I Would Gain 40 pounds in 3 months...

... if what just happened to Abi's body happened to mine. (Sidenote: just in case you've been saying 'Abby' in your head... that's not how we say it. Abi rhymes with baby.  Thus the reason we say, "Baby Abi" so much.. it rhymes... and rhymes are fun. okay, PHEW: glad we got that over with.) Alright- back to gaining weight.  If I were Abi I would have gained 40 pounds in the last three months. The child has gained 5 pounds since arriving home, which is a substantial percentage of her entire body weight. She came home as a "newborn", couldn't hold her head up, she had no trunk muscles, she kept her legs and arms tightly bent in towards her body, she didn't respond to much other than touch and music (no eye contact, no looking towards a toy, etc.) and she was so very malnourished.  At the height of an average American 2 year old, she weighed less than 15 pounds.  ALL of her ribs were visible, she had no belly, her ankle and her thigh were about the same size, and her knee was the largest part of her leg...soo skinny... and now, NOW I have the privilege of holding a full blown TODDLER.  Last night Sean and I just stared at her... we COULD NOT believe how much she had grown in such a short amount of time.

This was her in October at our hotel in Africa:

And this is her now. I mean just look at those cheeks.

 She's DOING so much more too.  She's gained much more control of her head, she is engaging her trunk muscles and trying to sit on her own, she rolled completely over the other day at my mom's house, she's kicking up a storm, she's keeping her arms and legs straight or at midline most of the time (VERY big deal) she's touching her face, she's recognizing toys and moving towards them, she looks at whoever is talking to her, occasionally she mimics sounds you make, she opens and closes her hands, she recognizes her name, she looks at pictures of a book while you read it, and she RESPONDS to music.  I put that in caps because she REALLY responds to music. She doesn't love all music though. She has her favorites and her not-so-favorites.   Beyonce and Sean being her top 2. Here she is watching Beyonce sing at the inauguration Monday.  Pure bliss.

She'll hear the first chord of one of her favorite songs (even if I haven't played that particular song for weeks) and start laughing or kicking. No need to wait until the chorus, she knows it right away. During American Idol the other night she legitimately cried every time someone who was bad sang and as soon as they stopped singing she stopped crying.  Then a talented vocalist would begin singing and she would start smiling and laughing.  She's got some discerning taste. The other night (knowing how much she'd love it) I took her to the studio Sean was recording at.  The second she heard her daddy's voice coming through the speakers she was in heaven.

All this to say, MAJOR things are happening in this house.  The eye doctor even said she doesn't need glasses right now... This is the same child whom we thought might be completely blind last December.  Miracles, miracles, miracles. 

And now, I must go feed my 20 lb babe some lunch.  Without the pump. So blessed.