Five Weeks Home!

Ahhh, the fresh Wyoming air!

We have been home now for five weeks!  The time has flown by, and we have done so much it feels like much longer.  Cooper is doing amazing in his new digs.  He has met his grandparents, his great-grandma, cousins, aunts, uncles, and his dogs.  He loves Tucker (the English Bulldog) and George (the Great Dane) and likes to let everyone in the room know when he "spots" them.  "DAT! DAT! DAT!" he will yell to get everyone's attention, and then point at the dog.  He does that with a lot of things, but he is most excited when a new dog enters the picture.  I call him our little "dog spotter."  He has started helping me feed them by taking the bowl of food and putting it on the ground, then backing away!

Cooper and George

He is starting to play with toys a little more and really enjoys dragging everything from his room into the living room to be on display.  He also really likes shoes, and every night when I come home, there are at least two of my shoes in the living room. We have done one long trip in the car - we went to Montana/Wyoming to visit family a few weeks ago.  Cooper did great and fussed about the same amount I would if I was strapped into the back seat for that long.

He also has learned a few words, including "more" which means "more" and "nose," interchangeably;  he says the word "bubble" a lot - that one seems easy for him to say; and he says "dada."  Ronda and Aunt Kearsley have worked on some sign language with him, so he can sign "please," "thank-you," "more," "water," and he is working on "up."  Genius!

Bath time!

We have come a long way in the bath tub from that first bath in China.  Now he claws and scratches to get IN the bathtub.  He loves bath time and still loves the water!

Before we left for China, we made appointments with our Pediatrician and the surgeon at Denver Children's Hospital, so when we got home to Colorado, those were two of the first things we did.  First, at the pediatrician's office, we learned that he was "normal" for a kid his age in both head circumference and height, but didn't even make the weight chart.  As we expected, the surgeon echoed our pediatrician by telling us that we wouldn't be able to have his stomach repaired until he put on some weight.  The surgeon estimated 6-12 months.  We made an appointment to meet with him in October to see what progress has been made. Last week (one-month home) we went back to the pediatrician and learned that Cooper had gained 3 pounds and grew one inch!  In a month!  We may surprise the surgeon in October if he keeps up that growth!

Spaghetti!!!

Cooper eats like a kid on a mission.  He loves pasta, oatmeal, apple sauce, veggie straws, and dried apples.  Sometimes we find a dumpling as an appetizer at a restaurant and when he tastes them he does a little wiggle dance... so he still likes dumplings too!  We have had such good luck with his diet, and Ronda does an amazing job of keeping him eating foods that give him the best calories possible.

Let's see, can he work a room?  Umm, yes!  We have had a few occasions like family get togethers and one event at CCAI where he is in a crowd and initially is taken aback by the number of people.  However, that shyness quickly fades and he starts to sparkle... and introduce himself to everyone.  He likes to wave and play jokes on people, like hey - want to shake my hand?  Too slow buddy!  He also thinks that it is funny to call himself "dada," but he will point at me sometimes and say it too.  That's good enough for me at this point.

Strike a pose!

Do we think that his development is amazing?  Yes!  But we aren't experts.  We look forward to getting his surgery done and can't wait for him to start saying a few more words, but most of all we are sooooo happy to be at home with our little guy.  He's the best and we are both in love with him!


Last week we got an email from our agency telling us that there are financial savings to repeating the adoption process within a year... hmmmmmmmmmm..... more to follow on that.

Until next time, Ryan.