Every morning Roselyn wil give a sign to Mama she want to be picked up and lie next to Papa and Mama before she is 100% awake. We love spending this warmth giving time with her. In this way she is bonding with us very well. She shows her happines and satisfaction by giving mama and papa very loving kisses during this ritual in the morning and at night. Then Papa wil go downstairs to make milk for her. While drinking she wil point a particular book that Papa has to read to her. Mama wil in between creep out of the bathroom to clean-up and take-over later so that Papa can have his breakfast and get ready to go to work.

This morning after one month of renovation of the living room, we clear-up some space
so that Mama and Roselyn can enjoy the living room. Roselyn was so happy of the extra space in the livingroom. She kept cycling up and down from the kitchen to the end of the living and around the big sitting.

Roselyn is pretty familiar to our neighbours, she call granpa, grandma and the grandson, Jarique. She ran to pick up her jacket, took mama shawls and jacket and showed me to the door. She wants to go out to join grandma and Jarique. She gave that liitle boy of 18 months a hand and kiss. Then we made a walk, went to their house. Roselyn loves to play there like her second home.

She has been sleeping wel in the afternoon. When she woke up we make a walk around the neighbourhood, she is very quiet. Mama feels it is not right ... later mama realised she has diarhea. The first diarhea in 2 months. 5 times watery poep in 2 hours. No wonder she did not want much apple juice the few days. Quickly I made some very watery porridge for her to eat. No more milk and apple juice. It seems to help. She did not like the tasteless rice powder with warm water. She gave a yukkie expression, pushing away the bottle of ricewater. But before she went to sleep, she creep down her bed and pick up the bottle of jukke ricewater and drink them up. Eventhough she did not like the ricewater, she wants to complete her ritual tonight. She is really conditioned. Eventhough she is tired (9.30 pm), she needs her 90 minutes ritual to look at books, to ponder over whatever she has learned before she really knock-out and sleep finally.

Roselyn is back home nearly two months now. Finally she is having very peaceful sleep. Waking up with a smile. It is a joy to see her finally finding some peace and feels at home with us.

Last few days more and more mandarin words is coming out of Roselyn.
She said "sia"= go down, "par"= scared, "chou"=run, "ssy ssy"= urinating.
And very often mumbling with words beginning with zhi , they sounds pretty Mandarin to us, but we could not understand them. She is beginning to understand more and more Dutch words surprisingly. But talking is still a problem, her pronouciation is still mumbly, but Karen and me are beginning to be able to decypher her baby talk, like:
- papa eten,
- kom vogel,
- appel,
- deze, - fiets,
- vies,
- heet,
- een, twee, drie

She begins to show interest in books. We put some in her room, her play corner and a few in the kitchen. These are the places she often comes around. Before sleeping in, she is conditioned to looking at books. And in the morning when papa makes her milk, she wants papa to read to her & mama must be beside her as well. She always like to perform her rituals, like putting her shoes at the same place, milk and reading before bedtime. She still likes to put two fingers in het mouth when sleeping (or when she's bored), we have to discourage that habit. We still don't know how.

She prefers Lego building bloks, crockery things, cars (and other moving objects) than dolls. with dolls, she will try how fast she can pull out the arms, legs or head. Her body language is very good. Whatever she wants she will pull us to her needs or point to things she wants us to pick up or do for her. A very expressive little girl.

It is spring time now. She gets to go out almost everyday. She cannot get enough of playing in the playground. She also like animals very much, especialy birds; she will then call out to them "kom vogel", which means "come here bird" in Dutch. She makes contact easily with other kids.She has also discovered playing with sands on the beach. Kicking the water and splashing the water brings alot of giggles to her. And she repeats this acts on the bath tub. She loves washing clothes in the bath tub, her ways of washing is like those "kampong ladies". I suppose at the orphage she still remembers alot of things. She is addicted to playing with water and wants to take bath everyday! Actually 3 - 4 days a week is advisable, more often will dry her skin.

Two and half year old is a challenging period. She wants to do alot of things on her own en is very, very quirious and inquisitive. To do it correctly she needs papa and mama constantly by her side. Challenging papa and mama alot during bath, sleep and nappy changing. Luckily she eats well.

Morning 7am190 ml milk. 8.30 some biscuits and juice. In betweens apple jus or cookies. 11.45 am jogurt drink with bread, or cheese or an apple or pear. By 12.00 noon she needs a 2 hour sleep. Then is play time (in the playground, to the shop or just play at home), By 5.30 it is dinner time. She loves porridge. If we eat spicy food (sambal/chilli) she wants it as well, she will have porridge with chicken en some vegetables. Otherwise it is just the same wok -food with papa and mama. She is getting chubby due to the good sleep and eating well.

It is a joy to see her being happy and growing well. Our is daugther is a warm, mischievous, alert and active child. She can charm anybody she if she wants.

This week, the renovation of our house started early in the morning. The construction people wre using pneumatic drills and diamond circel saw to cut away the wall separating our living room with the sleeping room downstairs.

Roselyn was really scared stiff, she jumped up in fright and grabbed Karen so tightly. So we took her the whole day to Ikea to play at the childrens corner.

Those nights, her sleep were not realy peaceful; fear of unknown noises and new impressions made her restless. She woke up a few times those few nights crying, looking for mama . . . . .
Karen is always there to hug and console her. A few times she will wake up and point at my empty bed; I always sleep later. I would then come up and lay down until she falls asleep again.