Wow! I can't believe how long it has taken me to sit down and write this post. Crazy! I have no idea why but hey, better late than never, right? The first step was getting some pictures of her last week with puppy and now I have some free time to write about life with our sweet four-year-old.
Eliana is growing so much lately! She's actually already gained about two pounds and grown almost an inch since her birthday. She's around 33 pounds now (25%) and almost 42 inches (66%). She eats so much better these days and even compliments my food and asks to eat leftovers. Ahhh! Amazing! That's been a long time coming! She is still quite skinny but the fact that she is happily eating so many things just makes me happy!
Eliana is a girly girl to the max! She loves wearing her dresses and skirts (I'm not sure why I bought her any shorts!) and loves fixing her hair and getting "fancy" which involves me letting her wear a tiny bit of eyeshadow and some lipstick. She loves to accessorize and hardly ever leaves the apartment without a purse and a baby. She loves her shoes too and is so sad that she grew out of her Cinderella slippers and keeps asking us to get more when we go to America. She loves babies and when she sees pictures of babies she just smiles and coos and talks about how cute they are.
As you can tell from the pictures she is quite the ham and loves being in front of a camera and performing for anyone who will watch her. She makes up her own dances and will dance for anyone, anywhere. She loves to dress up and pretend that she's getting married and having babies. She's always pretending! Always! Her imagination is so elaborate and always turned on. It really amazes me. She loves being the mama and the rest of us are her babies. We go to airports, beaches, camp outs, to the doctor, to the store and numerous other places. It is a world of pretend play in our home!
We are working on a "Letter of the Week" program at home together and she is doing really well. She resisted a lot at first but now that she's learned some stuff and in a groove she is enjoying it. We've done all our vowels and are up to "N" this week. She can recognize all those letters and say their sounds for the most part and write the letters with help (they are far from beautiful though!) and she can recognize and write her numbers 1-10 on her own. We are working on recognizing 11-20. She can count objects really well and can now put together a 24-piece puzzle on her own. That surprised me! Really, when she puts her mind to it she can do most anything she should be able to do. It's got to be on her own though. She enjoys reading books with me and will sometimes look at books on her own. Really though, playing with her toys in her pretend world is her favorite thing to do.
Eliana loves to run and jump and skip and hop and slide and swing and show us all the cool new things she can do. We walk a lot here so she has some good endurance and regularly walks 1.5 miles with us. I think her Tajik is improving as she continues to play with the kids outside and work with our friend. She still doesn't like to speak in front of us but will do it a little more than she used to so that is encouraging. We are hoping for a few good months of preschool this fall to help boost her language abilities so she can continue to interact and build relationships with kids here, since being in relationships is perhaps the most important thing in her world!
Eliana loves to organize and make a plan. I am amazed at the things she is thinking of and preparing for. For instance, last week she was planning out what days she was going to wear her pajamas and also the different colors of lipstick. Seriously? She is my child! She also has an amazing memory and brings up random events of her past at random times. She is an experience girl for sure! She loves doing things and being with people.
We are so thankful for our sweet Eliana! She is an amazing kid and despite still struggling with anger issues and being extremely strong-willed, she brings us much joy each day. What a gift from the Lord! She is loving and sweet and fun to be around. I am a blessed mama!
Eliana is growing so much lately! She's actually already gained about two pounds and grown almost an inch since her birthday. She's around 33 pounds now (25%) and almost 42 inches (66%). She eats so much better these days and even compliments my food and asks to eat leftovers. Ahhh! Amazing! That's been a long time coming! She is still quite skinny but the fact that she is happily eating so many things just makes me happy!
Eliana is a girly girl to the max! She loves wearing her dresses and skirts (I'm not sure why I bought her any shorts!) and loves fixing her hair and getting "fancy" which involves me letting her wear a tiny bit of eyeshadow and some lipstick. She loves to accessorize and hardly ever leaves the apartment without a purse and a baby. She loves her shoes too and is so sad that she grew out of her Cinderella slippers and keeps asking us to get more when we go to America. She loves babies and when she sees pictures of babies she just smiles and coos and talks about how cute they are.
As you can tell from the pictures she is quite the ham and loves being in front of a camera and performing for anyone who will watch her. She makes up her own dances and will dance for anyone, anywhere. She loves to dress up and pretend that she's getting married and having babies. She's always pretending! Always! Her imagination is so elaborate and always turned on. It really amazes me. She loves being the mama and the rest of us are her babies. We go to airports, beaches, camp outs, to the doctor, to the store and numerous other places. It is a world of pretend play in our home!
We are working on a "Letter of the Week" program at home together and she is doing really well. She resisted a lot at first but now that she's learned some stuff and in a groove she is enjoying it. We've done all our vowels and are up to "N" this week. She can recognize all those letters and say their sounds for the most part and write the letters with help (they are far from beautiful though!) and she can recognize and write her numbers 1-10 on her own. We are working on recognizing 11-20. She can count objects really well and can now put together a 24-piece puzzle on her own. That surprised me! Really, when she puts her mind to it she can do most anything she should be able to do. It's got to be on her own though. She enjoys reading books with me and will sometimes look at books on her own. Really though, playing with her toys in her pretend world is her favorite thing to do.
Eliana loves to run and jump and skip and hop and slide and swing and show us all the cool new things she can do. We walk a lot here so she has some good endurance and regularly walks 1.5 miles with us. I think her Tajik is improving as she continues to play with the kids outside and work with our friend. She still doesn't like to speak in front of us but will do it a little more than she used to so that is encouraging. We are hoping for a few good months of preschool this fall to help boost her language abilities so she can continue to interact and build relationships with kids here, since being in relationships is perhaps the most important thing in her world!
Eliana loves to organize and make a plan. I am amazed at the things she is thinking of and preparing for. For instance, last week she was planning out what days she was going to wear her pajamas and also the different colors of lipstick. Seriously? She is my child! She also has an amazing memory and brings up random events of her past at random times. She is an experience girl for sure! She loves doing things and being with people.
We are so thankful for our sweet Eliana! She is an amazing kid and despite still struggling with anger issues and being extremely strong-willed, she brings us much joy each day. What a gift from the Lord! She is loving and sweet and fun to be around. I am a blessed mama!
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