Three months home and 2 year check-up!

Yesterday was Meg's two year physical. That in and of itself would not be blog-worthy except for the miraculous thing that occurred during the visit. Dr. Heil (our beloved, in case you missed that point in earlier posts) pronounced, "I can't find a thing wrong with her." To which I quickly retorted, "Really?! This is our first spin around the 'nothing's wrong' PI block." Seriously folks, if there is a therapy out there, I've done it with someone (and still am, with some, by the way!) I have never even heard of anyone coming home with NO issues. Now, I realize that I am jinxing myself. I realize that tomorrow the spawn of the Alien will wake up in place of my once healthy and beautiful daughter. I realize that simply by posting this, I am totally tempting fate and something will bite me in the butt... hard! But, just for a moment, for a fleeting glimpse of a second, I just have to revel in the deep breath I took and know that for once, I am not facing a mountain of paperwork, government forms, tests, and therapy appointments. Folks, I need this... have you seen my schedule? As my friend, Kendra, said, "I need a flow chart to figure out who is going where."

That's not to say that we don't have some things ahead of us. Dr. Heil does want us to have her hearing tested. He says it's a requirement for all IA kiddos in his practice, so we'll be heading off to the audiologist for that soon. But according to her speech development, he feels sure she will not have any hearing issues. He believes that possibly I am wrong about her speech and that she does, indeed, have 50 words (which would put her on target for her age.) I don't think so, I could only think of about 20, but he said the fact that she is stringing together 3 words makes him curious that she doesn't have more and he thinks within three more months she will have 100 words. Folks, 50 words is what a normal two-year-old is supposed to have. 100 words is what a normal 2 year, three month kiddo is supposed to have. Do you know how amazing it would be to me to have a kid come home and be "normal" within six months. (Even our bio son was not in the "normal" range for speech at age 2.) I've never seen it in my house and I still can't let myself believe it will happen. I am sure there is a therapy out there waiting to jump up and grab at me... you may remember that I am somewhat of a doubting Thomas. But anyway, for this particular dot on the timeline, I am just going to sit and marvel at the possibility of "normal."

The little string-bean is 85% for height (same as she has been since six months of age.) She is 14th % for weight. Her head circ. is "average." Again, a first for our family as I've never had a kid hit the chart inside of two years post adoption. I have always heard stories of folks adopting "chubby" kids or really tall kids, but I could not attest to it personally, until now. Of course, you realize that this means I will have sons who are 5'5" and a daughter who is 6'5". :) Wouldn't trade it for the world!

Okay, also, our baby girl has been home three months already. I can't believe it. I've reached the "I'm not drowning anymore" point. Do you remember the analogy I gave my clients about the first year home? First three months, you're going under, you don't even look like you're keeping it together, you're definitely bobbing up and down and gasping for air on the infrequent trips to the surface. Three to six months you're starting to tread water. You're not making forward progress, and your paddling like h-e-*-* under the water, but the view from above is at least your head is out of the water now and you can gasp for air when you need it without fighting for it. Of course, you're panting from the long time you just spent under the surface. Then there's the six to twelve month mark that's still out there ahead of me. It's when you actually start to make some progress toward the shore. It's when your strokes aren't necessarily pretty, you might be dog paddling rather than doing a Michael Phelps 'fly, but you're getting there nonetheless. The closer you get to shore, the smoother your strokes become. So... it's monumental and worth recording that we've hit the head above water stage. And you know what, I feel it. I definitely feel my head is now above the water. It's really not that there is a magical timeline, it's just apparently that three months is about what human beings require x 24/7 to get to really know one another and develop a norm. I'm very much looking forward to the next three months. This is my favorite time of year, I love Halloween, I love when summer relents and gives way to crisp weather, I love Thanksgiving, and there's nothing more magical than a little person's first Christmas. We have some fun ahead of us in the next three months, and knowing that when all that fun is over, we'll be almost to our six month mark makes it even more exciting. Whew! That's a big ol' collective sigh of relief.

And oh yeah, the bonus of hitting that six month mark will be that this d#@* election is behind us and I can stop worrying about and talking about and hearing about that for another FOUR WHOLE years! :) Wow, four years, Meg will be in school the next time we elect a president. That will be a nice long break from politics. :)

Psalm 85:8
"I will listen to what God the Lord will say; he promises peace to his people... "