"Pungent"

Philip & Hollywood! For some reason, Sydney loves Ashlyn's drawer of sunglasses.

Philip adores Sydney!

My beautiful girls!
Ashlyn actually requested that they have matching jammies. Sydney looks really chubby here.

The next two photos are of Sydney "posing" for the camera. Too funny!

More posing!

In Sydney's referral, it stated that she was "pungent and extroverted". I think that means ornery & super duper friendly here in the States. Because she is! She is a typical three year old. Full of life, loudness and laughter! We love that she feels comfortable to be that way with us.

I think we are all adjusting to our new life & family. Sydney is just doing great with most everything. PJ is the magic key to naptime & bedtime. Barely any tears when he lays her down. She just lights up when he comes home from work. Philip and Ashlyn just love Sydney. I'm really proud of the way they have handled Sydney coming home. At times, they have more patience than I do. They will make great parents some day. Sydney tries to mimic everything we say--which is great for her English. PJ & I went out to lunch last week. Sydney was eating chips and picked up two chips. She then said "two chips"! You would of thought that she just graduated from Harvard or something by the way PJ & I acted! I'm sure the people around us were like OK. Your child can say two & chips. Big deal. But it was a big deal to us! Sydney continues to be a big helper. I have never seen a child that can carry so much dirty laundry to the washing machine with a big ole smile on her face! And wants to do it! And not her laundry!

Sydney did not qualify for occupational therapy. Yeah! Our OT just adopted from China over the summer. It was wonderful to just sit & talk with someone that is a little ahead of us in this process. I just love the adoption community! The nicest people you could ever meet.

Sydney still loves physical therapy! She went in by herself today. This was our third therapy session. Ashleigh said she had no tears but did say "Momma" a couple of times. I sat outside the room drinking a Chai tea and enjoying a little time alone (please don't start thinking negative of me now!).

We received a nice surprise at the end of last week. Sydney's reports from Half The Sky came in. We have 5 pictures/reports of Sydney from her time in the orphanage. And at least two pictures of Sydney's nanny. If HTS was in your child's orphanage, I would highly recommend getting the reports for your child. The pictures are worth it! The reports did not give us anymore medical information. Sydney even had those chubby cheeks when she was a baby. I'll post a picture or two when someone figures out how to crop the picture!