Unknown Boo-Boo Identified, 17 Months Later

For those of you who have been following this blog since we first met Abigail in China, you may have remembered this entry "Guess Who Has A Boo-Boo".

We now know the name of the mysterious boo-boo she had in China;  it was a paronychia, which is basically an infection that started under her fingernail and then grew to a full-blown infection of her finger.  


How do we know this?  Because on Tuesday we had to take her to the emergency clinic because she has another one.  The nice P.A. at the clinic cleaned her finger and then carefully lanced it.  We distracted Abigail to look away right before the cut was made and all of a sudden her eyes got very wide and she said "OWIE?"  Yup.  She asked it as a question, as if to say "Is this what an owie feels like?"  


Poor kid.  Larry and I would have been laughing if we didn't feel so sorry for her.  Then she forgot to breathe for a moment or two and when she remembered to breathe, she sucked in all the air from the room and let out a scream to alert everyone else at the clinic that she was there and she was in pain.

This whole saga happened just hours after Abigail was at the MUSC Craniofacial Clinic for her annual check-up by the whole craniofacial team (cosmetic surgeons, orthodontists, ENTs and ENT surgeons, pediatric dentists, and a speech therapist are among members of her team).  In one afternoon, she gets to see all of these specialists in one place.  It is a great program and we will certainly miss it when we move.  Abigail got all positive reports from every specialist but we were most happy that the speech therapist was very impressed with her and her speech and vocabulary.  (Of course, given that Abigail is going through a shy phase, she did very little talking in front of the speech therapist.  However, I anticipated this problem and brought several short videos of her talking up a storm at home, mastering some difficult sounds like F, B, S, and T.)

"You're still brand new, and they broke you already!" -- Betty to Abigail

On Wednesday, Abigail was playing on our neighborhood playground with Larry (I was still at work). She wanted out of the swings and began watching 2 guys playing Frisbee. Then she tried to run towards them, tripped over her own feet, and fell on her shoulder. Then she cried. And cried. I arrived and she kept crying. Then all she wanted to do was be held and caressed. She never wants to be held and caressed. When we offered her a cell-phone to play with, she reached for it and stopped, jerking her arm back like a chicken wing.

That is when we knew we had to go to the emergency room. (Actually, we went to an emergency center- much MUCH cheaper than the hospital emergency room for the same thing.)

You don't need to have an M.D. to look at her x-ray and know she broke her clavicle. It looked like the Coyote after he falls off the cliff chasing the Roadrunner when someone wheels an old-timey x-ray machine in front of him.

But as you can see from the video, this has not slowed her down any.

We love her so much!!!

Like a House Plant moved into the Sunlight

Abigail had a check up with her pediatrician this morning.

She is now 31 inches long. We noticed her 12 months pants were starting to look like capris on her and that is because she has grown nearly an inch and is in the 70th percentile. The doctor said it was an accelerated velocity of growth, which we understand means that she is "catching up quickly".

She is 18 pounds, 2 ounces, which is still under weight, but she has gained nearly a pound. (Not surprising since she can eat 2 drumsticks, a piece of cheese, half a baked potato, and a clementine for dinner.)

Her head circumference is also larger,
probably because her brain is absorbing so much new info :)

Home and Getting into a Routine

Hello Readers!

Thank you for your patience as we have been spending the last 2 weeks getting into a routine at home. Abigail is down for the night (I think) and it is only 9:38 PM so I have a few minutes to resume blogging!

Our first week home:
It was one of the most difficult things Lar or I have ever been through. Abigail's days and nights were backwards. She wanted to be held most of the time and she only slept for 1-3 hours at any given time. I think that being sleep deprived is one of the worst feelings a person can be forced to endure. We had *no* idea how we were sleeping the same 1-3 hour increments as the Little Monster and she had the endurance and energy of a Jack Russell on speed.

Then our amazing agency came through for us again! They told us to not try to put her to bed at 7:30 or 8 like in China, but to put her to bed at 11 or midnight until she could sleep through the night and then move her bedtime back gradually as she became accustomed to our time zone. IT WORKED!!!! She now sleeps from around 10 until 6 or 8 AM and we feel much better.

After we got home, Abigail got to open her Christmas presents from Grandma Kathleen and Uncle Jim and Aunt Steph. They gave her nice clothing, books, and a doll, among other things. She is going to be spoiled rotten!

Our elderly Chihuahua Jedi has been very accepting of Abigail. Jedi circles her high chair at meal times like a shark circling a sinking raft and puts up with the pokes to her eyes and the yanks on her tail. Abigail, in return, LOVES Jedi.

As far as food goes, Abigail knows the baby sign for "food" and gets a kick out of using it to obtain a snack whenever she feels like it. She seems amazed that this easily performed communication works so quickly to meet her needs and wants. She eats everything we have tried to feed her (including curry!) except she doesn't like vegetables. Her favorite foods are cheese and bananas. She really wants to feed herself with a spoon.

Her first check-up with her pediatrician lasted 75 minutes and the doc couldn't find anything wrong with her, other than being about 4 pounds on the "too light" side of the scale. Abigail was in perfect form at the doctor's office, gregariously running around, playing with the doctor, giggling/laughing non-stop and showing off her best tricks. The doc decided that there was no reason to send her to the adoption clinic at the medical university for some TLC: she does not seem like a baby who spent her first 13 months in an orphanage.

I am amazed at the patience that this little kid has, as well as how driven she is to accomplish tasks. During her first week home, she had a shape-sorter toy that she could not figure out. I showed her how to put the cube in the square hole and the right circular cylinder in the round hole, etc. Then she practiced. And practiced. And practiced some more. She spent almost 35 minutes putting those shapes into the correct holes until she could do it quickly. She studied it, turned the shapes in her hands and studied them. She clapped for herself when she got it right. Lar and I are SO happy that we have an intellectually curious and intrinsically motivated little girl! We hope to nurture that as best as we can so that she will succeed academically and be good at something she enjoys doing.

Abigail is a few months advanced in her motor skills too. She can walk easily, pick up objects while walking and run. She is working on using crayons, PlayDoh, and eating with a spoon. She loves to dance, particularly to "Step in Time" from Mary Poppins. She can sleep through the night and if she wakes up, sometimes comfort herself back to sleep. She uses baby signs to communicate "food", "drink", "up", "Baba" (daddy), and is working on "diaper", "bath", and "doggie". She loves the swings and the slide. Her orphanage said she can fall asleep without being held, and maybe she can, but she prefers to be held and sung to softly, and why not? now that she has two parents who love her to pieces?!?