6 months with our girl!

It is hard to believe that we have been Mommy and Daddy for almost half a year! February 14th will mark our 6th month mark since our Gotcha Day. Many families choose to celebrate different milestones in their adoption journey. For us Gotcha Day was a day of hectic schedules, an unsure child, and lots of forced smiles. The day that we celebrate is what we will call Family Day (October 8, 2014). This is the day our adoption became legal. We had to fight hard for the courts to process our case, and God proved faithful in the end.

Here is an update on our lives over the last month:

Brielle was evaluated for physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) in January. We will now start seeing those therapists weekly. In OT she will be learning life skills (dressing, eating, etc.) and working towards developmental milestones (stacking blocks, coloring, holding a pencil, etc.) In PT we will concentrate on more gross motor skills. She is really getting strong in her legs! She pulls up and cruises all over the place, and is getting more steady on her feet. We should be getting her fitted for braces in the next month, and her PT thinks she will really take off after that! The PT was really impressed that she has gone from not crawling all the way to walking with assistance in 6 months.

 Brielle is becoming much more proficient with sign language, but she only does it when she feels like it. :) Typical toddler. She can consistently sign more, please, bath, sing, eat, and all done. We are trying to teach her 'no' to help with some of her frustration. We are also working on potty training, and she is doing pretty well. She also has 'rest time' from 1-3pm every day. We used to make her stay in bed, even if she was playing or reading books, but that hasn't worked lately. Just this week she has started doing the sweetest thing, when she is done playing she will crawl up in her bed and fall fast asleep! My girl is getting so big!

We are having more food battles, but they are typical toddler food battles. I know that is a good thing because she is forming opinions of her own, and is growing out of food fears. It sure is hard on this momma though! I never know if she will like the same thing day to day. But she consistently eats eggs, chicken nuggets, broccoli, kale chips, and plain pasta. One a good day we get some yogurt, turkey and blueberries too. I never thought I would be the momma to give into her child's food battle, but with an adoptive kid you just have to! When a child has gone without food at some point it is important for attachment for them to know they always have food, even if its not always what I made for dinner.

She has become much more affectionate with us, and often just crawls up in my lap to snuggle. Playing reciprocally is one of our OT goals, and she gets better every day. It is so fun watching her learn how to interact, and her realization that she doesn't have to always play alone. We have been hearing lots of belly laughs lately!

Here is a look at our last month together:

Finally fitting into some cute 3t clothes

 Always torturing loving her doggies

 Woods exploration

 Morning baths help cranky attitudes

 We've mastered eating with a spoon!

Fun time at Ben & Jordyn's house

 We have learned that one sheet of paper is not enough painting space for this girl

 Snuggles with a sick girl

 Boundary testing...

 Sensory play with Flynn

 Sleeping hard after playing hard

 She loved the goop!

 This never happens, but she fell asleep on our way to youth group

 Wagon in the woods

 She has decided to eat apples like Mommy

 First trip to the Dekalb Farmers Market

 First time in Sunday School 

   Gotcha Day & Six Months Home!

Thank you for all your love, support and prayers!