Feb-March Review

I can't believe I haven't written in almost two months! I will bullet some of the highlights below.

• JCG is babbling, imitating sounds almost immediately now. The roof of his mouth is healing just great; it's hard to believe it was ever an open hole.
• One night I explained that some friends were coming over to eat. I walked into the dining room and JCG had "set the table" - one of his plastic bowls at every chair around the table.
• He is starting to play at Mrs. Dukstein's house when I have Dr. appts, etc. She is a lovely woman, the mother of my friend Becky. She's like a grandmother to him; he loves playing with her toys and of course turning all the lights on and off in her house.
• We visited Grandpa's house in early March, and finally got pictures of the two of them together as I forgot my camera at Thanksgiving. He had fun helping do some yardwork, riding in the car, etc. He calls Grandpa "Bee-Pa." This is interesting because JCG's great grandfather was actually a bee keeper. When we were driving back to KC after visiting Grandpa, we stopped at McDonald's to eat. JCG looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Bee-Pa eat?" He was expecting Grandpa to appear and sit down with us. Really a precious moment for me.
• JCG is starting to make 3-word sentences with prompting - "more milk please."
• We celebrated our 6 month birthday as a family 3.9.09. I just can't fathom that it has been only six months. Less than one-sixth of his life. I can't imagine him without me, nor can I imagine his life before me. Recently I was sent some pictures of the orphanage in which he lived the first 3 years of his life. There is a yahoo group of families who have adopted kids from the Jiaocheng orphanage, and the moderator sent several photos taken almost a year to the day before I went to China to get JCG. I'm glad I hadn't seen the photos until now. It wasn't as clean as I had imagined, esp. the kitchen and bathrooms. Didn't look sanitary. And sure enough, all the kids were rolling around in walkers. I was told he pretty much lived in a walker and it showed (as I've mentioned in earlier blogs) with his gross motor skills in his legs. So I can just sigh and say he is past that now and moving forward.
• Joaquin is my son. I still marvel at it. He is the brightest spot of my day. Our worst days are better than my life was before we became a family.
• He's starting to be a stinkerpants, test more boundaries, etc. I'm getting more confident in my parenting. It's getting easier - he knows what to expect from me. One night he threw a little fit during dinner and spit out his food. He didn't get any more food that night. It took him exactly once to learn that lesson! Time out works really well for him, too. I'm glad. He does not like to be left out or ignored, and he is genuinely remorseful when he makes a mistake.
• Joaquin is also aware of other people's feelings, especially babies. He gets concerned when other babies cry. I think he's going to be a compassionate person. On the other hand, when I picked him up from daycare last week, I walked in to find him yanking at another girls hair, twice. I jumped on it and he was so shocked, he didn't yet know I was there. I explained I have eyes in the back of my head and am watching at all times. He's probably going to develop a real Mommy Complex, ha!
• He's growing, it is visible to me. His face and legs and tummy are filling out, it seems like he is catching up to his age group in terms of size, I may be wrong on that one but he is just definitely more healthy!
• I can't keep up with all the clothes that are coming our way. I have bought next to nothing for this child. I am so grateful to everyone who gives him clothes, and I'm happy to already know who I'll pass on his clothes to - another single mom who adopted a little boy two years younger. The circle of life is really evident with clothes!
• I bought a "Flip" video camera, and am taking lots of videos. I can't, however, figure out how to upload them to this blog, so if anybody knows how please let me know!
• We went in to the hospital for a surgical procedure to put in ear tubes 3.12.09. What a piece of cake compared to his cleft palate surgery. We were in and out in 3 hours. We waited pre-op for two hours, surgery took 20 minutes, post-op was about 20 minutes, and we were in the car going home exactly an hour after they took him into the OR. He came out of it without nausea, irritability, or any of the other symptoms he might have had.
• I've decided my goal as a person is to grow to be as adaptable as my son. He teaches me how to relax, have a sense of humor, and literally go with the flow on a daily basis. He just adapts. Sometimes I really am in awe of it. He seems to have an internal sense of things. He doesn't balk at taking medicine, keeps his energy low when he really needs to, etc.
• I still miss being solo, especially being spontaneous, from time to time. I miss deciding to go to a movie, try out a new restaurant, or anything else on a whim. Very few whims in life at this point. The past couple of months were so cold, dark, etc. and I longed to hop a plane and go somewhere warm. Wasn't gonna happen. Sometimes I want a day off. It's still sinking in that I don't really get a day off. And I know that if I had a whole day off, it would be really difficult to be away from him. So there you go.
• I cut his hair today, I was so excited! I have to say I think I did a fairly good job of it. I tried to copy Talia's previous cut. He giggled because it tickled. Goofball.