When I look back at referral pictures and photos of Alyssa from the first few days after we met her I can tell how much she has changed in such a short time. I’ve read a lot of blogs that talk about how a child seems so right for the particular family that they were matched with and we certainly feel this with Alyssa. I’m not sure what led the CCAA to match her with our family but it seems like a perfect fit. We love her to bits!
Her personality has really come out and our outgoing little girl is doing more and more every day. She continues to babble quite a bit, especially when we are at home. She says the following words/phrases: mama, mom, baba, dada, uh oh, wow, jie jie, nana, yeah.
Things she currently loves to do:
- Go up and down stairs/hills/slides/ladders- She will do this for as long as we let her. I’m usually ready to move on after only two or three times up and down stairs or a hill. She went up and down a slide at the park this past weekend at least forty times! She is fairly fearless so we have to watch out to make sure that she doesn’t climb too high.
-Swing!- She would also be happy to swing for what seems like forever. She smiles and giggles quite a bit at the start and then can look quite serious or even dazed. Several times I’ve made the mistake of thinking she looked like she was ready to stop but got screamed at when I tried to take her out of the swing. She will sometimes make the “more” sign when she is already swinging. This indicates that she wants me to stop her and then start her swinging again. She seems to like it when I pull the swing forward and count before releasing her to swing again….lots of giggles!
-Reprimand her sister- Several times when we have been out somewhere I’ve called over to Linnea to let her know that we will be leaving soon (or giving her some other information). Alyssa will then run over near Linnea and emphatically babble off a long string of “words” that sound like “ba ba ba ba ba ba mom ba ba ba ba” to me. It can go on for a while and it seems clear that she is telling Linnea to listen to me or to do something that I’ve told her to do.
-Play with blocks or anything that she can stack, connect or put in and out of containers- She is good at playing with du-plo blocks and can put them together or take them apart fairly easily. She has a long attention span and can play with one thing for quite a while. Putting things in and out of containers can be tons of fun for her and she is good at helping to put things away when it’s time to clean up.
-Eat like a “big kid”- She wants to use her spoon, fork or pair of chopsticks all by herself even though it is hard for her to get the food to stay put on the way to her mouth. We continue to help her eat by using another spoon, fork or pair of chopsticks that is under our control. She wants to drink from a regular cup although she just slams down whatever is in the cup. This usually results in most of the contents going down the front of her. I’ve compromised by letting her us a cup sometimes but I only pour a small mouthful in at a time. I even got her to drink some whole white milk today by letting her drink it herself with a cup!
-Wave and give “high fives” or “fist bumps”- Alyssa is very social and will wave at just about anyone. She will sometimes continue to wave until they see her and wave back. If she is comfortable she will give friends “high fives” which delights Linnea’s friends and others that she meets. One of my friends taught her how to bump fists last week so that is her latest interaction. After her first few attempts we taught her that it isn’t actually hitting the other person with your fist but just gently touching your fist to theirs. [Linnea was also a big "greeter" at this age!]
-Hug her new puppy- This is somewhat of a breakthrough as she didn’t give hugs to stuffed animals or dolls until fairly recently. We helped to teach her how to hug and kiss instead of throwing the toys to the ground. When her Nana gave her a new stuffed puppy last week she immediately cradled it, kissed it and carried it around for a while (before throwing it to the ground 
). She seems to be growing more attached to the puppy and holds it now for longer amounts of time. We are hoping that she will use it (or something similar) as a comfort item when she goes to daycare.
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- Fun at the Farm
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- Alyssa and Nana
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- Kisses for Puppy
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- Who’s Under That Hat?
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- Stacking Blocks
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- These Shoes were made for Stacking!
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- Has Anyone Seen the Yellow Piece?
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- Puzzles are Fun!
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- I Love My Puppy!
