1 year check up

Aliya had her one year check up today. She definitely tried my patients the entire time we were there. I picked her up from the sitter about an hour early and dosed her with Tylenol before we headed out...she has not taken an afternoon nap for the past few days, so she was already a bit cranky. We got to the doctor's office about 5 minutes before our appointment and Aliya freaked out the minute we walked through the door. She screamed when I took her coat off, she screamed when I put her down for 2 seconds to take my coat off. Then she spotted the Christmas tree in the corner of the room. She was fascinated with it, but still would not let me put her down to walk her over to see it. She wanted held and griped my hair with both hands as I stood up to walk across the room.

There was a really nice woman in the waiting room who commented on how cute Aliya is (of course). She went on to tell me her personal story about her infertility stuff and how she wants to adopt and her husband does not... it's remarkable how open people are with their personal stuff when it's so close to their hearts. Anyway, that's not the coolest part. She then asked me how old she is and made the comment on how much she's grown!?!!? How would she know? She then told me that she remembers us from our first appointment almost a year ago. Isn't that crazy? Isn't that amazing?

After waiting about 10 minutes we were called back for our turn. Aliya FREAKED out when I tried to put her on the scale. She wouldn't sit still long enough for the nurse to get her weight, so I scooped her up and stepped on the scale myself and let the nurse weigh both of us together, then put her down (still Screaming) and jumped back on. We were then ushered into the first room on the right (still screaming) and I was asked to lay her on the table so she could be measured. Yeah Right! At this point she is clinging to me for dear life...I laid her down and practically had to press my face against her stomach because she had such a tight grip. She was weight knuckled at this point. My heart was breaking. This was not just a "I'm ticked" scream, this was a "why are they doing this to me mommy" scream. The doctor came in and she screamed again. (what is with my child?) She wouldn't lay still long enough for him to get his ear light checker thingy...so he said I could hold her for most of the the exam. He could barely get the stethoscope to her chest and she start swinging her arms and arching her back. He said she's still perfect!!! He gave me the go ahead to start cow's milk and all foods! He gave me a hug and told me what a good job we're doing. Aliya finally calmed down long enough to say "football" and wave bye bye.

Two minutes later the nurse reappears and Aliya instantly starts screaming again. Here we go again! (see above paragraph for how laying her down goes) Scream...scream...stick...SCREAM...tears...more tears...screams... My heart sank AGAIN. It took her a good 5 minutes to calm down enough for me to snap her pants back up and put her shoes on. 2 rounds of the puppy song later we calm enough and ready to leave. (she screamed while putting her coat back on)

So, this is what we found out at this appointment...drum roll please...Aliya weighs 21 lbs (25-50th percentile) and 30 inches long (75th percentile)!!! She's getting so big!

After her appointment we picked up Joel from school and headed to PF Chang's to meet Jon and Uncle Bill for dinner. I wasn't too sure how dinner was going to go after the scream fest we just came from. She did okay during dinner. Defiantly not her normal happy self, but we weren't asked to leave by any means. We got a few dirty looks during dinner, but mostly smiles. Then about 15 minutes before we finished we were approached by a family that had grown their family through adoption 13 years ago in China. They said they go out once a year and celebrate "family day" (the day their daughter came home). The mom told us about their journey to get their daughter and adoption changed their lives. They just had to stop and tell us how beautiful she is. It was great to spend time with Uncle Bill! We missed seeing him and Myron at Thanksgiving. Myron wasn't able to join us tonight, but seeing Uncle Bill was great! He brought Aliya a cool new birthday gift and a neat card! Thanks again Uncle Bill! We tried to take a few pictures after, but my camera kept saying "unrecognizable file"...who knows!