Hi mommy!

Addison, officially home 2 months and 10 days has surpassed all of my expectations...well, in a lot of ways but none more than her absolute amazing acquisition of language. Now I was told in Russia that she had delayed speech and that she only knew some simple words and, truth be told, she didn't say any words except "dada" to me during our visits. Even during the second trip at the end when she would (when forced) turn to look at me as they were taking her away, she wouldn't say bye (Пока Пока)...

...she has been learning words at lightning speed (and don't get me started about comprehension) but this week has passed another milestone - Putting words together to make sentences. Most kids first learn words and their conversation is one word statements. Then they start putting 2 words together and finally 3 and more words...

...for Matthew (who also had speech delay diagnosed in Russia) the putting words together (as well as expanding his vocabulary) is what took so long. Part of it (I think) was his hearing ...he had fluid in his ears the first year home and some hearing loss as a result) and also his "processing" of what he heard. He heard (and I really think understood) sentences as just really long words. So, he would start the sentence and it would get garbled cuz he couldn't manipulate his tongue and didn't realize that he should be saying each individually.

...This week has been the sentence week for Addison. First one was when I picked her up from daycare on Wednesday...we had the usual...squeal...dead run to mommy, grab mommy's face and kiss her, then I put her down on a cabinet to fix her shoe. As I did that, she touched my face and said...plain as day..."my mommy came!" course I was bummed that she still has such anxiety over whether I will come pick her up at the end of the day but I was impressed! Then, this morning she came in my bed in the early morning and we were dozing together. My alarm went off and I turned over to stretch and she sat up, looked me in the eyes with a mile-wide-

smile and said..."hi mommy!"

Hi - indeed!