Back to "normal".

So, now that the birthday shinanigans and my week of work are all done, I am slowly getting back into the groove around here.  Our house is decorated for Christmas, and this year Ayana really got the hang of it!  I would hand her an ornament and she would put it on the tree, and then she spotted the candy canes.  She grabbed them and proceeded to place them one by one very carefully all on the same branch.  So cute!  She is also beginning to understand the concept of Santa, albiet she thinks his visit is imminent at any moment! 

Ellie and I were just looking at video footage of our first days home with her this morning.  She was SO LITTLE!  I wish I could re-do all of those early weeks over again, I would do things so differently.  Like RELAX, for one thing.  I was so worried about everything back then.  Her initial signs of grief (the extreme attachment to me, which was awesome but VERY EXHAUSTING), her uber sensitiveness, her general uptightness, had me in a panic that that is the temperment of the child we had brought home.  She still is a feisty wee thing, but those initial reactions were totally due to her being utterly dumbfounded as to why she was thrust into the arms of complete strangers, whisked away from all the people she loved, to a frozen land with animals in the house, and all humans speaking a foreign language!  These kids are AMAZING, that they adjust so beautifully after all that!

Have a wonderful day!