Highs and Lows

Alexis is eager to try new things.  I love this about her.  She's eager to meet new people, taste a new food or have a new experience.  She is also eager to tell me if she does NOT like a new food or experience.  Here are some NEW things she enjoyed at a friend's birthday party:

Splashing!

She laughed every time she was splashed!

Slip n' slide

Family swing time

She wanted to try all the swings

At the playground this morning, a kid brought his motorized car.  She eyed it for a while and then walked over to it and got inside.  She sat there a minute until someone came to drive her around in it.  You go, Girl!

I have taken Alexis to our neighborhood pool once (while D stayed home with napping H).  She liked it, but she got very cold and was tired of the pool in about an hour.  It was clear that she had never been in an pool.  She liked the sensation of her legs floating and her hair touching the water. Hope to get pics of her in the "big pool" at some point.  She spent a chunk of our time at the pool watching a group of folks play corn hole.  I wasn't sure if she was tracking with the game, but then she would blurt out "Awww...." when someone got close to scoring.  It was really dear and fun to watch.

I took her back to the neighborhood pool this morning while the girls had swim practice.  The pool is closed during practice, but she liked to watch from the sidelines and play in the baby pool:

Watching the girls at swim practice

Baby pool is cold in the morning!

A significant struggle that we've had yesterday and today has been that Alexis wants me to hold her when we are in public.  In our house, she walks and runs around freely.  When we go places, though, she wants me to hold her.   As in, my back and wrist hurt from holding her.  Even if we had no biological children, I'd be unable to keep up the pace of holding her this much.  I asked a translator about this, and Alexis said that her legs are tired.  I do think that she tires easily, but I think that she craves closeness.  Solution: Now, we take a stroller everywhere, and Alexis hops in and out as she pleases.  I'm hoping that this new system will work.  So far, so good.

In a stroller at VBS.  Just after this pic was taken, she got up and played tag.

Speaking of VBS, Alexis has amazed me as she has participated in our church's Vacation Bible School this week.  She laughs (appropriately) during the skits and lesson time, she does all the crafts, tries (and rejects) the snacks and stands to sing the songs.  A HUGE reason why VBS has been so great is our dear Taiwanese friend (pictured below) who has stayed with Alexis to translate.  No words to thank her for this kindness.  She is a GEM of a person. 

Beautiful friend who has translates for Alexis at VBS

Tonight, Alexis cried a few times at VBS.  The best that the translator and I can figure, she gets scared when the music is too loud or the situation is too stimulating.  So a few times, we rolled her out of a room or to the sidelines  of an activity. She wanted to see what was going on but from a distance.

One struggle that doesn't have a clear solution is how to get Alexis to play independently or with our biological children in our home.  In our home at all times, she is within one or two feet of D "Baba"or me.  She is always present and is SUPER eager to help.  She wanted to unload our dishwasher at 5:45 this AM (Help me, Lord).  I can laugh about it now, but it can be very irritating during the day.  What I would say to my kids in this situation is, "Go play!" but this does not work for her.  I can't quite figure it out, but it's almost as if she doesn't know how to play.  She will play if I sit down and play with her, but she won't (or can't) do this on her own.  She will not watch tv unless I sit down to watch tv.  I don't think I'll ever sort it all out, but it's hard to tell what is the result of the language barrier, developmental delays, health conditions or institutionalization.

New beads from sweet neighbors

Goggles and "Baba"

If Baba is in the room, so is Alexis.

A more minor struggle we've had is with bedtime.  Alexis does not like to go to bed.  Once it starts getting dark outside, she starts to gesture to me that she doesn't want to go to bed.  I appreciate that she's giving me a heads up. :)  She has been going to bed around 9-9:30pm every night and this morning she was up at 5:30am.  So I knew that she could not fight me for long on going to bed.  I tuck her in and then rub her back for a few minutes.  The past two nights, she has been asleep within 5-7 minutes of this.  She cries to let us know that she is awake.

Alexis is very silly and very quick to smile.  She loves to make faces and silly sounds.  When Harrison does something that makes me want to scream, she is the first to laugh about his antics.  It diffuses my anger with him (most of the time).   When something surprises her, she has a long drawn out "WOW" that makes me laugh every time. Here she is being silly about her frozen yogurt:

Health update:

• Pediatrician doing urinalysis tomorrow just to rule out a UTI.  The frequent urination has improved significantly.  Talked to the caregivers (via the coordinator) about this, and they said it has happened before when she is nervous or excited.  Today she seemed totally normal to me in the urination department. :)
• Pro bono eye exam this Saturday morning thanks to a very kind eye doctor and a bold friend who asked for his help.
• Exploring options for a dental check-up.  Any actual work done on her would require permission of her caregiver.  Obviously, I'm not a dentist (although I lived with a dental hygienist for 2 years), but I'm certain that she has too many teeth.

Final thoughts:

• We have the greatest friends and family.  Unequivocally.  We would NOT be able to do this without the constant encouragement from family, friends, neighbors and our church body.

• God is faithful and present...always.

 Photos courtesy of Jennifer Newlin and Meagan Samuel.