What a singular spirit is MeiMei! She is both beauty and clown, imminently patient with bumbling grownups, yet imperious about toys and snacks. In the last few weeks she has chosen walking as her favored means of locomotion, chasing cats, balls and the odd rolling grape. At 16 months she tries to dress and undress herself with whatever is handy -- JieJie's fanciest dress or dad's underwear. She has little patience for books, so we abridge the stories and do a lot of pointing at pictures. She is embracing TV, so we are using that perhaps too much to reinforce the sounds of English. She has fallen in love with Kipper the Dog, JieJie's first favorite, and will watch anything with music. Most of all, she loves animals. I can't wait to take her to the zoo. And as her foster mother wrote in answer to our questions, MeiMei's favorite animal is indeed the chicken and when she sees one she goes wild with excitement. She is quite the independent girl. We had planned on no introducing juice until later and then diluted with a lot of water, but she unearthed her first juice box from a low shelf, and presented it to me. I popped it and gave it back to her. She drained it in 15 minutes.
MeiMei can speak only a few words, and her babbling features only a few consonants, so we are seeking an evaluation by the Early Intervention program to see if she needs some speech therapy. She is, however, a great communicator. She points and waves, shakes her head yes and no with great vehemence, and makes perfect noisy, sloppy kisses. She has a mean throwing arm, especially with inappropriate objects.
MeiMei cemented her bond with mommy when we traveled to the Midwest for the holidays. Daddy came back to work and the ladies stayed on the road. By the time we got home, MeiMei was a mommy's girl.
