While we have continued to deal with some pretty serious emotional reactions from MelodyJoy toward her new sister and also have seen that we are really in for it with Jillian in many ways (let's just say that she knows how to be a stinker), we also had some cool new things happen today . . .
For finishing her homework, I gave Melody some little gummy worm candies. I had one left at the end and so I gave this last, lonely piece of candy to Jillian. She caught on that it was the last one and immediately started tugging at it to try to tear it in half to share with Melody! I gave her a pair of scissors and that did the job.
We introduced Jillian to McDonald's ice cream cones today and--yes, it's hard to believe--she likes them.
We are learning more about some of Jillian's babbling. Babbling to us, that is. Melody has been complaining that Jillian talks baby talk. Of course, it isn't. Still, to our American ears, the noises are nonsense. Today, we learned that some of those noises are actually Chinese words for big sister, reinforcing our sense that Jillian really likes her new sister.
Twice today, Jillian has written her new name along with baba (daddy) and/or mama, and something in Chinese, then has read the Chinese word(s) to us. Between the fact that she probably doesn't speak clearly and we are totally clueless when it comes to the Chinese language, we weren't sure what she wrote, though we had a good guess. She was pretty frustrated with me when she read the words to me and I couldn't repeat them back to her correctly! Anyway, I just looked up some of her documents and was able to confirm that she was writing her Chinese name, Shen JiYing.
She has begun saying "Hi" to people sometimes and "thank you."
Jillian is a really, really good eater. She eats a wide variety of foods (e.g, sour green beans, noodles, french fries, pizza, fruit) but she knows what she likes and tell us what she doesn't, and she stops when she's full.
I forgot to mention that I got to see her cry for the first time yesterday. She simply does not cry, even when she is upset or truly hurt. She is one tough cookie. Yesterday, however, while we were shopping, Jeannette was taking quite awhile looking for some gifts and Jillian started getting restless and a little naughty. I decided just to take her for a walk in the stroller and started pushing her away from the store. She got quite agitated as I got further away and the next thing I knew, tears were running down her face. I felt bad for making her cry but also thought it was a good thing to see.
For finishing her homework, I gave Melody some little gummy worm candies. I had one left at the end and so I gave this last, lonely piece of candy to Jillian. She caught on that it was the last one and immediately started tugging at it to try to tear it in half to share with Melody! I gave her a pair of scissors and that did the job.
We introduced Jillian to McDonald's ice cream cones today and--yes, it's hard to believe--she likes them.
We are learning more about some of Jillian's babbling. Babbling to us, that is. Melody has been complaining that Jillian talks baby talk. Of course, it isn't. Still, to our American ears, the noises are nonsense. Today, we learned that some of those noises are actually Chinese words for big sister, reinforcing our sense that Jillian really likes her new sister.
Twice today, Jillian has written her new name along with baba (daddy) and/or mama, and something in Chinese, then has read the Chinese word(s) to us. Between the fact that she probably doesn't speak clearly and we are totally clueless when it comes to the Chinese language, we weren't sure what she wrote, though we had a good guess. She was pretty frustrated with me when she read the words to me and I couldn't repeat them back to her correctly! Anyway, I just looked up some of her documents and was able to confirm that she was writing her Chinese name, Shen JiYing.
She has begun saying "Hi" to people sometimes and "thank you."
Jillian is a really, really good eater. She eats a wide variety of foods (e.g, sour green beans, noodles, french fries, pizza, fruit) but she knows what she likes and tell us what she doesn't, and she stops when she's full.
I forgot to mention that I got to see her cry for the first time yesterday. She simply does not cry, even when she is upset or truly hurt. She is one tough cookie. Yesterday, however, while we were shopping, Jeannette was taking quite awhile looking for some gifts and Jillian started getting restless and a little naughty. I decided just to take her for a walk in the stroller and started pushing her away from the store. She got quite agitated as I got further away and the next thing I knew, tears were running down her face. I felt bad for making her cry but also thought it was a good thing to see.
1 comment:
We have CP and speech issues with our Shen Zhen princess, and we didn't understand much of anything when she first came home to us. We still don't understand quite a bit of her conversation now a year later, but context helps a great deal. Jillian is so adorable! I pray that Melody will find peace with her new sister. We are enjoying reading your blog! Thanks for posting.
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