Two months ago today we arrived home with Asa! Wow! He is still sweet, compliant and loving. He is beginning to show some shyness with strangers and I think, "Yeah! He gets it!" But the next minute he'll yell at the guy in the drive thru window, "I love you!" We have had some crying and freaking out when Mommy leaves him. I hate to see him cry, but it does make me feel good that he cares that I am leaving and does not want me to leave him.
His willingness to try new foods is still very reserved but he will obey me if I tell him he has to take a bite. And 9 times out of 10, he ends up liking the food! Today the new item was Caesar Salad, and he loved it! He still gets very constipated (has since he was a baby) and I try to get lots of fruits and veggies into him. He will let me feed him baby food and that helps I think.
He sleeps great and naps for 2-3 hours in the afternoon. He had one potty accident a few weeks ago. I think he just got caught up playing and didn't get there in time. I am glad to see that he was not freaked out by having an accident. Some children from institutions have been so severely punished for potty accidents, that having an accident is truly terrorizing for them.
His language is still a concern for me. He will imitate and repeat every thing he hears but he is not speaking much English on his own, and has not strung any two words together on his own yet. He also seems to have a hard time grasping new concepts. We have a picture book and he and I will sit and look at the pictures and name the objects. One page has parts of the face and head. We'll go over three parts: eyes, ears, nose. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Then I'll ask him, "Where are your ears?" Blank stare. It is not in there. Same with colors. He can name green reliably, but he honestly has no clue about any other color. Even when I point out blue, and he repeats it. If I ask him, less than a minute later, "What color?" He looks confused and blurts out some other color, or even other category of word. Ezra's speech therapist gave me some ideas this morning to try with him and we'll see if we can make some progress.
One very interesting development is his ability to understand Ezra. Ezra's speech is very difficult for even me to understand, but Asa gets it. And the other day, he even translated for Ezra! We were in the car and Ezra kept saying something to me and I just could not understand. And Ezra was growing more and more frustrated. Suddenly, Asa pipes in, "Where are we going?" Aha, thank you Asa for correctly interpretting Ezra's cleft palate English for Mommy! Asa also imitates Ezra though and I spend a lot of time correcting both of them in their articulation. It makes for long and entertaining days! I am thankful that Asa is picking up a ton of language in his interactions and play with Ezra. They are truly enjoying one another and I am so glad to have them both here!
And...
Two years ago today we landed in the US with Ezra! Someone mentioned this morning that it is hard to remember a "pre-Ezra" time! I know! It truly seems like he has always been here.
The last two months have been really hard for Ezra. He has had his little world turned upside down, shaken and twisted and the little guy has taken it rough. He is still very insecure and clingy. And jealous of Asa. Someone asked me how things were going, and I told them, "As long as both of them get exactly the same thing at exactly the same time, everything is great!"
But Ezra does enjoy Asa, loves to hold his hand when we walk outside together, and they both love to give each other hugs and kisses. Sharing Mommy's attention has been the tough part.
In two years Ezra has grown from a tiny toddler, barely 20 lbs and wearing size 12 months clothes, to a healthy, active and energetic 3.5 year old! He is wearing size 3T clothes on top and bottom. He is constantly on the move. He is very gifted athletically and very strong. He is also very cuddly and tender hearted. If someone starts crying, his first words are, "Mama, what happened?" His expressive language is through the roof and he is very very smart.
In the next 6 months we will likely have his P-flap surgery and hopefully make some real headway in his speech. He is constantly talking and gets very frustrated when we cannot understand him. I cannot wait to be able to hear all of the stories he tells and understand the songs he sings!
Our journey to each of these boys was certainly not we had planned on when we started this crazy thing in 2008. But we cannot do anything but praise God for placing these two precious boys in our family! Thank you Lord for Asa and for Ezra!
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