The past couple of months

So, I'm just not good at blogging. I don't have a lot of time to be on the computer, and it seems to take me a long time to post pictures, especially when I get so behind. Maybe I'll get better, but the next 6 months I am going to be slammed working on a certification related to my field.

A big milestone for Lulu this summer was that she finally started sleeping in her own room!! This started about 6 weeks ago. Now that we have the bed to ourselves, I don't know how we managed to have her sleep with us for so long. It seemed like once she was finally ready to make the transition, it was fairly easy for her. We do have some nights where she wants to sleep with us, but we consistently say no. She still doesn't like being in any room by herself, so I am so proud of her for finally sleeping in her own bed.

Lulu had her first dance recital a couple of months ago. She did great and had a lot of fun. She was actually a little comedian during the ballet number, losing her hair piece and being very silly on stage with it. Everyone started laughing. We just started up dance classes again last week. I am so glad she loves it and that it's something she wants to do.

We went to St. Martin for our vacation and for Brad's 50th birthday the beginning of August. Lulu did great on the plane and in the airports, but not so well while we were there. She had huge violent tantrums everyday. She did get a lot of pool time though, which she loves, and learned to swim without her floaties on. She is getting better each time we go to the pool. She's using her right side a lot! I was worried that she may not be able to open her snack bags, plastic containers and thermos for kindergarten, but it is not too difficult for her. Last year she would use her mouth a lot to help with opening things.

We have been attending counseling since Lulu is still having a hard time with self control, patience, expressing herself, and being told no. I would say that she is probably still grieving as well. We were really hoping that after this long, 15 months home, that the head banging would stop and that she could control her temper. She has come a long way overall, and I would say that there are a lot fewer tantrums. However, when she has them to the point of a complete meltdown, she is completely out of control and very physical to herself and us. She loves her therapist, and we were referred to a behaviorist. I hope with time and with her being able to express herself better and appropriately, that we will see less of these behaviors. It really seems like no one knows what to do to about the head banging, except for the obvious of making sure she doesn't injure herself. I hope the behaviorist can help us. Most of the time, Lulu is the sweetest little girl and behaves great. I always hesitate and wonder if I should even post about her behaviors. I have gotten comments from strangers in the past who read the blog. And I read a lot of blogs and never read about kids who were head bangers. Not on the personal blogs, anyway. So, if anyone is reading this and their adopted child has some of the same behaviors, I hope they know that they're not alone. After reading messages from parents on certain yahoo groups, I've learned that a lot of these behaviors are fairly common. I know it will get better in time, and hopefully with continued counseling she will learn how to express herself better.

Lulu started Chinese lessons yesterday at UNF. I was in a course over the weekend so Brad brought her. For some reason he thought I signed her up for Level 2, so they sat through the whole class before the teacher said Lulu should be in Level 1. I hope she didn't miss too much. I'm looking forward to bringing her next week. She doesn't want to speak Mandarin at all to Chinese people, but says she wants to learn how to read and write in Chinese. I'm curious to see how she is going to do in the classes.

We were able to meet Lulu's kindergarten teacher last week, and had time to talk to her about Lulu's background. We really like her teacher and I'm so excited that she is finally in kindergarten!