myadoptionwebsite.com - International adoption web sites and announcements

Thursday, September 1, 2005

On August 17th, Isabelle surprised us with her first word! I was changing her into her pajamas as she tried to roll away on the bed. I told her "no no" and did the no sign for her. In her usual 'let's change the subject when I am told no' fashion she said "bye bye" and waved at me! I was so shocked! I was worried she wouldn't say it again so I got out the video recorder and as I was capturing her first words on video as she crawled over to me and pulled up to stand. Then she let go and stood there for a couple of seconds by herself for the first time! It was quite an evening for everyone. We all share these moments of triumph with Isabelle, she's such an inspiration. Since then she has learned to get into a standing position all by herself, she doesn't even need anything to pull up on. It's so cute to see her standing there, such a tiny thing but acting so big. She has also learned to sign "bottle", her favorite pastime. In fact, she takes more bottles now than she did in Chin! a. Considering her slight size right now, I'm not going to deny the kid anything she wants to eat :) She is doing much better with table food and her current favorites are cheese, dried apple, pasta and those big honey pretzel sticks. I have also noticed that she is an adventurous eater. She'll try absolutely anything but if it comes right back out I may as well forget that particular food for a while. School started on the 23rd for Tori, Zach and Asher. After the initial craziness of the start of school, things are beginning to settle down. Tori is taking all honors or AP classes and is already realizing that this year will be a lot more challenging than the last. Both of the boys are fond of their teachers which is an incredible blessing. It sure makes the mornings pleasant when both of them are excited to get out to the bus stop. Dalton is so envious that he doesn't get to go to school yet and he continually asks when he will be old enough to go. The days are MUCH quieter around here with just Isabelle and Dalton. They are starting to really develop a neat sibling relationship. We were grocery shopping last week at a time that Isabelle should have been napping and Dalton came to the rescue. He developed a silly dance (which included rubbing his head, singing and spinning in a circle) that was an instant cure for Isabelle's fussing. In fact, when the boys came home from ! school Dalton showed them his 'dance' and then they all started doing it for Isabelle who proceeded to start cracking up. I think those boys would do anything to put a smile on their little sister's face. She has continued to develop her ability to draw us all in with her adorable kisses. She only gives them out as she sees fit and if one of the boys gets one the others are jealous. Actually she prefers to kiss inanimate objects right now. She gives kisses to stray Lego guys, her baby dolls and even a puppet I was showing her this morning. But her favorite is a picture of her daddy, Asher and myself. Of course Chris thinks she's kissing HIM, but I know better ;) We heard back from our pediatrician about Isabelle's most recent blood test. Her thyroid function is still not normal, but it is closer than it was initially and therefore the doctors are not recommending medication at this point. We will have it tested again in a few months and hopefully it will be determined a non issue for her. Her white blood cell count came back in the normal range (yea!) after having been elevated in her initial testing. This is a BIG relief as an elevated WBC can be an indicator of many things, including leukemia. Our next 'well baby' visit with our pediatrician (who is an international adoption specialist) is scheduled for late September. I look forward to these visits as opportunities to document Isabelle's amazing ability to catch up developmentally and physically to her peers. She is currently experiencing another phenomena noted in other children her age....separation anxiety! Yikes! I LOVE to love on this baby, but she's not interested in anyone but momma lately. She is fine playing on the floor with the kids, but as soon as we go out or if I try to 'hand her off' momentarily to a friend or even to Tori she screams! Essentially this is a good thing, especially for a post-institutionalized child, because she now has someone that she has learned to trust and knows will provide for her. But on the other hand, it is hard work to load a clothes dryer, unload groceries and cook dinner with a child on your hip. Especially one with hands that love to get into everything! Well, we don't have a lot of new information from the cardiologist. I was so hopeful that we would hear some good news about the status of Isabelle's ASD via an echocardiogram, but we didn't. Dr. Chen, who is Chinese coincidentally :), didn't feel like an echo was necessary right now. That IS good news because it meant that Isabelle is not showing any physical symptoms of her heart condition. She is gaining weight (yesssssss) and is now up to a whopping 18 pound 11 ounces in the buff. That is over 2 pounds she has gained since late June. Wow, and to think I can gain 5 pounds over the Thanksgiving holiday! The fact that she is gaining weight combined with the absence of respiratory problems, pneumonia and breathing difficulty means that she's doing great! We will have our next appointment with Dr. Chen in November and at that time she will have an echocardiogram. The doctor is trying to give her some time for her ASD to shrink, making the catheter patch a possibility instead o! f open heart surgery. She explained that at this point, if Isabelle had signs of congestive heart failure, they would perform open heart surgery, but if she can stay healthy and her ASD becomes smaller, then the catheter patch might be an option. Sooooo, keep on praying for our precious peanut! Kids on the front porch Sink for two Pats for Asher Kisses for daddy Movin' out Looking good

Web site by myadoptionwebsite.com