December 27, 2007 - At Home Update

We have been home two weeks and Ella is doing unbelievable. Our mouths are hanging open because she is so outgoing and vibrant and has just slipped into her position in our family without much trouble. No one believes us that we have only had her since December 2nd, but I swear it's true.
Ella has definitely become an eating machine. She is still hording food some, but not as much as she was. She tries everything and absolutely LOVES the variety. Her favorites are still meats (beef mainly), fruit in any form and we should have bought stock in the company that makes Caprisuns. Eek. That girl is thirsty all the time. She will drink anything, but seems to drink a lot of Caprisuns. She will even sip tea with her oldest brother.
Ella is also sleeping very well. I was totally prepared for the terrible sleep problems that we experienced with our first daughter, but nope! For the first couple of nights, she slept with us (and slept through the night..woo hoo). After that, as long as Mama lays down with her for a little bit (or just sits down next to her bed), she goes to sleep in her own bed and sleeps all night (double wooooo hooooo). We started putting Pull-Ups on her, especially at night because we were expecting a little regression with the potty training thing. Nope! She now sleeps in big girl panties every night. This does not sit well with Big Sister as she still wears Pull-Ups at night, so we are hoping it will be an incentive for Mary! We shall see.
Christmas went over better than we expected. Ella caught on to the present-thing real quick. Once she found out that there was something even cooler INSIDE the pretty paper, it was all over. She got a little overwhelmed a couple times, but all in all did very well.
Ella had her first doctor appointment (pediatrician) who found her quite healthy. He DID however find some information on her immunization records that didn't make sense and we've all decided to start (most) of her immunizations over. The poor girl got SEVEN shots all at once. She was Miss Cranky Pants for about 36 hours let me tell you! In the end, it was probably a wise decision. She see's the ENT doctor next month about the hole in her palate. The pediatrician said it didn't look bad at all and wouldn't be surprised if the specialist tells us it will close on it's own. I'm not so sure about that. Something needs to be done so we can work on her speech.
Speaking of her speach, it's coming along. She is speaking her English words a little clearer and more words every day. She understands the Chinese I speak to her and seems to understand EVERYTHING we tell her in English so we are communicating very well. She is a very smart little girl, so I'm sure she'll catch up in no time.
Here are a couple recent "at home" pictures. Yes...she IS very photogenic...in case anyone was thinking that. She is a happy girl who likes to get her picture taken!