Elmo and Christmas Trees

We put up our Christmas tree early this year because we couldn't wait for Malia to see it. My niece, Megan (who went to China with us) and Malia helped. Malia was pretty fascinated with the whole thing and wanted to take the decorations off after we put them on. We also went shopping (Malia LOVES to shop) I saw a pair of Elmo slippers and since she is obsessed with him, I got her a pair. I really didn't think she would keep them on her feet, she is tripping and running into stuff because she puts her head down to watch Elmo when she walks. She takes a few steps then giggles then walks some more, she did this for over 2 hours last night. She was having so much fun but it was kind of heart wrenching because it made me think about what she would be doing if she were still in China and that got me thinking about all the other children that I saw in the orphanage. She wouldn't be having this much fun and I'm positive she would not be walking yet either. I just see all the pictures I have of her while she was in the orphanage and how she always had such a sad face in them and now she cant stop giggling and smiling. She is such a joy to have, I want to go back......

Hanging with my big bro

Our oldest son came home from college this past weekend for the Holiday. We wondered if Malia would remember him because he left for college less then 2 weeks after she came home. But within those two weeks she was hanging all over him. It didn't take long this time either. Little kids have always liked Dylan, I think because he gets down to their level. She climbed up beside him and within 5 minuets she fell asleep.
Other big new this week is that Malia is calling me mama, YEAH ! She finally is trying to speak English, but then again mama is said the same in Chinese too. ;)






And here she is almost asleep.

Food

About two weeks ago Malia just sort of stopped eating, well not stopped but she ate very little. Considering she would eat anything at anytime I knew something was wrong. It took a little while but I figured it out, she wants to do it herself. She needed some help (and still does sometimes) but for the most part she can do it herself and she is soooooo proud of it. We make a big deal out of every spoonful she gets in her mouth. Here are some pics.

Heres a few more.....

New pictures

We had some pictures taken of Malia today. They took over 50 pictures of her and then gave me a disk with all of them on it. The photographer did it kind of free form, in other words his camera wasn't attached to a tripod. He just moved around to where he needed to be. I don't know about you but every other time I had any pictures taken the camera was always on a tripod and you had to sit in one place. Malia could move around a little, which I thought was neat.

MRI Results (well sorta)

Malia had her MRI done Monday. Her Doctor’s assistant called me today
(her doctor wasn’t in today) She told me that the radiologist who read the film said that it looks as if Malia had a “Torch Infection” in utero and that “Her brain took a hit” meaning that she had a stroke in utero, most likely from a high fever that her mother had.
I was told a torch infection means that her mother had an infection and that could mean anything form a urinary tract infection to herpes to German Measles.
Its her right front cerebral hemisphere that is damaged. So, the part of the brain that handles speech is not effected. Her Doctor is going to call me as soon as he comes back but I don’t know when that is. He wasn’t even going to take Malia as a patient because he is retiring at the end of this year but when he found out she was adopted he changed his mind for some reason. He was a very highly recommend pediatric neurologist that works out of Penn State University (Hershey) Hospital. I don’t know what we are going to do after December or who is going to take his place yet. Here are some random pictures........