Weekend near Pensacola, Plenty of Pics

Abigail attended her grandmother Kathleen's retirement brunch on Friday.  

She spent most of the time playing on the sandy playground.

We spent the rainy Saturday (13 inches of rain that day) cleaning out Kathleen's classroom

(she is a kindergarten teacher and let Abigail have many of her books!)

and then hanging out on the screened-in porch.

Abigail had Grandma check out a possible boo-boo.  (It was okay.)

But Sunday was almost as rainy as Saturday so they played inside all day.

Abigail said "Mama, go away!" so she could have Grandma to herself.

On Monday, the rain finally stopped.

We went to the zoo.  Abigail fed llamas.

And then got bit by a giraffe (according to her).

(There was blood, but I think it was a cuticle or something.)
Abigail said the giraffe felt "sorry."

The perpetrators right before the incident happened.

Petting baby goats is pretty safe. 

And very cute!

Our Sweet, Sensitive Kid and the Giving Tree

While enjoying sushi with acquaintances of ours this evening, one aspect of Abigail's personality was pointed out to us that I never really noticed as deeply and profoundly before toinght.


I know Abigail is a sweet kid, with a big heart.  I have even mentioned that she has tried to take care of Lar or I when we have been sick, but she is a really sensitive kid too.  I don't mean the overly-emotional-cries-over-everything kind of sensitive.  I mean the understands-the-feelings-of-others kind. For example, this morning in a store to buy her another swimming suit, Abigail heard a baby/small child crying.  She was very concerned for this kid.  "The baby is crying, Mama."
"That's right, Abigail.  Why do you think the baby is crying?"
"The baby is sad.  The baby wants her mama.  The baby misses her mama.  The baby is hungry too.  Is the baby okay, Mama?"


She was very  concerned for this child that she couldn't even see and even after the child stopped crying, Abigail still wondered if she was okay.


Larry also pointed out that Abigail frequently will look at one of us during the day and say "Are you okay, Mama/Baba?" with genuine concern in her voice.

This evening, I read to Abigail The Giving Tree for the first time.  I had thought that she was too young to understand what was happening on any meaningful level and for that reason, I hadn't bothered to read it to her before.  But once again, she surprised me in a big and wonderful way.  She was so sweet and hung on every word, studied the simple pictures.  When the boy wanted money and took the apples or branches or trunk, each time, she cupped her hands together, scooped something out of thin air, and tried to hand it to the tree and to the boy, saying "Here you go!  Here it is!"  Every time something was asked of the tree, she wanted to give.  By the end of the book, she was barely breathing when she purred in my ear "They are sad, Mama."  Then she wanted to read it again.  She did, with her father the second time, with the same reactions throughout the book.


I love my sweet, wonderful child.  I only wish her birth mother could know what an amazing kid she brought into this world because this is how she came to us:  thoughtful, empathetic, affectionate, irrepressible, sensitive.  

Sunday Snapshot and the Bieber Eye

For any of you who haven't heard of the "Bieber Eye" yet (a lazy-eye condition, described by optometrist Andrew Hogan, that is caused when hair, in the style of Justin Bieber, is always covering one eye of a person), YES, I am worried that my daughter is at risk for it.  But she won't keep pigtails or barrettes in and I don't want to return to the shaved-head look of her orphanage days!

Wordless Wednesday: 1 Little Monkey Jumping on the Bed

Unknown Boo-Boo Identified, 17 Months Later

For those of you who have been following this blog since we first met Abigail in China, you may have remembered this entry "Guess Who Has A Boo-Boo".

We now know the name of the mysterious boo-boo she had in China;  it was a paronychia, which is basically an infection that started under her fingernail and then grew to a full-blown infection of her finger.  


How do we know this?  Because on Tuesday we had to take her to the emergency clinic because she has another one.  The nice P.A. at the clinic cleaned her finger and then carefully lanced it.  We distracted Abigail to look away right before the cut was made and all of a sudden her eyes got very wide and she said "OWIE?"  Yup.  She asked it as a question, as if to say "Is this what an owie feels like?"  


Poor kid.  Larry and I would have been laughing if we didn't feel so sorry for her.  Then she forgot to breathe for a moment or two and when she remembered to breathe, she sucked in all the air from the room and let out a scream to alert everyone else at the clinic that she was there and she was in pain.

This whole saga happened just hours after Abigail was at the MUSC Craniofacial Clinic for her annual check-up by the whole craniofacial team (cosmetic surgeons, orthodontists, ENTs and ENT surgeons, pediatric dentists, and a speech therapist are among members of her team).  In one afternoon, she gets to see all of these specialists in one place.  It is a great program and we will certainly miss it when we move.  Abigail got all positive reports from every specialist but we were most happy that the speech therapist was very impressed with her and her speech and vocabulary.  (Of course, given that Abigail is going through a shy phase, she did very little talking in front of the speech therapist.  However, I anticipated this problem and brought several short videos of her talking up a storm at home, mastering some difficult sounds like F, B, S, and T.)

Sunday Snapshot: Sprinklers and the Beach

Sprinkler Fun (this was actually 2 weekends ago in April but
I forgot to post it)

Digging at the beach on Mother's Day Weekend

Matching

Abigail thinks it is fun to be "matching."  

I know that she won't think this is fun for

very long, so I am enjoying it while it lasts!