On her first birthday-- November 16, 2001, Faith pulled herself up into a standing position. About two weeks after we'd returned home, I found her sitting on the livingroom rug, playing with a toy, when I had just left her lying down about five seconds before. My baby was catching up on those milestones very quickly! She started crawling shortly afterwards and cruising furniture in December. She took her first steps in February and started saying a few English words around the same time. The language was slow for a while, but by the time she was 2 1/2, she was talking a great deal and seeminly adding many new words to her vocabulary every day. This has especially been evident since she started at daycare in September, 2003. Before that, she went to the same babysitter we'd used for Matthew for four years. It was a hard transition for her to make, but in six weeks, she began to love it.
Matthew had a hard time making the transition from only child, to big brother. Faith got (and still gets) so much attention from everybody that he was jealous and angry quite often for the first few months. His performance at school suffered as well. Our social worker said that eventually he would figure out that his position in the family hadn't changed and that he'd settle down. My parents and sisters made sure they gave him the extra attention he needed and Rob and I explained that babies do get a lot of attention, just like kittens and puppies, and that he'd gotten it as well, when he was a baby. He seemed to understand this, although he still didn't like it. I'd say it took a good six months for him to get back to normal and he's been fine ever since. They are just like any other siblings-- they play, laugh, tease each other and sometimes fight, but Faith brings Matthew tissues when he cries in frustration over homework and tells him "Don't worry Matt," and he'll sometimes tell his cousin that he wants to spend some quiet time with his sister. Life is very good.
