T's friend Sidney

the kiddos gravitate to the back fence to plot their escape

now if we both put our foot here...

daddy, it's my turn!

We pretended that the weather was nice this past Saturday and invited Kate, Bill and Sidney over for kebabs. Sidney wasn't feeling that great but riding in our neighbor's red flyer wagon made all the difference at least for a little while. Her little black pants are from us for her 1st birthday so of course we think they're so cute, note the little ladybug. Her mom gets tired of always dressing her in pink. Timothy is not as aloof with Sidney as he has been in the past (we've been telling him he'd kick himself later for this behavior). He loves Kate and is fascinated with Bill.

Looks like Timothy will need more surgery in June since he still has a large hole in the roof of his mouth. Sigh. The doctor told us it will be outpatient this time and he won't have three other procedures done at the same time but still wish he didn't have to go through this again. He was in a lot of pain last time and the medicines didn't seem to help him that much.

We are celebrating Timothy's 1 1/2 birthday this Saturday since we weren't able to be with him on his first birthday. Just a quiet celebration with just the three of us. I'm making cupcakes and we've gotten him a train set and a work bench. I've already given him two presents early - a little rider firetruck (about two injuries thus far) and a baseball cap that he refuses to wear more than two seconds but it is sooooooooo cute on him, it really is fun to dress him in hats.

People tell us all the time that he's starting to look bigger - friends that have seen him from the beginning - that his body is starting to fill out and legs looking longer. We haven't noticed but are happy that others are seeing progress.

Teaching sign has been a bit challenging since he likes the current system of pointing and grunting and grunting louder if given the wrong item just fine. He does still talk his own little language (or Chinese for all we know) and tries to say words. He will sign to give us an occasional thrill like milk, kiss and more. He does a variation of 'all done' for almost anything and also almost immediately after we sit him in his high chair.

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.

3 month anniversary

Bug is shovel ready...

I can wave now, when I feel like it

We got a hand-me-down slide from the next door neighbors

It's hard to believe it's been a little more than three months since we've had Timothy. And despite the huge learning curve of his parents he is doing very well! I still can't believe how clueless we were - our Chinese guide showed us how to rock him to sleep. I didn't think we were clueless - we took a parenting class and I babysat Sidney. Wow, we were wide-eyed in China. I looked back at our pictures and he is smiling a little in a few of them, a big contrast to today where is a happy smiley little guy.

He can feed himself pretty well with a bit of assistance and he likes to assert his independence. He is very careful with walking, mostly and will ask for assistance by lifting up his hand in the air, you know, kinda like a valet service, mainly me but anyone will do. He waves now, especially when we say hi. I've been working on this for awhile but it was the baby einstein video "First Sounds" that pulled it together for him.

He was evaluated by a speech therapist and occupational therapist and is doing well with motor skills - at or above age. And, no surprise, is behind in speech but including receptive speech related to English as his second language.

He recently had some night terrors and we did the exact wrong thing - picking him up and therefore confusing him and prolonging the pain. Since then no problems except for one napless day. We are pretty lucky to have such a little charmer and hilarious sweet baby.

Back to his old self

I can hold two blocks in each hand!
I'm also a bit of a goofball...
I like to walk with my hands in the air
My first taste of chocolate, some of which actually stayed in my mouth
Obligatory big hat, little man but oh so adorable. My rap name is rhymnoceros.

Feeling better

As you can see, Bug is feeling better. He's smiling and laughing again and almost back to 100%. He's still having trouble with sleeping but each night gets a little easier. He's been eating like gangbusters lately, we can't feed him enough. The plastic surgeon says the stitches look great, we were worried that he may have ripped them crying and putting his fingers in his mouth (both of which we tried with mixed success to prevent).

Since he was feeling so good we pushed our luck and gave him a little haircut. His hair was so long in the back it looked like a mullet. So while it's not quite even, which is difficult since Timothy would move his head from side to side while being clippered, it looks better than before. I have to say that Greg did a pretty good job.

Miserable little man

Our poor little guy is hurting very badly and is pretty miserable. Can't say as that I blame him given his surgeries - circumcision, hernia repair for both sides, cleft palate and tubes in the ears. And now he's developed a fever blister on the side of his lip, as if he didn't have enough going on.

He had a tough night at the hospital on Tuesday night. He couldn't get comfortable and was wearing arm braces called no-no's to prevent him from sticking his fingers or other things in his mouth. He would sleep for twenty minutes at a time and would then wake up. He was given pain relievers but they just didn't work the way I'd expected which was for him to sleep. We alternated between morphine and Tylenol with codeine. He would fall asleep about a half an hour after getting each med but again for only about twenty minutes. It was a long night to say the least, but the nurses kept telling me - you just need to get through tonight and it will get better.

He was discharged at 2:00 pm yesterday. He finally started sleeping at bit longer just prior to discharge he slept for a whole hour. He fell asleep in the car on the way home and sleep for two more hours at home. When we put him to bed last night he slept until 1 AM and went back to bed at 3 AM and woke up again at 6 AM. I just got him down for a nap at 11:30 AM.

Even when he was in the hospital on Tuesday he would still want to look at everything like his IV pole with the glowing screen and the oxygen tank beside his bed. He's been playing and even talking a tiny bit. Mostly he just wants to be held.

Gotta go - will try to update later. The posted picture is from happier days. I snapped this when he was trying to get my camera.

Surgery Update

Just a quick note to update all those who have contacted us to give support. Timothy had his surgery today. Ear tubes, hernia repair, circumcision and palate all appear to be successful. About 4 hrs of surgery then several hours in post-op. Timothy is now recovering at the hospital with his mom. He will come home Wednesday at the earliest and very possibly later depending on his recovery progress. Take care all --Greg