Transition Topics

So many people ask "how's it going?" Here's a rundown on how we're transitioning in some areas. If you're wondering about something I don't cover, just ask in the comments and I'll blog about it next time.

Sleep

This has been our toughest challenge and our greatest improvement. The first week home Micah resisted sleep in all its forms. Bedtime started with a couple of hours of screaming, then a couple of hours of sleep, 3 or 4 more hours of screaming then a couple more hours of sleep. Mama, Baba and Micah were all running on empty in the sleep department. We were working on establishing an after dinner routine that led up to bedtime. After we had been home about a week, he started sleeping through the night, though he still had to cry himself to sleep. Now, when we turn of his nightly viewing of Elmo's World, he reaches up and allows me to carry him to bed. He will play and roll around in bed for 30-60 minutes and finally settle down to sleep. If he wakes, he will again settle himself back down to sleep. Not ideal, but so much better. We are still co-sleeping as this seems to be aiding in attachment and is giving him the confidence to go to sleep. We've even slept four nights in a row with no shoes on!

Food

Micah's a pretty good eater. There are very few things he'll refuse to eat, though he still loves starches most of all (mama's boy, again). He'll eat his bread or rice first, and he has loved every veggie we've given him, especially green beans, peas and spinach. Proteins are a different matter. But if we give him time, he'll mostly clean his plate.

Car Seat

Remember that horrendous torture device called a car seat? He shrieked all the way from the airport to home, the first time he encountered it. It only took 5 M&Ms to pacify him the next time we put him in it. Once he realized that if he's in the car seat we go somewhere, he was good to go! Now he loves to go in the car and seems to accept the car seat as a necessary thing to taking car rides (no M&Ms necessary).

Language

He is picking up English words every day. He is a great mimic and will say or sing whatever comes out of our mouths (we'll need to watch that in the future). He can say "no, more, yes, shoe, help," and I'm sure a few more I can't think of. A few words he says paired in Mandarin then English, like guo guo dog, mao mao cat and qiu ball. He knows the names of his dog Libby, Elmo, Mickey, Big Bird and Grover. He sings the first line of the Elmo's World theme song and the "now I know my ABC's" part of the alphabet song. I think song may be a great tool for learning words for Micah.

He can identify his mama, baba and both sets of grandparents by their titles in Mandarin. For those who don't realize it, maternal and paternal grandparents have different names in Mandarin.

He understands even more than he can say. Yesterday he was closing the TV armoir and I told him to open it back up. He did.