Four Months Home

August 13 found us at Banks Lake enjoying time as a family and with family and friends.  We mentioned the four month mark and laughed about how quickly...and slowly...time goes by.

• Lainey was four months old when we received our referral for her.  
• Four months after our referral, we met our daughter for the first time.
• We waited four months after meeting Lainey until we were cleared to bring her home.  That was the longest four months of my life, yet now I hardly think about that wait.
• When we brought Lainey home, Miles Robbins had been home from Ethiopia with his family for four months.  I recall reading her "four month home" post thinking it sounded like such a long time. I learn so much from her experiences and her wealth of knowledge. And now they are back in the Pacific Northwest! Family and friends re-united.

At four months home, there are so many things Lainey does that I want to remember.

She LOVES to flush the toilet.  She has learned, "Just once," and looks at me with such proud eyes when she resists the urge to bang the handle.

Shoes.  Wow.  Currently she is trying to put on Ty's flip flops and walk with them.  A couple mornings ago I was watching her run around the bedroom from bed.  She brought me my purple keen, disappeared and came back with the other one.  "Mama's," she said.

She climbs.  Everything.  Her latest discovery is that she can climb the kitchen chairs, which she often does.  She won't sit long, though, anywhere.  She climbs the big toys at the parks and keeps up with the five year olds there.  I was shocked when she went down the big tunnel slide last week.

She seems to fear nothing.  Maybe it's just the lack of knowledge to be fearful, but she isn't scared of water, heights, the dark.

When I am near, she is so independent.  Wants to eat without help.  Climb without help.  Turn the pages without help.  Tries to change her own diaper and bats my hands away.  But the second I walk away from her, she often yells, "Maaaaaaama," and all that independence goes out the window.

The rate of her vocabulary development shocks me.  All done, eyes, nose, ears, water, milk, coffee, hot, airplane, close...so many more.  The words she knew are becoming more easily understood (at least by the trained ear).  With prompting she is starting to put two words together much more clearly.  I laugh each time I witness her learn something new. 

She loves to dance!  

One of her favorite games is to push my face away and say, "Stop!" knowing I'll kiss her neck and cheeks.  

She gets SO FRUSTRATED (as do I) when she wants something and can't communicate what it is.  She bangs her hand against her chest - signing for "please" - while I fumble around trying to figure out what she wants or needs.  Yesterday, she was pointing and saying "water," but I didn't pick up on it until she reached for the sippy cup on the counter.

We've started using Time Out.  Lainey picked up on it quickly and for the most part, it's effective.  The dog dishes are her kryptonite.  So we use time out if she touches the dog dishes, the oven dials, or is mean to Boone.  Sometimes she goes to Time Out on her own.  She sits down and says, "time out."

She loves calling Boone.  She pats her legs and calls, "BOOO, BOOO."  Sometimes she gets the "n" sound on the end.  When she sees other dogs, she pats her legs and calls, "Roo, roo, roo," translated means "roof, roof, roof."  She isn't scared of dogs, big or small and loves to pet and hug them.

When she doesn't want to go to sleep, she pulls out all her tricks that she knows will make me laugh.  Points to my nose, eyes, hair, ear and labels them all.  My favorite is when she puts a hand on each side of my lips and kisses me while trying not to laugh.  Then I laugh, she laughs, and we get serious about going night-night.

I know I mention it often, by my love just continues to grow for this little one.