Waiting for Hari

14 September -- Record speed!

Yesterday was a big day for us. Julia is changing at record speed and I feel like we are just along for the ride. First, there are things that are the same. She is still wearing the 5 dresses that we had for her in China. We have two more dresses in her closet that I offer her but she goes for what she’s worn before. It dawned on me today that she is only choosing from what she is sure she can wear. She has been like this with toys. Up until today, she only played with the purple, red and blue play dough leaving another 6 colors alone. Maybe more was too much regarding both clothes and play dough, or maybe she did not necessarily think they were hers to have. Today she showed me the other playdough colors and "asked" if she could use them. She was very happy to find out that they were all for her and is very busy making a ginger-dough community. A rainbow coalition? My job is to roll out the colors.


Julia continues to love and lavish affection on her stuffed toys and she has added her groovy girl doll to her affections. The doll was on her reachable shelf but she did not play with it until I gave it to her. She immediately took off the clothes and put them on again. I also opened the other clothes set we have for the doll and she loved the top, but discarded the pants for her doll. I had been wondering about dolls because she cannot deal with the Bitty Baby I carried to China. The moving eyes freak Julia out. So Groovy Girl was rule and Bitty will go in the closet for a few months. (Way to go, Robin and Alyson!).

Julia still sports innovative hair styles. Yesterday and today, she preferred six tiny pigtails on top of her head. I never saw anything in China like it so I don’t believe she is coping something. We’ll see if her taste changes when she gets to school.

Yesterday, we went to the playground of the JCC (Jewish Community Center) and she was in the playground when the pre-school and kindergarten had their outdoor time. She didn’t really play with the kids but she made sure that anyone doing the same activity that she was doing had the necessary tools – she found shovels for others playing in the sand and found a second truck for a little boy who wanted to play with the one she was playing with. Her interests – water and sand play, riding a trike, and filling and dumping a truck – are closer to the activities that the kindergartners are doing than to the pre-school kids. This was good for me to see, as I wasn’t sure whether to ask her school to place her in pre-school.

We also shopped in a supermarket and used a cart that had a little car on the front. No need for an amusement park when the supermarket provides such rides. She was in heaven – steering, waving to strangers, and chattering to me.

Julia is kissing! She practiced the night before last when she laid awake in our bed. She was making a kissing sound and screwing up her mouth in all sorts of ways. I tried not to laugh since we were both supposed to be sleeping. Just before she went to sleep, she have me a quick kiss on the arm. It was almost a sneaked kiss and she seemed embarrassed by it.

Yesterday morning, when she was sitting with Cheshire and I, Julia went to shake hands with Cheshire (she did this a lot in China, less at home), they shook and then Julia kissed Cheshire’s hand. Cheshire was, of course, delighted and made a big deal of it. Julia seemed very proud of what she had done. She then did the same to me. Then after dinner last night, Julia went around the table and kissed each of us (including David this time) on the cheek and hugged us.

After we spent so much time out of the house yesterday, Julia was exhausted, but we tried with all our might to keep her up until a good bed time. She had a bath at around 7 and then agreed to wear underpants and a pj top. She was cranky because she was so tired and got close to a tantrum. Then, she led me into her bedroom and we pulled down her covers and she climbed into bed. We looked at a few books and then she put the blanket over her head (her falling asleep position) and went to sleep. She stayed in her bed until about 3 am when she climbed out of bed herself and came into our room and climbed into our bed. It was like she had been doing this all her life.

posted by Suz @ 9:10 AM