An Update from China!

Chinese New Year starts on Monday, and one of the best traditions associated with that holiday is to finish up all your work before the holiday starts. They clean their homes top to bottom, finish any projects that need to be done, and clean their desks of paperwork. Kind of like an annual re-boot. (I have tried to adopt this CNY tradition in my own home with minimal success, but I'm going to keep trying.)

Anyway, our agency requested an update on Jack Yintao the first week of January. I had high hopes for an update this week because of CNY and everyone finishing their to-do lists, but yesterday morning there wasn't one in my inbox, and it was already the weekend in China. Boo.

I headed to Tara's house with the kids to start dinner for our own CNY celebration, and when I got there she said Tim wanted me to call him right away. I called, and he excitedly told me that we had an update. With a smile!

Of course, no smile for the first one. This boy does not warm up quickly to a camera. Plus, if you look closely, he has a big ole bruise on the left side of his forehead (your left, not his).

But then he got moving around, and a little grin peeked out.

And then a big smile for the last one. It's a little blurry, but I'm so glad to see it.

My first thought was that he has grown sooo much in five months! I checked the new measurements they sent, and sure enough, he is up from 18 lbs. in August to 22 lbs. He is almost to the 25th percentile, which is where my other two boys have been since they started walking - Woohoo! He has also gotten taller, going from 28.7 in. to 29.8. I really look forward to feeding this boy up.

We still can't tell much about his left ear, but the outer ear looks like it's in good shape.

All in all, it's a good update. He is growing, he looks happy, and he has a warm coat with a hood for winter. Good stuff.

Now can I get on the plane?