John:14:18

I will not leave you as orphans. I will come for you...John 14:18
This is a sweet reminiscence of our adoption journey to our son.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

My hero home 4 months


Our little monkey has been home 4 months! 
Can you believe it? 

He's such a part of our home! 

The pitter patter of little feet...
Chu is pretty much running as fast as he can, these days.  He still falls a lot and I sure worry about his noggin. 
He's still not a fan of the "green blanket of deathly needles" aka grass. Although, he has finally decided to leave the blanket he thought he was marooned on and walk across the grass.
 (This is good but, honestly, it was nice to have him confined while I did yard work. Haha... ) 
Also, He absolutely hates when momma weeds the garden and weeding has to be done so... There is a lot of whining! 

Moving on up... 
He has some interesting techniques at climbing on the couch.
 The first one I call the "ballerina technique". He sticks his super flexy leg and foot up on the couch, like a short ballerina at a practicing bar, then pulls himself up. Here's video of the ballerina technique. 

The second is literally "backwards." This one only works if the recliner is flipped up. He leans the back of his head against the recliner. Then, he walks his feet up the console. (That's some creative thinking right there!) 

He will venture to play a bit with toys now. Maybe only 20 minutes a day but that's better then nothing. Food is still more important then toys! 
But he is not gulping bottles down anymore. In fact, he's been leaving an ounce. This is Huge! 



Fun firsts...
We've had a lot of first with Chu this last month. 
First time in a pool. 

He loved it! 
And makeshift pools. 

He also went to his first real swimming pool. 
He loved the baby float. But still liked momma's arms better. :) 

We went to the lake for the Fourth of July.  Chu cried and cried until I took him in the water with me. Poor kids has a very ungracefull  mother and I slipped on the rock getting in. Dunked Chu face first in the fridged cold water!  I expected him to cry, because I mean, he'd just been crying for  15 minutes. But nope he looked shocked and then smiled.

Happy first Fourth of July, son! 

We went up the mountains for a load of rock  and he didn't love that. 

We hauled wood too. At first, he wasn't sure what to think of the mountains. 
Then decided he hated it. 


Mr. Magoo has moves...

In the safety of the truck he cheered up enough to dance a bit. Here's a video. 
So happy to see this boy bounce to music. 


Baby sitter blues...

There was a large fire a few weeks ago. Shane and I rushed to help my brother evacuate.  Chu was left with a sitter for the first time. He did well. Grandma said he kept giving kisses. With a bio child I would probably be thrilled that He really didn't miss us. But I was sad.  I'm hoping it's because he was in our own home and just thought we were outside. 

Channeling Daffy Duck...
His language is still small. Small but precious. He copies single words all the time but is not clear. He says the same phrases to get his point across. "I want up"sounds like "I on uhhh..." 
"Ion dat" for I want that. (I think he's channeling Daffy Duck from tinty toons.) 

He says thank you but doesn't actually open his mouth.  Mandarin is such a tonal language. He must be humming thank you. Ha! 

We have been teaching a bit of sign language to help us all out. 
(He still says "no" when asked if his food is good. ((Cracks me up)) And yet he eats every drop and then some! He had three of those tortilla wraps that day! Plus, some fruit. )

His language is very whiny, especially for food. 
So we are working on sounding positive like this

Built like momma...
Not growing tall but gaining weight. 
Chu is weighing in at 18 pounds 5 oz. 
He still has not grown in height. Our ped says to give him time. 
Every one comments on his tummy, that it's chubby so he must be gaining good weight, but it's really a malnourished tummy. (Protein deficiency) Were hoping it will go down more as he gets healthier. 
His belly button had gone down a half inch! Not kidding or exaggerating. 
But for the record, we love him - growth or not- big belly or not. 

Double trouble
We had a break through with Lydia and Chu. Up til' now Chu has really not liked any loves from Lydia. A kiss from Lydia was always groaned at but he is now excepting kisses and (gasp) has even given a few. 
They get in mischief together and make big messes together. They fight over toys. So, I guess they're siblings. ;) 
We still have work but it's coming. 

I'm the mom...
^ has been muttered to my older three children many times! (Especially Violet) They over love this squishy kid and who can blaim them? 

Have I mentioned he has the softest skin! It's like silk! 

The past is in the past... 
Or is it? I recently found out some new things about Chu's swi life. Some very sad things. I'm trying to process it and figure out how to write a post without giving details that are only Chu's to give. 

This info came in a time when I was really struggling with patience for a very whiny Chu.  I needed it. I am more patient with him. And the poor boy might be getting squished even more. More? ;) 

He really is my little hero. 




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