A Bit More About Our Girl

**This is actually Part 2 of a summary of information we have been able to glean about our new daughter, Aidan. If you have not read Part 1, go here first**

The new report we received on July 30th (from the orphanage phone call that we ordered through LadyBugs N' Love) gives even more insight into the wonders of little WBN's personality and growth. At 11 months, she weighed 17.6 lbs, was 27.5 in. long, with a head circumference of 17.7 in. To give you a comparison, LadyBug (at one year) was 18 lbs., 28.5 in., and a head circ. of 17.7 in. So we know Aidan is tiny, but certainly not undernourished or failing to thrive.

She appears to be hearing very well out of her left ear, locating sound and responding appropriately. Her speech is still developing normally but she has not had further hearing testing to determine details about her right ear. Our docs at CHOP have indicated that the most likely scenario is that she will be permanently deaf in her right ear, and that reconstruction of that ear is going to be purely cosmetic if we (and she) so choose. There is no emergent need for treatment for this condition and it is indeed considered to be a minor special need. She appears to be compensating well. Once we arrive home, settle in and really feel bonded and attached, we will meet with the audiology dept. at CHOP and do the higher level evaluations and testings that they've recommended.

It still appears that she is taking a nice long nap in the middle of the day and rising by 6:30 a.m. She goes to bed at 9 p.m., so that gives The Boss plenty of Daddy time in the evenings after work, even when he gets home on the later train. One-on-one snuggle time will be so good for both of them by that time of the day! The report says that she likes to be outdoors, and that she likes to "make eyes" and stare at people when she plays with them. I'm guessing (from my research and interaction with other moms of kids with Microtia) that's a somewhat of a compensating mechanism to help her focus in on sound location; but from the impish grin in one of the photos, it might be a little bit of baby flirting too. I'm totally cool with that - she can flirt with Daddy, her big brothers, cousins, and uncles all she wants. That's it, though. I'm putting my foot down!

Here's another quote that cracks us up every time we read it:

"She is full of personality. She'll scream loudly if it doesn't go as she wanted (strong will), sometimes she'll clap her hands also."

She will fit in just fine here - all four of her sibs have varying degrees of strong wills (I have NO idea where they got THAT tendency!). I am well-versed in many methods of distraction and re-direction. Another note that melts my heart is that she likes to be sung to, danced with and played with. I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am to begin the singing, dancing, and playing! In fact, Shaggy has been putting together a playlist on my iPod labeled Aidan's Music. It includes kids' praise and worship, Disney soundtracks, lullabies, Scripture memory songs and more. We are searching for a little pair of speakers that we can plug into our iPod to take with us on our trip. A friend of The Boss's from CHOP has suggested that we include some Chinese music to that playlist to help her connect a bit with something familiar in the transition of leaving her foster family and joining our family. We're looking into that too.

So, that's sums up what we know so far about little Miss Aidan. It occurred to me the other day that I really need to come up with a great screen name for this little girl - and I'm wondering what you all think now that you've read this? We have a couple ideas here, but we thought it might be fun to hear from you! Be creative and share your ideas - you might just pick the perfect name :)