a little light reading/screaming...

one year old... and one of those nannies sure knows how to make her smile.

The most interesting thing happened this evening. It was Daniel's turn to pick out a book, and he headed over to our photo album shelf and grabbed the binder full of photos from their time in the Ethiopian care center. We hadn't looked at those for a long, long time. We looked through Daniel's photos ("Do you remember those friends Daniel?" "No, no, nope.") Then we turned to Lily's section and oh boy! She started hysterically crying.  Pointed to the baby toys that are surrounding her in the picture and crying that she wants to have them. She misses her baby toys. Within seconds she went from sleepy happy Lily to screaming, snot and tears running down her face crying, tired Lily.

Amazing.

Life with two adopted kids can sure be unpredictable. It's hard to know what will trigger them... especially Lily, who was just 15 months when she came home, really a baby.  But, she did live most of her life in that care center. She sat up there, crawled there, learned to walk there. Maybe she does remember those favorite toys, none of which came home with us.  Maybe she does remember those first playmates and caregivers.

But then again, tonight she was also just an overtired toddler. Once we put the book away and I took her into her room and sat in the rocking chair she calmed down. I reassured her that we could play with her cousin's baby toys, and that was good enough for her.

For now. I am very grateful to my 18 months ago self for writing the kids' nannies and playmates names on the side of the photos. I'm so glad I held onto the clothes they came home in and all the little momentos of our trip. (Well, not Lily's little feeding cup, which we lost in the Frankfurt airport, but that is another story.)

Those baby toys are being shaken and rattled, no doubt, by other children. The nannies are cuddling and praying for a new batch of babies whose lives have taken a very unfortunate turn. Someday Lily will understand why we had to leave the baby toys behind. Then we'll probably cry together again.

I'm going to take out that book again, in daylight when she is not overtired and see what happens...

On the Sleep front:

We seem to have lessoned the night terrors by dressing her in summer pajamas. Now that she isn't overheating she seems to have them much less often and they are less severe. We also make sure she's had her allergy medicine so that sleep apnea isn't a factor, and tried to reduce the TV and stimulation of our evenings. So far it's better, but not good. She's waking frequently and taking a while to settle down. But she is staying in her bed. We'll count that as a victory, for now.

Here is a link to a wonderful reflection for Martin Luther King Jr. Day: click here

Here is a link to see photos of some beautiful babies waiting for forever families in China: click here