Thursday, October 21, 2010

Social Worker and Messy Eating


Last weekend we met with our social worker for another evaluation of how the Butterfly is doing now that we have her home. We last saw her two months ago when we had been home only one month with the Butterfly. This was the three month visit, and it went wonderfully. As a matter of fact she stated that in all of her years of working with adoptive families, she has never seen a child improve so drastically in such a short amount of time. So, here are some of the changes that have happened in the last two months:

  • The baby wasn't even crawling when we brought her home three months ago and yet now she is walking everywhere, and even running.
  • She has gained 3 pounds (yup, a little chunky monkey)!
  • She no longer uses bottles, she really never seemed to like them. She now uses sippy-cups all the time.
  • The baby has really taken a liking to her big sister (finally), and actually follows her around everywhere (much to the Ladybug's dismay at times). The girls now play with each other all the time.
  • She has started talking (babbling mostly, but there are some words starting to come through). She says "bye-bye," "dada," "mama," and "stop." Right now it is cute to hear her say stop since she says it in the middle of giggling when we are tickling her.
  • She communicates really well through the use of sign language that we have been teaching her. She knows about 25 - 30 words and uses them all the time to let us know what she wants. (Just tonight she came to me crying hysterically. I was actually worried that she possibly hurt herself somehow. I picked her up and gave her a hug and asked what was wrong. She signed the word for dog and pointed toward the door. I walked with to the door with her and as soon as we got there she pointed to the dog next-door, and nuzzled into my shoulder for comfort. She really was scared.)
  • The Butterfly not only seems to be able to communicate with us rather effectively, but she also seems to know what we are saying when we talk with her, which just amazes me since she has only heard English for three months of her young life. This fact also amazed the social worker who was able to observe her reactions to us when we were talking to her and asking her to do things. I honestly believe that sign language has really helped her bridge the gap between hearing only Mandarin for the first 14 months of her life and now only hearing English.
  • The baby LOVES music and starts dancing whenever she hears it. She even dances when she hears my cell phone's ringtones. I also often hear her trying to sing with us when we are singing to a song on the radio. It is really cute.
  • She seems to love her family. She smiles and giggles practically all the time, and takes great joy in playing with all of us every day.
  • She has learned some silly little things to do which make her daddy and I laugh. So, we frequently find her walking up to us, nudging us and joking with us just to make us laugh. She really has a great sense of humor.
  • She is a huge cuddler, and can often be found hugging and snuggling us. Some of my favorite times are when she crawls up onto my chest and snuggles into me. Such a loving little girl.

After seeing what a shy, scared little baby she was when we met her just three months ago, I am amazed at her transformation into a fun-loving, silly little girl who loves her family. We really are so blessed.

One of the things that did shock the social worker was the fact that the Butterfly has gained three whole pounds in just three short months. I believe the reason for this is that she was so restricted with her eating in China that when we brought her home she couldn't find her "off switch" when it came to her eating. She has since realized that she does not need to gorge on everything that she sees because we do eat three meals a day, thus she has slowed down. Non-the-less, this little girl does love her food, and tonight is the perfect example of her joy of eating.

I placed a bowl with some noodles and meat in front of her this evening along with a fork to help her eat. She dove right in and ate every single morsel. Every morsel, that is, except the stuff that ended up on her face, on her hands, and in her hair. Gotta love a kid that enjoys her food.

Licking her fingers to get every last bit of sauce!

Diving into her food.

A very happy eater!


The Ladybug watching her sister during dinner, showing her how to smile for the camera.


~~Aloha!

4 comments:

China Dreams said...

Sounds great! We have faced the eating issue, only in the last six months even though our son has been home two years. Hoping it will pass, but I do think it's about realizing that the food won't be taken away if he doesn't eat it in a short period of time.

Ashley said...

Oh Bailey! She is just beautiful. Both of them are! I'm so glad things are going so well!

Dan and Karen said...

Such a fun update to read, sounds like things are going so well! Thanks for posting on our blog...yes we are in the Minneapolis area! When will you be at Shriner's?

Karen

groovy mama said...

CUTE!!