5 Months

Can you believe 5 months have passed since we landed in Atlanta with our little Peanut? For 5 months I've been a mother of a toddler! For 5 months I've... ummmm... SURVIVED! Yes people... I'm alive, well and really quite happy. Of course, you don't come here to read about me, so let me give you an update on our little guy.

Daycare: I had our first "conference" with Andrew's teacher yesterday. It was good to get a one on one update and most of what I heard was good! He is developmentally ahead of most others. His speech is amazing (more on that in another paragraph), he is always so excited to do things, loves art projects and is a favorite amongst all of the teachers. He seems to have an issue with being too "over" excited and can get a bit pushy. For example, when they get on the choo-choo train to go outside (code for get in line) he will mow someone over in order to get there quickly. He will also take a ball away from someone if he decides he wants it. The teacher said he doesn't do it maliciously and when corrected he immediately asks to share. Just some things to work on.

One thing she mentioned is that he always needs to be first. When they bring food in for lunch Andrew will constantly ask "Where's Andrew's??". Keith and I talked about how that could related back to orphanage days. We also talked a lot about how we forget SO easily that he has only been home for five months and we know his teachers don't even give that a second thought.

Okay... let's move on.

Eating: The boy eats. Daycare said he's their best eater. He likes lots and lots of vegetables (especially corn on the cob), chicken, beef, pork, yogurt, milk, etc... His table manners need some help, but hey - he's 3!

Sleeping: Bedtime is awesome. He sleeps so good. Naptime? Well, he's trying to give them up and I'm not sure why because he's exhausted during the day. We talked about how Santa loves good nappers and at school today he did take a good nap. What is a mom to do once Christmas is over? This Santa thing is SO WONDERFUL! Think it's detrimental to use Cupid next and tell Andrew he's going to get an arrow in his behind if he's on Cupid's bad list? :-)

Sleeping Edited: I started this post 3 days ago. I was just re-reading so I could continue with the update and the "Bedtime is awesome" sentence needs to be stricken from the record. Once upon a time, Keith was putting Andrew down for a nap and told him "When you wake up, you can just get out of bed." He told him this so that he knew it was okay to get up and go potty if he needed to. Welllllll... now he wants to "wake himself" all the time so the second his eyes open he's up and running. Or, even worse, if he lays in bed for 5 mins and can't sleep he gets up, comes to the top of the stairs and says "Mommy! I wake myself!" and is oh, so proud. Mommy, on the other hand, is oh so not happy. :-) This happens with nap time too. I have to wonder if the excitement of Santa is making him a little uppity.

Speech: Boy, oh boy!!! I am amazed. I talk to my child all of the time and am just amazed at what he says. He asks questions about everything, tells stories with tons of details and is so animated! Now, instead of saying "I want milk" he'll say "May I have some milk please, mommy?" He will also say things like "I wan to go home and see my daddy and my dogs and my cats and give them hugs. I want to hug Angel and give her food and a cookie. Callie is mean. I like Lancey" and on and on.... He loves to learn new words and can sing his ABC's. He knows all of his letters but can't write anything yet.

Behavior: Andrew is both a sweet, lovable boy and a tester. When he is good, he is so very, very good! When he is bad he is a pill! Thanks to Ondrea, I've read "Magic 1, 2, 3". We use counting and the loss of privileges when applicable. If there aren't any consequences to be lost then he gets a timeout. Daycare is having some issues with him not listening and when he gets tired he'll throw out a quick "No" when asked to do something. All in all, he's a great kid - he's just in the middle of trying to test his boundaries and since he has a mean mommy so he won't get too far. :-)

Self Skills: (They teach self skills in daycare) He can pretty much do it all! He dresses and undresses, puts his shoes on (velcro - not ready to venture into tying yet), washes his hair, brushes his teeth, feeds himself (although needs to work on table manners :-)), asks to be excused at the table (still working on this) and so on.

Hmmm.... what else is there to update you on? He is just an amazing kid. We are so blessed and we honestly we're given the child we were meant to have. He loves his family and is so sweet and kind. He has a personality that melds perfectly with all of us and we are in continuous amazement as we watch him learn.

We had our first post-placement visit a few weeks ago and our social worker was absolutely amazed at how well he was talking and was attaching to us. He exhibited the perfect amount of shyness when he first met her and then warmed up as time went on. Of course he asked her his favorite introductory question... "What your dog's name?". I finally got our report done and sent off to our agency, albeit a day or two late.

I honestly have so many videos and pictures to post, just no time! I have no vacation between now and the end of the year (used it all on the adoption) and work has been absolutely insane. I apologize to those of you who have emailed or if it seems like I'm ignoring you!! Maybe the weekend of January 2nd when I have a few days off I can get all caught up. By the way, to those of you waiting by your mailbox for Christmas cards... stop looking and check back after the New Year. Just like last year, I'm trying to start a new trend with "New Years" cards.

This past Saturday, Andrew spent the night at Aunt Mandy's so daddy and mommy could spend some time with Alex and then head out to a Christmas party. Keith and I had a great time (Thanks, Cami!) and Andrew did too (Thanks, Aunt Mandy!). Below is a picture of Andrew at Aunt Mandy's. Looks like he's protecting his purse from big, bad Mason the dog. :-) I'd show you pictures of Keith and I from the party, but well... there are probably 3 pictures of Keith and 150 pictures of me. Apparently I felt the need to be in EVERY.SINGLE.PICTURE. Oye... how embarrassing! I did have a good time so that's what matters, right?

Hope everyone is all ready for the holidays and isn't quite as stressed as I am with work and life!

Becky