Tried several times to get a photo with the foam letters on the tub (not in the water) and Z actually looking at the camera - gave up!!!
Today is the 9th of October. We met Zack on the 27th of August
and he has been at home here in England with us for just over one month. He is doing really well. He’s gained about 3 pounds – he came to us
very healthy and well-nourished, but he does like his food. He hasn’t grown in height yet, but his shoes
we got him in GZ are getting tight. He
is a very healthy little boy. He has
survived the first round of doctor visits – four vials of blood (we are half
done with that), 5 shots (catching up on immunizations), lots of poking and
prodding, and X-Rays (which he thought were pretty fun). Oh, and poop samples!!! Zack didn’t have to do too much with that…but
I sure had fun with those – not. We are
scheduled to see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday and a plastic surgeon in early
November. Obviously, we don’t expect a
medical miracle – we know he won’t grow a hand – but we are hopeful that his
right hand will enjoy some improved functioning and appearance. He’s also been referred to early intervention
for evaluation for speech therapy and PT/OT.
We’re going to see how that goes – we’re not having any problems in
those areas, but we want him to have all the advantages we can provide. I really like our pediatrician and he’s
really been very thorough with Zack’s care so far. Our experience with our military medical
community with regard to our international adoption journey has not been
overwhelmingly positive but I am hoping some education and persistence might
improve things for the next person. The
lack of “savvy” about international adoption by some of the healthcare workers
I’ve encountered was pretty sad…I had to go through the 20 questions with the
appointment clerk when I wanted to make an appointed for Zack as soon as we got
him home. Thankfully, we brought home a
little boy with no pressing health issues, but not everyone bringing a child
out of institutional care is as lucky as we have been. Once we actually got Zack in to the peds
clinic, we were taken care of very well, but getting him in was not easy or
timely and the medical support we received pre-adoption was…well, it wasn’t. Hopefully, we are past the hard part.
Getting his BP taken...he was very good
Zack’s receptive language is excellent. He understands most of what we say, and for
the most part, will do what we tell him to do (he is after all, two). Simple directions such as “give this to daddy”;
“put this in the laundry”; “go get your shoes” are normally followed. He can point to about a dozen of his body
parts when asked. He still babbles in
Chinese quite a bit…some things we are able to decipher or guess at, but some
things we just plain don’t understand.
Since he has started nursery school, he is talking more and repeating
more words we say to him. He still pulls
us around by the hand quite a bit and points to what he wants and he will touch
his tongue when he is thirsty. He will
point to the floor after he’s eaten and say “big mess” or “messy”; say “yummy”
if he likes something a lot; rub his tummy and make a motion with a spoon when
you say “eat”; and he says “apple”; “banana”; and “no” quite clearly. He calls Lee and I “Baba and Mama” (Baba is
the Chinese word for Daddy). He is
starting to say “daddy” a little bit and he knows who I mean when I say
daddy. He refers to himself as “wa wa”
or “wa wa baby” (wa wa being Chinese for baby).
He will point to pictures of family members and correctly identify
everybody. He sings Twinkle Twinkle
Little Star…kind of. When I sing, it, he
sings something and makes the hand motions I taught him. He sings the “E-I-E-I-O” part of Old McDonald
very clearly. We are working on
differentiating between the colors red and blue right now, and I have word
cards that I use with him regularly.
First day of nursery school...smiling for the camera (that I chased him in to the corner with)
He likes Henry – sadly, it is not mutual. Every time my poor 12 year old cat comes in
to Zack’s view, he runs at him and says “Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!” He was referring to Henry as “Mao Mei” but he
is starting to say something that kind of sounds like Henry…he does know who
Henry is, though.
He is doing very well with adjusting to new foods. He still prefers Chinese food, but he will
try most things at least once. He is not
a big fan of eggs, cheese, processed meats or any type of tomato sauce (pizza
is a no-go). He will eat small amounts
of cooked chicken and really likes steak.
He has eaten every fruit and veggie that we’ve given him, with the
exception of raspberries – probably too sour.
He particularly likes yogurt, pancakes and oatmeal. He uses a spoon and fork very well and drinks
out of a regular cup. He is making progress with potty training. He will normally use the potty if taken to
the potty but will not give you any indication that he needs to go.
Sleep was a struggle the first week – he had never slept in a
room by himself. With establishing a
very firm bedtime routine, a fun turtle pillow that projects stars on the
ceiling, and one very tearful evening, we are now to the point where we can
kiss him goodnight and walk out of the room.
He will occasionally wake in the night and he will wander in to our
room. He is not a super sound sleeper
and he is a big nap-fighter, but overall, sleep is not a huge issue like I’d
feared it would be.
Zack has adjusted well to nursery school and life in our
neighborhood. He is a very active and
friendly little boy. We kept him pretty
close to home the first 2 weeks and didn’t really have many visitors, but he
has done very well interacting with other people. We are not of the “no one will touch my child
for 3 months” school of thought. We have
a friendly and well-adjusted little boy who knows who his parents/caregivers
are. We are happy that Zack has more
than 2 people in his life that love him.
Playing outside - putting rocks in a box is great fun!
Getting underfoot - er, I mean helping mom in the kitchen!
This is the boy we met on August 27th, after he'd stopped crying and appeared semi-comfortable with us (or at least resigned to having us take care of him). I was so happy at the time that he'd stopped screaming, but check out the look of suspicion. Big changes for this little man over the past 6 weeks!
He is a great kid and I enjoy sharing our story.
1 comments:
Hi, I saw your post on RQ. WE stayed at the Shifu our last trip and plan on staying there next month. We also loved it. This time, I am going to try the executive floor deal! I just wanted to say that you had me laughing aloud with some of your comments- hilarious! Thank you for sharing! Kim
Post a Comment