Almaz 8 month update

Almaz turned 8 months on July 28th. She has been such a little easy sweetheart! Once we got over the first week or so of clinginess, she settled right in and has been such a joy. She's been sleeping great (12 - 13 hours at night and 3 - 4 hours in the afternoon!) and is almost always in a good mood. She crawls all over the place and is pulling herself up. She'll be furniture-walking very soon. She is also very vocal and likes to "sing along" when I sing.

Almaz had her appointment at the International Adoption Clinic last week (July 25) and she is doing great! The IAC has seen really healthy kids come from Ethiopia. They can tell from Almaz's development that she received a lot of TLC in Ethiopia. She does seem to be a bit small on the growth charts, but nothing to be concerned about.

The only difficulty with this transition has been with Big Brother Alex. I knew he would regress and I knew he would be jealous, but I wasn't prepared for what he's been up to lately. He has seemed to grow up months in the past few weeks. He is even more talkative then before and even has started talking about his feelings. He has also started taking showers and riding a bike! I just never can predict when he wants to be a big boy and when he's decided he wants to be a baby (as in wanting to be carried, wanting a bottle, etc). We're working it out. My most commonly used phrase right now is, "Alex you're not in trouble . We just need to talk about it," to diffuse the situation before it escalates. Phew.