Milestones

This past week or so has been a week of milestones for baby Christina. She has started to coo and smile socially.

Her "cooing" is more of a grunt that she makes when she's awake, but it is differentiated from her cry. And besides crying, it's the only other sound she makes, so we are going with calling it a "coo"! She loves to suck on her hands and this is often accompanied by her coos. 

And this week she has started to smile, though sporadic. I consider them social smiles because they happen when we are smiling and talking to her, it's just that she doesn't always smile when we are smiling and talking to her. And it happens more rarely than often. She will not smile on cue, but I'm stubborn like that too so it's no big surprise! So this week was the first time she has smiled back at me. I was taking her out of her car seat and James was right next to me. It was a very tender moment for me as a mother and I'm sure for James as her brother, because the first thing he said was, "Mom, take a picture of sissy!" It was very precious to me because her care takes a lot from me and for the first nearly six months of her life there has been no reciprocation from her (with the exception of the fact that she stops crying if she hears me or I pick her up). While I don't need reciprocity to continue to love and care for her, it certainly helps me feel as though I am in some way getting my love through to her. After she smiled at me, she then smiled over and over again to James. She seems to have a real soft spot for her brother James. I just keep thinking that she and James were best little buddies in heaven and her body is preventing her from so much. But nonetheless these are amazing feats for our little girl! 

And what's interesting is that I truly mean it when I say it's amazing! At least for me, with a handicapped baby you have very low expectations for accomplishments and when she does happen to reach a milestone it's nothing short of a miracle! At the top of our stairs we have this picture by van Gogh called First Steps. I love this painting. And now with the addition of baby Christina to our family, this painting has added meaning and only makes me love it even more. There is so much joy in family and in your posterity. There is something so beautiful about the fact that seemingly simple accomplishments of a young child make you feel so much happiness. And even though Christina will not follow the path of a normal child, her accomplishments, like cooing and smiling, we cherish and find great joy in.