Celebrating 2 weeks Home

Thanks so much for all of the friendly and encouraging comments. I have gotten all of them, even if I haven't published each one. I have chosen to never publish the ones that state mine or C's full name in the message (from friends who know me personally).

On to the post for this week:
We love having J (aka Booger-Nose, Little Dude, Drummer Boy, Little Man, Baby, Sweetheart, etc) home with us. It's amazing to me that it has already been two weeks since we came home from Korea.

He and I are slowly starting to establish routines to the day. Morning naps and night time sleep are both down to a science. Afternoon naps are still a struggle though. He is still waking up once in the night for a bottle and diaper change, but at least it is consistent as to the time each night, so I know that is what he needs. Other than that he is doing great at putting himself back to sleep.

He loves to see the cats when they come nosing around and screams gleefully if he gets close to one. Cat 1 is fairly tolerant and if J can catch him, will allow J to pet him, grab a hold of his fur, pull his tail, etc. Well, at least for a little bit. Cat 2 is not tolerant at all of him by himself, but if J is upset, she will come up to me as I hold him to comfort him, like she is concerned that one of her family is upset.

The car seat is down to only an occasional fuss. The highchair is a hit- I think he finally realized he gets food whenever he sits there. The stroller has been good recently as well.

At the pediatrician last Monday, he was 90th percentile for height, 25th for weight. Yes, he is a tall and skinny boy!

He is starting to stand more and more on his own. I think he is up to 30 seconds before losing his balance. He keeps conking his head on the coffee table when he falls though, so we finally switched out the table with the leather cube foot rest things we had in the basement tonight.

He loves to push the push toys around to practice walking also, though has yet to take steps on his own. He also loves to sing, and play the drums (hit his hands on the table). He even sang during the songs at church on Sunday (and only during the songs). Just a nice loud "Ahhhhhhh!"

We are slowly starting to expand his world a bit with meeting neighbors, running errands, and soon will be meeting my friends for lunch as well.

Next week we are headed to Arkansas to spend Thanksgiving with C's family. Yes, we know we are crazy for taking him on a trip this soon! It will be a big change and we already know it may cause some setbacks to ground gained. We will just be extra vigilant with him and may end up retreating to our bedroom at C's parent's house to just be a family of three a time or two while we are there. We will continue to have only C or I provide all of the care and comfort for J while we are there also. Although he will be seeing grandparents, aunts/ uncles and cousins, we will have to watch him closely to determine how much stimulation he can handle. He is really a fairly easy going baby though, so I am hoping and praying that he will take it all in stride. Wish us luck!

Snapshots from the last week: