"It's hard having a little sister"

I took Grace this morning to our IA clinic's playgroup. It's a great way to meet other adoptive families and expose Grace to different sensory and motor activities. Overall it went great and Grace seemed to enjoy herself. But for some reason Grace kept going over to this woman and wanting to be held by her. The woman, fellow adoptive mother, knew to tell her no and guide her to me (right next to her). Grace just kind of looked at me like I was no big deal. I wanted to cry. Grace has been home for over 6 months and has NEVER mommy shopped. In fact, since day one she won't really go to anyone else except me and Brad. I feel like attachment is going along great, but then this happens and I can't help but worry. She has been my little shadow the past 2 weeks and always wanting to be on me. She has even started to say "up" when wanting to be held. I oblige 99% of the time. I can tell she is going through a little phase right now. I wonder if the large room with toys and lots of babies brought back orphanage memories or at least put her in orphanage mode. She seemed thrilled to be home when we pulled in the driveway. She couldn't get in the front door fast enough and let out a little squeal when she got inside. I know I've read about children doing this before, but boy did it make me feel lousy.

I've been reading the book Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Chiild which is a great resource. However, I keep finding things are problems that I didn't know were problems. Nothing major, but things we need to work on. So this accompanied with Grace going to another mom made me feel like I'm failing her. We see the IA doctor for the 6 months home follow up and I'm anxious to go and get some advice.

On the hives front, Grace is doing well on Zyrtec and will remain on it until the little red bumps stop appearing as the medicine wears off.

Grace has been slowing adding some words. The words she says all the time are: no, hi, up, Nate, dog. I have to say, when she says "no" it is the sweetest sound. Not that obnoxious bossy no. Just a little head shake and a sweet little no. Some words she says here and there are: Aidan, mama, hot, hat. We think she said Dad last night. There have been a lot of those one timer words. We get all excited and then we never hear them again. She has started saying some of her animal sounds again. The other night I took out the video camera and she "performed". She said and did things she wouldn't do for the past couple months. Pointed to all her body parts, said mama, made animal sounds, etc. I think she did it because I turned the screen out and she could see herself doing it all! Maybe she'll be on the big screen one day :)

As I am finishing up this post, Aidan walked in the kitchen saying, "It's hard having a little sister". Only because she adores him and won't leave him alone!!!