2 Months Home

It's hard to believe that two months ago today we brought our little Wei Wei home to the United States. She has changed so much in those short two months. It's hard to believe that she's only been in our lives that long, as I almost don't remember life without her. It's like we have always known Grace, and our family just feels more complete (not complete-complete, mind you) with her here.

A few notes on Grace (we call her Wei Wei as much [if not more] than we do Grace; I hope we are not confusing her): She is still not walking, and to be honest, except for pushing around the toy shopping cart, shows no real interest in walking. She's a lightening quick crawler, has figured out the stairs (we're still working on down the stairs, as right now it's a controlled slide on her belly), and is finally starting to figure out the spoon.

She likes to babble or talk, and she's making progress on expanding her vocabulary. Her favorite word, without equal, is the word "daddy," which she says all day long. She says Mommy, thank you, I love you (i-wub-oo); she growls like a bear (think 90-year-old chain smoker growl), hisses like a snake, and just tonight, she tried her hand at barking like a dog. She signs please and thank you, but she shows no real interest, despite my attempts, at learning any more signs. She loves to give high-fives, and she puckers up to kiss when she wants to give a kiss.

She used to eat everything and anything, a hoarding behavior our developmental pediatrician says is probably a by-product of being on a limited diet in China, but now, Grace is pretty picky. She still eats WAY more than Grant ever did (or, heck, does), but she's not the eater she used to be. She loves, loves, loves Jello, and she'd eat fruit all day. But, really, she's a meat girl, and it better not be fried. She's a poster child for the Atkins diet. She'd eat grilled chicken all day long.

She sleeps a solid 13-14 hours a night, and she sleeps between 1.5-2 hours during her afternoon nap. Grant goes down for a nap at the same time, but he sleeps for about 3 hours, so I get some special one-on-one Grace time every afternoon.

She's made some huge progress in the attachment arena. Grace had several behaviors that just didn't seem right, and I knew in my gut that they were attachment related. She would pull her hair when she got mad, refused to make eye contact at times, go ballistic when we held her belly to belly, and wouldn't come to us if upset. But, I am so happy to report that our little vacation to Williamsburg changed her. I was so nervous to take her out of the environment we had created for her here, but I'll tell you what, that vacation was the best medicine for our little girl. It's like we wanted her in our family (of course), but at some point in Williamsburg, she decided she wanted that too. Now, she lets me hold her belly to belly, and she snuggles into my shoulder (at night only... she's on the move all day; there is not an ounce of cuddling during the play hours), and she seeks me out when she's hurt. I haven't seen her start tugging at her hair in over a week, and I'm just thrilled.

We are so thankful for our little girl. We're so thankful that we get to be her parents and her family. She is such a gift.
On the first day we met Grace (she looks so little!):

Our happy, healthy baby girl now:

But she still knows how to make a sad face: