Today, Margot is 1 1/2 years old and our 4 month anniversary together is just around the corner. I'm sure as we are together longer I will stop keeping track of every significant day, but for now I'm enjoying the passing of time. Margot has grown and changed so much in this short time. When we first got her she had only been drinking from a bottle and had no interest in any other foods, baby or adult. She could crawl but wasn't really interested to do so. Some adoption forums talk about children regressing somewhat back to infancy in the first few month and I think she did a bit.
She is adding more and more soft foods to her repertoire, still loves peanut butter, really likes toddler yogurt, mashed potatoes and potato soup, will tolerate some baby food and eat cheerios with me as long as they are a bit mushy. Still working on that whole "chewing" thing! I think that it has helped that we try to eat in front of her all the time and share as many foods with her as possible - not sure if she ever saw the nannies eat, as she fought being fed with a spoon for a long time.
In the last couple of weeks she has really started to army crawl with some conviction! She loves electronics, so if you open your laptop or touch a remote control she will be on you in seconds! She is sliding off of my lap after bottle time into a standing position on the floor and walking with our assistance. I think she will probably take some real steps by herself in the next few weeks! As for talking it's still baby talk, lots of "gullys" and "gehs" and "gahs". She says something that sounds a bit like "dada", but I'm hoping for a clear "mama" to be her first real word!
As for nighttime, after the first painful weeks of being home, we moved the extra mattress in her room and split up sleeping duties with her. Both our social worker and pediatrician have approved and feel that this will only help with bonding and attachment. So far it has worked well with Chris taking the early shift (since he works so early in the morning and goes to bed early as well) and then me taking over when I get home from work around midnight. I'd like to open up the crib into a bed and see if she will spend naptime in there soon, but not sure when that will happen. We've recently been letting her put herself to sleep for naptime and bedtime and she plays around for a while but seems content to finally fall asleep on her own.
We are just amazed by her every day. She is so beautiful, adorable, funny and smart. Chris and I are constantly remarking on how crazy we are for her and I'm so happy that we both feel like she is the perfect child for us. On Margot's side she seems to like us equally and doesn't seem to favor one of us over the other, but does seem most happy when we are all together!
She is always somewhat interested when I get the camera out, but can't seem to keep her thumb out of her mouth!
