Cool things in our family

We've noticed a pretty substantial change in O during the past few weeks, and it has been exciting for us as parents to observe it. Those of you who are parents are probably very accustomed to seeing growth and being proud of it. (Or at least you remember it from when your kids were young). Well, for us, we've been so focused on structure for the girls and so involved with big picture concerns that is has been hard to notice the little details.

But to be completely honest, O has been delayed in many areas by the trauma in her past. They both have, really, but O was definitely impacted more than L has been. There is a reason they love playing with toys that belong to babies and toddlers. Their speech and other developments have been significantly delayed because of all they have been through.

O has been in "survival mode" for a long time. Because of this, her brain really hasn't had time to devote attention to other things. Next week, we will have had the girls for one year, and we are finally starting to see her relax and feel secure. This has allowed her to advance by leaps and bounds in many areas, and it has been really exciting for us to watch! We are proud of her (and tell her that all the time!)

Last weekend, our neighbors had their grandchildren visit for an overnight, so the girls played with them outside for a while after dinner. Their grandaughter is probably 7 or 8, and she had a lot of stuff in the garage. When she saw our girls ride their bikes, she brought over her old princess bike with no training wheels for O to try. O hopped on it and after a few wipeouts, just did it! We were so surprised because she hadn't given any indication that she was ready for this. So this week, I removed her training wheels on her big bike for good, and she has been doing just fine!

But some of the biggest developments we are seeing are in language. She has had more time to devote to writing letters and numbers and coloring. When we first got her, she would scribble for about ten seconds, then tear up the paper and go on to something else. Now both girls sit and color and create a lot. Yesterday, O walks up to us and hands us a pink 3x5 card:


And she says to us, "B - I - B. That spells Bib!" She picked this up from an infomercial about teaching your baby how to read. It brought a big smile to our faces.

She still is challenging to understand at times and her grammar and vocabulary are definitely delayed as well, but now we are finding that when we correct her, she is actually able to process the difference. She is working on the word "before." Mostly it comes out as "-fore" or even "A-fore." Last night, she was asking us a question that used that word, and we watched her mentally check her options before correctly saying "...Before when we went to grandma's..."

This is the kind of stuff we signed up for!