10 months

It has been 10 months (yesterday) since our Shanghai cutie joined our family!  At 10 months with us, she is doing really well.  She is also definitely pushing our buttons.  She's really starting to talk a lot more lately.  She did great and gained so many words in the beginning but progress slowed down for a while.  She is picking it back up now though and has recently adopted the phrase, "What's that, Mommy?" as her new favorite.  I think this is good, annoying at times but good, because I feel like she's really trying to get a word for everything.  I know she's saying a lot more than we know because we can't understand everything she says and she will shock us with things that we had no idea that she knew how to say.  A couple of recent ones are, "My turn yet, Ella?" and , "You show me how, Mommy?" when I was tying her shoes.  Yep, tying her shoes!  Slow down girl, we'll get to that later!  She also has gotten so good at running and jumping, things that were really tough for her for a while.  Today, while I worked out at the gym, I kept spotting Liana on the TV that they have so you can watch your kiddos while you work out and she was constantly hopping around on this hopscotch that they had made out of tape.  It was so cute!  She is mostly well behaved, and almost always well behaved around other people, but when she's being a stinker...look out!  Today was one of those days.  If she gets a time-out, she wails like something horrible is happening to her.  The thing is, she's not as devastated as she sounds because she stops the instant she hears us talking to each other so she can eavesdrop and then starts back up with the screaming as soon as we stop.  Not my favorite behavior of hers.  When she got out of time-out tonight, however, she walked around for a while hugging each of us.  It was really sweet.  I think she really learned her lesson...ha.ha.ha.  She is still behind in some things for an almost three year old but she is catching up and in most things, she is right on track for her age.  Really, the main thing that she needs to catch up on is still language.  It must be a really hard transition from Mandarin to English!  They couldn't be much more different!  People who don't know her ask me all the time if she understands anything.  Umm yeah...I would sure hope so after 10 months!  Actually, she has understood most of what we said to her very soon after bringing her home but actually being able to tell us everything that she needs to say is taking time.  I can't imagine how long it would take me to learn Mandarin if I suddenly moved to China!  A lot longer than it's taking her, I suspect. 

Something funny that I noticed is when I show her pictures of her from while she was in the orphanage and ask her who it is she says, "Jie Jing" (her Chinese name) and if I show her pictures of her now, she says, "Ana" (what she calls herself, think: ahn-ah).  I thought that was interesting.  She's a girl with so many names: Liana, Li-wanna (according to Ethan), Lili, Jie Jing (she will always be our Jie Jing), Ana, and I call her Sunshine sometimes because of that big, sunny smile that she is always wearing.  The orphanage gave us some information about what her Chinese name means.  Jie means "nimble and smart" which is very fitting and Jing means "peace".  They said that they chose this name for her and hope that she will be a smart girl who has a peaceful personality.  I love that we have this explanation from them and it definitely fits her...most of the time. :-)  Liana (and I have to clear this up because we get asked all the time, it is pronounced lee-ahn-ah, not lee-ann-ah) means "My God has answered".  How amazingly fitting is that?!  We chose the name because we loved it and think it is a beautiful name but when we learned later what the meaning is, I couldn't believe how perfect it was for this girl that God brought us on such a journey to find.  It must be confusing to her that we call her so many things but all of these names are special to us for different reasons.  Jie Jing...Liana...LiLi...whatever, she is a sweet girl with a lot of spunk and an amazing daughter and sister too.  Happy 10 months, Liana!  We love you so much!!!