Samantha is making so much progress and growing so much. She was a little sick when we first got her home, but her last well baby visit proved that she's doing really well. The doctor was extremely impressed with her overall. He was amazed that she had been in an orphanage and praised their skills in care because she was so alert and engaging when he examined her... and also because she was so healthy. We redid all of the major bloodwork, of course, just to make sure she was completely healthy before we started some of her immunizations, and everything is A-OK!!
I started her on baby food when we got home, and she did okay for a little while. She wasn't too cracked up about the highchair, but she's coming around. She has decided, though, that she does NOT like baby food. She wants to pick up things with her hands and feed herself at every meal. She will let me spoon feed her certain things, though, that can't be picked up with her hand. She likes things like edamame, tomatoes, english peas and carrots. Oddly enough, she doesn't like peaches! I'm from Georgia, the peach state; she can't dislike peaches!!! I'll have to give her some fresh ones in the spring instead of the baby jar ones or the canned ones to see if she will come around. wink, wink
Now that she's eating more solid foods, she is sleeping a little better at night. The first two nights I gave her a really solid meal before bed, she didn't feed at all during the night. Last night, though, she did take a bottle around 3:45 am. I'm giving her a watered down version at night, though, to reduce her dependence on feedings in the middle of the night (Thanks, Lao Lao, for the recommendation!).
Speaking of good recommendations... my neighbor gave me another incredible recommendation on sleeping. She said she read in a book that if a child is rubbing her eyes before bedtime and things like that indicating she's tired that it's probably past when she should be going to bed. The book indicated that the child would sleep better and more deeply if put to sleep at an earlier time rather than going down when already super tired. My neighbor suggested I try putting her down to bed early/earlier and see how she will do. It stopped the waking up once and hour for the first two or three hours at bedtime. I was amazed! Let's see if it will continue to work. Whoo Hoo!!!
At 10.5 months, Samantha is almost walking. Yesterday, she walked by herself all the way across the kitchen on the wood floor while barefoot. I was doing something at the kitchen counter and turned around when I heard her footsteps. It was so adorable to see her toddling across the floor all on her own.
She's getting better in the car seat. She finally took a pacifier a few weeks ago. I know there are some of you out there thinking... "Why in the world would you WANT her taking a binky?" But she had started putting her thumb in her mouth kind of as a teething habit when she didn't have something else in her hand to teeth on. I was afraid she would start sucking her thumb, and I can't take that away one day. So when I didn't have a teething toy with me, I'd put a paci in her mouth. She finally took it, and it has helped sleeping and riding in the dreaded car seat. Those are the only two times of the day that I let her have a binky, and she's doing just fine with that.
She's playing fairly well by herself. Of course, she wants me nearby when she does, but if I give her attention throughout the day, she's content to play in the tupperware drawer or with her toys by herself periodically.
She has a loud, husky voice too. We (Grandma and I) like to say that she found her outside voice. A couple of times a day, she will start to make a loud yelling noise. One day Avery yelled back with her, and it started a fun game. They kept doing it for a few minutes, and it was adorable. Now I yell back and forth with her too. I like to think that we are communicating in the only way she knows how... kinda. She does open her mouth and close it making a popping noise when she's hungery for a bottle. It's adorable! So she does communicate other ways. We are also working on sign language. She said ma ma ma ma ma ma when she left the orphanage, and we worked with her to shorten it to Mama. So her first word was Mama!!!. She has started saying "da" lately. I guess her second word with be Dada. Too funny. I can just tell she wants to talk so badly at times.
She definitely has brought a joy to my life that I never could have understood before having her in my life. I have been amazed at the emotions and feelings that I have for her that no one could ever explain to me before to make me understand. It is so amazing to be a mother. Of course, it's challenging too. I'm trying to keep a sense of humor about it as much as possible and laugh when she pees all over my car seat when I'm changing her. Yep! You read that right. Last night on the way home from dinner, I stopped because I forgot to change her diaper before I left. I knew she was going to fall asleep on the way home, and I didn't want to put her to bed with a wet diaper. During the process, my little peanut let it flow all over my back seat. I didn't realize it at first. It wasn't very funny at the time, but by the time I had finished changing her and some of her clothes and started putting her back in the car seat, I was already laughing about it.
That's about it for now. Hope everyone out there is doing well. Here are a few recent pics of Samantha.
Warm Fall Wishes,
Dana
