Catching Up

Sorry we’ve been MIA for a couple of days, but the Manny trade really had us down. As did a little sleep deprivation and the rigors of visiting a baby home for two hours a day! I mean, really, when is this trip going to be about our needs?

To catch you up, we’ve had three very interesting visits with Jem. Each two-hour block we spend with her, we see a little bit of growth in her acclimating to the two funny pale-skins making alien sounds, who just dropped in from a galaxy far, far away.

For two days in a row she seemed distant, perhaps a little tired (we’ve just gone through a terrible heat wave, breaking the 100° mark). To compensate, we doubled our energy output. Though we had moments of fun together, we left both exhausted and a little concerned that we didn’t know what to do to make our visits comfortable and engaging for our little girl. All three of us are babes in this adventure, in our own ways.

And we’re all learning.

We visited with Jem’s doctor a couple of days ago, who reported an excellent bill of health that was corroborated by our own international doctors back in the states. Her doctor recommended that we start exercising Jem’s muscles, to help her catch up with her non-institutionalized peers. We nodded our heads, yes, absolutely, we can’t wait! And then we got home and thought: 'What kinds of exercises do babies do? Is there a video we can buy?!'

But the next day, we decided to let her movements—and her challenges—lead the way: the wisdom from which we’re expecting we can learn most of what we need to know. We’re giving her pudgy legs a workout by supporting most of her weight through the experience of standing each day. We’re trying to coax her to crawl by putting a toy ahead of her and letting her push off our hands with her feet. (So far, not quite interesting enough.) Sitting is another story. She’s a sloucher and tips easily. Kind of like an unwieldy bag of sand—but oodles more lovable. Playing airplane is certainly giving our biceps and triceps an excellent work out. We hope hers are flexing, just a little bit, too.

Some of her physical challenges stem from the weight of her head, which is something to be proud of. She’s over the 50th percentile by US standards, and just a little under the 50th percentile in height and weight. By local standards, she’s a Summo wrestler. There’s a family from Spain adopting a sweet, tiny girl here (whose Jem’s age), and they call our sweetie “Gordito,” which translates to ‘little fat one.’ Most of the babies here are considerably under-weight and -sized.

Today there was a shift in both the weather and in Jem’s affect. She smiled immediately, upon seeing us, and was giddy for the first few minutes. It seemed she was happy to see us. Imagine that? Maybe the universe is shrinking faster than we thought, and we’re not such aliens anymore? Whatever’s happening it made our hearts sing!

We brought a big blanket to sit on outside today, and began a festival of play and relaxation. For the first time, since our visits began, there we shared a sense of ease. We nestled in and thought we’d be happy doing this for the rest of our lives. Or at least until noon, when we all must say good-bye and head toward our cribs for nappy time.