Time Keeps on Ticking… (Ticking, Ticking) Into the Future

Two years?!   On Sunday, we celebrated our “Tatiana Day”.  Two years ago, on Friday, March 20th, Tatiana walked out of the Artem baby home for good!  She may have technically been carried, but you get the picture. 

I think back to what she was like.  In ways, it’s hard for ME to see her change.  I see her everyday.  But looking back at pictures, it’s AMAZING. 

Two years ago she was a scared, small, pale girl with a bad haircut who wasn’t talking much.  Even then, though, she picked up on things quickly.  Within a day she was saying “bye bye” and “night night”.  She was a fast learner then and now. 

I didn’t pack a “dress” outfit to take her out of the baby home with.  I had two dresses with me, one was her denim jumper with red/white and blue stars on it to celebrate becoming a US citizen and one was a blue sailor dress that my friend Yvonne gave to me the morning I left.  I *thought* she would have grown a bit between trip 1 when I left her (end of October) and my return for court (early March).  Nope.  So, the size 2 that Yvonne kindly gave me was way to big.  Oddly enough, the mom across the hall asks me a couple days before I am getting ready to spring Miss T from the baby home if I wanted a beautiful dress she bought for her daughter but didn’t fit.  I wanted to say no.  It was a gorgeous dress – that obviously was VERY expensive.  But as most adoptive families are, she was so kind and giving – and insisted… so I took the dress for Tatiana to wear home from the baby home.  It was perfect.  It was a size 18 month and a little big but it worked. 

And a trend was started.

 

Last year we put on the same dress to see the difference.  This year, we did the same.  It’s a bit “mini” dress now, but miss skinny waist can still wear it well.  (Dresses are a lot easier in that regard than pants!)  I have debated having it “altered” in the future, to wear one year as a skirt… but not sure I want it to be torn up.

Other than the dress, she’s changed in so many ways.  The quiet, scared girl is now a confident, VERY talkative motor mouth.  She’s still as smart as a whip and catches on to things very quickly.  And… she’s got great hair! 

She does have some lingering “baby home” issues… she’s easily startled by loud noises (ask her about the loud car she heard at Gramma’s house; or a siren parade) and still can get over whelmed in a group setting.  Thankfully, with her late birthday, we have an extra year of preschool (Young 5’s next year) before Kindergarten.

This year’s Tatiana Day, also brought the completion of my office move to the basement to make way for Baby Soup’s bedroom.  While it would have been nice to celebrate all day long, we did lot of celebrating on Saturday too!  The good news is the office is moved (man!  my basement is COLD!!) and the room is progressing nicely.   Now… bring on the court date!!