All About Jack

As promised, it's time to talk more about Jack...

When he is happy or just waking up, he is a total cuddle-bug.   He will look up at me, grin, and then bury his head in my chest.  When asked by one of us, he will give a big, sloppy, open-mouthed kiss.  (Will claims he gets the most kisses, which is ironic considering Will's food-sharing aversion.)

When he is playing, he will look over at me and smile this big toothy smile.  Overall, he has a really easy-going personality.  He likes to play with the stacking cups/balls, the Elmo radio that someone gave us when we had Ben, and anything on my Kindle Fire. If he is concentrating really hard he sticks his tongue out the side of his mouth.

He is a charmer.  He flashes that smile at people, and grins extra wide when he is doing something he knows that he shouldn't.

He has some stranger anxiety going on, especially for adults.  If you see us out and about and he shakes his head no at you, he wants you to keep your distance.

When he is cranky, it is because he his either hungry, or he wants to GO!  Go out in the yard, somewhere in the car, out to the mailbox - he doesn't care, as long as we are going somewhere. If he sees someone at church with shoes and a jacket on, he will forget his stranger anxiety, grab their hand, and try to leave the building.  If he does this to you, you probably shouldn't encourage it, even though it is totally adorable and you will want to follow him anywhere.

He likes to eat. Anything.  He definitely has preferences - cereal, raisins, rice, noodles - but he will eat just about anything.  Today he has eaten Cheerios, raisins, turkey, noodle soup, a pickle, grapes, potato chips, watermelon, bread, and half of an apple.  Plus a bottle.  And it's only 4:30. He is getting a nice, round belly:)

He loves all of his siblings, but Will is the most patient with him, and therefore the one who usually ends up playing with him.  We call Will the Baby Whisperer.

We are all trying to teach him how to go "boom" down the stairs.  My niece Bri taught my boys how to do it when they were little, and now they are teaching Jack.

We have tried to introduce a few signs, but they haven't caught on yet.  It is still very early.

Even though it is very early, he is already trying really hard to repeat our words.  In China he was trying to repeat "hat" when Tim put one of the stacking cups on his head. Yesterday when he finished his lunch he said, "Ah Gah!" which sounded an awful lot like, "All gone!"  Today I was telling him about socks and he made the short O sound.  Pretty impressive for someone who just entered the country a week ago.

He is now sleeping in his room with his sister.  Tim or I will lay down with him until he falls asleep, and if he cries out (which has happened every night so far, several times) we go to him and lay back down with him.  He is responding pretty well to this, and we are all sleeping more than we were a few days ago, even if we do wake up confused about what room/bed we are in. The pack and play was not working well, and our bed isn't big enough for him to windmill between us all night.  

Bonding and attachment are going well.  We move forward, then back, then forward again.  But he is definitely more attached than he was a week ago, which is more than a week before that, so I am optimistic about that.

I have spent most of my time this week on the phone making appointments.  In the next couple weeks he will see an IA pediatrician, a dentist, an audiologist, a plastic surgeon, an early intervention coordinator and an evaluator, a speech and language pathologist, and quite possibly an ENT.  I have called the insurance company and am trying to coordinate them with all of these care providers so that they will let us be seen (why does no one take my word for it that he has insurance?).

He is amazing.  I am falling for him so quickly.  Everyone around him is completely smitten.  Just wait.  You will be too:)