First, she had a check-up with our family doctor where she was weighed and measured. She came in at 34 inches tall and 27 pounds heavy. I don't have 100% confidence in the weight measurement as their scales seemed ill-calibrated, but I am certain that she is at her highest weight ever right now, at least ten pounds above what she was at homecoming.
I asked the doctor to run some blood tests and from those results we learned that Emilia's thyroid is now doing fine. She is still minimally anemic which is associated with one of her known medical conditions, so we are not worried. However, the testing also showed that her ferritin levels (the iron stored in her body) are rather low. The normal range is 10-180 and hers is at 20. The doctor prescribed an iron supplement, but was also supportive of my idea of finding a more natural source of iron. I scoured the shelves at Whole Foods and bought Gaia Plant Force Liquid Iron which tastes great (like honey and orange) and can easily be given with some orange juice to aid absorption. So, I am going to try this first before forcing the yucky stuff from the pharmacy.
I also had the childhood food allergy blood panel run again and it revealed that Emilia is still allergic to dairy and possibly egg whites (though I have never seen her have a negative reaction to eggs), but the test showed her as not allergic to peanuts and fish. I question those results because it seems that every time she has peanut butter, she gets diarrhea and a rash. I will simply continue to keep peanut products out of her diet and have her retested later with a better test. I am hoping very much that my suspicions are wrong about a possible fish allergy because Emilia enjoys fish. I am going to find a good time to experiment at home by feeding her fish again and seeing what happens.
Emilia also had her first mini dental check-up and everything looks good. All of her teeth have come in, including the molars and there are no visible cavities. She only had a few teeth at two years old when we brought her home and the doctors wondered. I guess her body just needed some good nutrition to push those pearly whites out.
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| Emilia loves watching videos on her Kindle, anytime, anywhere |
The school's OT, PT, and ST as well as the psychologist went through the results of their evaluations with me and I was not at all surprised that Emilia scored approximately at the level of an 18 months old child. This is how long she has been with us and she has been developing on pace since then, but her two orphanage years were a total loss to her which means she was basically starting from scratch in our family. Her secure skills in fine motor and gross motor are at about 16 months, speech at 18 months, adaptive behavior at 25 months, cognitive at 20 months and social-emotional at 18 months. She has further scattered skills in all areas of development, some of which reach up to about 30 months. I think everyone feels confident that she will continue to make good progress.
Of course, I know that none of these numbers define our sweet girl. They do not reflect her joyful spirit, her affectionate nature, her irresistible laughter, her foot-stomping disagreement, or her tight hugs. I don't dwell on the numbers, but focus simply on what should come next on Emilia's developmental path. I relish in the milestones that Emilia has met and enjoy the rewards of parenting her, like hearing her try to sing the e-i-e-i-o part of Old McDonald. Three months ago, she couldn't speak at all:
(And yes, this is what my house looks like
at the end of a three day weekend)
at the end of a three day weekend)
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