How's she doin'?

Wordless Wednesday was my 100th post. I just had to put that in to remember it. YAY for 100!

Anyway, Joye is doing AWESOME. The past couple of days she has been doing this 'happy squeal' and it's adorable. I don't know if she was doing it in Korea or not, but she does it here and we LOVE it. It really is neat to hear a baby squeal in this house again.

Sleeping: Things are going MUCH better. Before, the nighttime bottle was a hard one to let go of when it was gone. Meaning, she would just keep sucking air until I had to kindly remove it from her white-knuckle grasp. Screaming would result, and then she would eventually drift off to dreamland. We have been working on "all gone." When she finishes her *yo baby* yogurt in the morning I say "all gone!" and throw it away. When she finishes her water/juice I say "all gone" and I take it.

It took a while, maybe a couple weeks, for her to get it and now she hands it off when it's gone! I know, this girl has GOT IT! Now at night, when the love-of-her-life is empty, she hands it to me. This Mama was one happy camper when that happened for the first time! She still cries a little (like maybe she's expecting me to fill 'er up!) but it's not the fit that she used to throw.

Naps are easier and I am finding that putting her down at about 10:00 a.m. is better than letting her get overtired by waiting until 1:00. She sleeps from about 10-12ish and then she could use another nap in the afternoon, but two things make it just not worth it. 1) she's pretty hard to convince, i.e. it takes a LONG time to get her down, and 2) she's up in the middle of the night. She falls back to sleep easily, but I would rather she have a long block of sleep at night. If-you-know-what-I-mean!

She is a cute little addition to our bed. Yes, she co-sleeps with us. (and we LOVE it, btw) We co-slept with both boys (they are in their own beds now) and are used to the whole family bed thing. It's not for everyone, but it works for us. She used to roll and be really restless, but not much anymore. She'll roll a little and then settle fairly quickly.

Eating: still eating us out of house and home. Although lately, she's decided that playing with it is more fun. :) Her appetite has decreased a little, but I think she's cutting some major teeth. She's been biting down on her fingers more and cries a little bit more when she's tired. I don't see or feel anything, but I can tell that she's just off a little. 95% of the day she's a happy, snuggly, lovable little girl.

Things that I love about her:

Her infectious smile. (see photo in sidebar, I mean seriously, you can't help but smile when you see that cute face?!)

Her happy disposition. Her eyes just light up.

The way she puts up with all the kisses and lovin's that we constantly give her.

When you sing to her, she hums right along with you. Really sweet.

She LOVES straps, belts, anything that she can put around her neck. It's unusual to find her without something around her neck. She has done this from day one. I wonder if FM wore a lot of necklaces or always wore a scarf? I'll have to take a picture - it's really cute.

Funny story: We were at J.C. P*nney's and the girl checking us out was wearing her employee badge round her neck, and instantly Joye pointed to her and went "uh,uh,uh." I realized it was the strap! She wanted to try it! It was so funny!

When you say"OH, pretty!" She smiles *really* big and rubs her chest/tummy. This girl pays VERY close attention to clothes and what she and I are wearing. As a matter of fact, FM gave her a favorite shirt that Joye always liked to wear. FM explicitly said that she doesn't usually give clothes to Forever Families, but she had to give Joye this shirt and pants. Because she loved it SO much. It's that hilarious?! LOVE the girly-girl thing!

She loves her bath time. She really didn't have much emotion when I bathed her at first. I think because the bath tub was really big (I don't think they have bath tubs in Korea. I never saw one.) and she was REALLY tired when I bathed her. Now she knows the whole routine. Loves every minute of it ALL.

She communicates VERY well. I don't know if girls are more expressive, or that I pick up on her cues more because I haven't been with her for the 14+ months. But she is VERY good at letting you know what she wants. Since day one, I knew what she wanted - not ALL the time but at least 90% of the time. She's just really good at letting you know what she wants. It's really been nice.

She's getting the English thing figured out, too. Remember I said that she as babbling more in an English manner? Well, she's working out the sounds. She's got the "k" sound down when she sees the kitties. And when someone walks into the room where she is, I swear she says "hiiiiiiiii!" It sounds just like it. And when we see her we all say "hiiiii." So she's making the connection.

She says 'mama' a lot still. I think it's referring to me. Let me tell you why I think that. The boys say "hey, mom?!" about 500 times a day - EACH. So I'm pretty sure that she's working out the 'mama' thing. :)

One more thing that I think is super-adorable:

She will strategically place things like small boxes, wipe dispensers, small trucks so she can sit on them. She backs her little tushy up to them and then will throw her leg over and voila! she's sitting on it! It's really cute to see her think all that out and watch her implement it!

She loves music and jams to anything playing. In the carseat, highchair or even on one of her 'chairs'. It's really cute.

Ok, ok, ok. Enough with the 'it's really cute' business. I have to write this stuff down - or I'll forget it!

Hope you all have a GREAT weekend! And CONGRAT's to those of my bloggy friends that FINALLY got TC and are heading to Korea VERY SOON! Wooooohooooo!