TwinkleToes’ speech is getting better. Not up to an age appropriate skill level yet, but she is getting there. When she started using her tongue she stopped using her lips, which has complicated things. One step forward, one step back. And for many of the sounds she can make, she can’t blend them together into [...]

TwinkleToes has had brief periods of sleep problems but for the most part she’s a dream to parent when it comes to sleep. After dealing with years of sleep issues (where no one got more than an hour or two of sleep at a time, for years), I know how lucky we are. For instance, [...]

TwinkleToes is counting. I have no idea when she learned her numbers, but she’s now got the verbal skills to get close enough to the numbers that I know she can count to five. Waaa, doo, eeeeeee, oah, fie As we climbed steps yesterday, she counted them. I usually count them, but since I didn’t [...]

TwinkleToes wants me to put stuff in her hair, too. GlitterGirl has a very large collection of various hair doo dads and I’ve bought the beginnings of a collection of some smaller stuff for TwinkleToes, but her hair is still so fine it just doesn’t stay in all day. I’ve tried a little of everything, [...]

TwinkleToes has learned how to say “no”. She’s been signing “no” for a really long time, but apparently the spoken form of the word is just so much more fun to say. Last night after a whole bunch of “no” answers I said “are you just saying ‘no’ because you think it’s fun?” and she [...]

I’m pretty sure that TwinkleToes said she loved me tonight. She wasn’t going to sleep very easily and I told her to go night-night, then rubbed her face and  whispered “I love you”, and she said “Ah-Oo” and smiled and rubbed my arm.

The speech therapy with TwinkleToes is starting to show some progress. No one can understand her but us, and often I wouldn’t know what she was saying if she wasn’t using the sign language as she said the word, but she is starting to try to talk, and in some cases is successful enough that [...]

I’ve been asking TwinkleToes for kisses and I think that is getting it through to her. She came up to me making kissie noises this evening and I gave her kisses and she just beamed. And, there were no imaginary ow’ies tonight, either. Sometimes the solution is easy. I wish everything about parenting were that [...]

TwinkleToes has started making up “ow’ies” so she can get kisses. I’ve tried to figure out how to tell her that she doesn’t have to pretend something hurts to get a kiss, but I haven’t managed that yet. She’ll sign that something hurts and make an “oh” sound to get me to kiss it. I [...]

In some ways, bringing a child from a Chinese orphanage into an American family is like bringing someone into this century with a time machine. Dolls that look real but aren’t are scary. Toys that talk to you are terrifying. Toys that come to life with bells and gongs and lights and vibrations are horrifying. [...]