So Thankful

I am so thankful this year. I have the baby that I've dreamed about for years and years right here in my arms. It still doesn't seem real to me sometimes, even though on Monday he will have been with us for 5 months. I have a wonderful husband who has been my very best friend for the past 13 years. I have my mother, who has many life-threatening health conditions and has been hospitalized most of the past month. I don't know what I'd do without her. I have my grandpa, who along with my sweet grandma, raised me from the time I was 5 years old. He is in a nursing home now and has a failing body and mind, but it warms my heart to go see him. I have my grandma, who went to be with the Lord recently, but she'll always be in my heart. I have a job doing what I love, and even though I'm dreading going back on Monday and leaving Henry, I know that it's what I must do for our family right now. Things haven't been perfect lately, and sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all of the stress and recent changes, but I'm so thankful for what I have~~I'm richly blessed.

Henry brag!

We have all finally recovered from the flu, though our house hasn't. I'm still trying to catch up on the housework that I fell very behind on during that time. I don't know what's going to happen when I go back to work in a couple of weeks! Speaking of that, I am so grateful for the time I've gotten to spend with Henry. By the time I return to work, he will have spent 5 months at home with me. Of course, some of that time was summer, so I didn't have to take those days off work. I know that some don't understand why I chose to take such a long leave from teaching, but honestly, this time was very much necessary for attachment between us. I'm sad that our time together at home is nearly up, but also thrilled that I was able to do this for him. I'm sure there will be future posts about my struggle to leave him everyday in someone else's care.

I think it's time for a Henry brag! There hasn't been one in awhile and he's been making a lot of progress, so it's time! First of all, I took him to the pediatrician yesterday and found out that he weighs 26 lbs 14 oz and is 32 inches tall. That is 75th percentile for both height and weight! The doctor called him a "big, healthy boy" and remarked at how "busy" Henry was. Henry is absolutely obsessed with eating, so I was worried that he was gaining too much weight, but actually he only put on 1 lb in the last 3 months. No worries.
Our ped. encouraged us to wean Henry cold turkey from all bottles. We kept him on the bottle a bit longer for bonding, but I agree it's time. He has gone a day and a half so far without one. He's doing well so far! I expected a much bigger fight from him about this, but he's surprising us. We are also switching him from 2 naps a day to one afternoon nap. He's also doing well with this. My baby boy isn't really a "baby" anymore (sniff, sniff).

Here are the words Henry can say:
Mom "mooomm"
Daddy "dad-gee"
bottle "bah-mmm"
dog
*He repeats lots of things we say but doesn't frequently use those words on his own (such as fan, snack, ball)

Here are the words Henry can sign:
more
please
thank you
hungry
thirsty
finished
milk
bath
brush teeth
night-night
goodbye
mama
dog (for this sign you snap your fingers as if calling a dog---Henry can't snap his fingers but he makes a motion with his hand and clicks his tongue for the "snapping" noise. So cute!!

So between speaking and sign language Henry has a good vocabulary! He definitely knows how to tell us what he wants! He picks up things so quickly. He's such a smart boy, which is funny because some of his adoption paperwork from Korea called him "clever looking." Being a teacher, I am thrilled that he loves books as much as he does. I read to him every night before bed, which is my favorite sweet-time during the day. Our house is overrun with his toys but I think if he had only a couple of books he'd be pretty happy. Oh, and the dog's toys---he loves those most of all.

His latest thing is that he is starting to climb up on things. He learned to climb up on our leather ottoman first, then the couch, and now he's trying to climb into the bathtub! YIKES! I've taken him to the playground several times to encourage him to climb there, but he's still pretty unsure about it. At our last visit, I spent a lot of time trying to get him to climb on the equipment, but he spent it picking up leaves and handing them to me. I know I shouldn't rush it because soon enough I'll be chasing him all over the playground, and wishing he'd slow down!

My last brag for now is about how sweet he is. He gives us kisses and hugs all the time. Some are encouraged by us, but many are just of his own accord. The kisses are these great, wet, open-mouthed ones that just melt my heart. He is very strong willed and has been throwing quite a few tantrums lately when we say the awful word "no." Next time he's on the floor screaming I'll just have to remember those sweet little kisses.

Just a few fun pictures:

He loves dumping all the toys out of these bins and sitting in them.

We've had this wooden toy grocery store for years in storage, but we assembled it and put it out when we were suffering from the flu, and Henry was bored from staying indoors so much. It's huge, but...

Henry loves it!! It's almost worth the annoyance of having plastic groceries scattered around our living room all the time.

Fall Fun---lots of pictures!

The title of this post is a bit ironic because at the moment fall is anything but fun around here. We have all had the swine flu. Henry had it first, and was horribly sick. Of course just as he began to feel much better James and I came down with it. It is ridiculously difficult for there to be two sick parents and have a little one who is going stir crazy from not leaving the house. Let's just say that our house is a disaster and we are just barely making it. This too shall pass, right?

I want to share some cute fall pictures. The first set is from our trip to Hall's Pumpkin Farm a few weeks ago.

This next set of pictures is from our trip to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. Henry thought it was a blast to just wander around among nature. We definitely need to take another trip there once we are all well. The pictures turned out a bit dark because we were taking them at dusk.

And, finally, the last set of pictures is from Halloween. Henry had been really sick a couple days beforehand, but by that night he was feeling quite a bit better so we decided to take him trick-or-treating at a mall because I couldn't stand for him to miss out on his first Halloween! He really seemed to enjoy it. He didn't seem to mind his ninja costume one bit, and he was fascinated with looking at all of the other kids in costume.

Henry has been home now 4 months and he just turned 15 months old. Things are definitely getting better, but we still have our unexplained rough patches (such as today---he's screamed and tantrumed since he woke up). We plan on taking him to see an international adoption pediatrician just to make sure that everything is ok attachment-wise. Henry is so smart and full of personality. We are constantly amazed by some of the clever things he does. More about that on the next post. Right now, I am a tired, sick mommy who has a little boy who needs me!