M Update

Every day I hope to have the time to sit down and write about how things are going with M and the family, and every day the time slips away before I get the chance.

M is doing so well. I cannot believe how very blessed we are to have this wonderful baby. In the time since she's been home I will try to go over some of her development and changes. When she first came home she sucked her thumb almost continuously. As the weeks have passed it seems she needs her thumb less and less. The past two weeks (so after a month of being home) she really made strides in becoming more secure and attached to us. She now seems much more at ease and is happier and more explorative every day. Her vocalizations are louder and bolder.

M eats.... almost anything I put down in front of her. She prefers to feed herself with her fingers, so if I chop it up small enough then she is content eating it. The only thing I have seen her turn her nose at is blueberry yogurt. (Did I write that already?) She is not even particular about sauces or flavors, which leads me to believe that I was far too accommodating to C and K when they were little. Only a few times I have given her something not soft enough or when she was fussing too much and then had to follow with a finger sweep. In the beginning I had to go slow because she would stuff so much food in her mouth and forget to chew and swallow. She is getting better about this, and I am getting better about giving the food to her slower. But it is so nice to sit her down and give her the same things we are having for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

M sleeps through the night, which I am so thankful for. She does not want to sleep at home during the day. I have given her a pass on this, since she sleeps so well in the car and stroller, where she spends a lot of her time anyway. Once in a while I get a good daytime nap, and then I tiptoe around like a crazy woman cleaning bathrooms and doing other stuff that's been piling up. I've learned not to force the nap because she wakes up ANGRY. I would much rather deal with a tired fussy baby than an angry baby. I don't know what happened in the orphanage with regard to naps, but in my mind I've decided to be flexible about her day. Her first 10 1/2 months were so regimented and who-knows-what in the orphanage. So she gets a loving pass here.

The day before her first birthday I saw her take her first two steps. Yesterday she took 7 in the kitchen. She really wants to walk. She is crawling around much more, and faster too. She's starting to cross rooms, which she didn't do when she came home. She is no longer content to pick at the carpet or the metal strip dividing the carpet and the kitchen floor. I am pretty happy about this... to see her coming out of her 2 foot radius. I think having the twins playing around her has really opened her up and drawn her out. I have always wondered if she's developmentally where she's supposed to be... or how delayed she is. At church this Sunday there was a 10-month-old behind me with her parents. What a good little girl! She sat with her parents and rarely fussed. She poked at things with her fingers together. She did all the things M did when she first came home, at 11 months. If you account for M's one-month prematurity, then M is right-on developmentally. What a relief for me to realize this.

Our pediatrician has said that she is delayed with her speech, which we were also aware of in Russia. She should be making consonant sounds and she isn't really. We have had her hearing checked and it seems okay, although we have to go back for another test. I think she's going to be fine, as she is probably put all of her effort into walking right now and not speech. She also has the prematurity and language changes to slow things down. But every so often I hear a "gggg", "mmmm", or a "yyyy".

Yesterday we had our one-year check-up for her, one month after the first pediatrician appointment. At M's first appointment all of her growth statistics showed her in the 50th percentile (head, height and weight). Amazing, for coming out of an orphanage! Way to go, Stavropol! In the past month, she grew a couple of inches (maybe they didn't measure her right the first time?) and gained a pound or two. She is now 95th percentile for height and 65th for weight. Wow! She's stretching out and becoming a little less of a Buddha belly. But her legs are still pretty short and chubby. It's interesting to see how much babies change.

Last week I left M, K and C with Kevin so that I could head to San Jose for a dinner with some old friends. Kevin and C had a cub scout pack meeting and it was outside. This was the first time that M has been outside in the dark. Kevin said she freaked out when she got home and cried like he hadn't heard in a long time. He couldn't console her, she wouldn't eat, so he gave her a bottle and put her to bed. The next day she snuggled in to me and sucked her thumb like I hadn't seen in weeks. It seemed like the whole day was spent consoling and reassuring her that I was there. I think she missed me! So now we are seeing "object permanence", as my pediatrician said, and some attachment. A good thing!

So all in all, M is growing physically, emotionally and socially. C and K are both doing well too. K carries M around and sings to her, which M loves. She also loves taking a bath with K. C has told us he likes having a little sister. It's the sweetest thing!