We all survived the two week mark!

Though this past week had a rough start, with Lyndsay's challenges escalading, by mid week all her undealt with anger, jealousy and a whole host of other emotions running rampede came to a head and like a festering wound, burst open finally bringing healing and relief. (Sorry for the graphic description, but this is a very accurate description!)  We spent what seemed to be an eternity in her room on the floor in a full body lock until she got it all out of her system and was in a position to begin coping again. Unfortunately for us, this is not the first time we've dealt with this kind of rage with her, so we knew it was coming (it was in full force in China) and knew how to handle it, though not pleasant for either of us. The good thing is once we've taken this step, she is so much better afterward and in the days to come.

Having said all that, we have had a rather peaceful end to our week. We even took the girls to Tweetsie Railroad on Saturday, a small local theme park for young children. We just allowed Charis to take in all the sights and sounds, so she would not get too overwhelmed. I took her on the merry-go-round once, but only sat on the bench which of course only went around, and she watched Lyndsay behind her on a horse. She didn't seem to mind that, so later she went on a tiny boat ride with Lyndsay and though not sure, she didn't get at all upset by it.  It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed the break.

Charis is doing great. She seems to be in the early stages of learning to chew her food, something she didn't know to do at all just a few weeks ago. She is getting more and more steady on her feet and discovered what fun it was to be able to back up to a little stool and sit on it. This fascinated her and she did so repeatedly and was delighted with herself. Her fine motor skills have improved, as she has learned to pick up bits of food and feed herself. We don't do this too often since she really needed alot of work on eye contact with us while eating, so one of us feeds her and we require that she look at us while doing so. Otherwise she can easily fall back into an orphanage pattern of zoning out and staring  into space while eating. Very mechanical. She is still needing work on the attachment and bonding process, as we noticed she will want us to pick her up frequently, but then wants down quickly. We recognize this as a sign of needing to bond more and attach to us, as this would be behavior she might show a nanny or stranger. So we are doing more holding, whether she wants it or not, I've used the hip hammock some more and I'm rocking her at night, though she's totally content for us to just lay her in the crib.(another orphanage issue). Other then these couple of issues she is doing very well, and is so good and content. She eats well and entertains herself, though she likes to play with Lyndsay when she decides it is time to be the positive big sister and not tease her.

I've attached some photos from Tweetsie Railroad

 

Comments

[Doreen]

You have a couple of dolls on your hands! I went through the same jealousy issue when DD#1, Faith was 4 when I picked up her sister, Mia. Fast forward 2 years and you know what happens...they love each other like the sisters that they are and in a split second they'll be going at it (and not in a friendly way). Aaaaah...family...sigh...

Doreen in Montreal single Mom to Faith-Jiangxi & Mia-Sichuan