another leap

It's just amazing to me how suddenly a child can move forward into another stage of development! Like any good toddler, Esther has been scribbling for some time (preferring pens to crayons), but just recently she has made the leap to meaning something by the marks she makes.

First, it was writing. She has heard me spell out the first part of our last name many times when I was picking something up at the pharmacy. Starting a month or so ago, she has frequently informed us that she was going to write those letters, and then she would bend over her paper and make small, careful scribbles that, with a little imagination, could look like writing.

Then over our Christmas vacation she started drawing pictures of objects--like her aunt's two "wabwadoes" (labradors)! Again, no one would ever guess the content of the pictures if they weren't told, but Esther really did seem to be making a representational drawing, looking up at the labradors to observe them and then looking down at her paper to draw some more. And on Sunday she drew a "rainbow" (an arched line) and a "smiley face" (a circle) that were actually recognizable once she pointed them out.

Yesterday we were outside, braving the cold to get a little active playtime, and had a conversation something along the following lines:

Esther: Sky's covered up!

Mommy: Yes, there are a lot of clouds covering the sky.

Esther: Whales.

Mommy: You mean the clouds look like whales?

Esther: Swimming in the water!

Mommy: You're right, they do kind of look like whales!

The clouds were gray and the sky, what of it we could see, was bright blue, and the cloud right above us really did look vaguely like a whale in a blue ocean. But noticing that is a sort of symbolic thinking that I've never observed in Esther before. My little girl is developing a big imagination!

Finally, I was impressed this morning when she made a clearly recognizable smiley face in her playdough. The playdough at that point was a flattened circle, and she used her toy rolling pin to poke holes for the eyes, mouth and nose. It was her own idea, and she told me what she was doing as she did it. I think there's going to be a lot more interesting artwork happening around here in the near future!

First week of Advent

I wanted to write this last Sunday, which was the first day of Advent, but we have been without phone, and therefore without internet, for the past week. I'm not really sure why it's working today, but I'll take it!

Last week we kept Esther in the church service with us. She had been sick off and on during Thanksgiving week, including running a moderate fever on Thanksgiving evening, and she was still producing a hacking cough from time to time (without covering her mouth, naturally), so we were already debating whether she should be in with the other children. Then she ran another slight fever on Saturday evening, which sealed the deal. She did pretty well in the service--lots of wiggling and murmuring (mostly on the theme of "I want a bagel!"), but not loud enough to disturb any but our most immediate neighbors. I carried her with us when we went up to take communion. Of course when she saw the pieces of bread and little cups of juice, she asked, "May I have some?" I explained that this was special and she had to wait until she got bigger before she could eat it. She looked a little skeptical, so I whispered to her a little more about how the bread reminds us of when Jesus told his friends that some bread was his body, and that the juice reminds us of when Jesus told his friends that some wine was his blood. I added that Mommy and Daddy eat the bread and drink the juice to show that we want to follow Jesus. To which Esther responded, "May I follow Jesus?" I know she just wanted the bread, but it made me tear up! (I can't remember how I answered that--I think I might have said that yes, she could follow Jesus, but she still had to wait until she was bigger before she had the bread and juice.)

On Sunday evening we put up our Christmas tree. When we plugged in the lights for the first time, Esther grinned from ear to ear and started singing "Happy Birthday to you!" So we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, and then Esther tried to blow out the lights. She was a little surprised when it didn't work.

Later that night we broke out our advent wreath. We have scripture readings for each night of advent--meaningful, but rather lengthy, and definitely not chosen with a two-year-old in mind. So we settled Esther with a handful of chocolate chips and a good view of the lit candle, and that worked pretty well. She stayed in her seat, and only occasionally interrupted with a "Happy Birthday to you!" She enthusiastically blew out the candle (with some help) when we were finished. Then she enjoyed sitting on the couch between us while we sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel. She hasn't quite gotten to the point yet where she can carry a tune (although she's getting close on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star), and she didn't know the words, but that didn't stop her from vocalizing with gusto for a line or two. Then she got bored and squirmed down off the couch to go do something else.

We've continued including Esther in our advent readings this week, with the exception of a couple of late nights, and it's pretty special to have her joining in the tradition, even if she doesn't fully understand it yet. She was also able to help decorate the tree this year, and she has done much better than I expected at leaving the ornaments on the tree once they were put up. She will occasionally take one off the tree to admire it, but she hasn't been strewing them around the house. It's so fun sharing Christmas with her!

We're also doing a December count-down calendar with a nativity scene (she adds one character to the scene each day, with baby Jesus being the last one on December 25th), a special early gift from Aunt Debby.

The next tradition I'm looking forward to sharing with Esther is making sugar cookies! But today we have something at least equally fun--it's snowing!! And Esther just woke up from her afternoon nap, so I'm going to give her a snack, bundle her up, and take her out to play.

letter to Kaiyuan

This is the letter we recently sent back to Esther's orphanage:

October 21, 2009

Dear Kaiyuan staff,

I am happy to take the opportunity to update you on Wenjia Sidi! She has been doing very well in the 18 months since we became her parents, and we feel so blessed to have her as our daughter.

Si Di's development since we adopted her has been very good. Physically, she is a very coordinated child who started walking around her first birthday and hasn't slowed down since! She started talking later than most of her peers, but she quickly learned to communicate all sorts of ideas. She is eager to interact with adults and children, and has begun making friends in our neighborhood. She has always been very curious and observant about the world around her, and we are amazed by how much she can understand. Now, as a typical toddler, she is imitating whatever she sees adults doing, and insisting on doing things "myself!"

Si Di's favorite activity without question is playing outside. She loves to swing and climb on the playground, to make friends with other children, and to explore her natural environment. When she is inside, she likes to "help" with household chores, read books, watch TV, and play with toys. She always thinks it's exciting to go out somewhere, whether it's to the zoo or just to the grocery store, and the trip is even better if she gets to ride a bus.

Her personality now is much the same as it was described in the information we received before we adopted her. She still has a lot of energy, she still loves to eat, she still enjoys being teased, and she still easily accepts new food, toys, people and experiences. But her favorite people are always Mommy and Daddy! :-)

When people first meet our daughter, they usually comment on how happy she is, how friendly she is, or how much energy she has. She creates a lot of smiles wherever she goes! Meanwhile, people who know her well also describe her as sweet, intelligent, curious and daring.

All of Si Di's grandparents have had the chance to spend time with her, and they all dote on her. Unfortunately none of them live very close to us, but we visit each other whenever we can. Right now, I am still staying at home and taking care of Si Di full-time. We haven't decided yet when I will return to work.

We have always told Si Di that she was born in China and we came to China to adopt her when she was a baby. In the last couple of months she seems to have really started understanding that she is Chinese. She likes to look at her photos from China, and she tries to "speak Chinese." (She does know a few real words of Chinese, but mostly she says nonsense syllables like she did when she was first learning English.) She proudly says, "MY China!" We have tried to help her keep a connection to her birth culture by spending time with Chinese friends, helping her to learn some Chinese words, and adopting a few Chinese customs (like eating jiaozi with chopsticks--one of her favorite meals!). We are looking forward to traveling in China with her when she is older.

My grandmother has commented many times that it is obvious that Si Di was well cared for as an infant, because she must have experienced love in order to be able to give and receive love so freely. Thank you again for your care for her when she needed it most. She is precious beyond words, and we hope we can bring her back to visit you in the future so you can see for yourselves how well she is growing up!

Gratefully,

Linette Corrigan (and Tim Corrigan), adoptive parents of Esther Si Di Corrigan

Halloween

Last year we put Esther in a costume for Halloween, but didn't do any trick-or-treating. This year, we were invited to a Halloween party at a little friend's house. So we enjoyed party festivities and a yummy dinner from 4-6, and then went trick-or-treating around the block as a group afterwards. I think Esther's first Halloween was a mostly positive experience. She liked dressing up (although when she woke up from her nap right before the party she announced that she wanted to be a cat, and kept trying to take her dancer dress off). She loved getting candy in her pumpkin basket. She was intrigued by (though a little wary of) the person in a gorilla costume at one house. (She said, "Hug diwwa?" I told her that would be fine, but then she reconsidered and said, "Mommy hug diwwa!" I didn't.) But she was rather unnerved by a child in a "Scream" mask, and talked anxiously about masks most of the way home.

Anyway, we have zillions of pictures, but here are a few that give an idea of our evening.

Esther the beautiful dancer

Most of the kids at the party

House # 1! Trick-or-treat!

Later, surveying the loot

Let's see what's in here...

Yum, chocolate coins!

And Esther's favorite, a "wowwipop"

fall fun

I realized I haven't posted pictures in a while. So here are a few for you to enjoy!

This picture was taken at our church's harvest celebration. Every child got to pick out a pumpkin from the church's farm. Can you tell that Esther is proud of hers?

After pumpkin-picking and a potluck lunch, there were games and activities for all. This was originally a find-the-candy-in-the-hay station, but the candy was gone by the time we got there. So Esther played in the hay instead.

Note the strands of hay in her hair! She had been throwing it up in the air and letting it fall down on her.

Some of the bigger kids buried each in hay. Then Esther got a turn!

Later in the afternoon we went for a walk at a nearby park. What a lovely day!

first pun, and other quirks of language

I've always said I thought children were more interesting when they could talk. Although of course I'd glad we got to enjoy Esther's baby stage with her, she really is becoming more interesting day by day! I love it that she can tell us things she's thinking that we wouldn't have been able to guess by ourselves. And I love her unique ways of saying things, as well as the times she sounds like a mini-adult. So, here are some of the memorable things that have come out of her mouth recently.

Not having enough years of exposure to language for homophones to have become old hat, Esther notices correlations between words that don't occur to most adults. It took me days to figure out why she was gazing at her training pants and saying, "Choo choo" (Get it? TRAINing pants?) But in that case, she was simply recognizing that the two words sounded the same; I don't think it was a deliberate pun. Fast-forward a couple of months. For a while during the summer, Esther was obsessed with blowing bubbles, asking to blow bubbles several times a day. Earlier this month, when Grandma Corrigan was visiting us, she bought Esther a stuffed otter named "Bubbles." The other day when I got Esther up from her nap, she blew on Bubbles' fur, looked at me with a big grin, and said, "I blow bubbles!" As far as I know, that is her first pun!

Sometimes when Esther is getting into something that is not explicitly forbidden, but that I really don't want her to do, I'll tell her, "That's not very helpful." So one day not too long ago I was sitting on the couch looking at something when I heard a small voice remark, "That's not very helpful!" So I turned around, and sure enough, she was busily removing our DVDs from their shelves. On another occasion, she told me, "I not being very helpful."

Esther would happily carry her blankie around with her all day if we let her, but in general, blankie is made to stay in the crib. So usually at least once a day Esther will want to get into her crib and have a little snuggle time with blankie. The other day she communicated this need by announcing, "I sweeby! boing, boing, boing!" (with a jump on every boing). I thought, suuureyou're sleepy! She is also into imitating frogs lately. For no apparent reason she'll start hopping forward and saying, "Ribbit, hop, hop, hop."

Imagine the following scenario. I suggest, "How about some ice cream for dessert?" Esther responds, "I do, I do, I do!" The grammar is a little funky, but it makes sense. Well, as far as Esther is concerned, "I do, I do, I do" is a multi-purpose phrase. One evening we arrived at Grace Fellowship, and after recognizing the place, Esther exclaimed, arms and legs flailing in anticipation of her release from her carseat, "Here we are! I do, I do, I do!!"

Recently, Esther has been quoting a lot. I guess it's because we've been reading books with dialog in them. Some examples: (while looking at a picture of a dragon hugging a boy): "'Mmmm,' says dragon." (at the zoo): "'Come on!' says horses." (waiting for Mommy to unlock the door after a trip to the laundry room): "'Wait door open,' laundry basket says." I'm a little dubious about talking laundry baskets, but her intonation for quotes is perfect!

As a natural-born climber, Esther has a long-standing fascination with the stepladders that one sometimes finds in the aisles of stores. She has heard me say many times (as she made a beeline for the steps) , "Those are for employees. You're not an employee." Recently we were walking through Sears for our rainy-day recreation when we found an empty clothes rack on wheels that she wanted to push around. I informed her that it was for employees, so as she walked away she announced, "I not employee. I'm a baby."

Esther has begun to sing familiar songs (or snatches of them) on a regular basis. Not that you would necessarily know, when hearing her intone loudly in the back seat of the car, "Teetle teetle witty stah," what is going on. But if you are familiar with her pronunciation, and able to overlook the lack of recognizable melody, you may recognize that she is singing "Twinkle, twinkle, little star."

As a toddler, Esther naturally imitates what other people say around her. Sometimes the imitation is an immediate echo; other times it shows up in unexpected places. This can be unnerving: the other morning, Tim was nonplussed to hear her exclaim, "Gosh darn it!" when something fell off the table. Other times it's just funny, like when you explain something to her and she nods sagely and says, "That makes sense." We were also amused on our most recent trip to Grandma Pack's house, when Grandma offered a solution to some circumstance that Esther was concerned about and Esther responded brightly, "That'll work!"

Esther's Chinese vocabulary has increased a little as well. Lately, when I give her something, she's been exclaiming, "Xiexie Yeye!" (Thank-you Grandpa!). No doubt she learned the phrase from her "Nihao Kai-lan" DVD. I made a big dramatic production out of saying, "Wo bushi Yeye, wo shi Mama!" (I'm not Grandpa, I'm Mommy!), and I think she understands, but she thinks it's hilarious, so she continues to say, "Xiexie Yeye."

Esther's language skills in general are progressing. She has, of course, some quirks in grammar (and many still in pronunciation), but four plus word sentences are not unusual for her, and she occasionally comes out with sophisticated sentences like "My bib is in the living room." And the other day she correctly used a grammatical construction (I think it was "I don't either") that I remember being challenging for my college students in China! She is using a variety of pronouns, though not always correctly: when she spotted a little friend that she had been looking for on the playground, she said, "There's him!" And she has begun overgeneralizing: lately she's been going around declaring, "That's mines!" And she sometimes leaves out a verb. Helping verbs are particularly prone to omission (she says "I riding my scooter," not "I'm riding my scooter"), but sometimes there is no verb at all. The day after Tim's birthday, she went into the kitchen and found him cutting himself a piece of cake, whereupon she exclaimed, "I cake too!!" Occasionally her grammar gets creative, as when she abjured me recently, "No fall me down!" (i.e. don't drop me--I'm sure she was making an analogy with "pick me up").

I could probably think of more examples, but I've been working on this post for a while and it's time to get it posted!

Mid-Autumn Day

On Saturday, Mid-Autumn Day (aka Moon Festival), we ate mooncakes and looked at the moon (not at the same time). And I tried to introduce a little more to Esther about her birth family. I ended up checking out of the library a couple of books about where babies are before they're born, and on Saturday morning I read one to Esther called "Everybody has a bellybutton." I liked that one because it didn't go into much detail about conception and birth, but showed how a baby grows inside its mother's body. I also liked it because it was primarily focused on the child's development, not the experiences of the waiting family. Some of the other books I read emphasized how the child's loving family prepared for their arrival, which is great reading for most children, but not particularly helpful in our case. So anyway, I read the book to Esther and she listened some and wiggled some and didn't seem to be absorbing much. However, she must have been paying more attention than I thought, because for the next several days she would randomly announce, "My birfmuvver tummy, I tum OUT!" And then she looks very pleased with herself.

It's interesting, because I don't think I would have thought to bring up that subject with a two-year-old under ordinary circumstances. And most of the books are clearly aimed at a slightly older age. But I seem to have hit the right developmental stage. I guess it makes sense, since two-year-olds are working on forming their own separate identity, and where you come from is an important part of your identity. And it probably doesn't hurt that several of her little friends have recently acquired baby brothers or sisters, and she's seen their pregnant mothers and then seen (or heard about) the new baby.

I'm not exactly sure how much Esther understands about her birth family so far. But we'll continue talking about it, I'm sure. Meanwhile, it's just fascinating to watch how she processes things.