Were back!

We just returned home from our Thanksgiving visit. Liberti did really well as she has continued to do well in crowds. We got to meet with Jaclyn on our way to gainesville too. She wouldnt seak to Stephanie in Chinese at all. She asked her what her Chinese name was and Ti's answer was a strugg. She asked if she forgot and she shook her head yes. That was the extent of it. She is only speaking a very little and only in song. She will not talk in Chinese at all. She extends her English vocabulary each day. She knows any word you say with good bye and loves the big show of it. She says or yells "goodbye, i love you. Goodbye, see ya later, i love you, tomorrow, I love you". Yes it is as cute as it sounds. Her words of love do not extend to me. She will not say "i love you" to me or greg. She has said it when saying it about everyone such as "grampa I love you, Grandma i love you, Landon I love you, Mommy I love you" But that is it and that was only once. Her affection also goes really far towards everyone pretty quickly but is slow coming to us. I think that is very natural and will mean more when it comes around. She is still acting like a 3/4 year old for the most part. Probably a good thing and most normal. She recognized that we were close to home when we were about 2 or 3 miles from our house and she celebrated with hands in the air. (About a 3 hour drive) She walked in and went through all the room srelocking the doors. She went to her room and looked in her closet and began to change clothes. She seemed right at home! I think she has made improvements with Landon a bit. Atlest while we were gone she stayed a little more entertained with so many people but she wasnt hurting everychance she got. She considered him alot. if she got something she has wanted him to get it to. so when she got a treat she wanted him to have one also but if he didnt want it right them soon she wanted it and would have a huge problem if she couldnt have it. Then she will have a huge protest that includes hitting screaming and what ever she can to get what she really wants. Those are farther between than they were the first week though. I think that she is coming to tolerate us and maybe even like us. Hopefully not too far in the future she will begin to love us, though that is probaly far off right now, i really think that it is possilble. We went out for teh day with a friend of ours who is a therapist and very trained in this type of field. He was able to see alot. As a "friend" he was still able to give us friendly advice and let us know what we are doing is right on and best for now. Most is pretty personal so I will leave that out but I can say that we felt a lot better and understood some things a little better too. Liberti has not cried about Keelung or her foster mommy and daddy in about a week now. She has made progress in moving forward and I am sure that we will have more regression and then progress over the next year. Hopefully we will take atleast 2 steps forward to every one step back but who knows it could be vise versa. Still we know it is a long raod and as short as it has been I can tell all ov you that it feels much much much longer than the actual time we have been with her. So knowing that we understand in the short period much progress has been made for our home life. Still Greg is not here and the htough of him walking in and her screaming and streeling "No' at him over and over makes me cringe of what life will soon be like again. Since for the most part she still has an attitude of this when he even calls. She is learning that I am the boss though. She understands when to say sorry and for the most part why. We are still working on "Skin to Skin bonding" where we do nails or makeup, hair or bathing things like that. We also play with the kids together climbing and playing on me and restling around. We play "where is landon and liberti" which is her most favorite game. she will ask "Mommy, Landon Liberti yes?" I cover them up and search where is Landon where is liberti oh no. It is pretyt funny but she loves it. she thinks she scares me to death when she pulls the covers off and yells liberti. She will still pull her clothes down or up and show to anyone like the gymnastics secretary. She is learning a little and we are working very hard on that issues. She will also wrote on everything if she has a pen or finds a marker. This includes clothes, walls, things or furniture. mostly she writes her name. she also goes into my things liek lotions or pefume and writes her name on it and hides it in her drawers or in her pillowcase. things like that. She got my mothers necklace and we have yet to find it LOL . These are small things we are working through and are just life changes. Anyhow all pretty boreing but I jsut wanted to update. Things are improving however small. We are happy that things have changed at all in such a short time and that is promising to us. Considering that fact that she has been through so much the past few weeks on top of changing habits she has had and been aloud to act on the past several years is impressive to us.