Much Growth in Three Weeks

We are finally starting to get into a routine.  I now know that Gav takes a 1 hour nap starting at 10am, a 2 hour nap at 1:30, and then we start the bedtime routine at 7:30 with the goal to be out like a light at 8.  I have to say it took 3 weeks of trial and error, and 1 full week of not being sick (him, not me) to figure it out, and get it done.  Now it’s almost like clockwork.  Almost. :-)

Mini-Me, Micro-Man, or most commonly known as Gabby (story to follow) has made significant progress in just three weeks.

- Three weeks ago he had never, ever self fed himself. Today he has a beautiful pincer grasp going on and can pick up small bits with his forefinger and thumb.
- Three weeks ago he was at the 10th percentile for weight and 15 for height. This week he is 25 for weight and 50 for height!!
- Three weeks ago he was placed in Jim’s arms wearing  6 month clothes (they were snug). This week he has moved to 18 month clothes (for length).
- Three weeks ago he struggled to pull himself up to a stand. This week he loves to hold on to our fingers and walk.
- Three weeks ago his head flopped all around if we started to lay him down. This week we can tip him any which way, and he has control of his head. (To be fair, the boy has an AMAZINGLY large and heavy head.  He has to wear kid size hats, not toddler.)
- Three weeks ago he didn't know any English, and now he loves to say "uh oh" and "oh no" (typical boy- smile) as well as a few ASL signs.  This morning he said, “No tuh!” when I told him “No touch!”
- Three weeks ago he had only tasted formula and cereal. This week he's had scrambled eggs, toast, bananas, blueberries, peaches, yogurt, pasta, cheese, etc.

He is becoming more open to new foods, but still gags and spits out anything green.  Why do my kids hate anything green?!  His staple is bananas.  My one way of managing two kids, and getting everyone ready in the morning is to put Gavriel in his highchair with half a banana.  He’s quite content to gnaw on it corn-on-the-cob style.

Jim calls Gav ‘Mini-Me’ and ‘Micro-Man’ and Gigi calls him Gavi except that her ‘v’s are pronounced like ‘b’s so hence his nickname that we all call him is Gabby.  Poor boy.  He’s going to develop a complex.  With a face that pretty and a name like Gabby, I may end up having two son-in-laws! :-)

I wasn’t going to shout this next part to the world (though I did go back and update some posts already), but since it’s not something to hide, I already mentioned on it on FB, and some of you have picked up on it already, I figured I might as well tell the story.

When we received Gav’s social history back in June as part of the referral, there was no known birth date listed.  Between the agency’s judgment and ours, we determined he was born somewhere between February and April.  As long as we don’t change the year, we’re allowed to pick any month and day we want for a birth date.  We chose a date in March that was meaningful to us.  After our successful court date, our agency asked us what we wanted his birth date to be, and passed that along to the authorities in Ethiopia that would generate the birth certificate with his birthday and listing us as his parents.  Imagine Jim’s surprise when he was handed the whole packet of papers with a birth date listed December 14, 2008!  We just missed his first birthday by mere days!   The MOWA documents also had other information that was very helpful to us for understanding Gav’s early history, and I’m glad we were able to get them.

After taking some time to digest all this, I feel really good about it.  For any long time blog followers, you’ll know that we initially started Round 2 intending to adopt a toddler because neither one of us enjoyed the baby stage at all.  For one very specific reason, we chose “as young as possible” at the last minute.  It wasn’t a good reason.  In fact it was a wrong reason, but I went with it as pride (mine) was involved.  God sure has a way of making things work out, doesn’t He?

I’m not just saying this because it was the hand I was dealt, but I truly think this is a great age.  I am actually glad Gav is not the infant we thought he was.  Gavriel is not quite the baby, but not quite the toddler- though all his pediatricians are calling him a toddler!  That threw me for a loop at first!!  He’s at the cusp of toddler independence, and it’s wonderful.  I’ll get another month or two of babyhood, but then he’ll be off to the races!  He’s starting to communicate, and he’s mobile.  He can express his needs, and while I wouldn’t say he’s able to take direction yet, that will come soon enough.  I really wish he would start walking soon, but I have a feeling he’s going to be a late walker.  Maybe in late spring, early summer he’ll be toddling around here.

So that’s the story with him being 13 months as of a few days ago.  He’s our growing boy, and I can’t wait to see what his next set of measurements are!  At the rate he’s eating, we should be into 24 month clothes by the time we move into our house! ;-)

Speaking of which- THE HOUSE!!!  Painting starts this week.  Jim is over there right this very second laying tile (we agreed to put in all our own tile since we know how to do it and it will save us $$).  Kitchen cabinets are scheduled to be delivered next week, and all the appliances too.  Holy moly, it’s REAL!  We’re still scheduled to be in by Valentine’s Day.  Oh pretty please, that would be wonderful!  My parents have been incredibly gracious and patient in allowing us to live with them while the house is being built, and I look forward to finally giving them their house back.  And the peace and quiet and no messes. ;-)  They keep telling me they’ll miss the kids, but I’m not sure I believe them.  We’ll see how soon we get invited back for dinner. ;-)

Lastly, we didn’t actually drop out of the China program.  After I wrote that in one of my previous posts, we received a lovely email stating that we could simply put our application on hold, and for a small fee, we could reactivate it any time in the next year.  This is wonderful news to us as that means we have at least 6 months to figure out what we want to do AND we haven’t lost the fee for the first half of our contract.  So I suppose that means we’re still officially “in progress” huh? ;-)