Home Almost One Week

I must say it again....I LOVE Canada!! It is so great to be home. Things are starting to settle down now that I've caught up on a little bit of sleep. And when I wake up now, I know where I am and am so happy to be here. For those of you who hate doing laundry...go live in Ukraine for 2 months! I was never so happy to see my oversized front end loading machines when I got home!! Washing and drying clothes is a blast now...and every morning being able to dry ourselves off with dry towels that don't stink after a HOT shower.....life doesn't get any better!! :):)

Emma is settling in just fine. Our biggest problem is still communication. So many times she'll repeat something over and over again to us and we have no idea what she wants. And many times we'll tell her something over and over and she doesn't understand. It makes discipline difficult. Sometimes we can't tell if she's not listening or she just doesn't understand. Oh well, it'll come. At least that's what everyone says. She is starting to repeat things alot better than before. She learned our dogs names very easily. It seems if it's something she likes, she'll learn it or repeat it without hesitation...such as yogurt. The girl is NUTS over yogurt...she wants it all the time! And when she eats it, she licks the container until it's spotless. I always make her say "yogurt please mama" but when she says it, it sounds like "yo-dirt plez mama." She's trying!!!

Grandpa came over the other day with a brand new bike for Emma. It's a shiny red and white 2 wheeler with training wheels. I've never seen Emma as excited as when grandpa opened the back door of his van to reveal her new bike. She squealed with delight and was jumping up and down...it was too cool! When we finally got it out of the van and put a helmet on her, all she could do was sit on it. Terry pushed her around and tried to push her feet to get her to pedal, but nothing seemed to be registering...she just couldn't figure it out. I think she was just so overwhelmed! It's hard to believe that just a couple of weeks ago she lived in an orphanage and had absolutely nothing and now she owns her own shiny new bike!! Hopefully she'll figure out the pedalling and balancing soon so we can go for bike rides together.

I'd like to say everything has been sunshine and roses since we got home, but we have had our fair share of stuggles. There have been a lot of tears and tantrums as Emma tries to push and see just how far she can go with us. We have to choose our battles wisely. You have to remember, we are new to Emma and she is just learning to trust us, so we don't want to scare her away. But at the same time, we have to set boundaries or she will continue misbehaving inappropriately. I'm not saying she's bad all the time, in fact the majority of the time she is happy and we all get along. It's just that when there's a battle, it's usually a big one!!

Grandpa has been over a few times. Emma really enjoys it because he speaks Ukrainian. The two of them just talk up a storm!! And grandpa was nice enough a couple of days ago to let Emma style his hair (picture below) She also styled her own hair along with mine.

Terry went back to work yesterday, so now it's just me and Emma. It seems strange that I don't have to go to work, but all the paperwork I need to get completed will keep me busy for awhile...EI, child tax benifit, social insurance number, apply for citizenship. I also have to figure out where she'll got to school and we need her to see an adoption doctor and the dentist in the worst way. Anyone know of a dentist who sedates patients? I can guarantee you there is no way she'll open her mouth for a dentist!!