No great surprise

We heard back from the pediatrician today regarding the results of Analiese's bone scan. No big surprise as the nurse read to us from the report, ..."a child of 5 years 9 months to 6 years 10 months" (as opposed to her stated age of 7 years 5 months). Unfortunately they couldn't give us a smaller range of age but I think we are pretty close when we say Analiese is probably a young 6 year old.

I told Analiese about the results and she asked, "Am I five or am I six?" I told her that she was probably "six" and she said that's OK!

I also asked her if she was going to tell anyone and she said, "no, I'm afraid to". But then she promptly told all of the adults at the dance studio when she arrived for dance class!

I realize that Analiese is too young to really understand. We believe that the earlier we discuss the details of her early life, the likelihood that those details will become part of her is greater. We don't want to wait until she is older, with lots of questions, to begin discussing these issues. Hopefully, by sharing early, we will avoid some confusion and possibly anger.

For now? Nothing really changes for us. For years we've suspected that Analiese was younger than her stated age. We just know for sure that she is right on track developmentally--physically and emotionally for her real age!

A disappointment that I feel is how much of what the chinese told us can I believe? Was Analiese really found on a policeman's door step? Was she really only 2 weeks old? I had a dream of possibly locating the policeman and getting a copy of the police report for her finding. I really had hoped to provide her with as much information about her beginnings as possible.

As I stated before, and the pediatrician has pointed out, Analiese is a very bright little girl as she is doing so well with the group of her peers that some are as much as 18 months older than she.

Analiese has become quite vocal lately about being so "small". Some of the things she complains about are:

**having to sit in a car seat
**having to roll up the sleeves on her shirts
**not being allowed to stay up late
**not being able to reach the kitchen counters without a stool
**not being able to sit in the front seat of the car

She folds her little arms across her chest and exclaims that "Everybody but me can do things, but I can't because I'm the baby". She wants to know why she had to be born last. I tell her it's because she was meant to be my baby and the baby of our big family. That generally calms her down.

Analiese will then say, "I love being your baby". Oh yeah, and I love having you as my baby!