3 Month Anniversary

I know I haven't posted since our two month anniversary, but better late than never!

Emma is doing great! Every week she has more and more words and she is growing like a weed. She is currently experiencing growing pains, she is sleeping a lot and her temporary prosthetic doesn't fit anymore.

Last week she had an appointment to get her permanent prosthetic, but it was way too big around, her swelling is almost completely gone, so they made a new mold of her leg and she has another appointment tomorrow. Let's hope this one fits better. We don't want her to have two prosthetics that don't fit! She is so ready to run plus Emma started physical therapy and it would be great if they could work with her in her permanent prosthetic.

Emma's vocabulary is growing as fast as she is. The body parts that she knows are; hair, head, eyes, nose, teeth, ears, cheek, neck, tummy, belly button, leg, knee, foot, arm and back. She is starting to say three word phrases more regularly, and is great at saying please (peas) and thank you (tea tea).

Emma loves to cook! We make pudding every week, we have baked banana bread muffins, she helps me cook dinner a couple nights a week and today we made strawberry smelling playdough (one of her favorite things to play with).

Emma also loves books. She likes to look at them herself, wants me to read them to her, she has even started retelling the stories that we have read. Every night we read Goodnight Moon, Go Away Big Green Monster, Peek a Who?, Goose on the Loose, Jamberry and Clap Your Hands.

Here is our big girl...

Two Month Anniversary

I can't believe we have been a family for two months. What a whirlwind! We have thrown so much at Emma and she always comes out of it smiling her mega watt smile and laughing.

Emma's surgery was February 3rd, she has had a cast with a rubber heal for the last two weeks, she now has a temporary foot and will get her real prosthetic in about three weeks. After each change she adapts and figures out how to walk again.

I know all parents think their child is smart, but Emma really is. I promise. She completes four puzzles at once, can show you how to buckle her carseat and kitchen booster seat, she can put on and take off her shoes and socks, brushes her own teeth (of course I go back and help when she is done), washes her own hands, is potty training, reads books to herself (turns the pages appropriately, identifies objects in the illustrations and says "all done" on the last page) and cleans up and puts things away in the correct location when asked to clean up.

Yesterday Emma had her speech evaluation and the speech therapist said that she is speaking at a 20 month old level. She has gone from 0 to 20 months in 2 months! The therapist also said that there is a three month wait before she can start therapy and that Emma could be at age level by that time.

Emma's favorite thing in the whole wide world is her teddy bear. It is ALWAYS with her. Teddy Bear is how she processes and practices new concepts. Emma wipes Teddy Bear's nose when he has boogers, puts Teddy Bear on the potty and wipes him when he is all done, sometimes Teddy Bear has potty accidents and Emma say "oh no" and wipes his bottom with a wipe, Teddy Bear wore one sock when Emma had her rubber heal and wore only one sock, after Emma gets upset and needs some snuggle time to calm down she will re-enact the scenario with Teddy Bear, she has even given Teddy Bear a "lecture" about going poo in the potty after I had "talked" to her about using the potty after a few accidents. I am VERY aware of what I say to her.

Jake and I feel very, very blessed to have Emma as our daughter. We could not have asked for a better, smarter, cuter little girl and have learned a lot from her.

Emma and I went to the park last Friday and Emma really enjoyed climbing and sliding.

A Big Update

On February 3rd Emma had her surgery.

The hospital was great about helping Emma not get upset. They had a playroom in the general waiting room and another playroom in the surgical area. They provided a Mandarin translator, showed her pictures of the room she would have her surgery and let her decorate her face mask. They also put smelly Lip Smacker chapstick inside her mask and had her practice smelling it before she went into the operating room.

I took her into the operating room at about 7:30 am and stayed with her until she fell asleep. Emma did not cry at all. I was able to see Emma in recovery just as she was waking up at about noon.

We found out that medication wears off on Emma quicker than average, so the first twelve hours were hard on Emma and me. Once they figured out her med schedule, though, she was back to her old self. Unfortunately that was at about midnight. I feel bad for the family sharing the room with us. Emma would start getting loud then would shush herself. She is so funny.

The requirements for her to leave the next day were that she could keep food down, that she was off morpine and that she would take her oral meds. She ate dinner that same night, so that wasn't an issue, she stopped taking morphine first thing the next morning and started taking her meds with no problems, so we were ready to go.

We took it easy the next couple of days.

On Sunday Jake's mom came into town and stayed until Tuesday. It was great to have her out and get to meet Emma.

On Monday Emma had a check up and got a new cast with a rubber heal so she could walk and she did. By Wednesday she walking all by herself! Unfortunately her cast fell off on Saturday and her new cast has a much more angled knee bend so she can't walk by herself anymore. How frusterating for her. But, she gets her prosthetic foot on the 23rd and she should be up and running again.

One Month

I can't believe it, Emma has been home for a month! She is so amazing.

The English words she knows are;

Mama

Baba

Emma - "Mema"

up - "uppa"

down - "dah"

no

yea

go

bye-bye (with a wave) - "da da"

yum

night night - "no na"

noodle

Her favorite things to do are;

play dress-up, especially accessories. (hats, necklaces, bracelets)

playing with junk mail (she is constantly putting paper in and out of the envelopes and figuring out what fits into each envelope)

playing with cars (she even makes the car noices)

coloring and balancing crayons on their ends

and climbing, climbing, climbing.

Emma's surgery

Emma's surgery is scheduled for February 3rd. She will have her foot and ankle amputated and her femur and tibia straightened.

I am very nervous. She is so strong and resilient that I am sure she will bounce back, but I don't want my baby to be in pain.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Little Miss Pretend Play and Independent

Emma's pretend play is getting very elaborate and it is so fun to watch.

Tonight we were playing up in Emma's playroom and I gave her a yogurt cup and a spoon. She automatically started pretending to eat from the cup. She then went over to the little table and sat down to eat some more. She pretended to put something into the cup, mixed it up then ate some more. She put one of her babies into the play high chair and another baby onto the second chair and started pretending to feed them. She then started going to the refrigerator and getting more containers. She gave one cup to each of the babies and a few for herself. She was getting up and down off of the chair by herself and walked around on her knees to get things.

She is starting to get frustrated that she cannot walk. She tries to walk, but since her legs are so different in length it is just too hard. She can side-step while holding onto something, but for any real distance she has to crawl or walk on her knees. This is why we are looking for her to get her surgery sooner rather than later. Not being able to walk is very hard for our little independent girl.

Speaking of independence. The last couple of weeks Emma has started wanting to do everything herself. She wants to wash herself in the bath (so much so that I have to hide the soap after awhile or she will use the whole container in one bathtime) and today she wanted to brush her own teeth. Considering that I don't think she had ever brushed her teeth before we got her, this is big. She hated toothbrushing for quite awhile.

You know, I say awhile a lot, but Emma has only been a part of our family for 24 days. Not even a month. Hard to believe.

Here are a couple of pics I took tonight.

A photo I took the night before Ba Ba (Daddy in Mandarin) left. We miss him a lot.

A Great Day

Emma had a great day today. Yesterday she was a little cranky all day, but today she was so happy and interacting with everyone she met.

We had our first appointment with a pediatric orthopedist this morning. We got lucky and a nurse squeezed us in so that Jake could be at the appointment before he goes back to school. We have a second opinion appointment next week. It went a lot better than we thought. We were worried because Emma's right femur is shorter than her left. From the pictures we received with her medical info we thought it was just her fibia and foot. The doctor said that what she has is the most common malformation and bone bending is common. He would be able to straighten the bones and would only need to amputate the ankle and foot. Yeah! She even flirted with one of the doctors! This is the first time we have seen her flirt and she chose a doctor, she aiming high, good girl!

We also met with an in-home childcare provider today. She is only licensed for 6 children which is great because we think Emma will do better in a small group. The provider has a couple of babies and one other two year old. She will start when Jake goes back to school next week. And she literally lives three minutes from our house.

Emma has been trying new things and found out today that she can climb up onto the speaker in our living room. I had to take pictures.