I have clearly been lacking in the update department, as I have gone over a month now without posting a thing! It seems that there is either nothing new to post (which is not the case) or that there is never time to post it (also, not the case - I've just gotten lazy).
I still can't get over the fact that my baby turned four almost two months ago. I'm not sure where the time has gone, but I sure wish it would slow down! She is getting bigger and bigger every day, and I am in constant amazement of the things she says and does. The alphabet and counting are coming along well for her, and she certainly has a flair for the drama as evidenced by her play habits as well as her endless requests for me to take video of her just being silly. She continues to love her figure skating class, although now that she has moved up beyond the basic class she certainly has her work cut out for her, as it's no longer about staying UP on the skates, but actually learning to glide. I think she could do it if she just put her mind to it, but my little peanut apparently has quite the competative streak in her and for her its more about being the first to get somewhere on the ice, not how she managed to do it. She also continues to enjoy her gymnastics class, and I was kind of excited to have skating and gymnastics flipped for the summer so I can see how far she has come in the last year. She does fantastic on the balance beam, can almost do a complete cartwheel by herself, and is fearless about spinning on the bars and jumping into the foam pit. This past weekend she took a nasty tumble off an inclinded mat, however, and landed on the side of her neck and I almost had a heart attack! Luckily she wasn't really hurt and she popped right up and tried it again, but it took the rest of the class period for my heart rate to return to normal...
Speech is still the area RP has the longest road to climb in. While I can understand most of what she is saying, she still drops her "s's" in the beginning of words and "l's" in the middle of words, so I know speech therapy is in our future. I thought the pediatrician was going to call in a referral to have her tested again, but since it's been almost 8 weeks and I haven't heard anything, clearly I am going to have to take control of this issue and get her started. Her pre-school teacher actually doesn't seem to think it's a big deal, but she is going to start reading soon and I want to be sure we are on a good path before she hits kindergarten and has to read out loud for the class - kids can be cruel enough without giving them something to be cruel about.
I guess the other big update is that RP and I have had two heart to heart conversations about her being adopted. She has always known she is from Russia, but she now understands that she has a birth mommy there and didn't come from my tummy (although, she is still struggling with that one too, since she just keeps telling me that babies can't possibly come from the tummies of mommies unless the mommies ate them, because that is the only way ANYTHING gets in our tummies!) but rather was born in my heart. These conversations have been difficult for both of us - her in understanding what I am talking about, and for me in reliving what were some very painful times before the joy of having her in my life finally came true. She has seen me cry, and asked me about those tears, and I hope she truly understands that it was a labor of love and that those tears truly ARE the happy kind - the kind that fall when your heart is so full of love that it doesn't know what else to do. I know these are only the first of what are MANY discussions to come, and I'm just hoping I don't screw them up too badly!!!
