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Monday, May 25, 2009

We've had Ashlyn in our family for over a year now!

It's so hard to believe that it's been a year now. My sweet little girl came into our family as a skittish little 20 month old, but now she's a crazy, jumping in the deep end of the pool, 2 year old. She's just an amazing little girl who isn't afraid to try anything. I had my concerns about fetal alcohol syndrome ( still do ) but I'm not as afraid of it like I was before, because I know that if Ashlyn, does indeed have FAS, then she's been mildly affected. She's such a well behaved and happy little girl. I can't imagine her having to live in an orphanage right now. Really, I don't think that she could/would survive it :(. Ashlyn's speech is still delayed, but she's pretty much caught up in other areas of her development. She tries so hard to pronounce words, but it just doesn't come out right. She's very social though, and is always trying to mimic other people ( she's a visual learner) , so we put her into a mother's day out program 2 days a week. The teacher confirmed that she was smart, a quick learner and just fit right in with the other children. Her last day of school is tomorrow, but we're looking forward to the summer and going back to Mass. for the month of July. I have a niece who's a few months older than Ashlyn, so I'm looking forward to the interaction between the two kiddos. I'll post photos soon, but for now, here's a list of Ashlyn's growth over the past year:

1. Couldn't walk at 20 months - runs all the time

2. Afraid to be outside - can't get enough of being outside. She loves to climb, ride a bike, jump off the deep end of the pool.

3. Couldn't eat solid foods- will eat anything now.

4. Her hair was so thin and damaged that you could see her scalp- it's nice and thick and curly now.

5. Didn't know how to put her arms out to us when we tried to pick her up- always hugs and kisses us now.

6. Was startled pretty easily by the boys- now runs and laughs with her brothers, making just as much noise :).

7. Very sensitive to touch. I wasn't able to cut her nails without her pulling back and crying . she was also very sensitive to me touching her ears- now she sits still so that I can trim and paint her nails.

8. She would gag BIGTIME when I tried to brush her teeth- she's good about keeping her mouth opened when I brush her teeth now.

Here are some of her likes:

1. Dancing/music

2. Strawberries

3. Reading books

4. LOVES animals

5. Swimming and playing with water

6. She's very animated and loves to make people laugh

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

WOW, I can't believe that it's been a year since we first met Ashlyn. It's hard to tell through the photos, but she was VERY tiny :(. I remember being so concerned about her size. She was also significantly delayed. We had to wait 4 months to go back and bring her home. She was shaky and couldn't eat solid foods. Everything startled her and she was very sensitive to touch. She's a totally different child now. She eats everything that we give her ( even peas :) )! She's pretty much caught up in her gross motor skills ( climbing out of her crib now). She's so attached to us and very loving. She's always giving kisses and hugs. She nurtures her dolls. The only area of her development that we haven't seen great improvement in is her speech. We have a speech therapist that comes to the house once a week and she's wonderful with Ashlyn. Her receptive language is good, but she's still not really talking. We just love her so much!!! Anyways, I'm tired, and this is really choppy, so I'm going to end it now :). Oh wait, I almost forgot, we met a blog follower at chilis last night. She recognized Ashlyn right away and said that she reads my blog :) !! How cool is that?? She adopted a 3 year old boy from Poland last year. K, if you're reading this, then say hi. Maybe we could get together sometime. I also have a 3 year old son. Here's some photos of our first time meeting Ashlyn, and then some from today.

A video of Ron and Ashlyn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y55JBEzI_JQ

Ashlyn with her caregiver. This is the last time that we would see her for 4 months :(.