Olivia, this is your Grandma...

My Mum and her partner Chas arrived in DK on Tuesday and brought some Australian sun with them!

Olivia experienced some of Grandma's influence trying some non-dairy rice milk... which she enjoyed!

We played with the ball in the backyard which gave Grandma and Olivia a chance to have a game together... Olivia was very interested and happy.
 

 We made a trip to Kolding so the grandparents could compare notes...

Two proud Grandmothers...

While Olivia is bonding with us - and getting to know what it means to have a Mum and Dad - it is really important that she is not confused by emotional contact to others. This makes the role of grandparent in the first months of the adoption process perhaps one of the most unnatural situations one can experience. After a long wait, they must wait even longer to have that cuddle and closeness that is bursting to come out.

Olivia is lucky both to have three "sets" of grandparents but also that they have been so understanding.

Summer fun

We exploited a rare appearance by the sunshine here in Denmark and visited Mikkel and Trine Marie in their summerhouse. Trine's boys, Albert and Artur, were just her style with a good mix of consideration and being a bit rough. Olivia was comfortable and just wandered around playing with the boys even with out one of us to be there and give her a sense of security. This is big progress compared to just a week or so ago where she would sit with us and look over longingly at the other kids playing.

Albert helped her to get the hang of the bubble machine...

Olivia was not at all interested in dolls and stuffed toys when she first came to live with us, but in the past weeks she has started to become closer to Rabbit, or "Baa-be" as she calls him (thanks Aunty Lauren and Uncle Adrian!). Now she sleeps with Rabbit, takes him for a walk and gives him some of her bottle.

Olivia has shown us that she is pretty good on her feet. She takes the stairs at home now with no problems and she is good at running about, and could even take it to Albert and Artur on the trampoline... Here she figures out how to walk backwards.

We have on the whole had a pretty wet summer. Eastern Sweden is under water and the garden looks very happy. But... again when the sun came out we made the most of it and headed out to Steen and Inge's "hunting lodge".

We tried out the new backpack (Thanks Maria!) and Olivia loved it. At this rate I might even get some back muscles...

Butterfly hunting in the meadow... Olivia was good a spotting them and even saw some before Dad.

Olivia is good mates with Ditte... Again Olivia felt safe to run around and play with her as long as we were in sight.

This was the only time they just sat quietly!

Snapshots of the every-day

 We have been home with Olivia for 6 weeks now and feel that we're settling into the routines having a new little person in our family. Olivia is showing many signs of bonding, and we feel so lucky to have been given such a cheerful little girl who loves to receive and to give plenty of kisses and cuddles. Our first impression of her as a rather shy girl is no longer valid. She loves some action and when asked if she wants to get out of the house, she immediately nods, grabs the handbag, and she's ready to go... Here I went to the beach to make the most of a sunny morning

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We also feel that Olivia is relaxing into life with us. Every week brings a new change in how she interacts with us. As you know, she was just paralised in the very beginning. Then she started to want our attention, and was constantly clowning around to get it, eventhough that was hardly necessary :-) At the same time, she was very unsure of whether we would leave her, so she was constantly on my arm or my lap and could not sit still for two seconds. If I'd leave the room, she went into panic and was genuinely scared, even if Aaron was with her. However, in the last week or so, she has become more calm and can sit calmly and play with us, and she potters around me while I get the boring daily chores done (now using both arms - yey!!). She still has a great sense of humor and plays a lot of cheeky tricks on us, but we rarely see the manic clowing around for attention anymore. I'm hoping that this means she is relaxing and just being herself, rather than constantly having to put on a show to keep our attention. Here, we're having some quiet cuddling and playing in the hammock in the garden, and below, Aaron is entertaining her after breakfast with some YouTube videos of cats and dogs :-)

Pointing out dogs, cats and birds are still the favorite passtime. We bought a book with ONLY cats, and she is as excited as ever, every single time she turns a page :-)  Here she just realised that your phone has a picture of a dog....

We had a cask of wine on the kitchen bench, and one day Olivia started to push the tap while going "aaah" with an open mouth under it. She has never seen us pour wine from it (that happens after she has gone to bed), so I have no idea where she got this habit from :-)

Olivia has changed the tune with regards to sleeping. During the first 3 weeks, we hardly noticed her in the bed, but after she started showing signs of bonding, she has also been seeking cuddles from me during the night. Sometimes the cuddles are more like rubgy-tackling than cuddles (we have therefore named it the "rugby-cuddles"), so I lie awake for hours with Olivia more or less throwing herself across my face or neck every couple of minutes. Maybe the rugby-cuddles started because we played this game with her in the bed one afternoon...

 The highligt of this week was the visit from Dorthe and little Janus - Olivia's friend from Pattaya Orphanage. The two both recognized each other immediately and said each other's Thai names. Below, they get caught in the kitchen looking for more cashew nuts. After they left, Olivia kept pointing to the window and saying Janus' Thai name. We're looking forward to seeing them again next week!