Ten Months with Evie

Today marks ten months since Evie has been with me.  I still can't believe here I sit with a child that I thought would be with me for a month or two at most.  The longer and longer she is here, the more and more I think it's a possibility she may never go home.  Here's some of the struggles she is still having, and some great stuff she is doing:

• Since we have stopped the nightly phone calls, she has been referring to me as "Mom" or "Mommy" a lot.  Never when she is calling my name or trying to get my attention, but usually tacking it onto the end of a comment, like "Thank you, Mommy" or "Good night, Mom!"
• She also has continued to have a lot of crying since not talking to her mom every night.  Including some crying in the middle of the night for her mom and last night crying in her sleep saying she wanted her mom.
• There have been two instances when she has wanted to play a game, but I had already told her mom we would be calling, and we didn't have time to do both.  I have said to her, "Well, do you want to play a game or call your mom, because we don't have time for both" (thinking that this would be a no-brainer for her, expecting she would say "call mom" without hesitation).  Well, the first time there was hesitation, and then she finally said, "Play a game." I was floored, and talked her into calling mom, wondering how I was going to explain to mom the reason if we didn't call.  The second time, there was no hesitation and her decision was "Play a game."  Oh, no!  I again was able to talk her into calling mom the second time, but will not make the mistake of giving her the option again! 
• She's had two different times where she has thrown up her lunch at school, but felt totally fine afterwards.  School policy is that they have to go home if they throw up.  The first time, my dad picked her up and took her to get Burger King (just what a kid who just threw up her lunch needs), but she had no problem with it.  The doctor thinks it may be reflux (maybe also aggravated by anxiety/stress).  I wonder if it's possible that she has an ulcer.  I've been sending her lunch on days they have acidic-based foods for lunch, and we haven't had a problem in about a month.
• She told me that she didn't eat breakfast at home with her mom.  At first she said it was because her and her brother didn't want breakfast.  But when I casually pointed out that she is asking for breakfast oftentimes before I have even gotten out of bed, she said, "Actually, we did want breakfast; we just didn't get it."  Sad.
• I took her to get her hair trimmed last week.  She was obviously on edge, especially during the hair washing, as she was clinching her fists and visibly was jumpy and couldn't relax.  I realized that all the questions are mostly probably the result of anxiety, as she was asking question after question about what was going to happen and in what order.  It brought me back to the beginning when she was asking SOOO many questions.
• I have been working on different hairstyles.  (Separate post to come).  You would think that as I get more skilled at it, it would take me less time to do her hair.  However, that is not the case since: 1) The better I get, the more complicated hairstyles I pick, and 2) The better I get, the more OCD I am about how perfect it needs to be. 
• Evie can now tie her shoes!  There were two different times when she was supposed to be getting ready and had spent ten minutes or more "tying" her shoes (on mornings when we were on a time crunch to get out the door).  Really, it was just her arranging the laces in a pattern that looked like they were tied - until she got up and walked, that is.  I had brought home a wooden practice shoe so I could sit down with her and teach her, but didn't have a chance.  Then one night she told me she could tie her shoes.  When I asked her to show me, she actually could!  I asked her who taught her and she said, "No one.  I just watched [my teacher] tying everyone's shoes."  Sure enough, the teacher had not shown her!
• Evie is also in the higher end of her 4K class at school, as her teacher has chosen five students to be in a "reading" group.  She is doing great with her reading!  She now knows over 20 sight words, and can sound out some words to read simple books (like Hop on Pop) with help.  And she sounded out and spelled four different three-letter words independently in the car today!

I'm so proud of what she is doing!