Can I get one of those too?
Enjoying a great Red Sox game!!
I like cows just like Jo-Jo!!
Meet Virginia -She never compromises-Loves babies and surprises- Wears high heels when she exercises-Ain't that beautiful-Meet VirginiaLyrics by Train
All my other babies loved lullabies, but not Addie. Addie's Nana thought she should listen to some classical music, so we tried that, but she wasn't too thrilled. Quite by accident we found what she does love for music. You see Miss Addie Ting hates to be in her car seat. After a few minutes in the car she begins to scream. In an effort to distract her one day this week, I pushed in a CD and "Meet Virginia" came from the speakers, and Addie instantly quieted. When the song ended, she screamed again. I went back to "Meet Virginia," and once again there was total silence. I mentioned this to Tommy, and several days later when Tommy and Addie and I were in the car she began her routine of protests. He tried one of his favorite songs in the CD player. It didn't work, so he skipped to the "Meet Virginia" song, and the silence was instantaneous. So odd, but at least it works.
This week Addie had her Physical Therapy, and we are happy to report that our PT did see improvement in her leg strength and in her bending and hip rotation. Balance is still very challenging for Addie, as is finding strength to support herself on her arms in a crawling position. During our Speech Therapy this week, our speech therapist was very amazed with Addie's progress in terms of eye contact and interaction with others. Addie made teeny tiny steps forward in her swallowing, and we will stay patient in this area. We are working hard to find ways for Addie to use those mouth muscles, beyond bottle sucking. We also had the wonderful opportunity to meet with an infant mental health social worker to discuss attachment issues. She introduced us to an attachment massage program which is really wonderful. One very exciting step made this week was brought to our attention by Bayley. When we first met Addie one of her self soothing behaviors was a head rolling behavior that most likely provided her with stimulation in the orphanage. Bayley mentioned this week that she had not seen Addie do this in some time, and it's true. Hopefully this means Ting is finding family to be a better means of being soothed when upset or stimulated when eager to explore.
As a family of six we enjoyed our first weekend away. We met Ron after his Friday technology conference and headed to Southern Maine to stay with Jeremy and Suzanne for a few days. Friday night everyone went to Jo-Jo's favorite place- Chucky Cheese's. Jeremy and Bayley were way over the top trying to accumulate record amounts of tickets. Tommy was thrilled with the safari games. Jo-Jo went from game to game with a huge smile on his face and, yes, Addie seemed to enjoy herself as well. She actually loved the kiddie rides. Saturday we ventured to Poland Springs for our traditional visit to Pumpkin Land. With pig racing, jump houses, a giant corn maze, and hayrides there is something for everyone. Jo-Jo was a wild man, and became quite the fan of the zip-line. Tommy and Bayley enjoyed hay bale jumping and the haunted hay ride. Addie clearly loved the animals, especially the goats, so it looks like our reservation for two goats for spring was a great idea. At lunch she ripped up the french fries, turned her nose up at the Gerber puffs, but attacked me for a sip of warm apple cider. Well that one sip turned into many-she loved it!!
Clearly as we venture into the next week we know that life is good as long as Addie has apple cider and "Meet Virginia" on hand.
5 comments:
oooooh, did the apple cider bear the same after-effects as the pear juice did from Lucy's?! :)
glad you all had a good weekend away - we enjoyed traveling, but i don't mind admitting that i'm thrilled that we have no where important to go until thanksgiving day. it's exhausting just packing for 7 of us!
hugs to you all!
Another comment on the self-soothing: Li'l Empress does a lot of scratching of her head when she's really tired or when we've had to be stern with her over something (at this point, really only safety related things). It's so hard to watch, especially with how dry her scalp is and after all the little scratches we found on her head when we got her.
I've been a bit OCD about trimming her nails and we're working on helping her attach to a mini-blanket for the sleepies. She starts winding down with the "wubby" (what we call the mini-blankie) but when she's down to the serious business of falling asleep, she starts back with the fingers on the scalp. Just about makes me cry every night and most naps too.
Good old American fun! A far cry from her old life in China. She can choose her own music!Good news about learning to soothe in different and more appropriate ways. What a good team she has to support her! What a good team she is supporting(The Red Sox)!
It's so great to read every week about the progress that Addie is making. Clearly, the love you are surrounding her with is helping tremendously in her transition to her new (and much better) life. Sounds like you all had a great weekend together. It's so funny that she's chosen her "favorite" song...you'll get tired of hearing it but it will sure come in handy!
We so look forward to your postings about Abbie Mei and the rest of the family and so happy you are back home. We never missed a day while you were in China and when we didn't get any message, we were on the phone to Aunt Janie. I've tried unsuccessfully to send messages to you. This is all new to me.
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