Sunday, October 11, 2009
HOME FIVE MONTHS!!

The major event of the past month was Lily’s 8th birthday. We had a special party for her and she had the time of her life. We knew she had never had a party before so we wanted it to be very nice, not to mention it was the first time I planned a party that didn’t involve superheroes, pirates or Star Wars so I kind of got carried away. She chose Tinker bell for her party so I ran with the fairies theme. She had a few kids from school and her entire family at the party. We had Lily’s Fairy Godmother come for entertainment and it was a blast. We colored pictures, had a magic show, did face painting and had cake and ice cream. It was a very fun party.

Lily is doing very well in school. She has learned so much and loves her class and teachers. Yesterday we were talking about school and she mentioned how everyone in her class was 5 or 6 and she was the oldest. I tried my best to explain to her why she was in this class and told her maybe one day she could be in a class with kids her age and she said “no, I stay Ms. S…. class”. I am very happy about that because one concern I had was that she would feel awkward being the oldest in her class. She continues to bring home a lot of drawings for me. She has really developed her drawing skills; I may have a little artist on my hands. She has also finally developed a love for reading. When she was first home she did not pay attention to books written in English, now she is eating them up and has started to read just a little. I cannot wait for her to read, I have a feeling she is going to be a big reader like mama. At our first conference with Lily’s teacher she said that Lily was doing very well, was a leader in class and followed directions. Hallelujah!

Her language development is great. We have now started to work on proper English. She has been speaking in broken English for so long, now we are teaching her the correct way to say things, using the correct pronouns, etc. It is so amazing to see her pick up things so quickly.

Lily has developed a lot of new tastes now and rarely requests the Chinese foods we used to make. She loves spaghetti, chicken nuggets and fries, and anything spicy. She still loves to cook and was officially added to the family chore list chart. She is always looking for ways to earn money so she will ask if there is anything she can do to earn some; I have found a few extra things she can do to earn some cash. She will not spend her money; she says she is saving for Disney, somewhere she desperately wants to go.

Recently we were driving in the car and Lily asked, “Ma, where did the sun go?” to which I responded, “the sun went nite, nite”. She paused and then said, “Nooooo, the sun go to China” and realizing she was right I said, “yes Lily it actually is in China”. She is so smart.

Lily LOVES to sing but unfortunately this tiny little girl sounds like a man singing sometimes because she has a deep singing voice but nonetheless she loves to sing and I love to hear her singing. She has learned many new songs at school and church and she will sing them over and over. Many times she cracks me up because she doesn’t really know all the words so she just makes them up, it is so funny.

Lily and I have this bedtime routine. She started it a long time ago and still every single night this is how we end our day. I never leave her room without a smile on my face or my heart filled with love for her when I hear her say, “ I lud you too, goodnight ma, I lud you.” And of course that comes after our hugs and kisses routine.

Lily is busy learning about Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. She is very curious and asks a lot of questions about these holidays. She knew a little about Santa Clause and asked me if Santa will come and put something under her pillow. I am not sure if she confuses this with the tooth fairy (which we have not done with her) or if that is what they did in her orphanage for the kids. I know they celebrated Christmas to some degree in her orphanage because in some of the pictures we have there is a Christmas tree in the background. I have a feeling the next few months will be full of excitement for her.

Stay tuned next month and see how Lily’s first Halloween went.