Joy in the Journey: October 2012

Wow! This last month flew by! I cannot believe I'm already writing his 5 month report! Jack is doing extremely well! Every month, Jack seems to reveal more trust and comfort in his life with us. This month we have especially seen a change in his obedience and in his bonding with us. Bryan and I are settling into our roles as parents better too. It's kinda hard to explain, but at first, even though we loved Jack, Bry and I didn't immediately think of him as our child. We didn't know him at all and we were hesitant about how to discipline and even show affection to him some days. But now, it's easy to love on Jack. After 5 months, we feel like we have gotten to know him pretty well now, and well, we kinda like him. ;) Discipline isn't as difficult anymore either. We actually don't have to do it that much lately. And the best thing is, Jack's constant fussing and whining...every day...all day long, has become almost non existent! Praise the Lord! Instead of him doing it 50 times a day, IT is more like 5 times a day! Now I can work with that! ;)

We did have a tough start at the beginning of the month though. We went up to Georgia for Jack's cousin's birthday party, and we were looking very forward to this visit with our family. But right away, Jack ended up getting pretty sick. That same weekend, we also had to give our dog, Rosie, away to a new family because we weren't able to take care of her medical needs anymore. Luckily, we found a great family for her, but dealing with that and Jack's sickness didn't make it very enjoyable. But looking back now, Jack being sick ended up being a good thing because we think he actually bonded more to us because of it. He woke up on my birthday, very lethargic, wouldn't eat anything, and had a very high fever. It was the first time he just cuddled up in my arms and just let out the saddest cry. Of course, we were out of town, so we ended up taking him to a "minute clinic" and found out it was an ear infection. We cut our trip short and Jack cried most of the way home. It wasn't until about four days later, Jack started acting normal. Well, better than normal, super happy, smiling, loving on us, obeying us, and no fussing! Reminding me of the good ol' honeymoon days. I guess since we were there for him and took care of him during this time, he gave us a little more of his trust. And he has been like this ever since. :)

We have also noticed he has gotten more attached to us because now he cries hard when we put him in the crib. He usually stops after a few minutes, but you can tell he doesn't like us leaving him in there anymore. He used to love going to bed and would wake up happily until someone came and got him. But now his bedtime routine is his least favorite part of the day. He just starts bawling when we ask him to pick up his toys, because he knows it's time to go to bed. I told Bryan, "I guess we have ourselves a normal toddler now." :)

We also took Jack to his doctor for his 20 month check up. The doctor said he was looking great and actually thought he was pretty advanced on his language skills being that he has only been here for five months. He's growing as he should and had lost a little weight due to his sickness, but was still 50% in weight, 80% in height, and 50% in head circumference.

Potty training has not gone anywhere yet. He is starting to tell me sometimes when he goes "poo poo" but I still think it's early. I'm probably going to wait to start training him until the beginning of the year after the holidays are over and we are stuck in the house more. ;)

Jack is also starting to get his second molars in, so he has been a little irritable these past couple days, but I feel kinda happy that I get to experience this because we didn't have him when he got his other teeth. So even though I can't say I was there with him when he got his first baby teeth, I can say, I was there when he got his last ones! :)

Some fun stuff he started doing this month is making animal noises. He picked up on them pretty quick from a book that we were reading. He still doesn't do them all right, but overall, he does pretty good. He has his favorites--most animals pretty much says, "meow." ;) My favorite thing he has started doing is imitating Cookie Monster. He says, "nom nom nom" cause that's the sound cookie monster makes when he eats cookies. :) He still loves to dance, and say random numbers and letters. His favorite show is actually "Wheel of Fortune" because he likes to imitate the contestants as they shout out the letters. It's more educational than Sesame Street! :) He still sings too, and you will often catch him singing, "aw nigh law" which is from his Cars movie. There is a scene that shows cars driving on the highway, and it's playing "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts. In case you didn't know, the lyrics are, "Life is a highway, I wanna ride it, all night long..." So, he sings the "all night long" part while he plays with his cars. :)

Jack also likes to pretend. He has a little table now and he puts bowls and cups on it and pretends to cook and eat. He also takes his stuffed animals and changes their diapers and put blankets on them. The funniest thing he has done with them is put them in Time-Out. He takes them to the corner and tells him, "no!" or "stop!" and then leaves. Then he walks back and picks him up, hugs him and pats him on his back, and says, "boy...boy" (which means good boy). :)

Jack loves when his "Da Da" comes home. He gets really wild and likes to wrestle with him. He can also be so sweet sometimes. He likes to cuddle under the "banky" while we watch Sesame Street or read books. He once took my arm and put it around him and said, "Hold you." Melted my heart. :)

We've got more fun stuff coming up! We plan to go to a pumpkin patch and, trick or treating next week. November will also be a big month too. We will have our third post placement meeting November 3 on Dada's birthday. We will also have some more family visits and Thanksgiving. And then our court date has been scheduled for finalization on Nov. 30th! We are so excited to think Jack will really be ours in a little over a month!!!

Here are some photos from the last month...