Shopping Fun and some Zoya Updates

I think Daddy is in big trouble with this girl.....she had quite the day shopping! She likes shopping as much as her momma!! Uh oh!

We all have cabin fever here so this morning we decided to drive to the outlet mall. It was 40 degrees and a little sunny....just a small taste of spring....really hoping the winter storms are done with for the season!!

Zoya really enjoyed being outside and she can't wait for warmer weather either! She thoroughly enjoyed people-watching.  She never misses a bald guy and makes sure to point it out to each and every bald man who passes by pointing to the top of her head and saying "ba." She also has been saying "hiya" to everyone she passes and sometimes hitting people as they walk by (oops). Babies also rank high with our Zoya girl and she is always on the hunt for a baby to look at. As the snow was melting from the rooftops of the stores, it made it look like it was raining from the edges of the roofs and Zoya was mesmerized by the water. She pointed and said "ray" (for rain). She wanted to go in the puddles, but we'll save that for the spring when she has her puddle-jumping boots on!

Now for some updates:

Potty: Zoya seems to take two steps forward and one step backward in potty training but that is just fine with me because she is moving forward! She is in pull ups except for night time. She wears underwear for a few hours in the evenings when I can keep a close eye on her.  She knows that she is not supposed to go potty in her pull up or underwear but still has a couple accidents a day (except for today...even while shopping she was dry all day and even through her nap in the car!) At times it seems she could care less if she is wet but then other times she will sign sorry and point to her pull up, so I really think she's starting to get it. She does WAY BETTER when I put her in underwear and no pants as compared to when she is in a pull up.  But I'm still not confident enough to venture outside of the house without the pull up! She does ask to go potty often but also still needs MANY verbal prompts and reminders to use the potty. I ask her every 15 minutes or so (when shes wearing her underwear) if she is dry and she knows what that means. I will say, "remember we go pee pee in the potty not in your pants." And sometimes she will run to the potty when I say that, other times she will say "no." LOL. If she hasn't asked in a while, I tell her to go (and she ALWAYS has to take a toy into the bathroom with her). 

She has definitely figured out that signing potty will get her out of whatever she is doing...stinker. She often asks to go potty during meals, so we've started taking her right before we eat. And she ALWAYS signs potty when we are out somewhere...so typical. I have a new found disgust for public restrooms and am running low on my travel Clorox wipes! When Zoya is wearing underwear and is dry the whole time she gets a cookie and looks forward to that! After she goes potty she usually signs cookie..hey whatever works! I've also noticed Zoya is more likely to have an accident at home as opposed to when we are out somewhere. Strange.  We still have a lonnnnng ways to go in potty training and I really had no intentions of starting until this summer but Miss Zoya seemed interested so we're taking off...but very slowly :) Maybe by the end of summer she will be potty trained? That would be beautiful! We well see. We are nowhere near close to potty trained for poop though...the nice thing about Zoya is she only likes to poop at home in her crib...ha! So it is hard to catch her and when I do she STILL won't go on the potty!

School: Is she really old enough to talk about school????? We had Zoya's transition meeting and the plan is for her to start preschool in the fall. She turns 3 in June and I'm off work all summer so we won't have her start until the fall.  Our goals for her are social and behavioral mostly. We just want her to learn how to play and follow directions from someone other than mom and dad, make friends, and participate in group activities. Since these are our goals and Zoya learns best by observing others, we thought it was really important to choose a typical classroom as opposed to a special education classroom. That very well could all change in the future as her needs and goals change, but for now we're taking it one day at a time! She will attend a typical preschool with 3-5 year olds three days a week from 9-12. The program runs from 9-1:30 and they offered two days a week for Zoya but we really felt 9-1:30 was way too long for her and we felt in addition to fewer hours per day, she needed more frequent visits per week to keep the consistency in her schedule. If she went two days a week she'd go T/TH and then be off 4 days before going back the next week. She will do better with more frequent, shorter doses I think:) So they didn't have a problem with Zoya being picked up early or with going a third day. The best part is that she will be across the hall from my classroom! It will be great knowing she is so close. I will try not to peek in a hundred times a day...although I'm sure I'll be way too busy to do that anyways! She will get her therapies (occupational, physical, and speech) at school. That means we will be saying goodbye to the in-home therapists when she turns three. She is also going to be getting a private speech evaluation very soon and will start private speech therapy (in addition to the in home therapy) toward the end of March. I'm already losing sleep over worrying about preschool and how she will do and it is 6 months away!!! 

On a side note I'm pretty sure Ukraine gave us some incorrect information on Zoya. Lately we think she may be closer in age to SIXTEEN with her sassy attitude ;) Ha! Where does she learn this stuff? Wouldn't change her for the world!