(A little blurry but such a cheeky smile)
I’ve taken a note from the page of a friend who suggested writing on the calendar all the milestones that Heidi reaches. They are so tiny as to initially appear insignificant but when added together create a beautiful image into who Heidi is becoming.
Heidi took 16 steps. She picked up her spoon and licked it!
Heidi got pneumonia. She waved to Zoey.
Heidi drank from her bear cup.
She clearly responds to her name. And bites. People. Hard.
Heidi turned two years old and leaned to shake her head “no” on that same day.
She mimics “da-da” when prompted.
She mimics tongues out and blowing raspberries.
She nods her head “yes”.
Heidi saw her daddy across the dinner table and as sweetly as can be said, “dada”.
Not to make me feel neglected she gave me a real hug two days later. She gives tender pats on shoulders and backs just as we do when we comfort her.
Heidi walks more than crawls. Unless she can convince an older sibling to pick her up and carry her. Which she does. Shamelessly. By crying whenever they come near.
Other than the illness those were such joyous, triumphant moments from her month. She met her cousin, Wally, for the first time. She is a joy to our hearts.
But we’ve had our share of hard moments, too. The pneumonia was hard, hard, hard to handle. We felt so sad for her but also glad that she was no longer alone, no longer needing to be brave by herself. She had her family to hold her, rock her, support her.
I was so happy to have her home in time to celebrate her second birthday. I made a little panda cake with a candle for her first birthday which we missed and a candle for her second birthday where we could be together. But it went terribly.
She was afraid of the candles. She didn’t like the icing or cake (although the ice cream made her stop crying for a minute).
That whole week it felt like she cried. And cried. And we couldn’t figure out if it was trauma related or time change related. And we still don’t know. What we do know is that she had her forever family to support her through her bad week.
(Hugs from a big sister can help!)
We spent lots of late afternoons with Heidi in the carrier.
And then posing so adorably we could easily forget she cried all day.
(Sensory play with oats).
Then slowly, slowly we began to see a shift. So small at first that if we weren’t paying attention we could have missed it.
A happy Heidi in the bath. Remember her first bath? She screamed the whole time. Now it’s enjoyable.
A happy Heidi playing with her toes.
A CURIOUS Heidi. This is enormous! Our sweet girl didn’t notice anything when we first adopted her. Seeing her curiosity grow is beautiful (if a bit dangerous for poor old Petey).
You can see Heidi does still look at her hands, but this staring gets less and less each day.
An irritated Heidi. Ok, she kind of had this mastered earlier but it always makes me laugh to capture it on camera.
A bossy Heidi, calling across the yard to her older sisters to wait up.
Glad to be with her sissies!
Heidi at a Restaurant! After Ruthie’s 3-hour cleft appointment we braved it. And Heidi did great much to the delight of her big sisters who have missed our occasional eating out after appointments.
She is SO loved.
We made it much more smoothly through month two and are eagerly anticipating the joys of month three.
Now enjoy a slideshow of Heidi photos.
Happy two months home, Heidi the brave! We love you!!
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