7 month update

Hard to believe it's been 7 months since we've had Timothy at home with us. We are so lucky to have our sweet little guy.

We recently went to the International Adoption clinic for an update. Timothy is 31 inches and 24.1 lbs. He's developmentally were he should be for the most part, with the exception of speech. He has improved from the 10 month level to 15 months, so we are getting there.

The surgery to repair his fistula (opening in the mouth, where he has not completely closed from his original surgery) is next month. This surgery will be outpatient, luckily, and he'll have a lot less done on him this time but I am still dreading it. I was prepared from the beginning for his first surgery (1st surgery with us - c/l repair was done in China before we got him) but I will just die if anything happens to him. I'm dreading this repair and putting him through all that pain again. But it's got to be done, we have to do it to improve his speech as quickly as possible and so he won't continue to learn the wrong way.

Timothy is now the dancing man. That is all that he wants to do. He loves loves loves music. Lately I've been playing him videos from Youtube - Feist with the muppets, Mana Mana, C is for Cookie, and the Lion sleeps Tonight. Would love ideas for other things to play for him.

We now go to gym class every Tuesday which is just an opportunity for me to run after him for 45 minutes straight. Often he will start to follow in the right direction and then something will grab his attention and he'll walk towards the opposite way leading others in his class with him. He loves the bouncy floor where he likes to jump and run and occasionally collide with another little one. Actually he gets incensed by the last part, and cries angrily as if it wasn't his fault. Sometimes all of the kids in the class cry at the same time. But each time he goes he's a little bit better, understands a little bit more and we are able to harness his boundless energy a bit.

He tries new sounds every day. His new words are uh oh - both parts, on, go, mom (pronounced om) and he just said lion tonight. He babbling and happy and will often run from one side of the room to the other and back again just to do it, smiling the whole time.

We had our first time outs - three in one night because he keeps standing on chairs and almost killing himself. One time the chair was falling over with him in it and I grabbed the chair (thinking this would stop both of them) and he continued on to the floor. Did this cure the problem you ask? Not so much. He really fell hard - it was horrible but was fine after a couple of minutes. But after we put him in time out and congratulated him each time he sat correctly in the chair seems to work, for now, not sure it's going to last long.