Okay, Clint has the baby for a while... I had the choice of going out and doing a little shopping, or holing up in Camryn's room by myself for a while so I could update the blog... I'm too tired to shop, so here I am!
Let's see... did I tell you about Kelly's doctor's appointment?
Well, we went in for a check-up and some shots, since all her immunizations have to be redone (this is routine for internationally adopted children), and Kelly began freaking out from the time they weighed her, which was at the very beginning of the appointment!
Poor little thing was screeching- this was beyond screaming, she was so upset. She obviously did not have good experiences with medical staff in China (or something) because they didn't do anything to hurt her, but she just did NOT like any of them. Of course, then as the appointment went on, they actually did give her reason to hate them: as the doctor was checking her ears, she couldn't see past a big ball of ear wax in her right ear, so she had to have the nurse do an ear wash on Kelly- and (dun-dun-dun-duuuuunnnnnnnn) they had to strap her down to do it.
Oh, as if she wasn't traumatized enough! I should have said, "No thank you," and walked out right then to go home and do the ear wash myself, but instead I simply asked them if they would let me hold her instead of strapping her down, but they said no, so I didn't argue. I did my best to comfort her, but it was so awful. I think she might have actually been relieved once that ball of wax was gone- she had a couple serene moments of silence after the nurse got the wax out, almost like she was thinking, "Wow. That felt awesome." But once she came back to reality, she went right back into hysterics. It turned out to be a good thing they washed her ear out though, because the doctor found that she did have an ear infection in that ear. But, as if ALL that wasn't enough, they just had to top it off with two immunization shots to her thighs. Needless to say, I don't know if she'll ever enjoy a doctor's appointment again! Poor little thing. I don't know what I could have done differently, but I felt terrible for her and wished there was more I could do to comfort her.
One of the things her pediatrician said was that she really wanted me to start trying to get Kelly to eat food. She was concerned that she wasn't eating ANYTHING besides her bottles of formula. I told her we had tried feeding her on several occasions but she just would not even open her mouth a centimeter for me to get something in there. She asked me to keep trying, and to start with foods with little or no texture, like yogurt and ice cream (Yes, ice cream!) and stage 1 baby foods.
So the next day I tried baby food- blech! What little bit I got into her mouth came right back out. Then I tried peach yogurt- the smooth kind with no chunks. She spit that out too. Bummer! Okay, we'll try again tomorrow...
So the next day, I tried plain old vanilla yogurt. Guess what? She liked it! She ate quite a bit, to my surprise, and that was the beginning of a complete transformation! Later that day, she actually munched on a Ritz cracker... she got more on herself than in her mouth, but the victory was that she was trying new things!
The next day I tried strawberry yogurt- again, the smooth kind, and she liked that too! I ate a baked potato for lunch and she shocked me by coming over to me and opening her mouth as if to ask for a bite! I gave her one, and she liked it! I shared another 5 or 6 bites with her and she seemed to like it. She ate goldfish crackers and rice that day too! YEAH! We were amazed.
The next day, I tried scrambled eggs. She did try to eat them, but didn't seem to get much swallowed... she didn't seem to know how to get them to the back of her throat to swallow them. "That's okay," I thought... we'll keep trying, and I'll give her smaller bites next time, with a little something to drink to help wash it down.
The next day, she ate scrambled eggs again, but this time I helped her figure out how to swallow them by giving her sips of juice, and that seemed to do the trick. She now can eat scrambled eggs and I can clearly see her chew and swallow them! SUCH A BIG GIRL!!!
She also loves rice and beans, and she likes Cheerios too, although she refused them or spit them out the first couple of times she tried them.
So those are the milestones of her eating! We are so pleased and thankful to see such progress! I've already dropped one of her bottles and am working on dropping another. She's having no problems with her BM's other than them being a little more loose, which is normal and actually good according to her doctor, so that's great.
Other Kelly stuff:
~ She's very funny and playful. She likes to blow raspberries and kisses.
~ She's learning sign language. She can do "more", "please", "all done", "thank you", "no", and "cat".
"Cat" was a new one she learned today. We watched her Baby Einstein video and they do sign language on it, and when they did the sign for cat today, she did it afterwards, and actually tried to say it too, which was soo adorable! It sounded like "ta" as in "tack" but she had the exact same inflection as the narrator on the video. She simply transposed the sounds, but she most definitely was attempting to say cat and it was soooooooo cute!
~She loves the dog and cat but is learning how to touch them. She either hits them out of sheer excitement, or grabs at their fur. Sometimes she just goes up to them and screams this very excited scream, which doesn't exactly make them want to snuggle up to her. She's so funny- I know she'll get it eventually.
I know there are so many other firsts I'm forgetting, but I want to post more pictures, so I'll take the rest of the time I have now to do that. Ask questions to remind me of anything I've forgotten. (Nanna, I know I'm forgetting some things, so feel free to ask me.)
Oh, by the way! Mollie, you asked about the apple trick! That picture was actually just a fluke- the apple had slipped out of her hands and I just happened to catch it in that picture. When I saw it, I was inspired to do the little "karate chop" sequence of pictures for my own amusement (and hopefully yours as well)!
Oh, one more thing I can tell you: she still doesn't like shoes! I can put them on her feet now, but as soon as I try to get her to stand in them, she pulls her feet up under her and screams as if the shoes are burning her feet when they touch the ground! I keep trying to tell her it's okay and I've even pushed the squeakers on the sandals to show her they are "fun" but she still won't walk in them. She loves to play with them when they're not on her feet, but she just does not like to wear them!
Okay, I just realized it's dinner time and I told Clint I'd be out to serve it up, so I need to run and do that. I'll post pictures afterwards!
Sooo, how do we get out of here anyway? 
