Heidi has had an excellent month (other than that one ear infection and being near pneumonia at the same time). But after that, it was great!
(Always wants snuggles when she’s sick.)
Heidi’s speech is starting to progress. This month she added to monkey, elephant. She loves, loves to hear and make the elephant sound. She attempted to repeat “quack-quack” in her own way. She made two different sounds together “ahhhh-bbbbb” and was trying to say “uh-oh”. Previously she would only repeat the same sound two or more times (Ex. Dada, mom-mom, ah-ah, you-you, etc.)
(Can you handle her cuteness??)
She did some really sweet things this month also. After I kissed her cheeks she leaned into me and kissed mine. She likes to give hugs and reaches up to be held.
(So loved)
Heidi has been eating really well this month. She ate some cheese curls that were smashed onto her tray by licking her pointer finger, getting them to stick, and sucking them off. She ate a piece of pizza in her way. I cut it up and fed it to her on a spoon, but not the crust or any crunchy parts. She is drinking from a non-therapeutic straw cup.
And while it’s backward on the milestone chart she successfully drank from a sippy cup!
This was a huge step as the cup close up to her face terrified her for these first 6 months. She even picked the cup up by the handle and put it in her mouth! We were so impressed.
Sitting up at the table like a big girl!
One downside from this month is that for the past two weeks she has started waking up 1-2 times a night screaming. (So sad for me because she’s always been an amazing sleeper and I love to sleep.) She is typically easy to calm and goes back to sleep but has also been waking up earlier than usual for her (6:30 am instead of 7:30 or 8:00). One night in particular was horrible because when I went into her room to pick her up my touch scared her and her cry changed to sound terrified. Thankfully once she heard my voice she grabbed me right and stopped crying. I can’t even blame the time change since the waking at night started before that.
She has started knocking down towers and people. Heidi finds it hilarious to push her sisters to see them topple like her towers.
It makes her laugh so hard so we let her do it over and over because there are fewer things we enjoy more than hearing her sweet laugh. She has learned to pull open the pantry door if it isn’t latched and push doors shut also, which means poor Petey gets shut out of the laundry room several times a day (where his food and water is kept).
Heidi surprised us all by doing somersaults this month. She pulled clothes out of a laundry basket, attempted to scribble on the wall, and hit a pot with a pen to drum.
Perhaps seemingly insignificant, but important, she looked up when the front door opened just two days ago and again today. We think that she can hear fine (but does have a hearing exam scheduled for next month just to be safe). Heidi never seems to notice when the front or back door open and slam shut. She also doesn’t always look up when we call her name from the other room. Based on some little tests of our own with the therapists help, we think it is more likely that she has auditory processing challenge as she often has delayed reactions to what she hears. It could also have been that her time in the orphanage was loud and she learned to block out background noise as a way to protect and comfort herself. The way we got her to notice the door was to walk her to the door anytime someone comes and make a big deal of it . We have also started making a big deal of daddy when he gets home.
(She also got left in the nursery at Bible study for the first time this month and did well both weeks!)
She had a milestone check done today by her occupational therapist to determine how we should change her goals over the next six months. Heidi came home at 22 months and is now 28 months.
Her lowest scores were for fine motor skills which we anticipated. She still hasn’t mastered pincer grasp which is only an 8 month skill, but she does have some higher level skills like turning pages in books. She probably averages at 11-12 months for fine motor. It’s a significant improvement as just 6 months ago she was basically a 3 month level with some random higher level skills.
(She’s loving these warmer days and so am I!)
Her gross motor skills are around 20-22 months. They would like to see her starting crawling down the stairs, climbing up furniture. Keep in mind, she wasn’t even walking 6 months ago but is now attempting to run and is climbing stairs.
Heidi made significant improvement with her eating as well. She is at about a 12 month level. We would like to see her improve with self feeding and to lose her fear of forks (truly, she’s terrified of forks). Also we want to see her actually bite into food, pick up bites to feed herself and use the spoon more. But guys, remember 6 months ago when she could only eat very runny purées and cried with every swallow? Oh, how far we’ve come!
Her speech and cognition both shake out to about 12-months. We anticipate seeing significant growth as she seems to be understanding her new language and will make more connections everyday.
The big question is: will she ever fully catch up to her age? We have great hope that this will be possible for Heidi. Both of her therapists expect great things for Heidi’s life. God has already done incredible miracles in her life and we fully expect to see many more.
Overall, Heidi is a happy, happy girl.
She loves her sisters deeply and is so much more expressive than she was six months ago. She brings tremendous joy into our lives.
It was so hard to choose a 6-month photo today because she was so happy. This eyes-shut clapping photo might be my favorite.
Happy half year home, Heidi, our brave sunshine girl. We love you so much! I can’t even imagine what the next six months will bring but I am looking forward to watching you learn and grow and bring joy to everyone as it unfolds.
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