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A year ago we were just beginning the paper chase for our 8th child. A month later, thanks to our awesome agency AAI, we got the referral of a 3-½ month old baby girl, our beautiful ‘Busy’. The nickname suits her on two levels. Her Ethiopian name is Bizunesh AND she is one BUSY girl. But she wasn’t always.
In June of 2005, when we went to pick her up, she was almost 7 months and weighed around 15 pounds. Physically she was healthy. But as is often the case with orphanage babies she was developmentally delayed. She could hold her head up pretty well, and her fine-motor skills were good. She’d obviously spent lots of time playing with the only toy handy, her hands.
But she wasn’t rolling over. She wasn’t sitting up. She had very poor upper-body strength. She did not bear ANY weight on her legs– NONE. Total noodle-legs. I had heard from other moms that this is how their Ethiopian babies were, too, so I wasn’t terribly concerned. I figured she would catch up. What I didn’t really imagine was how quickly she would catch up.
She was a very responsive baby right from the start, cuddling in for bottles and smiling easily. Her body molded into me, and she was very happy riding in the baby carrier we had brought to Ethiopia for her. I carried her everywhere, slept with her at night, played with her on the floor, and talked to her lots.
Within a month she was rolling over. Within two months her upper body was much stronger and she had discovered her legs. At 9 months she spoke her first words: mama and hi. She crawled at 10 months, and walked at 12.
She is 15 months old now. She weighs 22 lbs. She walks everywhere steadily. Is fascinated by stairs, though she isn’t safe on them yet. Is trying to jump– occasionally gets both feet off the floor at the same time. Knows sign language for please, eat, ball, and milk. Can say mommy, dada, dog, cat, baba (bottle), dipdip (diaper), poop (she pats her bum when she says this), out, up, eee (please). She also does good approximations of the names of each of her 7 siblings.
She’s totally caught up in every respect– she’s actually a tad bit ahead in the language department. She hollers at the door after her siblings when they go out to play, and peeks into the shower to check on me if I dare hop in there without her. No more delays for this girl! What a difference a year makes!
WHAT a cutie patootie!
I second the cutie patootie comment! It’s wonderful that her development made that amazing jump. I hear this often with Ethiopian kids … even without direct stimulation, they are getting something that allows them to catch up quickly.
By the way, my nephew had a girlfriend called Busy once. I’ve always thought that a cool nickname.
my experience is very simmilar to yours. we are adopting our 7th child from ethiopia. he is 3 months old now, but will be about 7 months when we get him. did you travel to get your daughter? what was the country like? the people? anything would be helpful, howerandee@yahoo.com
my experience is very simmilar to yours. we are adopting our 7th child from ethiopia. he is 3 months old now, but will be about 7 months when we get him. did you travel to get your daughter? what was the country like? the people? anything would be helpful, howerandee@yahoo.com