In general, the girls are doing great. They have settled in to our family very well. Ava and Eliza LOVE their brothers and sisters. They also love their dog, fish and hamster, unfortunately, Buddy the hamster went to heaven today. Ava was very very upset. She cried herself to sleep. Sorry for the downer, but it is part of life.
Ava has really changed. When she came home she was quiet and withdrawn. Now is she very talkative and a silly little girl. She still has a few moments of digression, but there has been a huge personality change. I do think that she was old enough in ET to understand that her mother could not care for her and had to take her to the orphanage. She immediately took to Darren, and it took Ava some time to warm up to me. Now, she barely let's me out of her sight. She went from one extreme to the other. She wants to know where I am at all times and does not like it when I have to leave. I guess she is finally getting attached to me :)
Ava has gone from this:
To this!!!
From early on, we knew Ava was older than her ET birth certificate stated. We decided to celebrate her birthday in May. We are hoping to get her birthday changed, but we won't know until we go for our final re-adoption in July. Anyway, here are some pictures from the celebration.
When we met Eliza for the first time in late October, she was teeny tiny. Barely 18 pounds and wearing a size 9 month. She was still crawling and very shy. Now.....well, she is running, jumping, laughing and talking nonstop. She has done a complete 360. Liza will be 2 next week, by her ET birth certificate. I think the date is fairly accurate. She has been screened by a speech therapist and developmental therapist. She was at about 50% in January....now she is off the charts. She has grown and changed so much. She talks nonstop, runs nonstop and plays nonstop. She is exhausting just to watch!! I wish I had half her energy!!!
Liza is your typical two year old. Into everything!!! She still does not sleep through the night, that worries me a little. I know at the orphanage they would give the babies a bottle at bedtime, and Liza still wants that....but she is also still waking up in the middle of the night for a bottle. I have no clue how we are going to break her of this habit. But his mamma needs some sleep!!!
She has also started throwing major fits.....not sure if this is an "adoption thing" or a 2 year old thing. You would think after raising 3 bio kids of my own, I would know how to handle this. But she had me stumped. I kind of feel helpless when it happens. But I am looking into having someone work with us....hopefully, it will help both of us.
This was Liza the first day we met her:
This is little LiLi today
What can I say? That pictures shows ALL of her personality!!!
