1st week home!

Merry Christmas to everyone. I am finally able to sit and relax for a moment and thought I would take some time to update all of you on this past week.

Of course Christmas was today and Jason and I could not have been happier. We enjoyed the day with my parents and Olena in the morning then went to the family party at my uncles for the afternoon. We had a really good time watching Olena meet the family and interact with all of the kids. She had a blast and it did not take her long to figure out what Christmas is all about! By the end of the afternoon, she was tearing the paper off of the presents and all you could see was paper flying everywhere. She would look at each gift, stare for a moment, kiss it, then on to the next. It was very sweet!

Our parents have been great! Very supportive and they all adore Olena. My dad especially....he has spoiled her so much and she really loves him! I can see it in his eyes that he is so in love with this little girl! She is adapting very well and it amazes me and Jason every day. Believe me we have had a few bad days, many sleepiness nights, and many tears of frustration, but overall she is handling herself very well. It would shock you to see her today...you can see the change in her eyes - she is truly happy! A happy, healthy and beautiful 2 year old. She still loves to eat and is doing very well adjusting to the food. She eats yogurt, fruit, oatmeal, rice cereal, potatoes, and some baby food. She is speaking a lot more too, especially in Russian. We are starting to understand what she is really saying. And she loves to sing. She often sings one of the songs that she sang in the orphange ...it is so cute! The past couple of days she has woken up and Jason and I would lay in our bed and listen to her on the monitor. All we could do is sit there and laugh as she babbles and sings to herself. That is definately the best alarm to wake up too. She also understands us very well - as for english words, she is now saying Bubba (which is one of the dogs nick names), juice, light, when she thinks something is pretty she says "oh la la!" , bye bye, hello, and she tells me "cuckca" when she has a dirty diaper! We look at her everyday and still cannot believe how beautiful she is and how perfect she is for this family.

She stills absolutely loves the dogs and they are starting to get use to her. She runs back and forth through the house yelling trying to get them to chase her! and the crazy girl loves when they knock her down and lick her face. She is very brave and very curious.