Four Months

It is hard to believe that four months have passed since our family of six has been all together.  The time has flown by and our girl has changed a lot in that time.  She understands most of what we say to her and she is saying a lot of words on her own.  She went from eating almost everything we gave her to being a bit picky.  It seemed too good to be true and I guess it was!  She still eats a good variety of food, though she is not a big fan of meat.  She still sleeps great and takes a good nap every day.  We were always diligent about keeping a schedule with the boys and they were all good sleepers, so we are doing the same with her.  She did wake up with the alarm at 5am today, which was slightly unfortunate for Daddy as he had to get up with her while I went to work, but she is currently taking a little snooze in the Ergo on my chest.  Bliss!  Speaking of the Ergo, our days of using it at the bakery are over.  John will be on summer break as of later this afternoon, so he will be on duty while I am at work.  My back is thankful for the reprieve, but I will miss having my girl close by.  We have a couple of months to come up with a child care plan for the fall, but we are not sure what that is going to look like yet.  I still don't like the thought of leaving her with anyone else.

This little lady has turned into a climber!  I turned my back for a minute yesterday and she was standing on the kitchen counter trying to get a glass from the cabinet.  She is fast and becoming more agile all the time!  When she came home, she was walking, but not well.  Now she is running all over the place.  She still makes time for snuggling and I am very happy about that!

I think one of the things that I have enjoyed most of all in the past few months is watching Sena and her Daddy.  There is some serious love going on there.  John has been an incredible Dad to our boys, but it is just different with a girl.  I brought her down in a little sunsuit a few days ago and his words to me were, "Isn't that a little skimpy?"  He is very protective and has been just as committed to the attachment and bonding process as I am.  I love watching the gentleness that he displays with her.  He was pushing her outside in her little car a couple of days ago and my heart just melted as I watched them together.  To see this precious little girl who has lost so much in her short life interact with a Daddy who is completely crazy about her is simply beautiful to behold.

We went from this in October:

to this in January:

to this after 9 days together:

to this several weeks ago:

I continue to marvel at the goodness of God in sending this little one to our family.  We would have missed out on SO much had we not taken that step of faith all those months ago.