A better day all round

Today was indeed a much better day all round. Raina was much more cooperative and less defiant from the moment she woke up. Mummy Ruth and Raina went off into town to run some errands whilst I vacuumed the house and mopped the floor (glamorous - I do know how to have fun). The three of us met up for lunch and Raina demolished her fish fingers, chips and peas followed by ice cream. Raina is really into her food; she is very often asking for food and can get quite distraught when she doesnt get any straight away. Raina's weight was discussed at the matching panel and the information provided by the LAC medical advisor was debated by the members of the panel for a good while. (she is apparently in the 98% percentile) One panel member suggested that Raina may be comfort eating to cope with her traumas (eating disorders and difficult food relationships are apparently quite common amongst adopted children). She is a pretty big girl; but she doesnt look fat the way some children do!!! Both Mummy Ruth and I have noticed independently that we both thought her stomach looked to have got a bit smaller in the week since she has been here, not that we are making her diet to loose weight.... Just making sure she gets a healthy varied diet and snacks. We are expecting a call from the Health Visitor tomorrow to arrange a check-up and weigh in for our little prize fighter. The SW is keen to know regular updates on Raina's weight and we are due to meet for the first LAC review next Thursday. Raina was getting crisps and chocolate on a regular basis at the FC and we have completely reduced this since she has been living with us. We are also trying to keep her active and today we went to a large indoor soft play centre, which she loved. We also took her to the doctors today. Raina has some marks on her body (arms, legs and tummy). When her SW came to visit the other day she noticed them and we all had a good look together. We told her that we had asked the FC about them ourselves and she had told us that Raina's birth parents had not used sun cream on Raina when they were having contact and she had been sun burnt. The SW was surprised about this. Today we took Raina to the doctors to check it out. The verdict is that she has Hyperpigmentation, which may be skin damage due to exposure to the sun or possibly caused by another skin condition. He said it was nothing to worry about and no permanent damage. On another good note, Raina had exzcema when we met her and this has all cleared up since she has been living with us. We tried to make bathtime and bedtime a bit later tonight, so we can slowly change her routine a bit. Ideally if we can get her into a routine of waking a bit later and gong to bed a bit later it'll really help when I go back to work. At the moment, the current routine would mean that I would miss dinner, bath, story and bedtime every night. That's not a good prospect. Thanks for great day Raina!!!