Saturday, April 18, 2009

Too good to be true?

Before we met Quinn, I read a lot about attachment and bonding. I prepared myself for grieving, trauma and the real possibility that Quinn would reject one of us for a while. Our second night with him, once he seemed to realize we weren't visitors who were going to take him back home to the orphanage, he did grieve. He whimpered in his sleep all night long. He refused to make eye contact with us for about the first five days. And he was VERY slow with unsolicited smiles, which we really didn't see for a couple of months.

He is behind developmentally and sees a battery of specialists. But in terms of bonding and attachment, we have seen no issues at all. He is affectionate, prefers us to all other people, takes direction, and is happy, happy, happy. A few months back there was a discussion in one of the Yahoo groups about how problems could materialize months or even years later. It was in regards to older children, but lately I've been wondering if the same is true for little guys. Quinn was 16 months old when we met him, but still very much an infant. We have watched him progress and really flourish, but I can't help but think sometimes: Are we out of the woods? Or could an attachment issue still rear its ugly head?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Talk, talk, talk

Quinn's first "word," uttered a couple weeks ago just shy of 22 months, was hi. Mind you, it's silent - he just opens his mouth VERY WIDELY in the shape of the word. But it's always consistent and it always means hello, so I think it counts. Since then he added "up" and "uh oh,' which sound suspiciously similar but he uses them in the proper context ("uh oh" always comes after heaving his spoon onto the floor signaling the end of the meal). He also says "Mama" quite a bit, to a group that includes me, Tom, my mom, his OT and today his speech therapist. She said kids often use a word for an entire group of people and mama is frequently used for anyone doing care giving, so that makes sense. But still!

But today - today! - he started mimicking our words. During speech therapy this morning it was "push" - the sound of a dog bark (not sure why...) followed by a series of "pah" "pah" sounds. At lunch we moved onto "yum yum." He was very proud of himself when he got that one. And then after dinner tonight I asked him if he wanted a cracker and he pointed and said "ack."

The speech therapist said that by 24 months a child should have 50 words and the ability to string two of them together. Umm, I don't think so. Not by June 8. But we are moving!!

Guess it's time to babyproof

Honestly, one benefit of Quinn's eating issues is that we didn't bother to baby proof the house very well since he didn't put ANYTHING in this mouth - initially no food and until now no toys, no nothing. Well, well, well. Yesterday Mr. Baby threw up two pieces of dog kibble. And after I let him crawl across the freshly mowed grass he had an unmistakable potting soil mustache. He's been eating food for a couple months now, but I guess this means he's officially putting stuff in his mouth!