Zoya The Comedian

So last night we were out at the Olive Garden for dinner. Zoya was so well behaved and we were so proud of her! She did manage to crack us up though. She really enjoyed the olives in the salad which we thought was weird since neither of us really like olives. I gave her a small bite and she signed more so fast you would have thought I was giving her chocolate! We each ordered different types of chicken and shared our meals with Zoya. I was only putting one piece on her plate at a time because she tends to stuff her cheeks until she chokes if we give her more than one piece at a time! So her plate was empty at one point and she started banging her fork on the plate (no idea where she learned that!). I said, "put your fork down nicely" and she followed my directions like a good girl. Again her plate was empty and she was banging her fork on her plate making lots of noise and Shawn looked at her and firmly said, "nice" (he forgot the 'put your fork down' part). She then proceeded to tap her fork ever so "nicely" and lightly on her plate and then she looked at Shawn with a smile like "look dad I'm doing what you said!" We started laughing right out loud and our table neighbors probably thought we had lost it....well we did lose it! She cracks us up!

She continues practicing her walking and has taken even more steps today! She is so darn cute to watch! We bought her a little shopping cart that she loves to push around and put things into. It is a really nice one for learning to walk because it is pretty sturdy and doesn't tip over when she pulls up on it.

Here are some videos of our walking rockstar. She is trying so hard, but I think she is trying so hard because she wants the fishies so badly!  Food definitely motivates this girl!


In this video you can see her get to the couch and look at me like, "Okay lady, I walked like you wanted me to now give me a fishy." You can even see her cute little hand signing her version of "fish." So sweet


This is the best walking video I was able to get. Here she takes almost 7 steps! Woohoooo!


And here is her walking with her shopping cart...she looks like a mini mama!


I finally captured the "pouty face" on camera. I have NO IDEA where she learned this but did it pretty soon after she was first home. Another friend who adopted a daughter with DS from Ukraine says her daughter does the same thing!!! I sure as heck didn't teach this to her! You can hear me say, "no touch or you sit" thats what we say for time out. She HATES time out and has recently begun screaming at the top of her lungs while in time out (for her whole minute) but she is learnig she has to sit QUIETLY for a minute! Can't wait til this girl is 16 (sarcasm noted).


This next video is one of my favorites! You can see she is starting to demonstrate what love looks like with her baby. I love watching this because it means she, a girl who was never treated gently by any means at the orphanage, has learned in such a short time how to love. We are startig to see her do this with her babies more but I also have to say she still throws them across the room at times....but it's a start!! LOL. You can also hear her say, "Hi Baby." I just love her cute little voice! It is very rare that she puts two words together like this but she is starting to do it a little more! Remember this child was not exposed to the English language until 3 months ago...again...that is why she is a ROCKSTAR!