Little Girl

She's such a little girl. Mariana has started becoming a little girl. She picks up her stuffed animals and grins and then clutches them to her chest them while rocking back and forth. It's so damn cute you want to hurl. Where did she learn that? I guess it's just in there. Is she automatically going be like sugar and spice and everything nice? (she already is by the way) I hear a lot about nature vs. nurture and I'm wondering how this plays out with adopted kids. I assume like most people we'll take credit for the nurture part when she's good and blame her birth parents nature when she acts up.

It seems like there has been a big jump in her agility this week. The last time I played on the stairs with her she was hesitant and wobbly. In just the past week she has become so much more confident on her feet. We put a gate across the staircase but 3 steps up at the suggestion of the social worker so that Mariana could practice on just a few stairs at a time. We had been blocking the very bottom of the stairs with the toy chest but she climbed over it yesterday. I went with her to practice and she went right up to the gate lickity split. She stood up on the narrow ledge and turned and went up and down like a little monkey. So often we're too close to the situation to see those little progressions. I guess I'm missing all the developmental action during the weekdays but it was amazing to me to see her moving so well.

One of my coworkers paid me a huge compliment the other day when he saw that last video. He said that Mariana looks happy. It was so simple but it meant so much. She looks happy. It's something I hope for everyday. We're almost 5 months into this experience and so far the Brooklyn Verni's are hanging in there.