Emilia - Twenty-Five Weeks Home

As of Saturday, Emilia has been home with us for twenty-five weeks.  Her biggest accomplishment this month so far has been eating solids.  She started with some very tiny bits of donuts on April 28 and since then has tried out quite a few new textures and flavors: diced bananas, fish fillet, baby puffs, pancakes, soaked toast (not a favorite), chicken noodle soup, diced sweet potato, lobster bisque, and graham crackers. We also had our first two family meals together where everyone ate the same dish: French toast for lunch one day and potato cakes for dinner another.  I attempted to give Emilia small pieces of strawberry and mango, but it was a no go.  I think I need to try canned peaches next since she loves peach puree.  She still will not fingerfeed, but I am not worried.  Her fine motor skills are quite delayed and she is still disinclined to work on them.

 In case you are wondering

why we don't have vent covers...

let's just say

Rex has been working really hard on inset puzzles.

We are still (impatiently) awaiting new language to emerge from Emilia. Sometimes she shows us that she can imitate sounds very easily, so I think her reluctance to utter additional words is a personal choice by our stubborn little girl.  She can be the most easy-going kid one minute and insist on her own terms the next.  I suppose that’s part of being a toddler.

These sibs love to get soaked at the water table.

We did an informal weigh-in at home and Emilia now weighs around 22 pounds which means she has gained six pounds in six months.  We also measured her and she appears to have grown about an inch and a half.  Pretty good for a little girl who just didn’t seem to be able to get bigger at her orphanage.  Another sign of her improving health is that I have had to cut Emilia’s nails for the first time.  Previously, they were so brittle that they would just break off before they ever needed a trim.

Emilia still loves to suck her thumb and cover up her ears when she is overwhelmed, but her rocking has almost gone away completely.  She used to rock every night in bed, but now when I put her down, she just stays under the blanket and falls asleep.  She also sleeps through the night very well these days.  We rarely hear her wake up at all.

Overall, Emilia is doing fine and we see progress in various areas all the time.  However, with her, I do constantly ask myself how much to push and how much to let her be on her own time.  It seems to be such a fine line with her personality and her history that I sometimes find it difficult to know what’s best.  In some ways, teaching her is more challenging than teaching Rex.  I guess I just have to have faith that it will all be okay in the end.