It's been too long since I had the chance to sit down and write anything substantive here. I want to. Really. I just get sidetracked with little things like laundry, cooking and sleeping. I know many of you have been there too. We are nicely into a new routine as a family of four. We just have little things that come between me and my keyboard.
Since it's been too long, I wanted to post a longer update about Anna. Here's a little more information about her likes and dislikes. Before I jump in, I have one caveat. It took me five minutes to come up with 10 likes. It took me DAYS to generate dislikes. She's just that happy. :)
Top 10 Likes
1. Dogs- Anna is dog crazy. She loves them in any form- live, stuffed animal, photos, books. You name it, Anna loves dog. We don't currently have a dog. We are thinking about adding a furry addition to the family this summer in part because of how much joy they bring her. (She's great about being in her carseat. She loves taking adventures and the carseat gets her there...)
2. Playing outside- Anna loves being outside and particularly enjoys playgrounds. She is a sliding board master with no fear at all.
3. Singing and dancing- With Anna, every day is a dance party. I'm trying to get her little dance move on video. I'm still working on it...
4. Books- Anna is a complete bookworm. She loves to read. Her favorite books have songs or dogs in them.
5. Balloons and bubbles- Anna LOVES balloons. She also loves bubbles. Bubbles is one of her clearest words in English.
6. Church- Anna is great in church. She is very quiet when we stand for prayer. She loves the hymns and "sings" along with music.
7. Being told she's pretty- Anna loves to have new people tell her how pretty she is. When she is out and about, she stays close to us when she is meeting strangers. Still, as long as she is with us, she likes it when they tell her she's pretty. She often responds to that type of affection by blowing a kiss.
8. Stuffed animals- Anna came home from Korea with two stuffed animals. She LOVES stuffed animals. They are multiplying in our house. She particularly likes dogs, bears, and rabbits.
9. Containers- Anna has great fun putting objects into a container and then taking them out, then putting them in, then taking them out, etc. She is extremely pleased to get a plastic container when it's ready to be recycled. She steals them right from the dishwasher.
10. Photos of her foster family- We have been so blessed that we have photographs from Anna's foster family. We took a couple in Seoul. They emailed us several about a month ago. The family gave us an album from Anna's early days. She squeals with joy and kisses the photos. It's beautiful.
11. Ok, so I know I said top 10... She's a great eater. She likes to be served traditional Korean dishes that we make for her. She also likes anything at all that we are eating.
Top 10 Dislikes
1. Socks- Socks stay on her feet for seconds. If we think she has to have on socks, we put shoes on top of them. I don't know why Annas and socks are enemies. Hopefully, it's a toddler phase.
2. Bibs- I think bibs must be a little different in Korea. Anna is not fond of wearing a US style bib. I will say, however, that we are determined because she likes to try to feed herself. See how we kept this bib on?
3. Hair bows- This one baffles me. Every photo that we got of Anna before she came home had a bow in her hair. I loved it. I bought hair clips- lots of hair clips. She absolutely will not leave them in her hair. I've tried headbands, bows, clips... She's fascinated by them but will not wear them. If there's a trick to getting them to stay in her hair, I'd love to know it.
4. Diaper changes- Typically, Anna's great about baths and diaper changes. She just doesn't like them if she's tired. She also likes to have raspberries blown on her tummy. If you don't, she can be a little frustrated with you.
5. Pororo opening credits- Anna LOVES Pororo songs. Loopy is her absolute favorite character. Anna will watch Pororo songs on you tube for as long as we let her. It's only the opening song that makes her sad. I'm not sure why the opening song makes her sad.
6. Stacks of blocks- Ok, this is probably just a kid thing... Anna thinks stacks of blocks MUST be knocked down.
7. Coffee grinder- I think this is a sound issue but it may be the smell of the coffee. Anna has to be held to grind coffee.
8. Telephone calls- Anna loves to pretend to make calls. The sound of the phone ringing is not her favorite experience. I think it surprises her. My husband thinks that it's because she wants to be talking on the phone. Either way, it makes her cry if we let the phone ring (which we only do during things like baths or diaper changes).
9. No- We don't use "no" unless Anna will get hurt or is destroying something. That means that we say it a lot. ;) Just kidding! Anna is a climber. We have a hard time keeping her off of the top of furniture.
10. Falling- When Anna falls, she gives a little smack to whatever made her fall. I think she hates to fall down because it gets in the way of what she was trying to do.
We've been so blessed that the transition has gone well so far. We certainly are still a work in progress. Progress is beautiful!
