Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Real Gotcha Day Post


On Gotcha Day, May 28, 2007, age 2.5 years


On Gotcha Day, May 28, 2008, age 3.5 years

Early May, age 4.5 years

I hope to do a Gotcha Day photo shoot soon, maybe tomorrow.

This girl has grown sooo much. She's gone from speaking no English to speaking like she never spoke anything else (though we still constantly get asked if how her English is, 2 years later). She's gone from 24 lbs to roughly 40 lbs, and 34 inches to about 40 inches, and from size 24 mos/2T to a 5T, and size 5 shoe to a size 9. She can say her ABCs, write them, recognize them, she can write her name, and anything else you're willing to spell out for her. She's doing very well in preschool, and she starts Pre-K this fall at W. Early Childhood Center this fall, in school that was an elementary school but they're changing it into a 3 year old and 4 year old school.

She's slowly becoming more interested in China, and speaking Chinese. For a while, she wanted nothing to do with it. Now, she loves Ni Hao, Kai-Lan! and Follow Jade!. She'll ask how you say so-and-so in Chinese or come up to me and say how to say it. Sometimes I have to correct her. And as awesome as this is, at the same time it's sad, because 2 years ago, she was talking circles around me in Chinese, and now I'm helping her.

She'll start Irish dance classes this fall. She already knows the first step of her reel and the lead-around, from informal lessons after my classes with Mrs. Judy. Little 10-15 minute sessions. She's already suffering from the commonly known "can't-just-walk-any-where" Syndrome of Irish dance. She sings the steps to her dance like song lyrics, even if she's not actually dancing them at the time.

Speaking of song lyrics, this child knows a TON of songs. She loves Taylor Swift and t.A.T.u and Rhianna and the Parakeet Album (a children's choir singing Jimmy Buffet songs). She picks up on lyrics very quickly. She loves to sing and dance.

It's hard to believe it's been 2 years since we first saw her in person, and roughly 3 since we first say her file and pictures. It seems like such a short period of time, and forever by the same token. Odd how that works.

Like many people do for their children, we give her a little gift from China on her Gotcha Day. Last year, she got a little drum with a monkey on it (her zodiac year). This year, we gave her a little red purse with embroidery and sequins on it. Very pretty. I bought it in Pingyao while I was in China in March, and managed to keep it hidden from her since then. I was kind of looking while we were in China, because we really hadn't found anything age appropriate for a 4 year old on the initial trip, in Guangzhou. Reese has really become a girly-girl as of late though, and I knew she would love a little purse. And sure enough, she does. I'll try to get a good picture of it later. It's really pretty.

2 years, wow.

1 comment:

Stacey said...

Erin Joy's Gotcha Day is May 29th. I think it is kind of neat that their special days are so close together. Reese is beautiful! I'm so glad she is with her forever family.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails
Click to Visit the McCafferty School of Irish Dance