One Month Home

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 9^th of October.  We met Zack on the 27^th 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.