Sunday, May 11, 2008

2 weeks


What a difference 2 weeks can make. Boy howdy! This kid has changed in the last 2 weeks. (Some for better, some for worse)


1. Two weeks ago, Zac whimpered at the mention of a bath. This was, in fact, the only thing that he cried about during our first 3 days with him. Now he LOVES bath time! Everytime he goes near the bathroom, he asks to take a bath! (and he uses the word "bath") Tonight, he took a 1/2 hour bath. He plays, he blows bubbles under the water, he absolutely loves it. The only way I can get him out of the tub is to lure him with "swinging towel rides".
2. Two weeks ago, his gross motor skills were such that he couldn't even walk up and down stairs. He could barely bend down to pick things up off the floor without falling over. Now, he takes stairs without holding the railing. He can hang from the monkey bars. He can bounce on the trampoline without falling. In fact, tonight he attempted a somersault on the trampoline. It wasn't very good, but still very impressive nonetheless.
3. Two weeks ago, he quietly sat at the table and ate everything without discussion. Today, he is picky with his food. He pulls his bib off in the middle of the meal. And he is constantly telling us he is "all done" and then immediately asking for "more please". (We know, it's a control thing. Nevertheless, we're happy that he feels he has a voice).
4. Two weeks ago, he had little to no exposure to English. Today he says Mommy, Daddy, more, please, all done, duck, dog, Jimmy (short for Jimmy Johns), cat, ball, water, juice, and up.
5. Two weeks ago.... one week ago for that matter, he had raging temper tantrums that were near impossible to control. Today, he knows what a time-out is and quickly calms down when we mention them. (He still fires out a good temper tantrum, but they are much less intense already.... or maybe we're getting used to them).
6. Two weeks ago, we were all strangers. Today, he pulls on our pant leg and says "Up, please". He simply wants to be held and knows that mom and dad will always respond.
7. Two weeks ago, he knew no pain. Today, he is still tough as nails, BUT he does come to us to "kiss his ouchies". I think he's even starting to make up ouchies just for the attention. We love it.
What will be saying 2 weeks from now, I wonder?

6 comments:

Carey and Norman said...

Hey guys. I'm way behind in my responses to your posts, but I promise I've been keeping up all along. I only had Internet access when I went to my parent's house while I was on leave, so I would open your blog on my laptop and read it at night once the kids were in bed. I so loved reading your blog. I enjoyed your posts from Russia and am so excited to hear how well things are going since you've been home. I also love, love, love the photos. I think I need to hire Hannah to come to my house. She did a fabulous job.

I have enjoyed reading about your time ins versus time out posts too. We went through something similar with how to handle them. Ours wasn't so much the tantrum as our daughter doing stuff to intentionally get a time in to take attention away from brother. It is amazing how little minds work, isn't it?

So glad your home. Sorry I'm so late in my responds. I'm back at work today and thought I'd say hello and check in with you.

Best wishes and lots of love coming your way!

Nancy said...

Amazing what a little love and sunshine will do! :)

Dan and Alicia Marlowe said...

He will continue to change so much you will find it harder and harder to archive it all. The older siblings will be an especially strong catalyst in that regard. You will see changes and think 'now he is just where he would be if he'd been with us all along' and then two more weeks will go by and he'll open up a little more or maybe just mature and you'll have to re-estimate where he is on the continuum all over again. It is so mind blowing what love and security bring out of a child. God bless you guys!

The Wilson's said...

I love this most! We must have come home with our son Nicolas the day after you. We left Moscow on May 1st. I have been reading along and knowing EXACTLY what you are going through. I so appreciate how positive your posts are and need to work on that myself! I love, love, love the developmental milestones, now when I get a few minutes I need to update our blog too!

Unknown said...

I'm so happy to hear how little Zac has grown in the last 2 weeks and how he's meshed with everyone! I know having siblings has helped him and I'm sure those 2 are little helpers. I love the posts and updates - thanks for the peek inside.
<><
Lisa & fam

Janine said...

Yeah!! I'm glad to see you are back in the public. I must have missed the day you suddenly annouced you were going private and was so sad to see I couldn't access your blog anymore. I have loved following your journey and glad to Zac is finally home. I shyly never commented so of course you had no idea I've been following your journey. Looks like I have quite a lot of reading to get caught up on!

We also brought our daughter home similar time... our court date was April 21st and we also luckily had our 10 days waived.

Congratulations again!! What a beautiful boy your Zac is!!