Saturday, July 12, 2008

Home Two Weeks...







Sam is carving out his niche in our family and our hearts. He continues to be a mostly happy/giggly little peanut, taking in new experiences with enthusiasm, taking in food with much the same enthusiasm.

This week we visited our friends who have a farm, and he and Zoe had a great time playing with the little chickens, kittens, and horse (did I mention it's a growing horse farm? How cool is that?) Our gracious hosts (thanks, Kathleen, Kate Marie, John!) let Sam play to his heart's content at the horse water trough. Poor little John ended the day on a really low note: ulna/radius fracture, courtesy of that skateboard. We're thinking about you, John, and I'm guessing it won't slow you down much, PLUS you'll be the coolest kid in school because you'll have a CAST.

Sam had his first medical checkup this week, and happily he passed with flying colors. We had a long wait in the waiting room (what is UP with doctors? ha) with spilled cheerios and two bored, restless kids, but we all survived and Sam left with a smile on his face because a lollipop was in his mouth, and the blood draw seemed to have left his memory.

Zoe is doing her best at adjusting, with frequent fluctuations between enthusiastic love for her brother and weeping about the "only child" status she has lost. It's hard on her: instant brother who can get into her stuff, has different rules than she has, etc. We are trying to give her lots of love and support, and for the most part she is enjoying the "big sis" role. Just making adjustments, just like we are.

The communication is still the challenge, obviously. Lots of pointing, attempts we're making at sign language, a few meltdowns (Sam and/or mine). He's got a few words down now (Mommy, ball, book, no, bye-bye), and hopefully in two more weeks, we'll add to the list. But we're doing oodles better than we expected, and feel terribly blessed to have this animated, precious little boy. We'll work out the kinks!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Getting the rhythm...




OK, maybe we don't have the rhythm of the 4-member family down yet, but we can feel the beat of it, and we're closer today than yesterday.

This kid just amazes us. That glue that had him permanently attached to my hip those first few days has started to dissolve a bit. He is venturing around the house with a bit of comfort, playing happily with his toys, and his meltdowns have decreased...unless you count the one today that was triggered by my inability to interpret that the word "MEEEEAAAHHHH" is apparently the Vietnamese word meaning "I would like more Kix cereal please." He is fine with the crib now, which means we got a good night's rest last night. Hooray!

The major change I see in our future is an increase in our grocery bills. WOW. This kid eats. All the time. A lot of food all the time. It is heartbreaking and endearing all at once to see the pure joy he gets from food. At lunch he put a particularly savory bite in his mouth, shut his eyes, and smiled blissfully, saying "Mmmmmm!" (a Vietnamese word, loosely translated, meaning "Mmmmmm!")

He was happy to visit with his buddy Isaac this afternoon, who dropped by to say hello. (Isaac's mom drove.) He now has two cute little helicopters, which he immediately raised into the air and said, "VRRROOOOOOMMMM!", which is Vietnamese, I think, for, well, you guessed it.

We didn't want Sam to get the impression that Mommy cooks all the time (HA!), so it was important that he got the restaurant routine down as well. So tonight we had a wonderful outing with family to Shorty Small's. He got to meet Uncle Tommy, Aunt Nancy, and family cousins, Jim and Carol. He grinned a lot, and ate...a lot. Mainly Poppy's food, but some of Mimi's as well. Happy kid, full tummy.

So a rhythm is developing...it may very well fall apart tomorrow, and we'll have to back up and regroup with whatever difficulty he will undoubtably have. I don't fool myself into thinking it's smooth sailing ahead, but these last few days have made it very easy to absolutely fall in love with this little boy, our son.