Sorry for delay in posting

riding with Grandpa

my first professional haircut - not happy!

climbing the slide

playing with cousin Meredith

Madelyn has the coolest scooter!

Hi all,

Life is good and all is well. Sorry about not posting for so long, I will do better and strive to post at least once weekly.

Timothy is now almost 18 months. On April 9th he will be 1 1/2 years old.

Bug had his three month (since coming home) check up at the International Adoption (IA) doctor on March 23rd. Turns out he has grown 2 1/8 inches, and is now in the 5 percentile on American growth charts. The doctor thinks that he is growing well and he is finally 22 lbs 1 oz, so is able to sit with the car seat forward (and the passenger seat in the front can now go blessedly further back, so you no longer have to have your knees on the dashboard). His motor skills are at or ahead of age and, of course, his speech is delayed at 10 months of development. We had his hearing tested and he is hearing all speech sounds with no problems, yea!

We've started speech therapy. When he was initially evaluated by the Occupational Therapist (OT) and the Speech Therapist (ST) both felt he had good signs of cognitive development and seemed to be well on his way and would probably gain in leaps and bounds during the next three months. Our ST Leslie is wonderful and Bug likes working with her. Greg and I have homework each week. We've been trying to teach him some sign language including more, all done, ready, go, open and close. And giving him lots of positive reinforcement.

I've found that I don't talk with Timothy that much during the day and so I've been working on that. This surprised me as I tend to be overly talkative. I have to dig deep and narrate our day, talk about what we are doing, explain things I see. I'm also trying to be much more animated. Greg is very good at talking and playing with him and getting him to eat and sleep.

In mid-March we visited my family in Birmingham. Timothy did great on the flights but would not sleep. He was a little guarded during our visit, but did pretty well overall. But he was so happy to be home he almost kissed the ground when we walked in the door, he was practically giddy. It's hard for him to be taken from what he is just getting used to and pulling him to a completely different environment with different people. He loved, loved, loved his cousins. He would smile at Meredith and follow her anywhere. With Madelyn it was more of him watching her constantly and she would whirl past him in a blurry.

His favorite toys these days are his new miniature balls - soccer, football and basketball. He likes to put both the basketball and soccer ball in his arms and let them loose! He's also been 'playing' inside with our little neighbor Carter, who is 19 months. Bug does not like when Carter plays with HIS truck and Carter doesn't like when Bug takes the lid of his snack pack. But Bug will follow him anywhere outside.