Thursday, October 7
On Monday we were suppose to visit the Dr. but he couldn't squeeze us in so we ended up just spending the day making food and visiting with friends. The social worker came to our house on Tuesday to visit with us and observe how we have been bonding with Lilyanna. The visit went very good and she was happy with how Lilyanna has been attaching to us. We fed the social worker some of the cookies that I had made on Monday...cookies always make things better, right ;) Our daughter has been learning many things! Her latest is being able to take steps while we hold her arms. When we first received her she didn't know how to lift her feet off the floor and now she is walking all over the house, with help of course. She still doesn't know how to crawl but we're reserving that training until we get home. She HATES being on her stomach which means that she SCREAMS when we try to give her belly time so that she can learn to crawl. We'll stick to the walking for now so that our hosts don't think we're trying to torture our daughter ;)
After the visit with the social worker on Tuesday we were able to make it to the Dr. with Lilyanna. Thankfully, she checked out just fine. Everything looked and sounded good! She is average height for her age but she is a little under weight. That's not a surprise to us given the diet that she lived on while in the orphanage. The Dr. also mentioned her delays but he is use to seeing orphanage children with delays. He wasn't concerned at all and he was sure, along with us, that she will catch up quickly.
On Wednesday we had another free day which meant that we spent another day making food and visiting with friends. The Peruvians LOVE to gather with friends around food. No hungry bellies around this house! They are putting me to work since they know that I love to bake ;)
Today we ate lunch with friends and then had another visit with our social worker. We fed her carrot cake and banana bread and gave her a gift from Bath and Body works. The visit went very good. The social worker's only real concern is that our daughter needs to learn how to crawl. We agree with her but feel that it will be better to wait until we return home before starting on such a heavy task. It's cold here, there are no heaters which means the floors are very cold. Not the best encouragement for learning how to crawl around on the floor.
Now, a little bit about Lilyanna. We're learning more and more about our daughter everyday. We're learning the difference between raising girls and raising boys. The main difference being that girls like to whine...alot! When raising the foster children the boys usually just had an all out fit, got it over with, and then returned to playing happy. Lilyanna doesn't really throw fits when she doesn't get what she wants, she just whines alot. I'm still not sure which one is harder ;) She has learned what "no" means and she also had learned the command "Please, don't touch". Yesterday, I caught her heading for something that she knew she was not suppose to touch. I turned my head so that she didn't think I was looking at her. I wanted to see what she would choose to do. I continued watching her out of the corner of my eye. She held her little hand only inches away from the cherished, yet forbidden object. Her face was intensly focused on my face as she waited to see if I would give her approval or not. I could tell there was a battle going on in her little mind. After a few more seconds she removed her hands and placed them in her lap. A proud mommy moment! I showered her with praises of course. To be fair though, this was after 50 times of telling her "no" and removing her hands :)
She is still doing very good with naps and bedtime. She fusses for a minute after putting her down at times but nothing major. She has been sleeping 11 hours each night without waking. She also wakes up in a very good mood which makes me glad. Eating is going very good as well. She eats anything! She likes all the things that most babies don't like. Olives, broccoli, squash, garlic, onion, etc. I haven't found a food that she doesn't like yet. Because of all of the yummy, healthy food she is no longer having problems with constipation, which has got to make her feel better as well. I think we're all working on recovering from our colds. Henry was the last one to get it so he is still a bit under the weather but atleast Lilyanna is better now.
A few more random fun things about Lilyanna:
She puts the cutest look on her face when she gets caught doing a "no, no". At times it's really hard for us to hold a straight face while correcting her. We think it's her manipulation tactic. If mommy and daddy didn't know better, it might actually work for her :)
She has a fascination with turning the lights on/off when leaving rooms.
She likes puppies.
She goes to daddy when she wants to play, mommy for comfort and cuddling.
She loves to have her hair blow dried and played with.
She likes to say, "chow"(bye), "yeah", and "eso" (that's short for 'what is that' in spanish).
She likes her feet (she was so bundled in the orphanage I don't thinnk she ever noticed them until now)
We don't have anything to work on with the adoption until next Thursday. We should receive custody of her on Tuesday or Wednesday. On Thursday we start working on her final birth certificate, passport, one more Dr. visit, and translating some of her documents for the embassy. The following week we will set up the appointment with the U.S. Embassy and then we're done! Yay! We leave back for the U.S. on the 28th so we hope to have a week of free time to be able to acutally enjoy Peru.
Much love and hugs to you all!
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