As the Child Develops

The last couple of days have been fun and exhausting with the emphasis on the fun. Linda has begun to take to our new sleep routine even though she whines and cries a bit when we put her in her crib. The difficult part is putting her down for naps; we haven’t been able to! Most of her naps come while we are out doing errands and meeting people. The day is the most difficult to get into a routine, but it will come soon as I go back to work on Monday and Mel will need to keep her sanity so a schedule will be had.

We have worked on leaving Linda on the floor while we do some chores. She whines a bit and cries, but in most circumstances she is faking it. She even has the fake tears down. You know she is testing the waters because as soon as you poke your head around the corner she stops and has a big grin on her face! We have also started doing this with the Pack n’ Play. This is for those days when either Mel or I have to do something and don’t want Linda running, crawling, rolling around. We know that it will be soon when we cannot use the PnP, but we will while we have it. Doing these things with an adopted child is actually quite disturbing to us adults as we try to be sensitive to the fact the poor thing was abandoned, grew up in one place, and has been displaced from there to a new environment. We are doing the slow route which seems to be working. Hopefully by next week Linda will be more comfortable with it.

Saturday our friends Bill and Mary visited us and we hit the La Mesa Octoberfest. Linda needed a good drinking party. Oh, um, well, um, oh. NOT! Here it is a big street faire with some music and, yes, a beer garden. We walked around and spent almost 3 hours there. Bill took the record for stranger attempting to hold Linda. I forget how long, but it sure beat the 15 seconds for most strangers!

Yesterday Linda got to meet and play with her new friend Jarrah. A slow start ended in quite a good time for all. We think that this time with Jarrah and her Mom, Sam, helped Linda realize that all is good and the toys we have are actually fun and useful, and that life is not just playing with mommy and daddy and running crazy errands!

Today Linda was perky and very loving and alert. She woke up on the “right side of the bed”! She did not cry and whine when she woke up like usual. The norm has been quite a bit of crying/wailing which indicated to us that she was up for good, while some of the cries and whimpers during the night are something else because she goes back to sleep or has never really awoken. I took advantage of the peaceful wake-up by getting Linda before the crying started, thus allowing Mel to catch a few more winks, snores, or whatever. Everything she did today was just so darned cute. The best was when she was standing at her table toy and swaying to the music!

We also visited my work today. What an impression Linda made on them. She was so well behaved. She showed her serious side upon meeting the folks and showed her cute, adorable, happy side the rest of the time. No fussing except when she was held by others. The longest was maybe 15 seconds before the arms stretched out to Mel or me. Bill, you still hold the record for the longest hold by a stranger! By the end of the visit she had so much fun and excitement she fell asleep in Mel’s arms. It was so cute. Linda’s favorite pastime is showing people how well she stands and attempts to walk. She could do this all day. Of course our old backs would never hold out!

All in all it was a wonderful day. She ate more than normal and at the same time missed one bottle feeding, and she did not complain! Of course this will not become a habit until after 12 months, but it was a good sign that she does not depend on the bottle. Bed time was a little rough, but she went down after Mel made a second appearance to calm her crying. Good night!