An Online Journal of Our Adoption Journey

The Six Month Mark

September 26, 2003
The summer with Autumn has been great.  She has grown and learned and developed immensely in just the past three months.  At 20 months she is now 33 inches tall and 27 pounds.  Everyday I am amazed by the skills she has picked up.  

Within the first week of daycare Autumn didn't mind me dropping her off, and now happily arrives and is even a little disappointed when Lise picks her up!  Apparently she is the little greeter of the room, coming up and saying hi to all the visitors.  

Her vocabulary has increased and she speaks over thirty words.  She even said, "bye-bye, doggie," as we left this morning.  She loves to wave goodbye on the way out of the house.  She stops several times as I walk her to the van to turn back and wave.  

She's running around a lot now, and climbs up on things, and goes up stairs, and -- with a rail or a helping hand -- goes down them as well.  She's very brave and enjoys the slide on the playground and the carousel at Balboa Park.  She even allowed the daycare people to put her up on a pony during a Western days event at the center!  

Autumn enjoys being read to, especially books with animals in them, and will bring book after book out from her room to read.  She also enjoys watching Animal Planet on TV as well as Sesame Street and Teletubbies.  We have a number of Baby Einstein, Veggie Tales, and Disney sing-along DVDs that she likes to watch whenever we give her the chance.  

Acquiring skill-wise, she's starting to try various advanced walking movements, like going backwards, spinning around, and running forward into something and slamming her hands against it.  She's begun to eat with a spoon and drinks from a sippy cup by herself.  We've started to just give her the bowl of food at meals (although we still have to watch her like a hawk so it doesn't end up on the floor).  

The problems we are encountering are like those of any near-two-year-old.  She likes to squirm and fight during diaper changes, and tries to pull off the tabs as you stick them in place.  She hates the whole toothbrush thing and cries and fights over brushing.  There are times when she will scratch or pinch other kids that are in her way or that have something she wants.  She'll have a little fit when we don't immediately respond to her latest demands, and likes to get very loud when she's not being paid attention to.  

We've had to tape up the reset button on the computer so she doesn't press it, and she likes to go off exploring the moment we're busy with something.  But she knows 'no' and 'hot' and pays attention when we tell her not to do something.  It's when our backs are turned that she fishes into the trash or pulls out the VHS tape or pinches the dog's ear.  All pretty typical of a pre-toddler.  

On the plus side, she loves water, and really gets into pools and buckets and sprinklers, and baths!  So there's no fight there.  And for the most part she still sleeps through the night, from 8 to 7, giving us a nice break in the evening (which is why I'm even having the chance to write this).

She's gone through several colds since starting daycare.  At least three in the last three months.  

We had our required six-month meeting with our social worker.  She enjoyed all the photos we gave her and the appointment went really well.  Autumn really hams it up when she has an audience.  She played peek-a-boo and laughed and giggled.  She pointed to parts of her body when asked (Where's your nose?  Where's your ears?  Where's your toes? and so forth).  And she even does it with stuffed animals as well (Where's the tiger's nose?).  

The social worker will write a report and, along with our photos, send it all to China.  This lets the Chinese government know that we are taking care of her.  Further reports will be done at one and two years (from the time of adoption).