How in the world is Odette?

Oh yeah, I have this kid here that lives with me that y’all like to hear about every now and then. Kidding… But, I do know that many of you come around just to see her cute little face and hear of her antics as of late. I do the same thing to many blogs I read.

Here’s the lowdown on the shorty. I give you the rambling-on version that I am too tired to make a coherent entry. You’re welcome.

She’s up to the same old same old. A lot of asking for pizza, chocolate, or popsicles. She continues to become more of a bean pole everyday. She hardly has a stitch of clothing that fits her well. She sports the high-water look like the 70 year old ladies, which is good considering that our basement flooded a few weeks back. (See I don’t put everything out here on the blog.) She sings about 82% of the time and creates her own songs. Usually she repeats random words over and over. Her vocabulary is amazing and I would guess right on par for a kid her age if not ahead, but when she breaks into tune she only remembers halleluiah and 3 other words. She moans and groans when I wake her in the morning, but now is a pretty solid sleeper (knocking on wood as I type). She sleeps completely through the night and has only had a handful of accidents since early fall. What else do you want to know? Hmm. Her hair is almost 4 inches long. It is becoming more of challenge, but a challenge I love! It is taking some tweaks and changes and new products and routines. I’m starting to get it down. I can confess that I shampooed her hair for the very first time ever this week. She loved the rich lather. It took about 7 months of cold baths before she started to enjoy warm water. But, to reminisce a bit she fills her bath pitcher with water each night just before her bath is over and then pours the cold water on her head the next time she bathes. She has two loose teeth that I am willing to stay in her head as long as possible. She still prefers skirts over pants and is pretty opinionated about what she wears. Playdoh, school, restaurant, coloring, and moving all of her toys, books, and puzzles around into different lines and piles are her favorite past times. She is very compassionate and considerate, especially to mommy and daddy. She loves to watch her shows (way more than I would prefer) and dreams of being a REAL princess like the movies. Her favorite colors are pink and purple. She continues her gymnastics class on Saturdays and is in her last session before she moves up to the 4-5 class. Some of the cute things she says these days are you kidding mommy?, I knowed, booyah, why?, jus-a-secon, Odette do it. The kid loves to eat and will eat anything and everything. If you ask her she will most likely say her favorite food is broccoli. She likes broccoli, but I think maybe she misunderstands the questions. She knows most of the letters in her name and can spell it for you some of the time. Did you realize how similar d, t, and e sound? Try it, O, d, e, t, t, e. She talks about Congo in bits and pieces. It is hard to tell what she truly remembers and what memories she is “creating” to fill the void. She loves us like crazy. She totally has the flight of the fight or flight thing. Make her mad and she wants to leave and have a new family. We continue to work on it. She is soft and snuggly. We call it snuggle buggle time. She smells of sweet sugar and literally makes my mouth water. I never got the whole “I could just eat you up thing” but now I do. She has an incredible photographic memory. Really. It amazes me. She thrives on routine, but is good at being flexible, too. She loves to be goofy, has a new fake laugh that makes me crazy, and is very ticklish. She’s pretty cool. I like her. A lot. Please tell me that you didn’t really read this, but instead skipped down to the pictures.

P.S. Yes, I am aware of the new investigation process for the US Embassy in DRC that potentially is causing 3-6 month delays. I am waiting to hear more news and am working to process it. If I have any thoughts to share about it, I’ll let you know.