One Year Ago . . .

This is one of my favorite pictures of Kira. It just looks like her to me.


Beautiful Girl


Cool Cat!


Ha Ha Ha! I got the remote!


Kira and her friend, Nini



Kira and Mommy


Kira at her babysitter's with her best buddy, Ella


I Like My Care Bears!



Pretty Dress!


This is why Mommy doesn't put me in dresses very often!
















Tomorrow, September 4th, will be the one year anniversary of Kira’s Gotcha Day. It doesn’t seem possible that a year has passed since our time in Taiwan. On the other hand, it seems like she has been part of our lives for more than a year. Tomorrow, we will celebrate by watching video of our first day together, looking at our travel pictures, and going to dinner at TGI Fridays, which is the first restaurant we went to together in Taiwan. Thinking back to a year ago, getting to know our daughter and watching her get to know us, it didn’t take long to see that she was curious, social, and funny. I wondered what I would learn about my daughter as she grew. Well, let me just pause to tell a little about Kira one year later. She is now 20 months old.

Kira’s favorites
Kira’s favorite movie is Shrek. Our daughter, who can’t otherwise sit still for 10 seconds, will sit immobile and mesmerized for about 45 minutes of Shrek. We even considered taking her to the theater for the Shrek 3 movie, but decided she was too young, even for Shrek.

Kira’s favorite foods: Well, look at her belly and you will see there isn’t much she doesn’t like, but take this girl to Cracker Barrel for turnip greens and you’d better stay out of her way! Yes, turnip greens!

Kira’s favorite words: Kira is in speech therapy for cleft-related articulation issues. Nonetheless, “No” and “Mine” come out quite clearly!

Kira cuteness
Kira is tech savvy. We let her watch a video for about 15 minutes before starting our bedtime routine. She will open the cabinet, pick out her video (9 times out of 10 it’s Shrek), turn on the DVD player, open the DVD door, put the DVD in, and push play! We only have to get the DVD out of the case for her so she doesn’t break it and turn the TV mode to DVD. She also loves the computer. She will put her little index finger on the mouse and look up at the monitor to see what she made happen.

Kira loves animals. When visiting others, it isn’t the humans she anticipates seeing, it is their pets. Her babysitter has two dogs. Whenever we pull up to her babysitter’s, she puffs her mouth out trying to say “woof-woof”. My parents have two cats. When we pull up to their house, she says “Meow Meow!” Damn, I don’t think we’re going to be able to avoid eventually getting a pet, but I’m determined to put it off as long as possible!

Whenever we get ready to go bye-bye, we have Kira get her shoes out of the coat closet where we keep them. She does, but she always gets out Mommy’s and Daddy’s first. I think she wants to make sure that we’re coming too. She loves going bye-bye. When we’re just playing around the house, one of her favorite things to do is grab her little Dora purse, put it over her shoulder, wave, and say “bye-bye”, pretending she’s going bye-bye.

Kira thinks it’s hilarious to watch me put my contacts in my eyes!

Okay, Mommy doesn’t find this so cute, but I have to tell. Kira went through a stage, which has actually gotten better in the past month or so, of hitting when she is told no or doesn’t get her way. We have taught her to be gentle. We have done time-outs. Well, Kira now, when she hits me, will say “uh-oh”, then do a “gentle” stroking of the place where she hit me!

Kira’s Progress
Kira has gained 10 pounds and grown almost 8 inches since coming home. Seriously, at times her rate of growth has actually seemed alarming to me, but her doctors all gush at how wonderful it is. She is near the top of the charts for height and weight.

Kira went through palate surgery shortly after coming home and has made great strides, especially with eating. While not getting started on solid foods until almost a year old, now at 20 months she eats anything and everything. We have reached the point where she simply enjoys food and doesn’t get upset anymore when mealtime is over. She is secure now that food will be plentiful and she won’t have pain or difficulty eating it. Kira has also mastered drinking from a straw. This may not sound like such a big deal, but it takes many cleft-affected kiddos years to accomplish.

Kira started speech therapy in May. She is making progress, and her ability to make sounds that are difficult for her is improving every day. We still have difficulty understanding most of what she says and probably will for a long time, but her vocabulary and speech development are good. We do baby signs with her, which helps ease the frustration of communicating, and she does really well with that.

Kira has had repeated sinus and ear infections. We seem to have her sinuses under control with medication, but her ears have recently started acting up again. She had tubes put in last October at the same time her palate was repaired. Well, they have become impacted with gunk and wax. She has to go for surgery next week, September 10th, to clean them out and put new tubes in. So, please keep us in your thoughts for that. It is a simple 10-minute procedure, but anytime your child has to be under general anesthesia it is nerve-wracking.

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My darling daughter, you have made my past year so much richer. I can’t wait to see what the coming years bring. I love you so much.