Survived

Survived - that is how I feel about today. It all started at 3 or 4 this morning. Not sure what time. Karla woke up again and didn't want to go back to sleep. I finally took her in the guest room and we slept on and off in the twin bed there because I wanted Jason to be able to rest for work. She was up by 7:30 again. The morning went pretty well. We went to Babies R Us and she had fun playing with Grammy and the toys while I looked around. It was nice to be there and KNOW what size Karla wears and what she actually needs. I picked up some necessities. Then we had to check out. Karla screamed the whole time and of course I had coupons and gift cards to try use which took additional time.

After lunch we both took a nap. Then Karla was cranky for the rest of the afternoon and evening! She was saying "no" even more than usual, fussing - then when she started hitting she got in big trouble. She didn't like it. I guess when Daddy got home he could tell I was at the end of my rope. She started misbehaving again and Daddy initiated her first time-out. He did it upstairs so I was able to sit downstairs in quiet and pull myself together - oh, and eat dinner finally. Jason and I discussed disciplining tonight and what her limits are going to be. She did perk up after her time-out. She came downstairs and hugged me. Jason thinks she understood that she was bad but I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.

I felt kind of sad today because in my mind for all this time (past 2 years) Karla has been a baby. I mean, I knew she was getting older, but I still thought of her as a baby. She is NOT a baby, she is a toddler. I'm trying to make that adjustment in my mind and in how I treat her. Then when I get frustrated or sad that I have NO idea what she wants or is trying to tell me I think - is this the transition to our home or is this her age?? Then I think about the adoption world and how messed up it is and how some of this difficulty could have been avoided. I know I shouldn't go down that path and I know things wouldn't be perfect but maybe they would not be so hard for her. The doctor said it well when we were there last week - Karla had 2 years of a routine with her foster family and it is going to take a while to adjust to a new one. I guess I should be good at waiting...but I don't want to. :)

Anyway -
Karla has had a glass of milk at dinner for the past two days! Yeah! I flavored it with strawberry Nesquik and we let her drink it out of an open cup - something I don't think she has ever done before. She gets lots of praise when she drinks her milk. Tonight she was asking for it as soon as she saw it. I've found other ways to "sneak" calcium in at the other meals so hopefully she's getting plenty of calcium now!

I uploaded pictures to flickr today - 146 to be exact. I guess I have taken lots of pictures in the past few days. Everything is a first for me so I guess that is why. :)

Words Karla said today: Andre (foster cousin), J (her foster sister), Jayne (her middle name), "achoo" (Elmo taught her to fake sneeze), clean up, potato, roll (during pat-a-cake), good night. Several new words for one day! I am keeping a pen and paper handy so I can write them down when she says them.

Yesterday Daddy showed Karla a new trick and today Karla tried it with a box instead of a laundry basket.


Yesterday Karla had a play date with Austin. They really got along well and they both posed for pictures! Austin gave Karla kisses but she wasn't ready to give him kisses yet. However, she kept saying "Austin, where are you?" for quite a while after he left. Austin's mom called me tonight around 8pm and said that Austin wouldn't go to bed tonight because she had shown him pictures from their play date yesterday and he kept saying "more kiss Karla" instead of going to sleep! I was glad she called to tell me that....it was right after the time-out. :)