Hannah just finished up a week of basketball camp. We have not really played much at home so I was unsure how she would do, but she really liked it and she is pretty good. She worked on defensive skills and 
shooting. And for all you boys in the family-watch out because she does not shoot like a girl. And thanks to the Piechocki family she now has a really nice basketball hoop to play at home. (Thanks Susie-you are her hero!!!)
shooting. And for all you boys in the family-watch out because she does not shoot like a girl. And thanks to the Piechocki family she now has a really nice basketball hoop to play at home. (Thanks Susie-you are her hero!!!) 
Monday Hannah started gymnastics camp. She has team try-outs on Saturday. This picture is her on the low bar.
Emily continues to grow and adjust to just about everything. Her excitement over new things is overwhelming. She is learning to drink out of a regular cup instead of a sippy cup. She is starting to throw a play ball even though sometimes she throws it behind herself and then looks at me as if saying "where did it go". She has found she loves blueberries, watermelon, cantelope, and anything with sugar and carbohydrates in it especially suckers and pasta. She loves to play with her sister and refuses to go to bed at night without a "night-night" kiss.
Emily continues to grow and adjust to just about everything. Her excitement over new things is overwhelming. She is learning to drink out of a regular cup instead of a sippy cup. She is starting to throw a play ball even though sometimes she throws it behind herself and then looks at me as if saying "where did it go". She has found she loves blueberries, watermelon, cantelope, and anything with sugar and carbohydrates in it especially suckers and pasta. She loves to play with her sister and refuses to go to bed at night without a "night-night" kiss.
We did find out that Emily is going to need a surgery. It was noticed by Marie when we were eating at our favorite local Chinese restaurant. Emily was not using her tongue to move her food around and when asked she was not able to stick her tongue out. After getting the second opinion from an oral surgeon, it was confirmed that she is tongue-tied. The funky skin flap under our tongues it actually connected all the way to the tip of her tongue causing it not to be able to move much in her mouth. This impedes her ability to chew and swallow her food as well as form words effectively. The oral surgeon gave us 2 options. 1) Surgery now, but she is too little for anesthesia and the use of the newer laser technique. This means they would need to tie her down, use scissors to do the cut and several stitches under her tongue. Or 2) Wait until she is just a little bigger when she can be "put under" with anesthesia and use a laser which results in no stitches. The down fall of this is that it means longer for her to not be able to chew effectively. Right now she often needs to spit her food out and/or push it off the top palette to the back of her throat to swallow. And of course continued difficulties in learning proper phonics, which right now she is either babbling or speaking Chinese-we can not tell. After talking about the options with the oral surgeon, the decision was made to wait 6 months and see if we could use the anesthesia. I have to also admit that to tie her down may just also bring back memories of her life in the orphanage as this is what they do when they need an IV to treat colds/flus. I did not want her to relive this or lose the trust factor we have earned in the last 2 months. So I guess we will have to write an update on this in 6 months (just before Christmas).
