What's New With Emilia?

Our little Emilia is now six years old.  I can hardly believe it.  It seems like yesterday we brought home a sickly and frail 25-months-old from Dobrich.  Emilia continues to be a very tender and tiny girl.  She weighs about 15 kg and is 104 cm tall.  But she has a huge, loving heart and is so affectionate.  If you need someone to make you smile and brighten your day, Emilia's the one.  It's easy to hurt her feelings or push her past her max as she still deals with the effects of trauma, but in her comfort zone, she's confident and happy.  She's delightful company, too, when she is relaxed and doesn't feel any pressure or anxiety.

When it comes to changes and transitions, Emilia is our kiddo that struggles the most.  Therefore, I was anxious to send her into half-day Kindergarten this year.  Fortunately, all of my fears have been dispelled now as Emilia's doing beautifully in her class.  She knows her teachers' names and is especially fond of her aide whom she calls My Miss T.  I have had the privilege of volunteering in her classroom and seen the kindness and understanding her classmates extend toward her.  Emilia clearly is learning new things in the school setting.  Playing tag with Ella recently I heard her yell, "I gotcha" which she had to have picked up during recess.  Emilia is up to reading 28 sight words, 18 of which are on the list of 29 sight words she is supposed to master this school year.  Her teacher reports that Emilia is making good progress with letter sounds (last I checked she knew 15 consonant sounds and three of the ten vowel sounds) and trying really hard to trace letters.  Cognitively, she wants to write, but physically she does not seem able yet.  Simple math concepts are still elusive, but I see her now being able to distinguish between big and small and there may be some improvement with one to one correspondence.  Her teachers and I are in touch nearly every day and they have told me that they are often surprised by the information Emilia absorbs.  Even if she does not seem engaged or interested at the time, she can later in some way re-produce the material or refer to what took place.

Emilia's speech is still much behind her same age peers, but she keeps making progress all the time.  We are hearing more and more sentences up to four and five words long.  Recently while running errands on a lovely fall day she told us in the car, "I want Christmas.  Christmas tree.  Jingle bells.  I want happy."  Apparently she didn't think we got the point because later that afternoon, she went around the house saying, "Hohoho" over and over again.  Emilia can make statements like, "No bus yet" or "Icecream is cold" or "I fell down" or" See you soon" or "Knee hurts" or "I want Rex's pizza" or" I play blocks" or "Banana open, please" or "I want to sit on the couch" or "Ella is so pretty."  Her single word vocabulary is quite large.  She knows and correctly uses words like oboe, caribou, spooky, and crowbar. That said, Emilia is increasingly upset with her struggles to express herself and often resorts to screaming when she wants us to know she disagrees or is frustrated.

At the moment Emilia is a big fan of large vehicles.  She especially likes tractors about which she sings a song and firetrucks.  She watches firetruck videos on youtube almost daily.  She knows where these videos are and navigates to them herself as she does with other favorite videos.  Emilia plays with dolls and often rocks them in her arms and sings to them.  She can ride a bike with training wheels.  She completes simple puzzles on the Kindle and likes to comb my hair.  She can feed herself slowly with utensils, get undressed, and stay dry for an entire day at home.

 Emilia is the child of ours who wakes up with a huge smile on her face every day. She throws open her bedroom door and runs to find Craig and me to give us big hugs and say her version of I love you over and over again.  I can't imagine a better morning greeting than what we receive from our youngest daughter each day.  She's a blessing through and through.