Ok, now for the details

Earlier when I posted Audrey's picture, I could only get internet on my phone and I hate typing on it. So…here are a few pictures and then the details. She doesn't really stop moving so its hard to capture her with the camera! I have commented to a few people when I first received pictures that I was worried because I have never seen a picture of her smiling. Now I know why!  Here are all my attempts to get a picture of Audrey.

This is as close as we can get to "still" and "full face". Do you notice she has her ears pierced?

Maybe if  sing in her ear?

Axel and the grandkids of the foster parents. The oldest girl was very close to Axel. Oh the tears when she walked in the door! He hugged her RIGHT AWAY! The girl holding Audrey is one month younger than Audrey. 9 years old. The boy next to her is small 6. Look how tiny Audrey is next to him. She *might* be able to wear a US size 4 clothes. 

Axel and the grand daughter. She was like a sister to him when he was here. Axel used to love to brush her hair. It was fun she is able to speak some English and they had fun visiting together. Axel started saying a few Serbian words too!

And now for the details. Naturally my first response was "Oh my word she is so tiny!" I think she is even smaller than Asher was when I first met him. Maybe close to the same size. Keep in mind she has been in the foster home since June and has gained around 15 pounds. You can imagine how skinny she was!

She is a very capable little girl. She is able to indicate she wants a drink (she goes and gets a cup to give to the foster mother) She exhibits a wide range of emotions, including happiness, excitement, frustration. 

She is still food obsessed and really has a long way to go with that. She chews food but not very effectively. She stuffs food into her mouth, moves it around a bit, but tends to swallow it whole. She did come to  me once when she has a huge mushy wad of bread in her mouth that was too big to swallow and indicated she wanted it out. 

She drools constantly! Anyone who makes velcro towel bibs? She went through three or four in the 3 hours we were there. She also likes to lick her hands and then spread the mess all over her face and arms. Yay! 

Did I mention she is tiny? I brought three sizes of shoes with me: toddler sizes 7, 9, 10. She will be wearing the 7's I think! The 9's will be too big. Tomorrow I'll bring shoes along to the visit to make sure the 7s will fit. 

Audrey is starting to babble and is making lots of different consonant sounds. b, n, h, m. You can see she wants to say words. 

She still has a lot of institutional behaviors, but the foster mother says she is already a completely different child than when she arrived back in June. Her skin was a mess then but is in good condition now because, thankfully, she really likes to have lotion put on her. I expect that a year from now she will be different still. 

Audrey really is a very happy little girl. She spent most of the time sitting in my lap. Periodically she would go sit with someone else, but always would come back to me. She really likes music - and to dance to music - so I was often singing quietly in her ear while everyone else was visiting. She seemed to really love this. I would kind of massage her hands and arms at the same time which she also enjoyed. She has a little stimming thing she does with her fingers, (she has the TINIEST  hands!) making the ASL "R" handshape. Axel notice she can make and "r" and told her "Good job Audrey!"