June 5, 2009

25 Months ³

by Wendy • Adoption Shmoption, Catherine Ellen Mei, featured, Firehouse Jargen, My Minds Eye/Photography • Tags: Add new tag, catherine

Catherine is 25 months old today.  One month in her second year of life and she’s already accomplished so much.  She’s a smart girl with a love for life and a deep love for her family and friends.  I didn’t get a chance last month to make a list of all that she is doing now, so I figured I would do it today.  So here it is in bulleted form:

• The biggest thing she has going on right now is that she is nearly potty trained!  We started getting her used to the potty about two months ago and then we went cold turkey with the diapers during the day on Monday.  We all had a rough day on day one but by early morning on day two, she had it down.  Once she got over her fear she was good to go.  Of course M&M’s help a lot too.  She is still in diapers at night and we have only had two accidents all week (both my fault).  So she is doing very, very well.  I think God knew how much I could handle with this and made it a little easier on me.  )
• She knows her colors.
• She is incredibly strong and can hang from bar at gymnastics for a good long time.
• She likes to dance with Yo Gabba Gabba.
• She is becoming more expressive in her communication.  Her words are still not very clear but she can still  get her point across pretty quickly.
• She says ‘ni hao’ which a traditional greeting in Chinese.  My Dad taught her that and she loves to say it to everyone, when she’s in trouble, and when we tuck her in bed at night.
• She loves to tumble and jump.
• Her best friend is Matthew and she likes to hold his hand.
• Her second best friend is Ryan.  He’s one of my best friend’s son.  He’s 8 and just loves to entertain Catherine.  They are like two peas in a pod.  Their personalities are very similar.
• She brushes her own teeth now (I only help her get the top teeth).
• I can now put her hair in a pony tail.
• She can drink from a cup.
• She still insists that one of us feeds her but we are pushing her to feed herself.  She can do it, she just like it more when we feed her.
• A Bible that her grandparents gave her is her favorite book ever.  She can sit there and thumb through it all day long.
• She is silly with a funny since of humor.
• She gets bored easily.
• She’s not too keen on group activities yet but we are going to be starting a gymnastics class next Tuesday.
• She is non-stop from the moment she wakes up until she goes to bed at night.  Definitely wears us out!

She’s a good girl and a perfect fit for our family.  Tomorrow we finish our last post-placement homestudy.  I can’t believe the adoption process is about to end.  It seems like yesterday and then it seems like a lifetime ago when we started talking about adoption and then signing the paperwork to adopt a little one from China.  It’s hard for me to remember her being so little and now she just gets bigger and bigger every day!  We are so proud of her and love her so much.