I found an old journal entry about my darling Natasha. She had been home for 5 months when I wrote the following. The pictures is from the same time frame. Natasha was trying to catch bubbles with her mouth. :)

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When Natasha first arrived in the United States she was 3.5 years old. She was 3 feet, 1 inch tall and 31 pounds.


Five months later she is 3 feet, 3 inches tall and 32 pounds. Her skin looks much healthier and she is very active. She is a joy.


She doesn't use many Russian or Ukrainian words anymore. And her favorite way to start a conversation is to ask, "Whatcha doing?"


It does look like she is thrusting her tongue, which is interfering with the clarity of her speech. She will be getting some testing and therapy on this soon.


Natasha had her crossed eyes fixed within 1.5 month of being in the US. N's crossed eye issue was called squinty eyes in Ukraine. She gained depth perception with a simple outpatient eye surgery. This helped her immensely.


Here is an example of what no depth perception meant. Natasha dropped a raisin on my black pants. She was unable to see the raisin because it was black on black.


Natashenka hasn't had a major temper tantrum in about 2 months. She responds very well to various forms of discipline.

• sitting her in a corner or against a wall and counting to 10 with her. I hold my hands out in front of her and fold my fingers as we count. She likes watching my fingers.



• holding her in my arms like a baby until she is ready to listen



• giving her to the count of 3 to correct the problem such as pick up her toy. When I reach 3, I will go help her with the issue if she has not fixed it.



• time out toy

I never leave Natasha alone when I am disciplining her. This scares her. This is why her time outs are always done when I am present.

Natasha can play alone for short periods and enjoys reading books to herself.