First week at home...

We are almost done with our first week at home.  The first part of the week was spent getting over jet lag and getting our feet under us.  We sorted through our mountain of mail accumulated in the past weeks and also did a mountain of laundry we brought back from China.

Xiao Yu has made a ton of progress in learning about our family.  He is definitely more calm and throws a tantrum only every once in a while, and oftentimes only when he is ultra tired.

We are happy to announce that he rarely bites anymore and doesn't hit much either.  He has come such a long way and now we see that he has a laid-back, chill, cautious, and fun-loving personality.  He always wants to play...here he is being playful with Gabriel, who is not really reciprocating.

The two girls, however, really like him and think he is "so cute".  They give him hugs and kisses, and want to help out dressing and undressing him, putting his bib on, etc.  Basically treating him like a life-size doll.  Incidentally, they have picked up some of the simple Chinese phrases and Elvin and Emily have been using with Xiao Yu (such as "wait" or "do you want to eat?").  So their Chinese has actually improved a bit during and since our trip to China.

Xiao Yu is constantly walking around the house, poking here and there, looking for something of interest to play with.  He loves telephones, that's for sure.

Here he is playing tug-of-war with his siblings.

He likes putting things over his head.  He, unfortunately, keeps walking forward though and ran into the chair.  Elvin wanted to see if he would actually run into the chair and didn't intervene...we are not sure that was very nice.

We are getting to know more of what he can do every day.  The other day, he picked up a pen and scribbled on a piece of paper.  At least he knows what pens are all about!

In contrast, we are not sure he has seen blocks before.  We had to teach him how to stack blocks.  Also, we had to teach him what a toothbrush was all about.  That wasn't hard for him, though, because he sticks everything into his mouth anyways.

Xiao Yu is often in the pantry (he's always thinking with his stomach) and often Gabe is there too.  Working opportunistically, Xiao Yu will wait at Gabe's feet to see what gets thrown down by Gabe the monkey.  This time he scored...a bag of miniature marshmallows!

As far as meals, we made congee (rice porridge) for Xiao Yu as it seems like he really likes this stuff.  So we made a bunch, put some in the fridge and froze the rest.  He will drink, or rather slurp, vast quantities of it.

Speaking of slurping...maybe slurping is a learned skill?  In China everyone slurps their soup; it's not rude and just means that one is enjoying the tasty meal.  I guess this means that Xiao Yu is enjoying the beef noodle soup that Daddy made.

We had these noodles and he ate lots of them.  Although he eats a lot all the time...often as much as Gabriel, he is 10 pounds lighter.  It will be interesting to see if he gains weight living at our house.

Other things that we discovered he likes...

Apple sauce...  He loves it.  Once the pouch is opened, the nozzle goes into his mouth and it does not come out until he has sucked it dry.  We are not sure if he does it all in one breath.

 Bananas.  He eats a man-sized banana every day.  He would eat more if we let him.

He however, did not know how to PEEL a banana.  When the banana part ran out, he would hand the thing over to an adult to peel.  Elvin had to show him that if he pulled down on the banana peel, more banana would magically appear!  It seems like everything was done for him at his past home.

He also likes quesadillas...

And we gave him milk today for the first time.  He made a face, maybe because it's cold, but liked it and slurped it down.  Hopefully his digestive system is able to take it.

He tried a tube of Go-gurt, which we keep frozen.  He did not like this at all.  He actually couldn't figure out how in the world to eat it.

He also wanted to try a can of Coke.  Has he had soda before???  Needless to say, he did not get to drink Coke.

And sometimes, when we don't give him something he wants...

So overall we are doing well and getting back into the swing of things.  Karina went to preschool this week and Eliana went to her homeschool class.  Elvin goes back to work next week, where he will get to work part-time for four more weeks.

Tomorrow, we are all driving to Seattle because on Monday, Xiao Yu has a doctor's appointment at a clinic with the Seattle Children's Hospital.  This clinic specializes in kids adopted from overseas and we are taking him there for a comprehensive work-up.  We really like our pediatrician, but we figured that these pediatricians in Seattle have seen kids from China every day and know what to look for, whether a "delay" can be attributed to how foster kids are raised in China, etc.  His appointment is on Monday at 10am and we then drive back home that afternoon.

Gabriel, even more than Xiao Yu, has had the hardest time adjusting.  He has definitely been dethroned and feels it.  This comes out in behavior such as hitting and kicking (he learned this from Xiao Yu, but ironically, Xiao Yu has now stopped that behavior) and he also has completely stopped following directions from Mommy and Daddy.  He also continues to needle Xiao Yu by snatching toys, or stepping on toys that Xiao Yu is playing with, or pushing Xiao Yu out of the way to get to the toy that Xiao Yu was playing with.  We are trying to gently but consistently discipline him and we hope that he comes out of his funk sooner than later.