Day 6 - 5/28

Thursday was a pretty good day. E.R. was still silly and talking a lot. But she also had periods of crying, and we also experienced her first tantrums here. She is eating better, and her ears and sinuses are definitely better, but not all cleared up yet.

She talks about "Baby J___" a lot now. He is definitely one of her favorite people. In the days to come she would start singing the "Baby J___ Song", where she sings his name over and over very seriously, and then adds a few verses in Amharic about him. Very, very cute!

She is starting to surprise us with other words, too. Chris picked up a green washcloth to use as a burpcloth for J.T. and we both heard her calmly say "green". As the hours go by, she seems to have more and more words in English. We're sure now, that even though she is very small - about the size of a 14 month old, we think her age of 22 months is probably pretty close to her true age. As she becomes more comfortable with us, she seems a bit older every day.

That evening we went to G.J.'s baseball game. It took my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Margie, Chris and I spending all our energy taking care of the kids to get through it. J.T. had a rough evening with a diaper blowout and lots of crying. E.R. had her first two screaming, kicking tantrums with me. The bummer about having a mom, is that sometimes she says "no"! E.R. is just learning that, and not too happy with me when she doesn't get her way. I'm glad to see the 2 year-old in her coming out. It is a good sign. But I worry that she and I didn't have long enough to bond before we experience the push-pull of parenting and discipline. I know part of attachment is the maturing of our relationship, but she gets so angry with me, that I still worry...

Tonight was better for E.R. She was probably so exhausted from the night before that she slept deeply with only a few whines in her sleep. I'm thankful for a little more sleep too!