Finally, She Is Starting To Get It...

I still rock Lina at bedtime, mostly because its the one time of day she will just relax in my arms and not want to be on the go. We usually spend 15-20 minutes together before I put her to bed for the night. Over the past few weeks, she has started something new which has just been melting my heart.

She will tap herself on her chest and say, “Leeenaa”. Then she will tap me on the chest and say, “Mama.” Then, she will point at the door and say, “Papa”. (Ken is out of the room at this point) She will do this about 5 times in a row until she is content with herself, then will settle in and enjoy being rocked.

I think Lina is finally starting to understand her place, along with ours, in the family. What a great feeling.

6 Months Home & Day Care Update

Tomorrow marks 6 months home! I have not given a great description of Lina’s progress lately, so here it goes, please forgive my wordiness!

Lina has always enjoyed eating, hence the 6 pound weight gain during the first four months home! Lately, she has been trying and enjoying different types of fruits and raw vegetables. This is such a change from the summer when she would just spit these things out. Just this past week, I gave her cold cereal with milk for the first time, complete with a big bowl and spoon…she just loves it. It’s quite interesting to watch her eat it.

We have seen huge strides with Angelina’s language development. Though she is not stringing words together to form small sentences, her vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds weekly. She tries to say everything we say ( I realize we are at the point where Ken and I need to start watching what we say). Some highlights are: “luv—ou”, “neeena” (Lina), “okay”, “down-tair” (downstairs), “mamee” (grammy), and “peeeez” (please). She also will finally point to each of us and call us Mama, Papa, and herself Lina.

With regards to attachment, I am happy to say that we still are seeing progress. Sometimes, the progress is painfully slow and not to the point where we would like to be. Then, we see where we have come from, and I feel so much better. I go through stages where all I do is think about the “A” word, and tend to drive myself crazy with what Lina is doing and not doing yet. Then, I have to remind myself that we have only been home 6 months and the attachment process is just that, a process. I love that Lina loves to cuddle with us and wants us to hold her, and brings us into her play all of the time. I don’t love that she still is very comfortable with strangers (minus her grandfather who she shies away from regularly) and that she shows no separation anxiety when I drop her off at her day care. I know these things will come with time; I just need to remember that attachment is a process.

Recently, Lina has become quite the little helper. She loves to help me unload the dishwasher, and set the table. She likes to fold the clothes with me, and asks for napkins when she sees me dusting and wiping of the counters. She loves to have us read to her, and sing to her. I do believe that music will be very important to her one way or another while she grows. Potty training was going well, but now is on the back burner as we make our transition into day care. Speaking of day care, she is doing very well at Karen’s house. Karen (her day care provider) says that Lina is starting to interact more with the other kids and she is happy and plays well with others. She eats and sleeps well there as well. I could not be happier that she is acting well while in Karen’s care. She has developed this lovely, loud screech that she has been using this past week. Let me set the scenario: I leave the room (screech), I switch the laundry (screech), I turn my back to make dinner (screech). You get the picture. I am sure this is just an attention seeking behavior, and Ken and I have chosen to ignore it. Hopefully this too will pass. Other than the deafening screech, we have not noticed much of a change with regards to our new schedule, besides the fact that Lina is just so tired at night, for that I am glad. A good tuckering out is perfect for a two-year-old.

Again, sorry for the long post. If you are still with me, here are two pictures. One taken the first week home, and one taken just yesterday. What a difference!