4 Months

Keeghan has been home with us for 4 months now. I can't believe that's all it's been. I don't remember my life without her...ok maybe I do just a bit, but I certainly can't imagine our house without her. She keeps us all on our toes more and more everyday.

We're working hard on language and will be getting some help from Early Intervention on that. Keeghan is saying more words but is very hard to understand though I'm pretty sure she understands 99% of what we say. Motor skills are not a problem AT ALL! This child can climb like a monkey and maneuver whatever you give her even with her hand wrapped up. She was picking up goldfish crumbs off the ground the other day (and trying to eat them...yuck!). Keeghan is coming to love playing outside and will even try and play with other kids once in a while. She is now willing to walk on all kinds of surfaces and will even attempt surface changes by herself once in a while. It's amazing to watch her discover and learn!

As for our bonding and attachment...it still seems to be going well. It's only been 4 months so we need to be thinking of her as a 4 month old and not a 21 month old. Would you leave hungry 4 month old to ask for food for 20 minutes before feeding them? No, so I can't do that with Keeghan either. I still need to be responding to her promptly and assuring her that she can rely on me to take care of her. I'm still VERY hesitant to let her go to others. I get a pit in my gut when someone tries to get her to come to them or if she goes to someone else. Generally, Keeghan chooses not to go with others which I like but I still cringe when she thinks about it. She is becoming more comfortable with us still and will give hugs and kisses sometimes without prompting. She also does this "head butting" thing that at first I thought was her way of being affectionate without actually kissing us, but have now read a couple of places that this practice is something Chinese families do as affection. They will "bump" their foreheads together...kind of like nose rubbing I guess. Keeghan will often offer her head to us in lieu of a kiss and I think that's what she's doing. We've never been forceful about making her hug or kiss us if she is not willing which is SO hard. I know there are lots of other people who want to hug and kiss Keeghan a ton too but she really needs her space and there is still alot of bonding for her to do with us. Things that people see as good personality traits (that she is easy going) sometimes worry me because I wonder if it's more that she is not used to getting attention so she doesn't seek it. I would really rather err on the side of caution so I do.

Anyway, we love our new addition to pieces and feel ever so lucky that she's a part of our lives. Four months down...a million to go!