A Month Home…

By Joanna Billigmeier | May 19, 2013 |

Today our little man has been home, with his family, for one month!

He fits in so well with our family…we are thrilled he is ours.

After a month home, baby J has a short list of English words under his belt. He understands so much of what we say, and has started to repeat a great deal of it. His english strike appears to be over!

He can say up, down, mama, daddy, eat, more, baby, no, no touch (when he is talking to little M, ha), please, hi, bye-bye…and he says many more things, but not clearly. He still talks a lot in Chinese, especially if he is excited or upset.

He is very affectionate, and we get lots of hugs and kisses…unfortunately, so do many strangers!
He is still quite indiscriminately affectionate, and we are strongly working on attachment. At least we have a cute little guy to work with!

Baby J has a great memory, and loves a routine (remind you of anyone?) He is so different from his sister, but they do have in common a serious love for order, cleanliness, and routine.

He is good at playing, and loves his cars with all his heart.

We are starting to see some small signs of attachment…not as much as we would like, but any progress is worth celebrating, right?

We had set ourselves up for so many difficulties with baby J…honestly, we expected the worst based on what we read in his file.
We worried for nothing. Baby J IS stubborn, and tests boundaries like any two year old, but he is also very sweet, funny, and so easy to love.

We dreaded all of baby J’s doctor visits because of what we were told, but it has been nothing like what we expected. He has been so laid back, and while I know there have been some scary things (like casting and loud saws to remove the cast), he has smiled, and calmly endured everything done to him so far. Even though it wasn’t expected, I have to say that it is nice to have two kids who are so easy with doctors. Nice, since we are with doctors a lot!