My Sister Samantha

I love my sister very much. She has been with us for 6 months today! She is also 17 months old today! We love each other a lot. I love having her as my little sister. She misses me when I go to summer camps for the day – I miss her too. She searches the house for me and thinks I’m doing a BOO. She is obsessed with doing Boo’s on us. She is a lot like the little girl in Monster’s Inc. It's funny because she's never even seen the movie (because she doesn't watch TV just like I didn't when I was little) but she acts just like that. She sounds just like that, talks with the same kind of voice and constantly “Boos” us. She is sweet, funny, playful, happy and very naughty. She likes to take my American Girl dolls, my comb and brush, my clothes and anything that she’s not supposed to have, especially if it's from my room! When I try and get it back from her she runs and throws it as far as she can. It’s very funny, but naughty too! She is very smart and she talks really well. She talks in cute baby sentences now and tells us what she wants to do, what she wants to eat, where she wants to go and everything. If we don’t do what she wants she yells at us. Sometimes instead of yelling she'll scream (it hurts your ears) or she will get a really sad face and pretend to cry (and then take a peek to see if we feel sorry for her) or sometimes she just growls at us! It's very hard not to laugh when she's doing these things. She is so funny. She likes to play jokes on us and she loves to help me play jokes on our mom and dad. She claps for herself when she does something good and sometimes even when she just doesn't do something bad! She will clap and say "yeaa Mamanma *(Samantha)! It is so cute. She also loves to give kisses and hugs and to cuddle with us. She is very affectionate and loving. She also say "Love Jei Jei" and sings the "I love you Happy Family" song that mommy and I made up and it makes me so happy when she does those things! She is the best baby sister I could ever have. Every day she does something new that’s funny, silly, loving or just different. I am so lucky she’s my sister!


We went out to a Japanese restaurant to celebrate Samantha's 6 month anniversary with us. The cook cooked right at the table and Samantha thought it was the funnest dinner ever. She laughed and asked for more the whole time he was cooking. You can't see the fire in the picture. It was an onion volcano and I thought it was cool.


We are sitting in front of the painting I painted last week. It is a painting of a bridge by my house. My mom likes it so much she is going to frame it and put it in our living room. I think it's ok for my first big painting. (From Mommy - Sierra's becoming quite the Artist and I am amazed at what beautfiul artwork she's been creating!)


Our family reunion on July 20th.


4th of July - Daddy's first as an American:

Samantha and me playing piano - she's doing a BOO on mommy in the first one. See her mouth, that is how she looks when she is doing a BOO.


Making the flag cake


Still making the flag cake



Finishing the flag cake - we put daddy's name on it since it was his first 4th of July as an American.



Us with the flag cake.





Samantha practicing her golf!


Playing golf with Samantha and Logan and my dog Eve. It is not easy playing golf with them.


Swimming.



In the yard



Looking at flowers.


Sitting on the fireplace.



Walking around the yard.

Please leave a comment for Sierra to let her know you visited!

Now from Mommy:

Today is the 6 month anniversary of Samantha joining our family and her 17 month birthday. I feel like we have been blessed in so many ways. First, she has bonded and blended with each of us in ways I never imagined possible. She never went through a lot of the difficulties that you hear of with adoption from an orphanage and she is so happy it's hard to imagine she was ever unhappy!

We were also lucky because although Samantha was 11 months old when she joined our family in every way you could quantify she acted/seemed younger so we've gotten to see her grow and develop from a much younger developmental age. She weighed only 13 pounds (the same as she did at 6 months of age). She had just gotten her first two teeth (bottom front) the week we picked her up – she has six teeth now. She was not walking, barely crawling and had just started standing at her crib (nearly every photo we have from there she is lying down!!)– now she runs and even attempts to go down the living room step (she usually falls, but shrugs it off). She was VERY needy emotionally and wanted to be held a lot but wouldn’t truly cuddle (the deep, true cuddle) and now she truly cuddles before and after every nap, and sometimes for no reason at all.
She couldn’t self soothe, wouldn’t hold her bottle, wouldn’t eat and wasn’t gaining. Now she's becoming a little chunk with very strong opinions of which food she will and won't eat, who ASKS for what she wants to eat and is so stubborn if she doesn't get it she just won't eat! She is a great sleeper, goes to bed easily and wakes up happy, happy, happy!
In the orphanage she was a crier (because she wanted to be held) and we've spent the past six months carrying, rocking, holding, bottle feeding and cuddling her and she is so happy, secure and independent it’s hard to remember the timid, quiet, needy baby she was when we picked her up.
She did not like to be with other babies (avoided them at the orphanage) and now she LOVES other babies and yells, “BABEEEE” at every baby she sees, even those who are clearly older than her and she now loves to play with babies.

Everything that was true of her six, or even four, months ago is the OPPOSITE now (except for her discomfort and intense fear around strangers - She does react visibly to a stranger getting to close and when the grocery guy started to push her, in the cart, to the car she freaked and panicked in a way that was so emotional that Sierra and I nearly cried). When she first came home she was clearly trying to please us (the “too good” baby you hear about in adoption) and at the same time she wanted to be held 24/7. I was surprised that a baby that young would be able to attempt to placate people with her behavior but she was clearly doing just that. Well, that behavior ended and she has NO interest in keeping us happy anymore and she's able to play on her own, as long as she's not alone - she cannot stand to be alone. She’s a VERY LOUD, assertive, very bossy, very, very silly and joke playing Boo baby! She hides behind boxes, tables, even drawers she opens and then jumps out and yells “BOO” probably 80 times a day! Although she is no longer trying to placate us she does love to help us and will bring us things when we ask, take things from one to another, and will even help us clean up (give her a rag and some water and she's busy for at least 10 minutes!). She absolutely adores and worships her sister and literally tries to talk like, act like and “be” her. She has loved having Jei Jei home all summer but now that Jei Jei is in all day summer camps she is struggling with missing her. All in all Samantha is a JOY to all who know and love her!