4 weeks

So today we celebrate being Sunshine's family for four weeks! Wow! Part of me feels like she's still so new to us, but the other part of me feels like she was always here with us because of how well she fits in. Crazy. She has made so much progress in these 4 weeks and has adjusted miraculously well. Here are some of the things we know about our baby girl after having her for 4 weeks:

• She can definitely light up a room - joy and happiness just explode out of her! She exudes sunshine!
• She loves to sing in her baby-ish cleft kinda way ... I don't want to be biased but I think her favorite is Chris Tomlin.
• She also loves to imitate us and really enjoys "talking."
• Everything makes her happy and anything can be a toy. Her favorite "non-toy" toys are coffee cans, paper and water bottles (the extra noisy ones are preferable).
• She has clear opinions and knows what she wants. LOL. She has even been known to have a pretty good temper ... seems she fits right in with the rest of us :-)
• She is definitely a snuggle bug and is a great sleeper (when she isn't teething).
• She is one flexible little lady - have you SEEN her amazing trick?!
• She eats everything and gets excited whenever she sees it's time to eat! DH says she has the best "palate" for someone who doesn't have a palate. LOL. We had a good chuckle about that one.
• She is ticklish and has a totally contagious laugh!
• She loves being around people but is shy around strangers.
• She is one of those figure-out-how-it-works types - she will sit for way longer than I'd think possible for a one-year-old to figure something out!
• She adores bath time! When I take her into the bathroom, her little arms and legs start flapping all over and she has a grin from ear to ear. I think she'd stay in there all day if I let her!

Things she has started doing since we've been her family:

• Signing! She doesn't sign many words and only does them when *she* wants to - but she can definitely sign "milk" and "more"!
• She also uses eye contact, simple noises and hand gestures to communicate what she wants - this is a huge improvement over the physical ways she was communicating at first!
• She has much more patience now and will wait a bit longer for something she wants (like food - LOL) without getting upset right away. She also has more patience for the older kids when they want to over-love on her.
• She claps and is very proud of herself for doing it!
• She waves "hi" with her index finger (when she wants to). It is the cutest thing ever and she was even flirting with the guy behind us at church while doing it.
• She can feed herself now, woohoo!
• She participates and helps us get her dressed now - this is a huge improvement over the floppy wet-noodle she was in the beginning.
• She actually LOVES to be on her belly now - when we first got her in China, she got very mad when we tried tummy time.
• She can also roll over *with* assistance - this also used to make her upset and she would push her body in the opposite direction to stop us. Now she helps do it!
• She can scoot all around and I think she might even crawl with the way she is starting to pull her legs under her body!
• She *likes* to hang out in the jumperoo for short periods of time - her leg strength is really improving!
• She can stand up for short periods while holding onto something - she is super-proud about that one :-)
• She looks to us for comfort and approval AND loves to bury her face in our legs, chest, or shoulder ... actually any part of our body works for her - she just likes to be close to us!
• She lets us touch her head and ears now - in the beginning she would hit our hands whenever we tried. I think she felt those areas were "off-limits" to us because she scratches there to self-sooth.
• Speaking of the self-soothing thing, she is doing that A LOT less - she used to dig and dig at her scalp and ears, along with her belly, legs AND arms. She has scars on her forehead from doing it. I have heard it's a sensory thing? Either way - she does this much less and rarely touches her legs and arms now. She also doesn't stick her fingers in her ears much (no, it isn't an ear infection - just her soothing technique). She now only scratches when she is over-tired or doesn't like what's going on. Baby steps!
• She is really learning to trust us. We assume that she probably *had* to demand everything she needed in her foster home, but she is slowly learning that we will always meet her needs. Major progress there!

Ok, I think that's it for now - I'm sure I missed some but that's definitely a good recap! We seriously fall more and more in love with Sunshine everyday - she is such a blessing and the perfect addition to our family! In celebration of our 4-week anniversary, I put together a short video about our first few weeks HOME. This *isn't* our adoption movie (still working on that one), but this is a fun, short video with some new stuff that you haven't seen yet! Enjoy!