A year together

It is not easy.  It's sometimes really, really hard.  But, oh my word...am I ever grateful for this little boy and the opportunity adoption has given me to be his mama.  Mostly it feels like he has always been with us.  But, there are times when I'm reminded just how little time a year is.  Like now, with strangers traipsing in and out of our house and our belongings all in boxes and any sense of routine thrown out the window...these are things that lil' peanut doesn't understand.  And things he can't make sense of don't sit well with him.  He's only been with us for a year, which isn't really all that long to develop a sense of security.  And this big life change of moving is really unsettling for him.  We see it in his tearfulness and anger during the day and his fearful wakings in the middle of the night.  

Sweet boy.  When you are hopping around the house or doing somersaults (a newly acquired skill)...when your face lights up when you see your big brother...when you do a little happy dance upon hearing the garage door and exclaim "Daddy home"...when you wrap your arms around my neck and rest your head on my shoulder at bedtime...when you do all these things and more it's easy to forget how much you've gone through in your short little life and all the big, big feelings you may have swirling around in your tiny heart.  Time is a good friend of ours in this journey.  And I pray that with the continued passing of time you will feel more and more settled and secure.

Lil' peanut is fast approaching his 3rd birthday!  His language skills continue to grow.  He will repeat anything and everything.  He puts together 3-5 word sentences regularly and will actually respond appropriately when asked questions.  It's very cute when he and C have little conversations.

"Do you want to go upstairs?"

"Um, yeah."

"You want to play pokemon?"

"Play pokemon."

"Mom!  We're going upstairs to play pokemon."

"Play pokemon Ker-Ker ustairs."

"I'm Pikachu."

"Pichu."

"No, I'm Pikachu.  You can be Squirtle, ok?"

"Okay!"



He still loves to 'go.'  Anywhere really, he doesn't care.  His favorite toys are still 'things that go.'  Cars, trucks, trains, planes and tractors.  My dad took them to a little farm while hubby and I were in TX and lil' peanut has told us over and over again about the "tractor clark farm."  He won't eat everything we put in front of him, but he still wins most adventurous eater by a landslide compared to C.  He is still cautious in new situations and gets overwhelmed in large groups.  Even when we are among a small group of friends he can usually be found doing his own thing.  We might have an introvert on our hands.

He decided a couple of months ago that he wanted to use the potty.  Completely on his own.  We had the trip to KS coming up and our big move and I had no intentions of saying goodbye to the diapers.  But, telling my kid to "just go in your diaper" when he asked to use the potty wasn't really making me feel like a stellar parent...so into pull-ups we went.  If I had initiated this whole thing he would have gone straight into undies, but my heart wasn't completely in it. ;)  Plus, do we want him in underwear on our cross country road trip to TX?  Um, no.  To my surprise, he has done great.  Maybe a couple of accidents in the last two months (usually after a long ride in the car or when we didn't have ready access to a potty).  In fact, I was all ready to say that he was officially potty trained when I started writing this post a couple days ago.  Since then he's had more accidents in the last two days then this whole time.  I told you my poor baby is stressed about this move.

He still loves his big brother, but he is way less tolerant than he used to be.  When he first came home he took pretty much anything C dished out.  Now sometimes C will accidentally brush his shoulder or look at him for too long and lil' peanut unleashes the banshee cry.  Oh man, the screaming.  It must stop. ;)  We spend a lot of time practicing using our words these days.  He can be so silly and he daily gets the whole family laughing with his antics.  It's hard not to giggle after you tell him he's going to be all done with dinner if he throws his cup on the floor again and he responds with a huge smile and exclaims "Ohhhhtaaaay!"

I can hardly believe that tomorrow it will have been one year since we met our precious boy for the first time.  What an incredible day.  This little boy of ours is resilient.  He is strong.  He is quirky and silly, stubborn, affectionate, and joyful.  This little boy is ours.  I am so thankful for that.