"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! :)