take advantage of the services available to us in Canada, and get some assistance from the speech therapist.

Zahra's vocabulary is growing, and her sentence lengths are also growing, but Daddy and others still have a difficult time understanding her. Speech therapy helps us identify the problem areas and gives me the tools to work on these areas with her.

Today the therapist identified one main contributor of the misunderstandings is Zahra's interpretation of the 'F' sound. Commonly children of her age, will substitute a 'P' or a 'B' for the 'F' sound, pronouncing 'Fish' as 'Pish' or 'Bish'. Zahra uses a 'Sh' sound, pronouncing 'Fish' as 'Shish', which, apparently is difficult for our ears to interpret.

I thought I would share some simple exercises in case you also have a child who also has difficulties in this area.

We started by instructing Zahra to bite her lower lip and breath out, making the F sound.

She did so in front of a mirror, so she could see herself. We practiced this a few times, and then played a couple games. Her favorite game was the stamping game.

At home, I allow her to draw the stamping circles, then she stamps them as she pronounces the word. One stamp for the 'f' sound , and another stamp for the end of the word. (I was out of ink pads, so we used my office stamps. She didn't seem to mind! Ha.)

One day in and we are nailing the words about 50% of the time. In a couple days she won't even have to think about it anymore.

Here is a link to some picture cards and other activities you can try if you also have a child who struggles with the 'f' sound. Good luck!

First Kiss!

Daddy received his first kiss last night, and I just happened to catch it on camera!

 

I was doing some Christmas baking while the kids were getting ready for bed. Zahra jumped up on the step stool beside me and put on some lip balm. She kissed me goodnight and I commented on how soft and sweet smelling her lips were (watermelon - gag me!). I suggested that she should give Daddy a kiss with those sweet lips. So she started to put on more lip balm, followed by lots more, and even more...

 

'Got to do lots Mommy!' This literally went on for minutes. I think in reality, she was just working up the nerve to follow through with her kiss.

 

After asking her for the third time, she said she was ready and I could call Daddy. I called Daddy and told him Zahra had a special good night kiss for him. Totally expecting that she was going to back out, he leaned in and gave her the kissy kissy face...

 

And she followed through! AND I caught it on my phone!

He's so lucky! ;)

 

Outtakes - Pucker up!

 

 

 

Post Placement Report #2

Yes, this officially marks 6 months since we have been home.

3 months ago, Zahra tested at 24 months for her gross motor skills and 30 months at Speech development. She was 36 months at the time. I knew she was behind in these areas, and I also knew this was perfectly normal.

She walked later in life (if we compare her to the 'avg' child, not in an orphanage setting), and she was not very confident in her footing. She struggled walking up or down hills, always wanting to hold a hand etc. Granted, she never had much practice with hills before.

Gross Motor Development:
Mountain life, dance class, and the trampoline has really brought her up to speed. She can now completely dress herself, head to toe, and is definitely more agile and confident.

Here is a video of 6yr old dance class that Z decided to join in on. (The instructor is a friend and I assist her with her craft class options.) Z accompanies me. This day she decided she wanted to dance and Karin was nice enough to allow her. I think we were both amazed at how fast she caught on to the choreography!)

I think you will agree that her gross motor is just fine!


Speech Development:
She has seen the speech therapist because she tested below average on her IDP. (6 months delayed) She would drop the ending consonant sounds and had a preference for 3 word sentences. The speech therapist has not yet determined if she will require therapy or not due to her situation. We will follow up in the new year.

Research shows that adopted children all catch up around 48 months. Again, I am not at all concerned as she is progressing rapidly. She now uses 5-6 word sentences. Sentences like, "Mommy, we go get Daddy now?", "No Daddy, me put on my boots, not you.". She is also starting to use the 'filler' words in addition to the verbs and nouns.

Hearing has been tested, blood work, etc... all normal.

Other changes we are seeing is in her confidence. She doesn't nearly play shy to the extent she once did. She LOVES to go to play groups and be in social settings. When we are out and about, her comment always is "Mommy, where we go next?"... always wanting to go somewhere else and somewhere new.  She loves to tag along with Daddy on errands to the bank etc. She doesn't care where she goes, she just wants to go.

She has finally warmed up to stuffies and dolls, wanting to sleep with them at night. (In her own bed!)

She is very particular about which pyjamas and other outfits she wears. Favoring fancy outfits, owls and Hello Kitty (?? Don't ask me, I'm not a fan!... actually now that I think of it, Dan bought her a Hello Kitty from the airport a year ago. Hmmm. ;)

She knows her primary colors and most others.

She has now taken a keen interest in counting things, although she still cannot count accurately. Same goes for her ABC's.

She can work the wii, TV, ipad, iPhone... (not so sure that is a positive.)

She knows all her body parts.

She loves to help around the house. Especially helpful at unloading the dishwasher.

She goes willingly to bed now, enjoying saying goodnight and giving goodnight hugs and kisses to Muffin and I. Boys are still on the outs for self initiated goodnight snuggles.

She is currently in the 79th percentile for weight and 77th for height! She is likely to outgrow us all in 5 years!

Her favorite colour is purple and her favorite food is still bread.

She is simply amazing, and we just love her to pieces.

Here are some snapshots of the last 3 months. (Most of them shown on the Facebook page.)

Her art submission for the report. Gingerbread House. 

Outakes - My attempt at getting a good Movember photo. She wasn't a very cooperative model. 

This could have me arrested in Kenya...

As we were walking through the playground, Zahra looked up at me and said, "Mom, that boy eat snow!", as she scrunched up her nose in disapproval.

My eyes lit up at the thought of another first I was going to be able to witness. "Try it!" I told her. She looked at me like I was crazy and said "Nooo!"

Until, her little friend dipped his mit in the snow and licked a tongue full off.

She reached down, filled her mit full and took at big mouthful. I was able to capture it on my iPhone.

She ate her little heart out. Then when we got home, she had to eat her way to the door. This is when I explained the snow eating rules - only from fresh fallen snow with no tracks. (And heaven forbid, stay away from the yellow stuff!)

I swear she would have stayed outside for an hour eating snow had I not make her come in for lunch.

While this is a very normal activity for our Canadian kids, my Kenyan friends at home will be horrified. Scrunching their faces up, doing a little shiver dance in their seats, turning their faces away from this picture of snow in her mouth. YES - I can see you all right now!

They do not eat or drink anything cold for belief that it will make them sick. Cold = Cold. If they develop a sneeze or a runny nose in the afternoon, they relate it to the cold juice they drank in the morning.

I know this sounds ridiculous to us, who would not dream of drinking juice at room temperature (Beer? Yuck!) or not having ice in our soda, ice cream, refrigerated milk etc. But, for whatever reason, somewhere down generational line, someone came up with this theory and it still remains a traditional belief. It does not matter how you explain the science behind viruses, they will still remain steadfast in their belief. Some even believe they are 'allergic' to the cold.

We were able to corrupt a couple of our Kenyan friends and talked them into Ice Cream, and cold Beer, but at the end of the day, the preference was still 'warm'. Which makes perfect sense as they were not raised with and do not live with refrigerators.

Dan and I fight over fruit temperature, he wants them refrigerated and I want them room temperature. It all comes down to what our parents did and what we are used to.

However, my Rafikis.... I maintain my position here with this cold/sick business. If Zahra even comes down with as much as a sniffle or a sneeze, I will let you know. (But I pretty much guarantee you she will survive this 'snow lunch' without any side effects. :)

One year ago... Home day.

I was so excited to dress her from head to toe in nice, new girly clothes. I think she was too!

Signing the care agreements before we leave. With the Gibsons.

 

These are the Gibsons. They are also from BC. We met them in the airport on the way to Kenya. Their son Baraka is also from the same home. We shared the entire process and milestone with them in Kenya. They are family now and we are happy that Baraka and Zahra will forever maintain a kinship.

Zahra holding a couple photos that the director gave us.



She now squirms to get down out of the carers hands. Wanting Mommy. Good sign.

Saying goodbye to Maggie the SW at the home.



Saying goodbye to Wamaitha, the director.



The director, having a goodbye cuddle with Zahra.

Trying to get a full length shot of her looking so pretty in her outfit.

But she refuses to allow me to be far enough away from her to get the shot.

In my arms forever.

In the car. She loves the photos of herself.

The ride home.

Apartment decorated by the Owens.

Checking out all the toys.

  



Playing with Baraka.

Having fun!

HAPPY!