I've decided to continue this blog and post to it periodically so that it will serve as a journal for Katerina. But first, I need to catch up on the last 3 ½ months.
WOW, It's been over 3 months and we are finally establishing a routine. I think the adjustment might have been easier for Katerina than for Constantin & me. Our world of 17 years or so changed overnight and I've had to let go of things that used to be (or so it seemed) important to me; like a neat house. The house is always trashed. The living room is her playroom. We have baskets for toys but there's always a Leggo somewhere to found. A toy kitchen and small table and chairs reside right next to the dining room table; neither of which match our decor! I am back to work full time but am deeply grateful for the flexibility my boss and the organization give me. I am able to adjust my schedule to maximize time with Katerina by working extra hours on one day, short on another, working from home when it makes sense (saving 2 hours in commuting time), etc. We have a full-time sitter who lives around the corner and comes to our house from 9am to 6pm. Nancy is full of energy and although she tells us she often collapses once she gets home she seems able to keep up with Katerina. She’s gentle and caring and plays with Katerina constantly and also works on teaching her things through play.
It’s hard to get personal paperwork and other things done around the house. Thank goodness I'm so organized to maintain a to-do list and therefore am always up-to-date on what I'm not accomplishing. As we get more into a routine, I’ve slowly been chipping away. Example: This past weekend I caught up on the last 5 months of bank reconciliations.
Attachment & Adjustment She is adjusting well and attaching to us. She’s still very independent, but seems to know that we are her “home base”. When I come home she runs to me smiling, saying Ma Ma and puckers her lips to give a kiss. She hates Monday mornings after spending a few days with us at home. When Nancy shows up on Mondays, she often turns to one of us and holds her arms up for us to pick her up.
Play dates, Playgroups and other Organized Activities
Katerina is very sociable and outgoing. When meeting strangers, she is initially quiet while sizing them up, and after about an hour she becomes noticeably comfortable and her personality comes out. She attended the spring semesters of
Gymboree and
Musical Munchkins. During circle/lap time she preferred to go into the middle of the circle and dance or intensely watch the "teacher" as she played an instrument or worked with a prop. At Gymboree, she made remarkable progress in using the various apparatus and now gleefully climbs on and through everything like a little monkey. For the summer, we have signed her up for
Locomotion, a Gymboree type class closer to home and swimming lessons at Club Fit. I have decided that we will host our own Musical Munchkins type of session at home as I can not find a convenient time & location for this. At minimum, Joseph, Constantin, Katerina and I will set aside forty-five minutes once a week for structured musical fun. I will create playlists on my iPod and will try to incorporate the various techniques used in these classes; singing, movement, musical instruments, rhythm, etc. We may even invite some “guests” to join us now and again to make it more fun.
We are so lucky that one of our best friends, Chris & Kate have a daughter around the same age. Tess and Katerina have gotten together several times now and enjoy each others company. She has also had a play date with a couple of families from FCC; Ally who is about 1 year older than her and Sonia who is about 1 month older. On the 4th of July, she met Paige who is a couple of months older and adopted from Russia last year by Cindy (Deb’s sister) & Jerry. They had a fabulous time together which resulted in some adorable pictures.
Speech & Understanding It’s amazing to me how much she understands. Words or concepts that I didn’t even think we had uttered previously. She’s an incredible mimic and will try to imitate body movements as well as speech. She has not yet put sentences together but knows a lot of words. I stopped recording after a while but in order to document, I will include her first words here:
Ba Ba, Ball, Bath, Bike, Boo Boo, Bird, Bubbles, Bye-bye, Car, Cheese, Cow, Down, Ear, Eye, Fork, Ge Ge, Go, Good Girl, Goodnight, Hi, Joseph, Juice, Kitty, Light, Ma Ma, More, No, Off, On, Out , Pajama, Please, Spoon, Thank you, Time, Uh oh, Up, Yum-Yum
We’ve stopped recording because she is now repeating so many words when she hears us speak them.
Outings & Events: Over the past few months we’ve taken our show on the road a few times.
Bronx Zoo:
She’s been to the zoo twice since her arrival; once in early April and then again in July. Her interest in the exhibits was much greater in July. On our first outing, she seemed more interested in other kids in strollers than the animals. Her mother also had a few things to learn about outings. I neglected to bring an extra set of clothes so when she generated one of her mega-poops it got all over her and the clothes she had on and I had to take her out of the zoo wearing only a fresh pamper, socks & shoes. I now travel with no less than 2 extra outfits and on one recent occasion had 8 (included 2 swimsuits)! The trip to the zoo in July was terrific. Joseph and his brother Anthony came along and not only had fun but were extremely helpful. Joseph pushed the stroller the entire day. He and Anthony traded off with me when holding her up was in order and they both took her through some of the hands-on exhibits in the children’s zoo. One of our biggest enjoyments was hearing her do animal sounds when she saw them; cows, sheep, and monkeys. She makes the same sound for sheep and goats; likewise for monkeys and gorillas. She even makes hand movements under the arms and facial expressions (or our idea of facial expressions) like monkeys. She was also fascinated by fish and turtles and I look forward to planning a day trip to the aquarium in Mystic, Ct.
Culture Day:
May 20th was FCC’s annual Chinese Culture Day at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. It was phenomenal; much more than I ever expected. The richness of the culture emphasized the need for us to continue to expose Katerina to her culture, including the language. Unfortunately, the day was extremely windy and cool so we could not enjoy the outdoor activities and performances. She was too young for a lot of the events and performances, but she was enthralled with the Chinese dancing and with Mei-Mei. (more on Mei-Mei later).
Asian Festival:
May 27th at the Kensico Dam. Unlike FCC’s culture day, the weather was spectacular; beautiful blue skies, sunny and dry. I was manning the FCC orphanage assistance booth for an hour with Katerina (who was like a poster child!) after which Constantin, Joseph, Dad, Christopher, and Tess joined us. We sat under the tent in the shade and enjoyed the performances.
Beach: We’ve been to Oakland Beach a few times. The first was in early May with Aunt Susie; a beautiful day but a bit windy and cool. The most recent was a wonderful day in mid-June where we (Constantin, Joseph, Katerina and Joseph’s brother Anthony) met up with Uncle Bob & Aunt Susie for a very relaxing and enjoyable day at the beach. Katerina wearing her UV protective bathing suit (someone said it looks like she’s ready to go scuba diving) played in the sand and shallow water.
Playland:
One of my favorite places is Playland. I don’t go on any rides, but I love all the action. I’ve taken Katerina there twice now; once with Joseph in mid-May and once with Aunt Susie and Mom in late June. She is too young for many of the rides in the kiddie section but we take her on ones that will allow adults to ride with her. Joseph is game for anything! We have some really cute videos of her on the rides. BaBa has yet to see her at Playland but I’m sure we’ll all go there together soon.
Muscoot Farm:
The first time we went to Muscoot Farm was on Easter (non-Christian Orthodox) in April. We have since been there several times as it’s just a few miles up Rte. 100 from where we live. It is a Westchester County Park but also an actual working farm. The most fun is getting there right before feeding time (around 2:30-3:00pm) when the animals are all anticipating food. There’s a cacophony of bleats, neighs, crows, moos, etc. I am positive this is where Katerina has perfected her animal noises. Since there are no monkeys there, I’m guessing she learned ooh ooh ah ah ah from one of us.
Health & Behavior
Medical: We took Katerina to a pediatrician, Dr. Traister, who specializes in international adoptions, the Monday after her arrival. Although her records from China indicated all immunizations had been done, Dr. Traister tested her for immunology levels and found several to be lacking! She, of course, did not enjoy her blood being drawn and the next visit when she had to get several immunization injections. Other than that she is healthy, although with dry skin/eczema. We are constantly putting lotion on her. She had allergic reactions in the beginning and we are still trying to figure out what caused them. We cut off all food except rice initially and slowly added additional foods. We’ve narrowed the problem down to bananas or eggs.
Size: She is very petite and is only in the 5th percentile for height and the 15th percentile for weight. We have another visit coming up with the doctor and can’t wait to see if good loving and nourishment is reflected in her growth. Her shoe size has been 3 since she arrived and just seems to be crossing into 4’s. She is still wearing clothes that are for 12 months; 9 to 12 or 6 to 12 months fit best. Those that are 12 to 18 months are too big. I have tons of wonderful clothes that were given to us as gifts and will last us for a couple of years I’m sure because most of them were for 18 months and up. When she arrived, there were not many that fit and I HAD to go out shopping for her. Is there anything more fun than buying little girl clothes? I don’t think so.
Eating: She loves fruit, cheese, rice, pasta and some vegetables. She doesn’t like meat or chicken although my mother said she read that you should try something 20 times before giving up. Today, Constantin included ham in her rice and vegetables and she ate it. She has discovered forks and wants to eat everything with a fork. No spoons. If you give her a spoon she will throw it on the floor. She even eats her cereal & milk in the morning with a fork. She feeds herself and thank goodness for the pocket at the bottom of the bib where 25% of her food collects.
Sleep: Most of the time she goes to sleep between 8:30 and 9pm and wakes up between 7 and 7:30am. Perfect! Our routine is to give her a bath, read a goodnight book and say goodnight to everything in (and out of) the house on the way to the bedroom. Goodnight to the lamp, the rocking horse, the car outside the window, the tiger sculpture, the toys, the kitchen, and of course, Ma Ma, Ba Ba, and Ge Ge. Once in the bedroom we greet Chickoree Chick, give Katerina the little pillow and blanket she loves. The blanket, by the way, is not for covering up, it’s for hugging. She also has Baby Tad in the crib who keeps her amused with some lullabies and educates her on colors and shapes by pressing representations of such on his belly. We also know when she wakes up in the morning when we hear “Hello, I’m baby Tad.
Touch the blue square” We put the lights down low and play the same CD of lullabies each night. One night I tried something different and she pointed to the CD player shaking her head and saying “No”. Depending on the amount of time between going into the crib and sleeping, we are sometimes treated, especially lately, to lengthy monologues of babble. We’re not sure who she is talking to but she’s very serious about it. She also sings the melody and tones/inflections of Mei-Mei songs. (More about Mei-Mei later).
Dental: She loves brushing her teeth, does so several times a day and does not want to give up the brush. We will need to take her to a dentist soon as I’ve read that it’s very important to receive dental care even at this age.
Hygiene: She loves to take baths. Only for a brief time was she terrorized because Constantin thought it was cute to turn the shower head on unexpectedly. For about 2 weeks she screamed when we brought her near the tub and would eye the shower head with severe distrust. We had to go in the tub with her or take her into the shower with us. We eventually installed a removable/handheld showerhead and keep it dangling in the tub when unused and she cautiously went back to her baths.
Pooping: She poops like a champ; once or twice a day. She knows when she made poop and will sometimes point to her diaper and say “pooh”. This is the first step toward potty training. We will wait until she’s ready; when she can let us know that she’s going to poop, not after the fact. Everything I’ve read says she will let us know and we will recognize when it’s time.
Temper: She’s got a bit of a temper and does not like to be told what to do. If she doesn’t get her way, watch out, everything near her ends up on the floor.
She can also be very sly. Sometimes when she knows she shouldn’t do something she will begin the act, look at me or Constantin with a little smile and either wait for us to say no or she will shake her head as if saying “I know I shouldn’t do this”.
For the first 6 weeks, she used to throw fits when she didn’t get her way. She would literally fling herself on the floor (on her stomach) and cry. We would then walk over to her, put out our hand; she’d take it and stand up. Fit over. The fits seemed to end in early May.
Favorite Things
Mei-Mei (More about Mei Mei later)
Chickoree Chick
Blanket
Dancing
Books
Her bedroom
Telephones
Remote Controls
Notable Moments
5/2/06 Says MaMa
5/4/06 Points to diaper and says “pooh”
5/5/06 Blows a kiss
5/25/05 Presents her forehead for us to kiss her when we ask for a kiss.
6/01/06 Kisses stuffed animals but not people.
6/10/06 Smiles on demand
6/15/06 Gives actual kisses
6/24/06 Repeats everything
6/30/06 Kissed everyone at Locomotion
7/3/06 Made monkey noises at the zoo
Genius Child or at least Cute Child Episodes
One day Constantin took the garbage bag out of the pail in the kitchen and walked outside. Katerina reached behind took a fresh bag from where we keep them behind the garbage pail under the sink and tried to put it in the pail.
On July 4th, Katerina was filling up pails of water from the pool and dumping them on peoples heads who were sitting in or around the pool. She walked over to Aunt Susie, put the pail down, took Susie’s hat off, picked up the pail and dumped the water on Susie’s head.
MEI MEI
Mei Mei Hu is an educator and the creator of the Play & Learn Chinese series, which includes a language CD, the popular Dance & Learn with Mei Mei and the newly-released video Let's Go to School with Mei Mei. She came to the United States in 1983, after having taught English for several years in China at the well-known University of Science and Technology. In 1986 she received her master's degree in Education and began work as a Montessori teacher, guiding young children in their earliest lessons. It was her fifteen years of experience at the Montessori school that kindled her passion for teaching younger children and the place where her Chinese program was born and refined. In the meantime, Mei Mei had also been teaching Chinese language at Rhode Island College, which eventually led her to teaching positions at Providence College and, more recently, at Brown University.She’s killing us with Mei Mei. As soon as she wakes up she wants to watch the Mei Mei . Shortly thereafter she wants the Mei Mei CD put on her CD player and since we have a monitor in her room with extensions in the kitchen and office, Mei Mei is on throughout the house. I made the mistake of putting Mei Mei on my iPod and playing it for her in the car one day. Now we don’t even have her buckled in the car seat before she points to the car radio and says Mei Mei. Joseph is ready to pull his hair out but it has gotten to him as well. We heard him unknowingly singing one of the songs as he was laying rubber tiles under the baby pool.
