Mamie Milestones

It's been over 2 months. I can't believe it. Cliche but true, it's hard now to remember life without her. Some days are easy, some days are hard. But isn't that life with a toddler? (And a 3 year old? And an almost 6 year old?)  It amazes me that we continually learn new things about her on a weekly basis. Some days I forget we have only had her 2 months and I feel like I know her really well. Then bam... she will do something so off the wall, I can't believe it! Generally in a good way. So here are some Mamie Milestones:

• She is super verbal. They told us at the orphanage she was only saying 3-4 words but I find that hard to believe. She mimics our tones as well as many words. And she understands most everything we say. In only 2 months! She's got "night night", "more", "no", "bye bye" and a few others down pat.But we are still working on "please" and "thank you". Stubborn? Or just hard to say? Hard to tell! And she babbles all day long. Cantonese or baby talk? Not quite sure.
• She loves taking care of her baby dolls. Feeding, rocking, singing. It's precious.
• She loves to dance. We have many dance parties in the house, and she is certainly not shy.
• She loves having her nails painted. Oh how fun!
• She stomps her foot when she wants something or is mad. And squeals really loudly when her brother's make her mad. Which is quite often.
• She loves being chased. And playing outside. And swimming.
• She doesn't love reading or puzzles. What?! We've got to work on this reading thing. That's what our family does best.
• She still pulls the power play with Elliott. This is where their 19 month age difference is most obvious. Sharing Mom is not her favorite thing to do.
• She eats and eats and eats. And eats. Looking into a lock on the pantry?
• She is TOUGH. More bull in a China shop than China doll
• She got her first major haircut on Father's Day. Thanks to Elliott the barber, who snipped a few inches off the pigtail.
• She went to church for the first time on Father's Day too! (pre-haircut)
• Just this past week, she really came out of her shell and showed us all of these new facial expressions.

It's funny. We forget she doesn't look like us. And that she walks with a limp. Those things are so normal to us, that until we are somewhere crowded (say... the zoo), we even notice. We can't understand why people are staring. She walks/runs so fast it makes people nervous. And I have to explain, she has pretty awesome balance, but if she falls, she also knows how to fall correctly (or so far so good anyways!). Another plus? Having one family member with dark skin may be the highlight of my entire summer.

 An attempt at getting Mamie and my niece Claire together in their silks before they both outgrew them! Not a major success. But here they are, nonetheless.