Some Kid

Watching the daily changes in this child is really something else. Sometimes all I can do is shake my head, and sometimes all I can do is try not to fall over laughing.

At our visit to the doctor's office a couple of weeks ago, she asked if WeiJ was dressing or undressing himself yet. At that point other than pulling socks and shoes off, the answer was pretty much no across the board. Well that was sooo last month. It's June now so of course he's almost ready to cross another developmental milestone off his list. WeiJ's been practicing taking his own clothes off, sheer delight on his face when he finishes each new accomplishment. The shorts are easy of course, but oh so much effort goes into getting those shirts off! And every night now he's doing most of the work putting his pj's on - I just start the shirt coming down in the right direction and get the shorts pointed the right way, and he yanks everything into place. He just works so intently at it! I was right though - as soon as he figured out how to get clothes off, the diaper wouldn't be far behind. It's definitely one way to make me jump up wide awake when he comes in my room bare-bottomed...wide awake and hoping, hoping, hoping he hasn't been that way for too long!

His vocabulary seems to have vaulted to the next level all of a sudden. He's been picking up new words right and left, so many that I can't keep up with a count anymore. He's stringing words together in 3 word sentences, and his pronunciation is getting better and better. It's a little bittersweet to hear his pronunciation become more like ShuShu and less like FooFoo or Foof or WooShu...but it just goes hand in hand with the rest of the progress. The other day I couldn't believe my ears when he said a perfect sheep - with a hard p at the end and everything. I think my squealing fuss over that has convinced him to try for that reaction now with every word that ends in p -- now he's throwing extra emphasis into other words like cup or chip. He's such a sponge lately for new words and pronunciation that I keep finding myself doing doubletakes, wondering if he really just said what I think he said. Just imagine if he hadn't had a 15 month delay on learning English!

And the sense of humor on this kid! *Daily* he does something that has us both laughing hard. Whether it's silly faces or wild games of chase or whatever cheeseball antics he's up to for the day, there is no shortage of laughter in this house. In fact I'm pretty sure he feeds on it and amps up the ham factor as soon as he has a willing audience (which is oh, always). One of our newer books - the one we call The Oops Book - has a silly turkey that puts his clothes on wrong, and each time it's his turn the book just says, oops. Last week I was getting WeiJ dressed and he pulled his shorts onto his head and said...yep...oops! He caught me off guard with that one and we both pretty much dissolved into giggles. Silly boy!



Best of all, the tantrums are much better now than we were having last month. It's so good to have my sweet boy back! Monday he was getting ready to go leave with ShuShu and came to give me a squeeze first. That's always good for a smile of course. But this time he kept walking away a bit and then come running right back to give me another one! Those 4 more unsolicited hugs and smooches were priceless. I missed my little snugglebug and am loving having him back!!