Kim's new friend

Kim has decided that she has made a new friend. She has latched on to this guy and will not stop taking him everywhere. Well fair season is now here and gone. And Kim spent time at both local county fairs. She really liked all the animals at the fair. She even oinks like a piggy now. We did our part to support our local Jr fair livestock auction. And bid 1188lb steer up to $1.20 per lb. So Kim Kim will have good steaks and roast,burgers.

Today 9-11-09, We are off to see the Dr. Today is her last shots to finish her updates. So if Kim is feeling OK after those. We are off to the season opening Browns game on Sunday.

Today we started to dig potatoes. At first Kim was not so sure about this. But after I pulled here shoe's off, Then she was all in. I would start to pull the dirt way and she would LOL when a tator would appear. We dug a hole row and picked some other veggies out of the garden. She helped wash them and loved playing with the red onion tops. Even after her bath she still has onion smell on her hands. She is very much that "Spicy Girl" That we where told about.

It's the end of Aug.

Well it's been some time since we posted. Life has changed a lot for us in the past few months. Now I, ( Dan) have become the stay at home dad. And Kim Kim is doing very well. She's learning to speak English more and more every day. She's well above 20 words and is starting to put them togther. Some of her more favorite things are ridding the quad (4 wheeler) And has started to like going over to (Papa's) and playing with the pony's and mini's. So fare sharing toys has not been one of her favorite things. But we are working on that.

As for Kim's TB, all is going well there. She takes her med's every night like a trooper. And we are looking forward to the end of that trouble.

BTW, The all clear was given on Kim's heart. She has nothing wrong with it. That was a appt. back at the end of July. They did a all the testing and told us that we needed not to worry about it, "That she's fine".

So with the Fall season coming on fast, We are looking forward to clam bakes, and Fall Corn Maze fun.

Just a short update, And I'll try to have more in the future.

Dan

7/26 - Oh, how are lives have changes in many, many ways. Our daily lives continue, but now we must work around a two year old's schedule. I went back to work full time at the beginning of the month, when Dan's work pretty much shut down. I get up early, head off to work and am home around dinner time to help with feeding and then I have evening, bath and bedtime duty. Dan has been working about 2 small loads a week, so he has morning, dress up and breakfast, most doctor appointments and lunch. I don't think he imagined this much kid time when we decided to adopt. Kimberly gets to go for rides a lot with him while he is running errands and of course, the four-wheeler is still a favorite. She still sees Grandma Carol once or twice a week and my parents in the evenings.

Kim-Kim is doing well; we have two more doctor's appointment next week and then she is done for a year. She passed the hearing and dental exam. Tomorrow she goes in for some more shots and the cardiologist on Thursday. She has grown a few pounds and her personality is emerging. We had her evaluated at the beginning of the month by early intervention. They determined she was behind in gross motor skills and speech and suggested some therapy. The therapist was on vacation, so she just came out this past Thursday (2-1/2 weeks later). By now, she has improved and doesn't qualify for therapy. I guess that is good and bad at the same time. She still doesn't jump and doesn't like to swing - we're working on that. The first counselor gave us a book to follow and we've been working on their suggestions. I've seen a difference with her development in the past two weeks. She still babbles words or phrases that we don't understand, but has added more english to her vocabulary. She can identify and say "mama", "dada" and "papa". She still can't pronounce Grandma or the cousins names, but she definately knows who they are.

For the most part, she is a happy, playful child. She is becoming interested in TV - which meant nothing to her when she first came home. She now has a little sandbox to play in and is learning the phrase "the sand stays in the box". It sounds just like "the rocks stay in the garden" and "the water stays in the tub". Occasionally, she also needs to be reminded "do not lay on the kitty". She is warming up more and more to new people as we meet them along our normal day. A few weeks ago, we were reprimanded by our adoption agency for taking her out too much. Oh well, that's not the first time we have been in trouble. Last weekend she went to the Ox Roast Fair, which is a carnival in our town. She didn't mind the loud noises of the tractor's pulling heavy weights. She liked the lights and sounds at all of the games, but she didn't have friend to ride with her. Kimberly comes down to the barn with me occasionally in the evenings to clean stalls. She is comfortable playing in the barn and helps lead the horses in from the pasture. She likes going out to dinner and is well behaved, so we try to do that once a week and meet different couples. This coming week she is going to a nature program for two years old with my parents. She still eats like crazy, loves to play in the water at bath time and sleeps peacefully all night long. Nap-time can be touchy. If she's tired she will fall asleep quickly. If not, she will play quietly in the crib for an hour till she finally falls asleep. We will continue to work with Kimberly on her speech and gross motor skills and expect continued improvement in all levels of her development. At this time, Dan will continue to stay home with her, since there is no point in putting her in day care yet.

Yeah, I finally posted some pictures. Be sure to check all the way back to 5/25. It's only been a month, but it seems like she has grown leaps and bounds. Dan put her on the scale tonight and she has grown a few pounds.

6/18 - 6/21 After her two hour nap on Thursday after the zoo, we went to Gander Mountain, one of Dan's favorite hunting stores, and the Chinese Buffet. This was the second time that Dan and I have been to the restaurant and the first time for Kim. We loaded her up with a bunch of favorites from our time in China and she decided string beans were her favorite for the night. She ate probably five plates full of beans. I cut them up for her and at one point she used both hands to shove them in her mouth. She loved them, of course it could have been the fact that they were soaking in melted butter, too. After dinner we stopped at Home Depot to buy the child some beans for Daddy to grow in the garden. Around bed time, she had a belly ache. Her belly stuck out further than Dan's and was rock hard. She cried and cried and just wanted to be held. Luckily, Dan had stocked up on some Infant Gas-X. In less than 30 minutes she was feeling better and almost asleep. I guess we know we have to limit the beans.

By Saturday afternoon Kimberly was on Dad's nerves. No matter what he did, she whined and cried. We stopped at Bob Evan's where she tried some mac & cheese and we found out that the zoo animals are coming to Streetsboro Tuesday evening. I might take her back to Bob Evan's that night so she can see the animals up close and hopefully pet. We've been working on petting the dogs and cats "nicely". She is usually pretty good, but occasionally it turns into grab hair and pull. She's been scratched a few times by the black cat, when she has had enough of Kimberly. For some reason though, she always comes back for more pets. She is a good kid's cat. The dogs have been great, too. Charlie just lays there, even when Kimberly has to climb over top of him. Neeko is good, but grumbles when she gets to close at dinner time. I usually feed him when she is strapped in the chair, eating her own dinner.

Sunday morning Kimberly woke up happy, like usual. I set her up to give Daddy his present and card, but she decided she didn't want to give up the present. Lucky for her, he let her open his present, which was a book, "My Daddy" for him to read to her. So really, the present was for both of them. She played around in the morning and then we ventured up to Chardon around nap time to visit with the Carvers and Palmers. She was well behaved at both stops, even though she was getting cranky at the end. At Palmer's she saw Sammy and Jack, their two yellow labs and even got to pet a stuffed mink that Glen had trapped. She got more presents and then "leaked" on the porch. They don't make diapers like they used to! (Now, how would I know that?) We cleaned her up and it was time to go. She was asleep in the car in about 5 minutes and slept at home for another hour or so. When she woke up, I decided we should try another hike on Headwaters Trail. This time, I took the stroller and the dog. We walked a little over a mile and she had a good time. When we were almost back to the car, I let her out of the stroller and she pushed at such a SLOW pace. She had fun, the dog was tired when we got home and I got some much needed exercise.

We did get the final report back from the international adoption specialists last week. Everything basically came back normal. They made some recommendations to our pediatrician - like have a hearing and vision test, see a dentist and cardiologist, visit with a speech therapist and follow up with early intervention. Most of the blood work and samples came back negative. They suggested some immunizations to give as a 2 year old and some that may need updated. University Hospital suggested that Kimberly comes back in 3 months and 6 months for some more follow up visits, just to make sure that she is adjusting, growing and that she is on track. I'm not worried, but it is good to know that there are experts out there in case we need them.

6/15 - 6/18 The Cleveland Zoo was the big trip of the week. We went there on Thursday with Mom (me), Grandma & Grandpa, Jodi & Russell and Mikayla & Emma. We passed her off as Jodi & Russell's adopted child, so she could get in free under their family membership. Kimberly rode in the wagon with Emma most of the day. She had the option to walk, ride in the stroller or push the stroller and she chose the wagon with her buddy. Actually, she would have preferred Mikayla in the wagon, too, but there wasn't enough room. So she settled for holding her hand while Mikayla walked next to the girls. Kim saw all of the animals and I told her their names. She wasn't "jumping up and down" excited, probably because most were at a distance and she couldn't touch. She saw the leopard sleeping in the tree, monkeys sleeping on a rock and rhinos eating some hay. Then we walked past the giraffes and into the butterfly house. They were up close so she liked them. She even grabbed one by the wings and we instantly told her no. After that we caught the tram to the Northern Trek to see the wolves and bears. The bears and tigers were sleeping, so they didn't really impress Kim. She did get to feed a dead frozen fish to a sea lion. Nothing like Sea World - it was more like pay $1 to get a fish and drop it over the fence to the sea lions below. Then we went to the wolf cabin and she saw a Mexican wolf, pacing close to the glass. Next, we went into the pond and she saw turtles, fish and a beaver swimming around. She was able to follow the animals and touched the glass like she wanted to touch them. Best of all, she learned how to drink from a drinking fountain in the cabin. After our trek we headed back to the front gates for lunch. She wanted lunch from everybody other than me. In fact, she ran from me as I was trying to feed her. She dropped all of her pretzels and the sea gulls figured out that we were easy targets. They flew in and ate whatever food the kids would share. If I wasn't watching Kim, they probably would have taken the crackers out of her hands. After lunch we saw the sleeping tigers, pink flamingos, koala bears and the laurakeets (birds). Mikayla and Emma each got a small cup of nectar (fruit juice) to feed them. Kimberly liked the birds and laughed when one stole the cup out of Mikayla's hands. Then we went to the Australian exhibit and the petting farm. Kimberly saw sleeping kangaroos and wallabies and even a baby joey hanging out of a momma's pouch. At this point, she was starting to get tired, but we went to the petting zoo, where she touched a goat and miniature donkey. She followed that up with washing her whole body (instead of stopping at the hands) at the sink. She sure likes water! Next weekend she is going to Cousin Samantha's swim birthday party so she will get to go in the water to play! Papa bought ice cream for everybody and we took a 15 minute break before heading to the new dinosaur exhibit. Emma and Mikayla loved that, Kim was not so sure, especially when T-rex ROARED. She wanted out. She laughed at the baby dinosaurs and then pulled the wagon the rest of the way out. We packed her up and headed home around 3:30. She was asleep in her car seat before we even reached the top of the hill. It was a perfect day to go to the zoo - overcast, cool, no rain, no crowds and no blazing hot sun. In fact, I even put her sweater on in the morning because it was a little chilly in the shade with the breeze blowing. In the future, when she understands English better, and she can ask questions, I'm sure the zoo will be one of her favorite places to go. Every Memorial Day Weekend, EAC, the adoption agency from Strongsville, has a big event planned at the zoo. I'm sure we will make it a yearly tradition to go to the zoo, meet new and old friends and be in the parade on Saturday.