Friday, January 23, 2009

Experiencing some firsts...

It's been a few days...and only a few more to go until we take Ziva from the orphanage! We continue to enjoy our daily visits with Ziva, although we must admit, we are getting quite bored of the playroom! To that end, we have been going outside in the morning for almost an hour; the weather has been milder (between 2 and 4C) and Ziva is quite content riding in the stroller, taking in her surroundings.

We have really noticed this week how much English Ziva is understanding (more than she lets on...). One day, she was being a monkey and misbehaving and Scott told her, "Sit down!". She immediately sat down...and I am not sure who was more surprised, her or us! We were so excited that she knew what Scott was saying! And Ziva had a look on her face that said, "Oh-oh, I let these people know I understand them!" Of course, the next time Scott asked her to sit, she ignored him! But now we know she knows...

Ziva can also meouw like a cat (that will be important for when we get home and she meets Simon), roar like a bear, and moo like a cow. She knows where her hair, eyes, and nose are. She also knows things like chair, ball, grapes, juice, boots, shoes, coat, etc. Since she is not talking yet, we find it hard to know how much she is understanding...but we think it's a lot more than we give her credit for!

In the last week or so, when we have gone to visit her, she has been wearing very small and very ugly clothes (too ugly to take pictures in), so we have been changing her into our clothes for our visits. Yesterday, as I was changing her and she only had her diaper on, she "escaped". She became very excited about the fact that she had no clothes on...it was so funny! She slapped her belly, pumped her arms in the air, yelled, and ran around the playroom for 10 minutes nonstop. Ahhh...freedom!

As I have mentioned before, the children in the orphanage do not wear diapers but Ziva wears one during our visit just in case she has an accident. We always have an extra diaper with us just in case she dirties her diaper while she is with us...and we knew it was just going to be a matter of time. Well, today was the day. Ziva is always running and always moving, and so we knew something was up when she was standing still, with this funny look on her face, touching her bottom. She did not like having a full diaper! (Which we think is a good thing because it may make potty-training easier!) And I know, changing her diaper may not seem monumental, but it was another opportunity for us to take care of one of her needs, which will help us to grow closer to her.

Enjoy the photos!

Ziva during her 10-minute "naked" run.


We did finally convince her to at least put on her new underclothes.


Ziva and Mommy


Ziva and Daddy.



Ziva and Mommy rolling the ball back and forth to each other.


Remember I told you how much she loves her sippy cup? Here she is pushing the stroller, which requires two hands...so what does she do with the cup? Holds it in her mouth with her teeth!


We have had to get creative in the playroom, so Scott made a "fort" for Ziva. She is laughing so hard and scrunching up shoulders because Scott just peeked around the corner- she is easily amused! (Notice the sippy cup??)








1 comment:

Tara said...

So funny that she won't put the sippy cup down - cute!