A trip to the zoo

We originally thought the zoo would be our intensive therapy to get Amanda not afraid of animals anymore. That was before she started singing the "doggie" song (you know the one where they sing doggie doggie doggie over and over again?). And before she started thinking that all dogs are just fine with her. So, the zoo became another experience for her to just relish the life she has.

The day was not all that warm, but it was warm enough to feel comfortable in winter coats outside, so we were just fine. Judah stayed home with a babysitter and the rest of the family took off for the zoo. They did things like climbing through tunnels:





and going to a bird show to which Amanda in typical Amanda fashion made friends with the people in front of us and proceeded to say "Uh oh" to every bird that went flying through the air above us.




We also visited some bears, tiger, and oh my a leopard. Now to be fair, in this picture, Amanda looks somewhat terrified of it, but she in reality was right up there with the leopard staring it in the face while it did the bored leopard pace. This picture more reflects Amanda proclaiming that she was ready to go and run around some more so get me off of this ledge.





All in all, it was a good day and we had a boatload of fun. We can't wait to go back.

My little bee

I've been thinking this over for a few months and have come to this conclusion. Amanda is a bee. She's our daughter - she has a home - in this scenario, let's call it the hive. She is our little bee and flits from flower to flower always coming home to the hive. We're really meant to "share" her. I noticed it on Wednesday at the Cleft Clinic. There was a ten year old girl there who had had a stroke due to a heart surgery. She couldn't talk and made really guttural noises. She also had a lip repair and teeth that really weren't quite right. Amanda decided she was just fine and went up to her as a new friend. She's used to Judah so this little girl didn't scare her away either. They interacted with each other a bit with Amanda telling her all sorts of things through her jibber jabber. At the end, the little girl signed "I love you" to Amanda.

So, all that to say, Amanda is our little bee and being the social animal she is, will continue to flit from flower to flower making friends. And the fun thing is - she gets to come home to her hive bringing all that love she's shared with her.

The cleft clinic

Yesterday, Brett and I went to the Minneapolis Children's Cleft Clinic. Nothing really that exciting- nothing unexpected. We do have to go back for a sedated hearing test to measure how well she can hear. The audiologist thinks she could have moderate hearing loss. We believe otherwise. I don't think she hears as well as she should (she does have two ruptured ear drums), but she can hear me whisper "Amanda say "hi" to which she whispers back "hi". Here is the saga of how to inaccurately test a two year old's hearing... The time she went to the audiologist was lunch time, she had been shuffled around for 2 1/2 hours, been in a room without many toys and not a lot of space to run around and frankly was ready to take a nap. The audiologist had Amanda play a little game when the little ear beep went off. I was suprised Amanda played along even one time much less the over 5 minutes she tried this test (for a two year old with a 30 second attention span, this was an accomplishment in itself). At the end of that little game, the audiologist said her hearing is really poor and went onto another test. The next test, Amanda was squirming to get out of the room, I was trying to keep her from screaming, she wanted to play with the toys, and somehow, in the midst of all that, she's supposed to stay still to listen for the schooosh sound from the speakers. Frankly, at that point she could care less. Then a little headband thing was introduced to see how well the bones in her ear work. She took one look at that and started crying. So, no little headband thing. She can hear decent enough - we know it, but just to be sure, we need super hearing test. In the case she can't hear as well as she needs to, she gets hearing aids for a little bit until she's older and they can repair her ear drum. Ruptured ear drums usually heal, but I think hers have been ruptured too many times to heal on their own. Sigh...

Six months and a day

Just a day over six months was Gotcha day when this little sweetie entered our lives.



Now, six months later, I have someone to rearrange my cabinets.



She has gained 2 inches and 7 pounds. She has grown out of most of the clothes we used when she came here (and some of those were too big) and grown a whole shoe size. Since her initial ear infection cleared up, she's been healthy. That's just the grace of God.

Take a picture, take a picture!

I get this all the time from Nathan - Mom, take a picture of me and Amanda. Take a picture of me and Caleb...He loves to have his picture taken. He likes to have Amanda's picture taken. I've taken a lot of pictures in these past five months. Do you notice a constant figure in each of these?



All I can say about this picture is look at her hair! She has some shiny thick black luxurious hair. Someday, it will be long enough for pony tails that don't look like a mom desperate to put cute things in her only daughter's hair.



This one was taken because they dressed alike that day.




Now, this one doesn't technically have Nathan in it, but the picture exists because of Nathan. He decided to dress her this particular morning. He thought she looked good. Backdrop courtesy of Caleb.



Here's one of Judah for good measure. He looks a little crazed - my fun sister took it so he was having a good time.