Show Me Your Teeth!

Beatrice had her first dentist visit today. She was remarkably agreeable to showing off her multiple pearly whites and the hygienist had many seconds to do a look-around. Everything looks just fine. She'll go for an official appointment when she's three years old. Her cold is really out now and it would be abusive to post photos of her today, so I'll post some more from Linden's visit last week. Last December, we got pictures of Beatrice at seven months old that had me in tears. Her eyes were half shut and watery, she had a rash all over her face, and her hair was all over the place. I now understand that she must have had a cold in those pictures. I'm applying Aquaphor several times a day as the wipes of the nose and water from the eyes chaps her skin so quickly. Despite the misery I'm sure she's feeling, she's in a mostly decent mood, is eating well, and doesn't have a fever. Such a trooper.

On another note, today is day #2 of her putting herself to sleep for a morning nap. Anthony gave up on trying to get her to sleep yesterday so he laid her down and within 10-15 minutes she was out. Today I could just see that she wasn't going to sleep, so I asked her if she wanted to lay in her crib. She nodded yes, I gave her a kiss and patted her tummy and told her to have a nice sleep. She fussed mildly for a few minutes, then just sat up and played with her blanket quietly and was sound asleep shortly thereafter. In the past she screamed bloody murder if we tried this. Our social worker assured us she would let us know when she was ready to be alone, and it looks like she was right. Speaking of which, we have our final post-placement meeting with our social worker this afternoon. I'm preparing a pot of pho to share with her, a good choice on this remarkable cold November-like day. I remember so clearly one day when I was so discouraged with what seemed like an endless wait, and Christine told me "before you know it I'll be over here and a little person will be running around from room to room." I don't think I believed her when she said that, yet here we are. So soon.