All about the princess!

! Anyone that knows how to make a header using pictures and images, please email me. I usually pay to have it done, and have no idea how to do it!

Our princess Arina has been home for a little over two months now, and I thought I would update how she is doing.
First off though, I have fallen in love again. I really need to stay off Reece's Rainbow right now! This is beautiful Lilly. She makes me so sad. Her sad eyes, and her signature bump on her head from banging on crib rails. You can tell just by looking at her that she has unrepaired heart defects, which it says in her profile. I want her! It makes me crazy when they are in dire need of heart surgery and can't get it. Unfortunately Arina's adoption has drained us dry, and we need to replenish before we do it one more time. But she doesn't have time! She is also in a region that is a little more expensive than Arina's region, and we aren't familiar with the area like we would be with another Ukrainian child.
But I want her! (click on her picture to read her profile)

Ok, on to our own princess. She is doing fantastic!! You can see that her hair is growing like crazy! Of course thats a good thing for me!
She is 16 months old, and just under 16 lbs. She where's 6-9 month clothes, She is itty bitty! She isn't even on the DS scale yet, especially for her height. She is just good, old fashioned short!

She explores more and more every day. She still is very easily startled. If a dog barks, or even my newborn niece crying, scares her and makes her cry!
The kitty is her new favorite toy. She grabs her fur and tries to kiss her. Luckily the kitty is very easy going!

One area that Arina excels in is eating. She doesn't have any of the feeding problems typical with DS kids, like textures and solids. This girl will eat anything. My ped told me not to give her table food until she can pick food up with her fingers. But of course we cheat, and she eats them just fine! No choking there either. I think her aspirating is not as bad, because she doesn't sound like she's choking anymore when she eats. She still is on oxygen at night because of her apnea, and her tonsils and adnoids come out Feb. 3, along with an ABR hearing test.

She is one strong little bugger! She will be on her belly, and push up onto her feet and hands, like a spider walk. Although she can't move like that. She had a hold of Jax oxygen tubing the other day, and I had to use both hands to pry her hand off! She is now starting to push herself up to sitting from laying down. She gets on her hands and knee's, but can't figure out how to move herself. So she gets around by pulling with her hands and pushing with her toes. She also will stand against stuff, but again, she doesn't have the coordination yet to move her feet.

So this is usually what happens!

Oops, that was quite traumatic!

One thing she is really lacking in is fine motor skills. Because she spent her life in an orphanage, she doesn't do pattycake, wave bye bye, or any of those things. She won't pick up food and put it in her mouth, although she is now putting toys in her mouth, so I assume food is next up.
I want to buy her some signing time videos and get started with those with her. The other day I put her hands up to hold her bottle, and she did it! Now I'd like to start with cups, to get her off the bottle. So any advice in that area would be appreciated! She won't suck through a straw. She did the first week we had her home, she actually was able to suck juice up out of my straw. Now she won't even attempt it. She doesn't like the straw in her mouth.

Of course the biggest thing is how much joy she has brought to us and especially her big brothers. And I know we have brought joy to her, and saved her from a life inside an institution. Oh how we love our princess Arina!