Christmas in March, Dentists & "Mommy Bubbles Up!"

Today marks the 2nd month anniversary of the day we picked up Bela from the BSSK orphanage in India. It's hard to believe she has only been with us for 2 months. She fits in so well and she is such a huge part of our life that it feels like we have had her for years! Everyday continues to be filled with new words, new experiences and new learning's for both Bela and us!

This month, we celebrated Christmas in March with Ryan's family. It's really hard for his extended family to coordinate getting together around the holiday's so we decided to get together this month at Philipes French Dip restaurant in LA.  Bela is still pretty shy around new people but we think that is more of a 2 year old thing than an adoption thing. She needs about a good 30 minutes to warm up to people she has seen before and total strangers are usually hit or miss in terms of her being open with them. The Christmas get together was a little hard because she was just adored with attention and that probably overwhelmed her a bit - although we all had a good time. 

Bela seems to have really started attaching to her grandparents - both my parents and Ryan's parents. She knows to call my dad "dada" and my mom "dadi" and she often asks about dada when we are at hope. She likes to pray with dad when we go over and visit with him. She also really gets happy when she sees Ryan's parents - especially Ryan's dad who likes to tickle Bela (which she loves).

Bela also had her first dentist appointment this week. While the appointment only lasted 5 minutes to do a quick checkup, she squirmed and fussed the entire time. She saw the office workers in uniform and automatically thought she was at the Dr's office because she started to whine and squirm at the sight of them. Needless to say, Bela likes to brush her teeth but the dentist now suggests we floss her teeth as well!

Bubbles seem to be a big area of fun for Bela. We played with bubbles today quite a bit - to the point of exhausting her. Ryan's parents came over with their friends and she was running all over trying to catch and pop all the bubbles. Her favorite thing to say was, "Mommy, Bubbles Up!!"  She literally could spend hours and hours chasing after bubbles. My cousin got her an automatic bubble blower shaped liked a octopus which relieves mom from having to blow the bubbles herself. While Bela is learning to blow bubbles as well, she hasn't quite gotten the hang of it consistently which means - little bubble octopus is on double duty (thank goodness I stocked up on double-A batteries)!!

Ryan and I got a book to try to train Bela into taking naps again. She absolutely will not nap so we're hoping to get some tips as she is just plain exhausted and fussy by the time 6pm rolls around. It takes a toll on me especially as I would love to have some alone time while she naps if possible. We're starting to look into nanny's as well but we'll probably make a decision in a few weeks about that. Next week I start the mommy and me class at the state regional center to help Bela with her speech and language. Those will be 2 hours classes twice a week so if she gets use to those classes without me, that will give us a good indication of whether she is ready to be with a nanny yet.

Finally, Ryan and I got to go on our first date night since we brought Bela home 2 months ago! Ryan's parents baby sat for us and while we were only gone for about 2.5 hrs, it was a much needed break! We celebrated my birthday the night before with my family and friends and then Ryan and I went out alone together. It's so easy to forget just how much alone time can mean until you don't have it anymore!

But Bela is progressing really well and she is picking up new English words every day! We were looking at the video we took of the day we picked her up and it's amazing to see just how much she has changed! Her hair is longer, her cheeks are fuller and she is certainly smiling more often!

"Down Kitty!"

Hello Family and Friends! I realize this blog post is well overdue, but I have lots of great updates since our last post. For starters, Bela and I got to attend our first Indian event where we both dressed up in our Indian clothes. Bela - the girly girl, really loved her Indian outfit and especially loved accessorizing! Our neighbor (Susan Keller Photography) came over to take some professional shots as well to help us capture the special moment. The pictures on the blog are by Ryan but we hope to have the professional shots picked out soon. The Indian event was for my sister's baby shower. Bela is still getting used to new places and people but it's interesting to see how long it takes her to get comfortable in a new setting. When I got to the event, my aunts and cousins were there (people she hasn't seen before) and she was definitely clingy. She wanted to go outside and didn't venture out too far away from me. I thinks he was overwhelmed a bit by all the attention she was getting. But toward the end she did get more comfortable and even allowed the priest to give her a blessing and a "chai" on her forehead. I also discovered that she really still loves Indian food so I am now trying to make it a point that she gets Indian food at least a few times a week (thank goodness my mom is back from India and she lives close by)!

We also took our first family vacation to Scottsdale, AZ last weekend!! We were invited to a friend's weekend birthday bash and we didn't want to miss it. So we packed up and did our best to show Bela a great time while Ryan and I traded off to attend the various weekend birthday events. BTW - gone are the days where Ryan and I could travel for a week with just one carry-on bag each. We found out that our bags literally multiplied with a child! We had 4 check-in bags and 3 carry-ons!!! But Bela got to go swimming for the very first time in Scottsdale! She absolutely loved, loved, loved, the pool!! Once the weather gets warmer here, we will certainly be taking her to my parents pool. While in Scottsdale, Bela got to meet alot of my friends and Ryan's mom's cousins (Marce and Jack) drove down to our hotel from Prescott to see her as well. She really loved the Fashionista Barbie that they got her - she is really into accessories (purses, jewelry and all). She played really, really well while they were visiting and even reached out to Marce to play with her as well. This was all without Ryan which was great. She does like to be free and runs around quite a bit but she really seemed to open up with them the longer they stayed. It was great to see her starting to get more comfortable.

BTW - I have now learned that I need some basic essentials in my purse at all times while traveling: lolipops, vanilla wafers, wet wipes, a spare diaper, some crayons/pen and paper. The loli came in handy on the flight as Bela sat very patiently in her own seat sucking on the lolipop while she was watching her video during the flight. The crayons were great to pull out at times where she would get bored when we were visiting with friends. The diaper is for my own convenience. The wet wipes are a must!!!

Then the next day my friend, Sue came by for breakfast and brought her a doll with its own stroller. WOW, that kept her busy for hours while the adults were all having breakfast. She was literally in a house full of people and just had a grand old time playing and enjoying herself. She in fact totally opened up to Sue and was playing with her for hours - she had never seen Sue before so that was totally amazing!! She even let our friend Fred hold her - again a total first as she had never met Fred before. The secret to Bela's heart is clearly babies and Barbies! She really LOVED Sue and the gift she got and still goes out daily pushing baby in the stroller!

In terms of eating, sleeping and develomental progress - lots has happened there too. For starters, Bela is now up to almost 2 eggs in the morning. She is eating really well and we've started to add a lot of high caloried (but nutritious) foods to her diet to help her gain some weight. Bela's doctors have indicated she has had a failure to thrive given her low weight but pediasure, cheese and lots of other great calorie foods should help that. I learned that a good friend of ours has a son (who is now 13) and he was diagnosed with a failure to thrive at birth too - and now he is healthy and active and you would never know he wasn't gaining a lot of weight as a newborn. She gave us some great tips on high calorie foods she used to feed him which has helped as well. But it was very reassuring to see her son and imagine Bela at 13. Bela was also sleeping through the nights entirely for the last few weeks and even slept through the night in her own bed in Scottsdale. But that hasn't been the case the last 3 nights or so. We think she was a bit traumatized by my mom's friend who she recently saw. My mom's friend is from Pune, India - the same town we picked Bela up from. So she started speaking Bela's local language to her and she was even dressed in traditional Indian clothes, resembling the caregivers at the orphanage. Bela totally freaked out around her and since then she has had nightmares and has been waking up 2-4 times a night. So either Ryan or I will make it a point to sleep with her until she gets back to her old sleeping pattern again. It's amazing though - that even though she will likely have no memory of this experience when she gets older, every experience is shaping her well-being and development and programming that little brain of hers. Children are total sponges!  Bela's langugage is also developing - she is now putting 2 and 3 words together and learning how to count thanks to her cousins who have been teaching her new words and numbers. Bela now says, "Mommy, i'm no hungry", "Kitty down", "mommy outside" and of course she says "I luw you" a lot! She even likes to give flying and personal kisses to people she knows. Bela has her final evaluation from the regional center to approve her language group therapy (3 times a week) and her occupational therpay (once a week).  She still doesn't like playing with new kids but has started to open up to my nephew and her cousins Alyssa and Brianna who come over once a week (one at a time) to play with her. I am also trying to set more play dates with her as well. She doesn't mind the kids as long as they don't come up to her and touch her - which we think must be an orphanage thing where kids would probably hit her or try to grab her toys since there were so many kids that she interacted with. So it's probably a territorial thing where she like her independence and is a new thing she is taking advantage of.  This week the focus is on potty training - I bought a new book of stickers to finally get her trained once and for all - mommy and daddy are really over the poopy diapers - wish us luck! :)