Christmas is right around the corner and we have been home with Maggie 4 months today! It seems simultaneously like a million years and 5 minutes ago, like she has always been with us and that everything is still so new.
I clearly remember this time last year. The empty stocking holder, the logged in Dossier, the unknown. We did not know our sweet Maggie, did not know her funny faces and silly smile. We did not know that she was waiting for us, thousands of miles away in the deep south of China. We did not know her and that makes me sad and happy at the same time. Sad to think of her first Christmas with out a family and so happy to have her home for the holidays. Forever.
Attachment: She is doing well! She seems attached to all of us. She knows we are her people. She loves when the boys come home from school. She squeals when she sees Ryan and she is not letting me out of sight at bedtime. We are going to start leaving her in our church nursery for 10 minutes at a time, hoping to work our way up to her being comfortable without us, knowing that we always come back.
Growth: She popped one more tooth out, totaling 7 in the last 4 months! She has another blood draw attempt this week, and we are praying for a success. Our sweet girl has been stuck 10 times without success. That is 9 times too many. We are taking her to the top Children's hospital lab, hoping they will be more prepared and will be able to get the draw. It is a definite trauma trigger for her, so we need it to be over quickly.
Food: We can drink from a straw! Our next goal is to have her start using utensils. She is doing well learning to bite down on things and not just shove them whole in her mouth. Maggie has only been eating solid foods for 4 months, so simple things like biting down or using her molars is something that she has to learn how to do. She is still picky with her food and I have to really work to get a decent amount of food in her, but she is growing, so we are happy.
Physical and verbal development: Maggie took her first steps! She will take 3-4 steps between us and gets really excited, but will not try to go much further. She pushed herself up to standing a few times this week. She is getting stronger and steadier and will stand solidly until she realizes what she is doing and than will sit down. So, we are making good progress!
She has not added more words, but is starting to "talk" all the time with us. She babbles and imitates much more now.
She had her initial Head Start, early on evaluation and she qualifies for the program. We are waiting for another more detailed evaluation and we will go on from there.
Goals: We want to continue working on walking and standing as well as some fine motor skills. The next few weeks will be filled with a lot of family events, change of settings and schedules, and we want Maggie to be able to enjoy it and not let it stress her out. Keeping everyone nice and calm for the holiday!
But really, we are just SO HAPPY that she is finally home for the holidays!
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