A New Day

Today was a new day - and what a difference a day makes!

A rough beginning (10am-ish on Monday 9/1):

3:00 in the afternoon of 9/1: maybe these people are ok after all, especially that silly guy with a buzzed head like mine...

Just 24 hours ago my little guy was wailing for his foster mama and grieving pretty hard. He woke from his long afternoon nap and after the initial "crap I'm still here and it's still you" reaction he settled down and would only cry intermittently. I am so happy I sent that photo album in the care package - yesterday he grabbed it immediately and you can see his little brain putting the pieces together. He points to someone in the book and then I point to the person in real life and you could see it click. He loves flipping through it and tries to make the pages flip like I do with my little translation book. His foster family also inserted a photo of him riding a plastic toy - that seems to be one of his favorites but I think it also reminds him of them because the tears start up again. For now I've traded out that book with another photo book with similar pictures...we'll bring the other one back out in a couple more days. Anyway, after naptime Auntie and Uncle came in the room to play a bit. Uncle putting stacking cups on his ears and head was just so silly...and my little mimic took a couple of minutes before trying it himself. When we all burst into laughter, he broke into a HUGE grin and pretty much hasn't turned back since. He's a ham and a cheeseball all in one. My little cheeser. :) Every mirror we pass, his face lights up in the smile I've been looking at in photos for the last few months.

The Ergo carrier has easily paid for itself already. Last night I decided to take him around the block for a walk thinking the noise of the traffic might lull him to sleep. Pure magic. He was cooing and talking and maybe singing a little too...for all of half a block before he was out like a light. I'm not sure how long we stayed out but while he slept the 3 of us got to take in some of the sights and sounds of the area. Two different grandparents came up and said something to us in Chinese, mostly directed at Baby J. They were all smiles and so friendly to us. The second man kept speaking to me in Chinese so I finally was able to dig out a phrase right when I needed it to let him know that I didn't speak the language very well. This was met with a smile and a thumbs up, a few more words for Baby J and we were on our way. (Random thought: I really I wish I'd brought my pedometer to have an idea of how much walking we've done since we've been in China, especially in Beijing.) At the end of that walk he woke up and was restless so I pulled him out of the carrier and let him hold my hand to walk. He is unsteady and can't control direction or speed, but he was off! And he had the funk too - we realized his foot shuffling was his version of dancing to the music of the group doing tai chi on the corner. It seems that this kid is a do-er and we won't be sitting still much! Anyway, I carried him in the Ergo most of the evening. He seemed to feel pretty cozy in it and I didn't have trouble with his weight. Today though, I went without the carrier to our second appointment and my left arm isn't too happy. Fitting, since HE wasn't too happy at any of the appointments! We ran into a couple other American families at both places, and of course my guy is the only one pitching a fit. At the notary office they even had to come close the door! The only moment of silence: posing for our registration picture! Go figure, little ham has been photographed so much in the last day that he stood up and posed.

All is well here. I feel like he's bonding pretty well and last night I'm not sure if it was intentional or accidental but he said "mama" when he put his arms up for me after his bath (not a real bath yet, just a wipe down with the J&J washcloth...didn't want to traumatize him any more for one day). He slept very well last night, going down at about 9 and only woke up once at 1:30. He was quite a sight in his little footie pj's, holding a bottle and knocking on the front door to tell me he wanted to go out. Not crying though, thankfully. We sat down for a little plate of cheerios and fruit puffs (which earned another big grin) for maybe a half hour. I laid him down to change his diaper and as soon as he was all snapped back up he rolled over on his side and was out cold. I just tried the same thing this afternoon - gave him a few cheerios, sat him on the bed...maybe 10 minutes later he started sinking lower and lower before finally just giving in and rolling onto his side. Please oh please let this be how it always goes!!

So today we had the appointment at the Civil Affairs office and the notary. I think maybe being inside buildings like that remind him of yesterday's trauma because he was pretty inconsolable. Our next stop was the notary's office which was more of the same. Basically these are all the paperwork formalities and paying the province fees. We'll go get his passport this afternoon. Hopefully after a good nap he'll be back to his smiley self.

We have photos galore, just no time to sit and choose the best. So I'll close with one more short story to go with the photo below....

Last night Baby J and I had a bonding moment. He likes standing in the bathroom to look in the big mirror. That's the first time I saw him making eye contact with me, so I started mimicking his expressions. He stuck his tongue out so I did too...endless entertainment, let me tell you! So we migrated to the hallway mirror (where the paparazzi caught us). Well, this morning I was watching him sleep while I was debating what time to wake him up. Can you believe I saw him stick out his little tongue and then coo and grin in his sleep? How cute is that?? :)

Well I think naptime is probably about over so I should start getting his things ready for the rest of our day. Thanks everyone for the supportive emails and comments! :)