Emma is a big girl!

Emma went for her well baby check up last week. I can't say it was her 8 month check up because she was 8 1/2 months and 8 months isn't usually a bench mark visit. But as most people know, Emma was adopted from Vietnam and the babies in the orphanages aren't usually given vaccinations. When Emma came home she was a couple of days shy of 4 months and was sick with bronchiolitis. Ten days later she was hospitalized with RSV and spent 10 days in the hospital, 6 of which were in ICU and on a ventilator. Fun times. What was also fun was giving her history over and over again to every new nurse, resident and attending doctor and explaining that I really wasn't a lazy, neglectful mother; there really was a reason that my daughter was 4 months old and hadn't had any vaccinations. Nothing made me happier than that day in early December when she received her first shots. Well, other than her crying.

My baby is now 18lbs and 12 ozs (50th percentile) and 26 1/4 inches long (20th percentile). What can I say? My baby likes her bottles. Bottles were all she liked until a week and a half ago. Emma was 8 months old and refused any kind of baby food. I was really beginning to get worried. But then at our Easter dinner she was sitting on my lap and she was doing her usual watch me pick up food with a fork and put in in my mouth. Talk about make you paranoid while you eat! How would you feel if someone watched every bite you took with such intense interest? So this time, just one of many, I put my fork up to her mouth and tried to get her to taste what was on it. In this case it was a green bean. Amazingly enough, she ate it and wanted more. Now she's an eating machine. This afternoon for lunch she had macaroni and cheese and green beans. Yesterday it was baby diced carrots and a baby chicken stick. That's my girl. Skip baby food and just jump into big girl food.

Here she is in her new high chair that we got only a couple of days ago. I really didn't see a point in getting her a high chair if she didn't eat anything. We just put her in her Bumbo.

This was taken yesterday morning with one of her favorite foods: Cheerios. The fact that they are on her tray is a bit deceiving. It gives the appearance that she can feed them to herself. While occasionally one or two will make it into her mouth, its usually by accident. She hasn't gotten her pincher move down yet (thumb to finger) so she grabs them in her fist and then trys to get it into her mouth. It works for now. Plus they keep her busy while I stuff them one by one into her mouth.

The Bumbo worked well but the tray was pretty flimsy and was getting squirmy and could get anything around her on the table. I was starting to get worried that she would fall out of the Bumbo and roll off the table.




Emma loves her exersaucer. The girls picked this out if you couldn't tell from all the pink. Its a Tea Party exersaucer. Notice the tea pot, cake and there's a purse in front of her.

She's eating her hand because its obvious that I don't feed her enough. Note her weight above.
Emma doesn't crawl yet although we do try to entice her. We'll set her on her blanket and put toys far enough in front of her that she really has to reach for them. Occasionally she will fall forward and then be on her tummy but usually this really makes her mad and she'll cry and look at me as if she's saying "This is all YOUR fault!"

Within the next couple of days I will tell our Vietnam adoption story especially in light of all that is going on withVietnamese adoptions right now.