Getting To Know ‘Zen’

• She is happy and content most of the time
• She is also not afraid to express her discontent
• She adores her Papa and squeals with delight when he walks in the door
• She doesn’t take any sh*t from Ali and stands her ground
• She is adjusting to family life really well
• She has accepted us all and is fully attached to us
• She has not accepted that she has a dog and has not attached to him quite as well
• She is still very much a baby. I have ‘heard’ that children lose 1 month of development for every 3 months in an institution, which would put her at a 14 month level (she’s 21 months). We are going to have her development evaluated and hope that she is there or higher.
• She’s a great traveler
• She came home dehydrated and is still catching up and consuming loads of liquids.
• She has a good appetite and eating is going very well. She lets us know when her belly is full and she tries new things. One of our main goals right now is to get as much fruit and vegetables in her as possible and she was seriously deficient.
• She can really go through a lot of diapers
• She wears a size 18 month clothes and 6.5W shoe. She is 23.5 lb
• Her language is seriously delayed. We plan to enroll her in all early intervention services necessary.
• She does not like having her diaper or clothes changed
• She did not like the bath at all the first few days, but does like water play, so we started by sitting her on the edge of the sink to play and get as wet as she wanted, then she started playing with the bath water while standing outside the tub, and it took a few days before she would get in the bathtub.
• She likes to be carried
• She’s like her Momma and takes a while to get going after she wakes up
• She’s not crazy about bed-times, and we’ve made ourselves (and her) crazy trying to get her to sleep at a regular nap-time and regular evening-time, so now we just put her to bed whenever we see the signs. (For Ali that means obstinate and/or hitting and for Zen that means clingy/whiny/cranky).
• Jet-lag has not affected her much at all
• She is teething
• She’s affectionate and a total love! Such a sweet cherub.
• So far no signs of sensory integration issues. She does walk on her toes, but no problems with food textures, clothing tags, lights, sounds, etc.
• Her first word (that we know of) was ‘Papa’. She also says ‘hi’ now.
• She’s starting to wave goodbye and blow kisses
• I can’t stop looking at her when she’s sleeping and telling her how loved and wanted she is when I’m holding her and rocking her. She is really soaking in all the parent time that she missed out on.
• She has to be closely supervised with solid foods which is hard because Ali likes sharing food with her. She can’t have a banana or cheese stick (for example) without help because she jams too much of it in her mouth.
• She likes pulling all the books off the shelf and emptying the kitchen drawers and cabinets. She’s also a typical baby exploring gravity by throwing toys and whatever else onto the floor without actually playing with it. This wouldn’t bother me so much, but we have a ‘monkey-see / monkey-do’ situation going on over here, so Ali is quick to copy.
• The sisters both copy each other. I would have thought that Zen would be doing most of the copying, but it’s equal, so it’s a bit like having 2 one year olds right now.
• Have I mentioned what a happy, joyful girl she is? She is smiling most of the time and is actually quite an ‘easy’ baby. She goes with the flow a lot of the time and she is adjusting so well. I am so proud of her!

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