First of all, for those of you that do not know how Thianna got her name, Thi is part of Thianna's Vietnamese name so, like Nathanh (Thanh is part of his Vietnamese name) we just added on to it to Anglicize it. Her middle name is Erin, which is just one letter off of Erwin. Just as Nathanh Le is just one letter off of my Tammi Lea.
The first word that comes to mind when I think of Thianna's personality is stubborn! She really does have a stubborn streak...but so do I...I foresee many difficulties between us in her teenage years! That being said, who says that stubborn has to be a bad thing? In fact, I think she is determined, strong, independent and resilient. Many wonderful qualities that I am sure will see her through all of the curve balls that life throws her way. And I am confident that she will come out on top because of her determined spirit.
This is what I know about Thianna today - and I say today because she is changing and growing so quickly!
Thianna LOVES music! Whenever we are in a store or restaurant and lively music, yes it has to have a good beat to it, is playing Thianna is moving to the beat. She gets her arms swinging and her head bopping. It really is very cute.
She is learning quickly. In Vietnam there were times when she would start singing songs in Vietnamese. She is quickly picking up kids songs that I play in the car and is starting to sing along to some of them. Having adopted an older child, I sometimes find myself wondering how she learned something. There are some songs that I think are familiar to her such as Old MacDonald and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It is just so amazing to hear her pick up on the animals and moo along!
Thianna loves to help. She is my best helper in the house. She sets the table for me, helps with the laundry and will take anything to someone or to a room. She loves to help! She also loves to help baking too!
She is a great cleaner upper but we are working on getting her to play more with the toys. I often think that she thinks pouring out toys and then cleaning them up again is the task. We really need to sit with her and show her how to play with toys.
Thianna has come a long way with books. They had books at the orphanage but they were mostly just held or chewed on. We never saw the kids look at them or anyone reading to them. So Thianna didn't really know what to do with them and often held them upside down or tossed them about the floor. Now she loves reading in her room with Nathanh and I or getting bedtime stories at night. She especially likes books with a sing-songy rhythm to them or rhyming books. She will also repeat or hum them throughout the day. "Dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum" is a favorite.
Thianna loves food! I know you are probably thinking "obviously!" But we were really concerned about what type of variety of food she would eat. She is doing so much better with food than I had imagined. Her favourite food is chicken. But anything that is meat will be eaten! We call Thianna our carnivore and Nathanh our herbivore (although he likes to say that he is an omnivore). The only thing Thianna doesn't eat enough of is vegetables. Although, she will eat bok choi thrown into just about anything and carrots and celery if they are cut very thin. For the time being I am just loading her up with lots of fruits to make sure she is getting lots of healthy vitamins. She and Nathanh have also discovered that they prefer kind of opposite things on their plates so Thianna will eat her meat and Nathanh will eat his veggies and then they have learned to trade plates! I am not sure if this is a good thing but it does prevent waste, so it is accepted for now!
Thianna has to wear socks at ALL times. And a hoodie. This includes bedtime. The last few nights she has tolerated having a blanket at night time, the weather is getting cooler now. Perhaps she will embrace the blanket and lose the hoodie soon. Nathanh decided to copy Thianna on this one and is now also wearing a hoodie to bed too. Unfortunately, it I didn't go over so well with Erwin the other night when Nathanh asked to have his bedroom window open at bedtime because he was too hot!
It is hard to go grocery shopping with Thianna because when she gets hungry - which is often - she can't handle having food around and not being able to eat it. I take snacks along where ever we go but it is usually fruit or something healthy. In the grocery store when she sees cookies that is what she wants. Then the stubbornness comes into play because she will try whimpering, crying and even screaming to get what she wants. Hopefully this will diminish as she understands language and explanations more and knows that she is never going to be without food.
Thianna is now toilet trained. We had been told that she was toilet trained before we got to Vietnam so we were surprised to have to go out and buy diapers for her. Once we got home it was obvious that she had been introduced to toileting. She would sit on the toilet, of her own accord, before bedtime or nap time and had no problem going. With Nathanh it was that initial release, once he got that toilet training was no problem. Since she knew how to use the toilet I decided it was time for us to do away with diapers. I kept trying to get her to put on underwear but she kept refusing (stubborn little one that she is!). Until one night I just hid the diapers. In the morning I showed her there were none and said she'd have to use underwear. She cried...that is nothing new...and I left the room.
About two minutes later she came and found me with the underwear, put it on and that was it. There were a few accidents the first few days but once she realized she got a treat for using the toilet and didn't for accidents, it has been smooth sailing ever since. I am not sure how I am going to phase out the little skittle candy she gets for using the toilet, well actually I do, we'll just run out of them one day. However, I can tell you now that will not go over well with Thianna! Oh well, like I said I am stubborn too!
Thianna is very good at falling asleep quickly, much better than Nathanh. However, she HATES being told that it is bedtime or nap time and will, you guessed it, cry! So we have changed things up a bit. I will now hold her and let her fall asleep on my lap with her head on my chest. She loves the attention and closeness (as do I) and will usually fall asleep quickly and then transfer easily to her bed. It was one night last week, doing this, that I started feeling really sad and grieving all of the time I had missed with my precious little girl. I do think she was cared for and loved at the orphanage but that is still no replacement for a mommy and this mommy was waiting all that time that she was there. We just should have been together.
Another LOVE of Thianna's is swimming! I would not have believed this back in DaNang as she refused to get a toe wet. But she loves swimming. She asks to go almost everyday. Yes, swimming is a word that she says very clearly. We have registered in parent and tot lessons. Nathanh is in his own class at the same time so it works out well. The only problem is, is that Thianna is not safe in the water. She loves the water so much that she will jump in anywhere, not worrying about whether she can touch or not and not waiting for me to be ready to catch her. It has improved a little bit with the lessons and her learning the word wait (which by the way is probably her least favourite word ever!). But I still do not trust her in the water. She on the other hand loves every second of being in the water at laughs when she goes under and comes back up again. She loves the slide and will go down twenty times in a row! Yup, she's a water baby alright!
What else can I say about my girl? She loves being outside, playing at the park, climbing and swinging. She is learning more and more everyday and oh so quickly. She thrives on understanding what is happening and will double check to make sure she has it right. She knows we have swimming lessons in the morning and checked by saying swimming, doing the sign for swimming and showing me her swim suit.
Thianna loves her Nana and Grandpa! They take care of her and Nathanh once a week so I can go curling and then they also take care of her for an hour on another day while Nathanh and I go to piano lessons. The first couple of times leaving her she cried for a few minutes (okay screamed) but now she is so comfortable. She knows where all the toys are and knows that Nana is the one who gives her cookies! So all is good!
Dogs- how could I not mention dogs? Thianna is not afraid of dogs but will not go near them. I can only guess that at the orphanage stray dogs and cats were not welcome and were chased away immediately. When Thianna first saw a dog here she alerted me to it right away. When I didn't do anything and Nathanh didn't do anything she took on the role of protector. She stomped and kind of growled trying to scare it away. I tried to show her that here dog are our friends and, with the owner's permission, approached the dog with my hand out letting it smell me and then petting it. Nathanh was right there with me. Thianna must have thought we were crazy. She was having no part of touching a dirty, unwelcome dog! She is slowly becoming more used to them and genuinely seems to want to touch one but can't quite bring herself to do it. So now when she sees one she'll put out her hand but back away at the last minute. She did, ever so briefly, pet a bunny rabbit when we were visiting a farm.
There is probably so much more I could say about my wonderful, stubborn, lively and full of energy little girl but this is her in a nutshell today. And I love her for everything she is!
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