Getting Settled!

I am so sorry for the lack of blogging since we have been home from China.  We have been having so much fun spending every moment with Karlye!  She is such a joy and a true gift from God.  It is so amazing to think that God created this beautiful little girl to be a part of our family before we even knew it.  We love her so much that words cannot even describe it!  I think that I could just sit and watch her all day long.  She really is a hoot!

Karlye is really adjusting well, or so we think!  She continues to sleep REALLY well in her crib in her room.  We were prepared for the worst case scenario with sleeping issues, but thankfully we have not had to go down that road yet.  Now, if Nathan and I could just sleep.  We continue to have difficulty slowing down our "thinking caps" enough to get a good nights sleep, but it is getting better each day.

We are advancing Karlye's diet slowly, and she seems to be tolerating it well.  Our child loves to eat, so we are not having many problems in this area.  She will now begin to slow down or refuse a bite if she is full.  She loves to feed herself finger foods and really likes to attempt to feed herself with a spoon.  We are still doing the spoon feeding, but let her try every now and then.  She continues to take three bottles a day (morning, nap, and bedtime) and we will continue this for a while for attachment/bonding.  She has learned to drink out of a sippy cup and a straw for mealtime!

We are working on using some simple sign language (more, all done, thank you, and please) for communication to help decrease her frustration, and she seems to be catching on quickly.  She will attempt to say bye bye when people leave the house.  She loves to wave at people, but many times she waits until after they have left before she begins waving.  She likes to clap for herself when we say "good job", which is quite hilarious!  She loves music and will clap when she hears it.  She has recently enjoyed looking at books, and yes she will sit for a brief moment to do this!  Our daughter is definitely on the move, always!  She is walking independently within the house.  We really do not let her walk by herself outside, as she tends to be unsteady at times and we would hate for her to take a nose dive onto the concrete.  Karlye absolutely loves other children.  She wants to be right up in the action when there are other children around.

We made our first trip to church last Sunday.  It was so wonderful to be back!  She really enjoyed the music, but began attempting to preach right along with the preacher with her jibber jabber, so we made our way to the lobby for the sermon.  She enjoyed playing with other children in the lobby, while I caught up with other parents.

I will stop rambling for now, but just a little tidbit of what is going on in our world right now.  We feel so incredibly blessed to be parents to this beautiful child!



Karlye loved her time with the Sides.



Playing with David!



Jennifer stole a hug!




Karlye laughed so hard while she played with Isabelle!



Loving Isabelle!

First Sunday to go to church.



Making friends!



Reading with Daddy.



Karlye loves her Pillow Pal.



Can I help you with that computer Jen?





Enjoying playing with Nathan and Andrew.




Playing with Bart.



Sitting with Shannon.



Sitting in Elizabeth's new car!