things i love about her : sisters

Definitely in my top five, maybe even my most favourite thing in the world right now, is seeing Phebe and Lilah's relationship with one another.

One of the things that frightened me about adopting again was whether or not my children would be compatible with one another... in fact, we even talked to our Adoption Practicioner about this when he came to meet us for our twelve month Post Placement with Lilah. And his wise answer was, you just never know, sometimes even biological siblings don't get along together! So it was faith and an answer to many of my heartfelt prayers, that these girls of mine are not only sisters... but also friends.

Their personalities are quite different and they'll each have something to learn from the other. Lilah loves to Mommy her little sister and Phebe just loves to copy everything Lilah does. Sure, they have their moments like any siblings, but I'm amazed at the tolerance they have for each other. Sometimes they sit together and read, sometimes they play quietly together, sometimes they play rough and sometimes they torment each other.

But at the end of the day, these girls are sisters. Maybe not by blood. But by love and adoration and togetherness. We are a family, each chosen and placed together, by God Himself.

things i love about her : eating

We have another girl that loves her food! Yeah!

Phebe basically eats what she's given. Although there are a few things she turns up her nose at for one reason or another... Milk is one of those things. And although I was told few Asian people like milk, I still decided to work on her. She will take milk/cream in her oatmeal every morning, so I knew she didn't have any issues with it. Now she also LOVES yogurts drinks and she will drink milk if I mix it with chocolate milk - I usually mix 3/4 parts homo milk and to 1/4 part chocolate milk. So, she's definitely appreciating milk much better now, in one form or another.

When we got home, I made Phebe lots of yummy congee - which is rice in a soup stock, mixed with chicken, creamed corn, red peppers, mushrooms, spinach, etc... depending what I had in the fridge at the time. Lilah took on a whole new love of congee too, and the two of them would munch it down. But by week three of being home, Phebe was starting to look at our supper plates... she'd point at our food and then point into her mouth. I've said this before, but what Phebe can't say in words, she can definitely get (her message) across to us, in actions! Once she got a taste of some of our creamy saucy pasta dishes, sherperd’s pie, lasagne, pad thai, chicken kiev, sweet and sour chicken, irish stew, thai chicken fried rice ...well, it was obvious that she REALLY liked the new foods coming her way! This girl knows good food!

So now, the congee days are basically over and she's eating what we're eating.

At the start we couldn't fill our little monkey, she would eat and eat and eat, until I thought she might actually pop. I think she knew she had to stuff herself silly, because there were set times for feeding and definitely no snacking in between meals, during her orphanage life. But I feel now, she's realized that food is available whenever she wants it and she only needs to utter the words, "nom-nom" to get it. So the overstuffing has stopped.

She is rather independent and loves to feed herself. But at times she also likes me to feed her. And more recently, she has wants to hold the spoon herself, but she wants us to direct it into her mouth. We generally just go with the flow.

She uses the word 'nom-nom' for food and is able to tell us when she's hungry - which is awesome. She also points out all the food in magazines and books and says "nom-nom!" When she first came home she would get upset when I took her grocery shopping and put the food into the cart, behind her, she couldn't understand what on earth was going on. She would look at me disgruntled, wondering why I wasn't giving her anything to eat, even though the cart was full of food! There is so much for these little ones to learn, so many new things they've never experienced before.

Our girl loves her fruit, just like her big sister - oranges, bananas and apples are among her favourites. And ANY kind of dessert you might offer her, our littlest girl definitely has a sweet tooth!

Also, before meals we say Grace and we all hold hands, together. Well, Phebe is the first to remind us now, she says "Pray!" and says her "AMEN!" just perfect. Right now she also thinks we should say it several times during our meal, as she squeezes her eyes shut and reaches out her arms to hold hands, again and again! It certainly makes us chuckle! We also read a Bible story every night after our supper and again, Phebe now understands this routine. She points to the book on the shelf and says "Bib-el" and then says "Eh A Eh A Eh A" - this is how she 'reads'! Of course, she’s mimicking myself and her big sister, Lilah, although hopefully, our reading is a little more intelligent than that!) She will also put her finger to her lips and say "Shhhhhhhhhh!" - Indeed, she's understands the theory of keeping quiet during story time, we're still working on the practical part of being quiet!

When mealtime and story reading is over, she knows it's her time to get out of her seat and she can surely be heard a few blocks away, shouting: "ALRIIIIIIGHT!" It's almost seems like a "Phew! Get me outta here already!"

She's pretty irresistible. In fact, I could almost eat her myself!

things i love about her - joie de vivre!

First, she presses the music button on her play truck, which plays a cheesy construction tune!

...and then, she likes to move it - move it!
Her dance routine cracks me right up! No idea where she's seen this before.

I love her joy! She is such a happy girl. Always smiling and laughing. And I am a happy Mama.

things i love about her : chatter & expressions

We have a chatterbox on our hands!

Anything we say, Phebe believes she can say too... she chatters all day long and I love that!

She chatters for herself and she chatters for her Tigger - and many of her other favourite stuffed animals too! I love hearing her little voice and I love her quirky ways. She is a real fun loving girl and she makes us grin, a lot!

One of the things that makes me laugh is her ability to pick up expressions: Like some of the ones I must say around the house regularly: "Dear dear!", "Oh dear!", "Oh-Oh", "Alriiiiiight!", "Have fun!", "No touch!" and "Oh boy!".

She has so many words now, here's a few of my favourites: shower, doggie, tights (we Irish call stockings, tights!), pumpkin (sounds more like pun-tin!), chin, bum up and bum down (while changing her diaper), all done, cry, banana (said like nana), hair, night-night, okay, bath, boots, shoes, hat, backpack, sunshine, wet, shower, car, careful (sounds like fulful), tick-tock (for the clock), glasses, bible.

And here are a few of my favourite Phebeisms, so far...

She makes loud grunting noises on the potty, even if she's not doing a thing. And how she screws her face up, it just cracks us up! And when she does something, there is a very VERY loud happy dance ensues.

She will put on a pair of play eye glasses (we seem to have an abundance of them!) and run to the full length mirror to look at herself.

She will listen to her heart with the toy stethoscope a lot, I guess she’s had this done a fair bit, in her lifetime!

When I turn the light on, in her bedroom, first thing in the morning, she says “Oh, sunshine!” and squints her eyes. She basically does this about any light and also outside, when the sun is in her eyes!

When we open the front door in the morning, the cold air comes in and she lets out a shrill “Brrrrrrrrrrrr”.

On our walk up to school to pick Lilah up, she sings in her stroller at the top of her lungs, seriously, she gets us a lot of attention! She will sing: “Li-lahhhhh, where are you?”

When I ask her if she wants chocolate she puts her finger to her lips and quietly says “Shhhhhhhhhh”, and then holds out both her hands! Chocolate is the only thing she holds out two hands for!

When she is very tired and upset over something, she will pout and clap her hands together once, with a cross face! I’ve noticed that she has pretty much stopped doing this now, mostly it was only Lilah that got this reaction!

Anything she hands to you, she says “ta-ta” and she also says the Mandarin word for thank you, "xie xie"… she regularly uses them both together, ta-ta : xie xie.

When she doesn’t know something, or doesn’t know where someone is, she’ll walk around with one hand in the air, her shoulders shrugged and a questioning look on her face.

She is obsessed with anything dirty… whether it be herself (usually her face while eating, we constantly have to clean it!) or a child with a messy face in a book – she gets a wipe and tries her hardest to clean it off! She points and says “dity”. It sounds very posh!

When all the scary Halloween stuff was out - she'd point and say: “Eeks!” She even says “Eeks” over the x-ray (skeleton) picture in her abc book!

When she bumps herself, she will look at and touch the offending object she bumped herself on and say “Bang” and “Ouch!”

She always makes the same expressions as people in books and magazines… or the same hand placement, or stance. It cracks me up!

She has started putting her (pointer) finger up and saying “one minute” to us - this is an expression we say regularly... like if I need to run upstairs for something, I put up my finger and tell her I'll be one minute.

She has no idea about her size yet and the size of her toys. She will try to sit on a tiny car or try to get her foot into the door of a little play bus. Or she will try to fit into her dolls clothes. She finds it rather frustrating to not fit!

She regularly walks around with her stuffies, she makes their arms wave and says “bye-bye” for them. She also makes them cry and then hugs and comforts them.

When she hears music, she automatically dances, bending her knees and bopping her head!

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"Oh boy!"

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"Hello"

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"No touch!"

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"Night-Night" - Tigger cries and she comforts him

things i love about her : bathtime

Oh yes, this girl of mine LOVES the bath, and I love that!

As soon as we mention the word 'bath' there is a fair bit of excitment around here and Phebe will start running around in an excited little high-step-dance while tuggin at her clothes, wanting them off, of course! Lilah always baths with her and they both love that. The two of them can play in there for over an hour. In fact, there is generally water everywhere but in the bath, by the time it's all over!

She also loves soap and you should see her go when she's washing herself! She'll generally say "belly belly belly" when lathering up her belly! Water in her eyes? She doesn't mind one bit. In fact, I'm going out on a limb here, but I think she gets a bit of water tipped over her head by her, ahem, very kind sister, Lilah... when I'm not looking!

The only thing that freaks Phebe out, is the hairdryer. She does not like that thing at all and will run and sit on the couch when it's turned on! Not that she needs the hairdryer yet. Hopefully by the time she does, she'll have warmed up to it!

I love how she puts joy into every little thing in life. Even her baths!

things i love about her : sleeping

I've decided to do a week (or so) of posts, on the things I love about our little Phebe.

Which is basically everything!
But I'll try to contain myself a little.

I just don't want to forget all these little moments in our daily life. They are beautiful and they make my heart just burst for joy. And most of the things I love about her, are things she loves too! She is so sweet and silly on so many levels. And she is the easiest child in the world to love.

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I love that she loves her sleep.

I will tell you right now, I don't take this for granted. I go to a couple of playgroups and I hear Mum's talk about their childrens lack of sleep and I secretly cringe. Lilah and Phebe were both great sleepers. Thank you Lord. And if I was making a top ten list of loves (for myself), sleep would definitely be in that top ten. In fact, it would be quite close to the top!

Ever since the day we got Phebe, in China, she has been a great sleeper. She sleeps 12-13 hours at night and 1-2 hours in the daytime. She goes down happy and wakes up happy. Again, thank you Lord. In China, she would sing herself to sleep. Now she and Tigger usually have a full out fun time with lots of loud chatting before she falls asleep. It takes her 10-20 minutes to fall over at night. But during the day it is basically immediately.

In fact, there are times (mostly during the day, approaching nap time) that she will simply conk out wherever she's at. Over dinner, reading books, playing toys and even in the shopping cart, where she put her head down on the bar (that you use to push the cart) and promptly fell asleep, one day. And no amount of anything would waken her. I tried talking, lifting her head up, trying to prise her eyes open... nothing worked. But man, was she uncomfortable! She would let out a groan every now and again!

I'm so thankful my girl loves to sleep - I think that's one of the things that makes her so happy. She is very rarely grumpy and I think a good nights sleep has a lot to do with that.

When I put her into the crib at night and for her nap; she gets a kiss, a head rub/massage and I tell her "night-night, I love you". She makes us VERY aware that the same must be done to her stuffie, Tigger... and he must also have her blanket over him. And then she too will rub his head, kiss him (many times) and tell him night-night. She is a very affectionate child, in a lot of ways and it melts my heart, in a big way!

taken just hours after Phebe joined our family, in Hunan, China
my two girls enjoying a well earned nap

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clean jiggered, after a day at the pumpkin patch

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she conked out, while reading the Indigo Kids toys and Costco flyers, last week

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last night, ready to fall sleep with her best friend, Tigger
i ♥ how they start the night nose to nose

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finally, fast asleep
love my baby girl so very very much

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and on Sundays, they get a special treat, napping together... which they love!
how can I even stand this much cuteness in one bed? it's beyond me.

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