Lulu's Vocabulary

I am so amazed at how many English words Lulu now knows or speaks. I've typed them out, and she knows over 80 words already! She can count 1-10 (haven't been practicing to add more lately), and she knows a lot of the alphabet. She mainly says one word at a time, but can speak in two to four word sentences. For example, she can say "let's go", "thank you so much", "good morning", "Lulu hot", and so forth. We are so proud of her!

Neurologist Visit

I was very pleased with the neurologist who saw Lulu the other day at Nemours. After reviewing the CT scan she had in China 2 years ago, he feels she possibly had a stroke while she was in utero, versus any head trauma during or after birth, or a genetic abnormality. Of course, he doesn't know that for sure, but he ordered a few tests that may give us some answers. We are being referred to a hematologist to make sure she doesn't have a blood clotting disorder. If she does, then there's a possibility that she could have another stroke (unlikely but possible), a referral to a cardiologist for an ultrasound of her heart, and an MRI that will show certain blood vessels that a CT scan doesn't. As far as we know, Lulu has not had any seizures, but there's always a possibility that she can have one. The neurologist said it's nothing to be afraid of (ha!) and he gave us a handout of what we should do if one happens.

He was very impressed with how good her mobility is considering the results he read on the CT scan. Due to neural plasticity of the brain and her young age, she has already made a lot of progress, and should continue to do so with PT, OT, and her own persistence and tenacity. She amazes me every day with how much she tries to use her right hand. She always makes sure we notice and we give her a ton of praise. There is no mention of 'rehab' in China in her paperwork although there was a part of the orphanage that provided rehab. Someone mentioned to me that 'PT' in orphanages are painful and they do it until the children cry. If that's the case, which I hope it's not, I wonder if she's wondering why we're not pushing her more. When I do encourage her to use the right arm and hand, she always does and is proud of it. I only see the weakness in her right leg when she tries to ride a bike with training wheels or a tricycle. Her right foot continuously slips off. I need to get a strap to make it easier for her. She does have a minor gait abnormality but it is so subtle. She doesn't seem as clumsy as she did when we first came home. We've been going to the park several times a week, and I can already see that climbing on some of the bars is getting easier for her. We don't start PT and OT until July. I know she will do great and I'm looking forward to the pediatric therapists' input and advice of what I should have her do (other than what we're already doing) at home.

Father's Day, Home One Month, and Separation Anxiety

I'm so behind with posting! Brad had a really nice Father's Day. We went out to breakfast in the morning, brought Lulu to the park, and then Jonathan came over and we all went to the beach. Afterwards, we went out for a late lunch. Brad loves going to the beach, as well as Lulu, and it was good to see Jonathan again. Unfortunately, we don't see him as much as we'd like since he is working 2 jobs, and he's almost 21. Not many kids his age want to hang out with their parents. Lulu just adores Jonathan and he is so good at playing with her. Brad went to see Lulu at my friend's Early Learning Center on the Friday before Father's Day. They had a Father's Day event where the kids and fathers had ice cream and the dad's were given a handmade framed picture that says #1 Dad. Lulu seemed really happy that we were there. The teacher told Brad that some of the fathers arrived before Brad did, and Lulu was starting to get a little upset that her daddy wasn't there yet. I would hate to think what would have happened if Brad could not have been there.

We've been home over a month now, and I feel that Lulu is attaching very well to us. She is still understandably grieving and at times out of no where, it seems like it just hits her. She gets a look on her face and says, "tola" (sp?) which means wrong in Mandarin. I believe she starts thinking of her foster brothers and younger sister who was adopted before she was, and that she is not with them or her friends from the orphanage. A lot of times when this happens it's in the mornings after she's been up for about an hour. She has mentioned her foster brothers' names several times this past week. Her life and schedule is so different now, and not having siblings around must be a really hard adjustment. We still think that she is doing amazingly well overall. She is also so smart...we are so amazed by what she is picking up from us, and her thinking process.

Last week I was able to leave Lulu at my friend's Early Learning Center two times for a few hours. She did great and had a lot of fun. This week has been a different story. Brad brought her on Monday morning since I had to go in to work to help my boss with some interviews. Brad said that she had the worst tantrum so far where she was throwing stuff in the room, knocking toys off the tables and just screaming and crying, and of course wanting to get on the floor and bang her head. No one could console her, and eventually Brad had to leave with her and bring her to work with him. I tried again on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I had to stay with her each time. There was no way she was letting me leave her. If she just cried and screamed, I could leave her and know that she would eventually stop. But she drops to the floor and starts to bang her head on the floor or her forearm. I just had to redirect her and the only thing that made her stop was telling her that we could go home. This was on Tuesday. Instead of going straight home, we went to lunch and a couple of stores, then played the rest of the day at home. It turned out to be a really good day and she was very happy. This morning she flat out said she did not want to go to school. I decided not to push it since we were having a pool playdate with my friend and her 4 year old son in the early afternoon. I really need to get her on a schedule before I go back to work, but maybe she just isn't ready yet? Or maybe I should just continue bringing her regularly and hope that it will get easier and that I can leave her like I did last week. I'm really not sure what I should do at this point. She really needs to interact with other children and in a classroom setting. Before we left the center yesterday, she went up to one little girl who was being so nice to her, and gave her a hug goodbye. So I was surprised that she didn't want to go back today. I explained that I would stay with her, but she flat out did not want to go.

Tomorrow morning we have an appointment with the neurologist. I am really hoping we can get out the door without incident since we have an early appointment. I'm curious to hear what the neurologist has to say.

Having Fun Counting with Baba!

Yue Lu, Grandparents and friends!

Home Three Weeks - new friends, grandparents, yoga and more!

We've been home over three weeks now and Yue Lu is doing so well with the transition to her new life and home. We are understanding each other a lot better, even when we have no idea what she is saying (and vice versa). She is picking up a lot of words and speaks them so clearly. She is gesturing or pointing now when she wants something, or takes our hands and leads us to what she wants. Her English tutor has been wonderful and I am so glad we've been able to work with her.

Yue Lu met her grandparents yesterday and she kept talking about them last night and today! She had a lot of fun with Grandma yesterday blowing bubbles, jumping and dancing, and playing in her room. She received some nice new clothes, adorable sandles, a Barbie with a sports car, crayons and coloring books, a magnetic toy, and a stuffed monkey! Yue Lu loves Curious George and just loves her new stuffed monkey!

The past week we've been doing a lot of coloring, counting, repeatedly going over colors, and just started A, B, Cs with Yue Lu. She can now count in English from 1-10, and just learned to recite A, B, C, D. I've noticed that she is focusing a lot better now, and she is now interested in one of her Curious George books. Initially she wanted nothing to do with books other than quickly turn the pages. She is also doing a lot better with coloring. She used to just scribble and now since she's seen us color 'in the lines', she is doing a much better job at it.

Yue Lu met a new friend last week who was adopted from Yue Lu's orphanage 3 1/2 years ago. She is now 9. She was so sweet to Yue Lu and brought her some familiar yummy treats from a Chinese market. Yue Lu had a lot of fun playing with Merri and we're looking forward to more playdates. They both received Memory Books from the orphanage, and it was fun looking through them. I think Yue Lu understood that they were both adopted from the same place.

So I found out today that Yue Lu is quite the little yogini! She saw me doing yoga the other day and gestured for me to put on the yoga DVD (she actually did some yoga poses so I knew what she wanted). So, we started doing some upward and downward dog poses, among other stretches, and I was amazed at how focused and good she was at it. She is weak on her right side but did fantastic with a lot of poses. I was just amazed and kept praising her. It is something we will definitely keep doing since it will help with strengthening and balance. Her flexibility is pretty good except for some tightness in her right hand and right calf due to her CP.

Yue Lu did so well this morning at my friend's Early Learning Center. It was her 3rd time there and the first time she didn't want to leave right away. Last time we were there she had a major tantrum. Today, she did not cry and I was able to leave for an hour. When I got back I was able to watch her from a two way mirror. It was so good to see her interacting with the other kids and having a good time. I am going to bring her back 2 more times this week and have her there without me for longer periods.

Our little dancer

The past week

Home Two Weeks

The past week went by really fast!

We are overall getting a lot more sleep now. Yue Lu has been sleeping better which means we're all sleeping better. We are still going to bed too late, including Yue Lu. We've tried to get her to sleep before we do, but she just hasn't been able to yet. Some days she takes naps, and other days she doesn't. She usually sleeps better at night when she naps during the day.

Yue Lu is attaching really well to us and I think overall she is doing great for only being home 2 weeks. One thing we were worried about was the dogs. She really likes our smaller dog, Lily, who is not a kid friendly dog at all. Lily has been doing really well around her, and I think Lily actually likes Yue Lu. She has tried to nip a few times only when Yue Lu has snuck up on her quickly, grabbed her tail, or when she makes loud sudden movements. I keep telling Yue Lu she needs to be gentle with her. Unfortunately, Yue Lu is afraid of Baxter, our 50 lb hound who is the sweetest dog. He loves kids but Yue Lu will not let him come close to her. We had someone explain to her in Mandarin that Baxter will not hurt her, but I guess she's not convinced yet. She has pet him when he's lying still, but he can't come up to her quickly.

Yue Lu has had 2 English lessons so far and she is working on 8 new words right now. If I don't keep quizzing her on her colors, she gets them mixed up. She has picked up a lot of words just from us talking, and when we do teach her new words, she says them pretty clearly and with good pronunciation. One word today was 'soy sauce', and she said it so well. Her teacher has also been teaching her manners and patience (something she has a really hard time with!).

Today we went to the beach for a couple of hours. It was Yue Lu's 3rd beach trip but first in the late morning. Yue Lu did great initially, then had a really bad tantrum when she wanted to go home and eat lunch. I had brought snacks that she ate, but I assume that since we were taking too long to leave, she started getting frustrated. She was also gesturing that she wanted something in the beach bag. I offered each thing that was in it 3 times, but she still wasn't satisfied. She started screaming and crying, and we couldn't get her to calm down. Brad had to pick her up and carry her to the van. It was quite a scene! We ate dinner at the Chinese restaurant where Yue Lu had met the owner and owner's young daughter the week before. We had the owner ask her what she was upset about when we were at the beach, but she wouldn't answer the lady. We hate not knowing what Yue Lu gets upset about. I'm sure she was frsutrated because she was trying to tell us something, but we just couldn't figure out what it was.

I brought Yue Lu by my workplace a couple of days ago to meet my coworkers and the pediatric PT she will be seeing soon for treatment. Joanne is great with kids and Yue Lu really opened up and had fun during the visit. I'm really glad it went well and I have a feeling Yue Lu will really enjoy PT with Joanne. I can't wait to get started. Yue Lu initiates using her right hand a lot, and makes sure that we notice. Her abdominals are weak and she shuffles her feet sometimes. When I ask her to pick them up, she does. She is also a "W" sitter, and in China I showed her how to sit with her feet together (less than Indian style). I rarely see her "W" sit anymore, except when she's upset and banging her head on the bed!

We pre-enrolled Yue Lu in kindergarten and she starts on Aug 23. She will be in a new Chinese Immersion program where most classes are taught in English, but several will be taught in Mandarin. The woman teaching her English right now will be one of her teachers at the school. I'm pretty hopeful that Yue Lu will know a lot of English by the end of the summer. There are around 13 other girls adopted from China who will be attending her school in the fall. They all know English right now and will be relearning their native language. I'm really glad Yue Lu will be able to maintain Mandarin as well as continue to learn English.

First Doctor's appointment in the US

Yesterday Yue Lu went to her first doctor's appointment. I really liked this pediatrician and he did great with Yue Lu. Unfortunately, she had to have 6 vials of blood taken to test for a multitude of things. And I have the pleasure of putting stool samples in 7 containers! Yuck! I am pleased though that the doctor wants to do titers before giving any vaccinations, and wants to check all her organ functions, check for parasites, to see if she's had chicken pox, etc. Yue Lu had vaccines in China, but we don't know how accurate they are, and I don't even have her actual immunization records right now. We did not get them back while we were at her medical examination in China. Her doctor is also going to test for heavy metal poisoning, liver and thyroid function, Hep A, B, C, HIV and syphilis. Some of the medical information that I do have states that she's had several of these vaccines, but again, who knows if she really had them or if they were effective.

It was so hard having to actually hold Yue Lu down for the blood to be drawn. She was screaming and pissed, and after 2 vials being taken from one arm, they had to switch to the other since her vein blew. Although it sounded like she was cursing at us during it (which I'm sure she was), she unbelievably shared her piece of chocoloate with us that the nurse gave her. She can be so sweet!

Yue Lu's pediatrician is going to prescribe PT, OT and refer her to an audiologist, neurologist, internal med physician, and a developmentalist. We're going to be busy this summer with all these appts, and I will schedule visits in the order of importance. I actually think Yue Lu will enjoy PT and OT. I am looking forward to meeting the neurologist in person. This very generous man reviewed Yue Lu's medical file for us before we made the decision to adopt her. I contacted Nemours and asked if a pediatric neurologist could review her file. I was told that it's not something they usually do, however this neurologist called me directly and offered to do it. I was so touched by his generosity!