Yummy Yummy Cake

Tonight Joy made a chocolate cake with her daddy.

When it was time to eat it, she sat in her chair singing, "Yummy yummy cake.....yummy yummy ice cream!" Over and over, inbetween bites of cake and ice cream. We were a happy girl!

Needless to say, we are a little wired now.....

I asked her to run up to her room (2 flights of stairs) to get me something I didn't really need, just to burn some energy. Her response was, "no, thank you". HAHA! We have been telling her that she has to taste food now, and if she doesn't want any more, she can say, no thank you.

Who knew she would use that to say, no I'm not going to do that, thank you though!

Here's what she is doing right now, while I'm trying to watch the ice skating. Who said ice skating can't happen to Do A Deer?

Look at that hand position!

Walking the Dogs in the Snow

Yesterday, it snowed here for awhile pretty hard and looked awfully pretty!

So when we came home yesterday from the grocery store, we took the dogs for a walk in the snow!

You know how much the dogs enjoyed it! We went the long way - up to the Eagle Trace sign and then back home on the golf course. I asked her if she wanted a long walk or a short one, and she picked long. We were fine while we were on the sidewalk, but once we turned onto the course, the wind was blowing the snow horizontally! She was cold, but didn't complain and once we got around the turn and the wind wasn't blowing the snow directly into our faces, it was better.

When we got almost to the foot bridge, she looked up and saw the house and said, "we're here!" She was so excited to recognize the house! She screamed all the way home!

So we all had a good time walking in the snow!

Wish I had a picture of her in her oversized Rockies cap and Scarpia with snow all over his coat and Katrina bouncing along trying to chase the snowflakes!




Bursts of Language
We've had about 3 full days of just an explosion of language! Almost nonstop talking, and much of it in complete sentences. Joy obviously feels more comfortable trying to express herself and even when she hits a roadblock, I'm not getting the kicking or hitting that I did before. Between hand motions and me reading her mind, we're getting a lot discussed.

What amazes me is the complexity of what she wants to say.

Yesterday, she asked, in so many words, why does Katrina squat to pee and Scarpia lift one leg? I said that Katrina was a girl dog and Scarpia was a boy dog. Thank heavens, that seemed to suffice (for now...)!

She's also asked why the intersection of 2 roads had more lights than the other streets. Or why do I take off my seatbelt before she can when we drive up to the house (a bad habit of mine, I suppose). We've discussed how her foster mother made her go outside for timeout, and that there were 5 dogs in the building they lived in. We've learned how to work the Dish remote to make the tv FREEZE and UNFREEZE. And of course, we've learned how to take pictures on my camera phone! :)

But she's also speaking Mandarin sometimes too. She has a cd of children singing Christmas carols in Chinese. She wants to listen to that sometimes and obviously frustrated when she can't remember the words. There are times when she tell me something in Chinese and I'll ask, what does that mean in English and she can kinda tell me in general terms. We're still trying to teach Mama to count to 10 in Chinese and when she's mad, I know she's swearing at me in Chinese!

One way I know for sure she's understanding how the language works is that I would ask her, "Are you okay?" and she would say, "ok". Then it was "Joy okay." Now it's "I'm okay. Are you ok?"

When she practices on the dogs, though, it's hard not to laugh. I'll hear her say to Scarpia from the other room, "Will you help me? Yes, I'll help you." Or, "How are you today? I'm good. How are you? Thank you!" Scarpia is a patient teacher, as long as she's not screaming in his ear!

Here are some pictures from the week:



The LOOK! We answer that look with laughter and that is having the desired effect, even if it is happening slowly.

(Joy just saw me put this photo up and she said, "Oh I sorry!" I forgot to post earlier that I caught her in the mirror in her bathroom practicing her faces. The Angry One. The Scary One. The Mad One. The Pouty One. The Happy One. The Surprised One. It was so funny! She didn't see me watching her so she doesn't know that now I know she's acting most of the time!)

Just Had to Share!

We are having an explosion of language this week! And some very funny things that I just had to share!

The other day, we were in my car, and I'm talking to Tim on the cell. He had another call at work and had to hang up. I told him to call me back when he could. Joy says from the backseat, "Mama, in Taiwan, not nice." I'm trying to figure out what wasn't nice - what I said to Tim or that he couldn't talk. So I'm trying to explain to her what was going on.

She bursts out, pretty loudly, "Mama, you have to stop! Stop, Mama, you have to stop!"

I'm trying not to laugh out loud, and she continues with, "Stop talking! Mama, my head....no.....my, my, my brain....hurt!!"

So basically, I was talking too much and her brain hurt from all the new words! She wouldn't let me talk at all for about 10 minutes! It was hysterical!


Joy really doesn't like it when people are talking and she can't understand. Or maybe it's when she's not the center of the conversation? In either case, she can get pretty upset.

The other day at lunch, she flatly told us, "Joy want to talk!" So we gave her the floor, but then the words wouldn't come. She was SO frustrated! We tried to help by asking her questions, but laughter seemed the best solution.

There are so many things she's trying to tell us. I hear about 2 or three times a day, "In Taiwan...." and then something about what she did or ate. I don't always understand what was that happened there, but we are beginning to put some puzzle pieces together. Her foster parents were very doting and loving with her, but also pretty stern and scary at times. I guess all parents are like that at times - especially when she's trying to escape in the parking lot!

One of the funniest things she says, still is "Joy love you this" and then fill in the blank - food, activity, feeling, thing. She still uses Joy instead of "I" most of the time, but it's beginning to creep in. We're getting full sentences though a good bit of the time. But there are so many verbs that change, it's confusing. Like "Look at that Joy!" she understands. But you don't say "I look it" back. "I see it" is there in her head, but if I say, "look" first, she forgets. When you think about it, there are tons of verbs that change between a command and the response!

One of my favorites is "Hold Stiff!" for hold still. I know that our consonants are sometimes hard to distinguish, so I'm not worried about the M's and N's and such. But to hear the L's as F's is really strange. She's certainly heard me say "Hold still!" enough times, and I'm working on enunciating the L's, but she always says, "hold stiff" when she's playing. Hard not to laugh!

There are dozens of other little gems that pop out, but I can't remember them all! I'm trying to write them down, but hard when I'm driving! I thought I'd share the few I can remember!

Milestones!

There have been so many the past 2 weeks, I hardly know where to start! First of all, Joy’s language skills have just blossomed! I am getting “Mama, can you help me please?” and attempts at complete sentences, “Mama, may I dadada again please?”

Of course, there are the phrases that she hears all the time that she repeats back to me. “Please don’t do that” is her favorite. I roll my eyes at that, but am glad that at least I’m saying please…

There are so many little turns of phrase that appear and you can tell she’s working on it. We have “piece of pizza” which is really hard to get a hold of at first. This morning, she showed me the snow in the chairs on the patio and screamed (at the top of her lungs which of course, is the only way to scream) “Mama, look! Piece of cake!”

The other night on the way home from choir rehearsal, she is in her car seat in my car. I have the passenger head rest up as far as it will go so she can see what’s going on in front of her. All of a sudden, she stops singing with the cd and asks, “Mama, red lights. Why?” She’s asking me why do the cars in front of us have red lights. So I point out that the cars have red lights on the back and white lights on the front so we can see them at night on the road. The car in front of us puts on its brake lights and she screams delightedly, and asks, “Mama, look! Why?” I said those were there so that I wouldn’t hit the car in front of us when it slowed down. She then announced that they were “please don’t hit me lights”. Of course! What else would you call them?

We had quite a conversation about the lights and the cars and the road and light signals. Then, she came out with “Mamamamama, dadada gagagaga dodo”. I hesitated, wondering what in the world she meant, and then we both burst out laughing. I said, “You just ran out of words didn’t you?” and she laughs “yes” over and over again, because it’s the only word she can find after all that exertion!

I have to admit, I’m going to miss some of her phrases! Like, “do it again please” means, can I have some more of whatever that was, as well as can we watch that again. I still smile at "what's your name?" meaning what is the word for this. (She sometimes looses Katrina's or Scarpia's name and will ask them, "What's your name?" and wait for an answer!) And of course, “bu yao/meow”!

The other milestone in the language is not just vocabulary, but the subtle things like “Sorry mama” has become “I’m sorry, Mama”. And “what is this” instead of “who are you”. She clearly understands the cause and effect of Why and Because. In fact, she is now using “because….” as an excuse. So when she is asked to sit in her car seat, she’ll say, “because…” trying to find a reason why she isn’t. Today, I started saying, “no because” when she started on it. She actually laughed and now she will sit there and repeat “because because because” and laugh! Good thing she’s laughing because I’m not always…but I'm trying!

Dance Class
We changed the basic karate class at the Little Gym to a dance class. That was a good idea (another favorite phrase of Joy's)! She is one of 8 little girls from the age of 3 to 5. At first she was just watching from the side, but after the first class, she seems to be having a great time. The first quarter of the class is tap and she's already practicing on the kitchen floor. She's actually pretty good and can shuffle step without turning her foot all the way under.

The next part of the class is ballet and she already knew first and second position! She's practicing her turns on the hardwood floor already. Then the last half is like coordinated dance/movement and tumbling. She really likes that part.

Here is her new leotard and her tutu skirt (from Courtney!). Notice those tap shoes! I changed the ribbons to pink ones and we got white socks with lace. I tell you, she's styling!


And these are her velvet tap pants!


Dress Up!
We played dress up the other day. I honestly think it was the first time she's ever gotten to do that! After I showed her kinda how it works, she got into it, but we didn't have the right shirt for the skirt. We'll have to make a trip to the thrift store for sure!

I also had to explain that the scepter was not a weapon...

I can't get rid of the 2 fingers up in the air, because that's the only way she'll smile. I'm working on it though!


Sometimes it was just more fun to decorate Katrina with the boas!

Been Busy!

It's been a busy few weeks! We've been busy learning English, learning which buttons not to push on Mama's forehead, learning about how the routine works in the house, and we've been learning how to be gentle with the dogs (or trying to).

Joy's English is just blooming! My favorite phrase is still, "Mama, Joy I love you this!" but occasionally it comes out, "Mama, I love this". We'll have a burst of talking that mostly makes sense. Then a few minutes later, she'll ask me what Katrina's name is, when she does really know - she just can't find it in there! It's really funny because she knows she knows it and she knows she can't find it! She'll tap her head with her hand, and say, "Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma....uh....what's your name?" pointing at Katrina. ("What's your name?" is really "how do you say this?", just as she means "more please" when she says "do it again"!)

There are so many little things that I want to remember so that I can tell her someday. I know this blog is a way to do that, but I can't possibly write down all the strange things she tells me, or the quirky phrases she'll come up with! I do want to ask her later about a few things - what were you talking about?!

Some things are so much better - bathtime, bedtime, staying with me in the parking lot, the whining, the screaming in the house (well, somewhat better...) - I'm really surprised at how quickly things change.

Here are a few pictures of Joy and our friend Lou Anne, who has a karate studio in Ft. Collins. She graciously gave Joy a private lesson to catch her up so she could join their beginners class this week. Joy obviously knows a few things about karate, and she's been practicing her kicking all week, mostly on me. We're working on that part...

More soon - she just woke up crying. She has been so good about sleeping through the night that when she doesn't, she's seriously scared about something!