Mango Magic

We have had a blur of busy-ness since my last post with 4 families from MD/VA coming (one still here 'til Friday) for Beatrice's baptism. She has spent over a week with her many cousins, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and accepted love from all of them. Her baptism was so beautiful and she couldn't have been more charming during the service. She even clapped "hurray" on cue as the congregation was congratulating her, and blew kisses to Fr. Gerry after the final blessing. Beatrice has the uncanny gift of being charming and hamming it up when she's center of attention, yet she doesn't demand it and is totally okay being in the background too. I hope she never loses that skill. We had a party after the baptism at our house with 50-something people, complete with Vietnamese food, Filipino food, ham & beans, cake, and mangoes. Lola brought 2 boxes of the most delicious yellow mangoes I've ever had and we have been devouring them every single day. Anna and Cindy, Beatrice's "cousins" from Pho Evergreen, delivered the Vietnamese food and hung out with us for a while, which was an awesome bonus. Beatrice continued to blossom this week with new things. Kissing on request, then initiating her own kisses, and on to blowing them, all happened since my last post. A few days ago she started walking if you gave her your hands, and last night she blew us away by walking on her own with this walker toy that's been in our house since we arrived home from Vietnam. This girl is moving forward and there are big changes nearly every single day. I think the mangoes she eats with her daily breakfast have been magical or something. She has been so incredibly flexible throughout the chaos. She was pretty good about letting others holding her as long as Anthony or I were in sight. Lola was her first babysitter for just under an hour one day as the time between Anthony's drawing class and my return home from work had a gap, and she did okay. Apparently when neither of us is in sight, she starts to search, but doesn't panic. I feel so good about her attachment to us. I recently listened to an audio tape about Reactive Attachement Disorder and they summed up a child with RAD as "wanting power and control more than love and more than having their basic needs met." That is definitely not Beatrice, and I am so, so grateful. Today marks the beginning of my 8 1/2-week summer vacation and for that I also am grateful. I'm sure when I return at the end of August, my baby girl will have made even more leaps and bounds toward toddlerhood. I am so looking forward to being with her every single day.