Getting Tian

Tian is 17 months old! And it seemed like she spent the day proving to us she was one month older. Her firsts today were... moving her xylophone off of the Quattro Lego box, opening the box, dumping the legos, and playing independently for quite some time. She crawled up the stairs on all fours for the first time today (I was following very closely of course). She laughed while her dad pushed a stroller during an evening stroll while she walked the whole way. Tian also signed a double please to her dad when she wanted more grated parmesan cheese - her favorite treat! She was totally intrigued with snaps - she has conquered zippers, screw-on lids, and bottle caps.

We have met with our social worker for the 6 month post- home study visit. Everything seems to be going well, but we have decided to make use of the free early intervention services for pre-schoolers in our county. A team of early childhood specialists will visit Tian in her home and determine how close to age level her skills have come. We think she is just brilliant and way beyond where we would have expected. But there may be some areas of need in speech.

The sleeping issues seem to have resolved for now. We have only about 5 - 10 minutes of sleep time routine and she sleeps for about 11 or 12 hours. Steve and I are loving it!

Tian is such a sweet little girl. The other day, we were reading "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes", the picture book about adoption from China. When we got to the end of the book where the baby is being held and fed a bottle in her mother's arms, Tian crawled into my lap and laid there just like the picture. It was the sweetest thing. I just held her for awhile - loving the privilege of being her mother. I do love her like crazy cakes!