If someone asked me how long it took, for Emma to feel like she’s settled in… I’d say 4-5 months. Something has changed in the past few weeks, Emma's anxiety seems gone, and she's just more relaxed. Emma is fine when I go off to work, she gives me a hug and is secure that I’ll be back. She’ll wander away from me, at a gathering, or a playground, and explore. She’s fine with either of her nannies, happily going away from the house with them. She’s ok if I give another child attention, or pick them up. The other day at Trader Joe's she flirted shamelessly with the cashier, and never took her smiling eyes off him as he wheeled her in the cart thru to the front of the checkout- it wasn't that long ago that I needed to be conscious of getting her wheeled thru quickly, or (in the early days) on my side, so she wouldn't start to panic. Emma's day seems pretty good right now- weekday mornings maybe an errand with me and then a park, weekday afternoons napping and most often going to a park with Kendall or Weihua, dinner and then evening with lots of books before bed.
In the past weeks Emma moved from shapes to numbers and now to colors. She has a puzzle with the numbers, and she called out tenderly to each one, like greeting a long-lost friend, as she put it in place… Five!.. In the past few days she’s been focusing on colors- calling out “that’s red! this is blue! all the time. Emma is almost combative about learning- “what’s that!” is the most frequent expression she uses. She doesn’t much care if she initially gets things wrong, she just keeps trying out words til she gets it right.
It has been awhile since posting- with Emma settling in later at night, it has really limited my time to do things. So I put in lots of pictures-
We went to Beckon and Mark’s beautiful wedding. Emma got dressed up in a velvet dress and patent leather shoes, and had a great time- as always, loving goofing around with Owen (in the pic with her, looking rather handsome).
We really enjoy the ferry, I promise no more ferry pics after these. Emma always makes a friend/two, you never know what’ll happen. (This time Emma again asked to fly).
It is spring here, and Emma loves the flowers. Walking to the front door we always pick something in the yard, and she has little bunches of flowers in glasses by her placemat, she’s learning their names. (Hug.. cherry tree.. she said the other day as we were driving past a row in full bloom)
I posted pics of Helen (with Emma on trikes) and Michelle (with Emma at Owen's birthday party).
Looking back, we’ve had a few bouts of illness- several days of Emma spiking fevers, kind of spooky, then she was totally fine. I am on the tail end of a nasty chest cold, but now Emma has come down with it. A toothache and root canal in there (which was surprisingly painless, to my surprise, I had a great doc). We've both been so healthy post-China, maybe just the odds catching up with us.
Kendall and Weihua sit with Emma in the afternoons. I am so lucky to have them in our life, and Emma loves them both. Kendall is the first non-family member that Emma has felt totally secure with. Weihua started recently, and is (re)teaching Emma some Mandarin- she’s forgotten all/most of it, but seems to be picking it up again easily. The picture with Kendall was taken a couple months ago, the picture with Weihua a few days ago- Emma is growing up so quickly…
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