"Vintage" Coming Home from the Airport Pictures

I just came across a set of pictures my family had given us; I had been too busy when we came home from China to check them out, but here are a few of them now. Some posted out of sequence, but you get the general idea. Please ignore how I look...we had not had the luxury of a shower in a long time and had major flight delays that made coming home even more challenging. Also, this was Kai's first "car seat experience", until then he had ridden on our laps when traveling in China.

We've been a family for SIX MONTHS!!!!

Yippee!! We are meeting with our social worker this weekend to complete our 6 month post-adoption homestudy.
Also, I am so proud of him this week. Despite having a pretty nasty chest cold, he has made a HUGE gain this week. Now I know this many not seem like a big deal to many people, but those who have adopted a child with a complicated history, will know the common challenges of bedtime. Well, after his lip and nose revision surgery in September, all of Kai's positive associations with sleeping went out the window. The hospital experience, pain, and insomnia kicked up all the negative experiences and surgeries he had in the orphanage. Even though I rocked him to sleep every night after surgery, he experienced so much anxiety and fear at bedtime. Bedtime has been a nightmare (yes, pun intended). The terror he felt at the prospects of going into his crib while awake were enough to break your heart. Well, after months of standing and rocking him for an 1-2 plus hours every night, we are starting to see a break through. Last week he showed an interest in playing around in his crib for a few minutes while I was rocking him to sleep. Three nights this week, Kai insisted on going into his crib and only needed to check and make sure I was still with him a few times; he fell asleep all by himself...no anxiety, no resistance. I am so happy for him to have reached this important milestone. We will continue to take baby steps and see how things go.

The last set of pictures show Kai at his friend's 2nd birthday party. The real kicker is that when Kai had first been introduced to Elmo from Sesame Street, he was terrified. Look at him now with the 4 foot Elmo balloon. He moved that sucker around from room to room that night. I consider myself fortunate that he didn't try and steal it from the birthday girl when it was time to go home. :)

This time last year...

Last year, on October 30th, Meg from China Adoption With Love called me with the file of a little guy called Wei Zhong Kai. She had limited information for us other than his birthday and CL/CP status and a few other details. If we were interested in knowing more about this child and would consider adopting him, she would send us his file to look over.
Sometimes you just know. We knew. We knew before looking at his records and photos that Wei Zhong Kai was the son we had been waiting for all these years.
We made our commitment to this little boy one year ago. We waited to meet him for 6 1/2 long months. He was born in our hearts a long time ago, but this precious child came alive for us on October 30, 2009.

Monkey Business

I have so few opportunities to post new pictures these days. Kai is forever on the run and insists I remain "actively engaged" at all times. As you may notice in these pictures, the swelling in Kai's nose and upper lip is slowly subsiding. He feels great and is forever a ball of energy. Sleeping continues to prove problematic each night since the surgery and may not improve before we start all over again with the next surgery. Well, at least my arms are getting really strong. Speaking of surgery, I think Kai is noticing a difference in his hearing since the insertion of his ear tubes. He covers and uncovers his ears with both hands all day and gets a kick out of the sound being muffled. It's pretty cute to see.
Lately Kai has been interested in touring the neighborhood (from his stroller)in search of kitties, doggies and squirrels. A couple of weeks ago a very large fisher cat leaped out of the woods to cross the street just a foot away from where we were walking. The poor thing froze in fear before wheeling around and heading for the safety of the woods. It watched us continue on our way before disappearing into a tree.
Okay, so here are a few photos from this week. The first few were taken as Kai was awaiting Annie's visit. She is the speech therapist that comes to the house once a week. He grabbed a pillow to sit on the floor the way she does while she is working with him.


This photo shows my young toddler's death wish behavior. He insists on using EVERYTHING as a chair. Here he is astride a parking garage. I had to "save" him from falling on his head half a dozen times before he could be persuaded to try another activity.


I love this picture because it shows Kai being Kai. He is such a little goof ball sometimes. He decided to use the fridge to prop himself up while taking a drink from his cup.


As mentioned earlier, Kai uses everything as a chair. Here he is atop his fire engine.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN...
Even though Kai didn't go trick or treating this year, he has been a good sport about letting me dress him up as a dinosaur and monkey. We got a few costumes from a consignment store this year for dress up play. This monkey suit was great for today's chilly weather; it is fully padded making him a chunky monkey!

Autumn Days

Kai has been trying to blow little pieces of paper off of surfaces after seeing me do it once. Unfortunatly, because of his partially open palate, he can't build up enough oral pressure to "blow" out air; mostly he just spits on it a bit. I give him a little help after a few tries do that he doesn't get too frustrated.






Yup, he's doing it again. This time he was trying to blow leaves off of a chair. Little cutie.

Busy Body, Busy Boy

I have several pictures for you today. The first set is Kai in his "artistic" phase. Well, actually I painted things as he requested them through signing and he managed to find opportunities to get his fingers in there enough to look like a human canvas.





These photos are a good indicator of what a tired Kai Kai looks like. When he felt that dinner was over, he upturned his bowl and made a lovely ball cap of it.





Today my brother, Chris, and I brought Kai to a pet show. For the most part, the event was a dud (it didn't live up to the advertisements). Kai didn't seem to know the difference. He enjoyed seeing the animals that were there and didn't seem to miss the ones that were noticeably absent. (They had claimed to have a petting zoo, but it turned out to be a donkey and two enclosed Alpacas). Once we were outside, he was thrilled with the strong winds blowing his hair around. It turned out to be a beautiful autumnal day after yesterday's heavy rainfall.









I haven't time to write more tonight, but I will try to squeeze more in this week. Kai's sleeping patterns are just beginning to get back on track, so I am hoping to do a better job giving updates in the next few weeks.