Buh Buh, Duh Duh!

Or as we would say it, " Bye Bye, Doctor!!" and said in a non-cheerful voice. This is the second simple sentence Jamie has put together and it sure made me laugh (the first was nigh nigh Mama and also the first time he called me mama last week.)

During Jamie's doctor visit on Friday, the doctor had to go out of the room at one point and return. Shortly after he returned is when Jamie basically told him to leave by saying buh buh duh duh. Whenever we tell him something is, " Not for Jamie" he always says bye bye to us and tries to shoo us with his hand away, so I guess he wanted that doctor GONE. After that Jamie got a couple of shots. He sure didn't like duh duh! But the doctor gave him a truck sticker at the end of the visit so that made him get over his anger. ;-)

Jamie loved Christmas eve. He was in his element at Mimi's house, running with the other cousins, playing with Mimi's vacuum and brooms, etc. There were between 25 and 30 of us, most of whom Jamie sees on a regular basis at Sunday lunches at Mimi's. It was nice. Jamie was delighted to discover that two of his presents that evening were a child-sized vacuum complete w/ noise and lights and a child-sized broom. Today Jamie has been trying to sweep our carpet and sometimes the kitchen floor with the broom, all the while making vacuum noises with his mouth. He's a little confused there, lol. Very cute.

Christmas day we went to visit David's dad and step mom next state up, a drive of about 1 hr 40 minutes so longest Jamie has been in a car. David sat in the back with him while I drove so they played and Jamie did really well. David's dad played some acoustic guitar while we were there and Jamie seemed to really enjoy it and he even strummed it a little. Jamie also enjoys filming things with our flip camera and even went over and tried to film some of the guitar and his Papa Joel playing it. We'll have to send them the video. ;-)

I had typed more here but it all just got deleted some how and I have to go do other stuff, sorry!

All of the pictures I've posted here are from Christmas day. We didn't have our camera with us on Christmas eve b/c we couldn't find our charger and the camera was dead. So I'll post pictures that relatives send us once we have them. You can see several from our Christmas morning in our living room (with our cat Zoe ever present, lol) and then ones from our trip to visit David's dad and his family up where they live. ;-)

I think he called me mama!

Twice now Jamie has pointed at me and said "Mama!" So, I *think* he's starting the get the idea. He did it once today and once yesterday. We'll see. But I did say, " Where is mama?" and he pointed outside, so, um....maybe not yet. ;-)

Jamie continues to impress me with his ability to understand what we're saying to him. He keeps trying to say things but no one but David and I would know much of what he is saying b/c he continues to do mostly specific variations on the d's and various vowels put together to make words like snowman (day day or something like that.) Spending all of your day with a toddler though makes you get really good at understanding what they're saying even though no one else would!

The other night when we were putting him to bed he was looking out of the window into the dark night and pointed and said, " Sku? Buh?" for squirrel and bird. I told him I didn't know where they were and shrugged. David also said, " I don't know" and shrugged. So Jamie thought that was so funny and copied us, shrugging every time we said ' I don't know'. Well then last night David was asking me a question at dinner and I answered him with, " I don't know." I happened to have Jamie in my peripheral vision and saw he was shrugging and putting his hands up, lol! Tonight he pointed to the dark window again and shrugged and I said the squirrels and birds went night night in the trees. He loves to say nigh nigh now for night night.

A couple of nights ago we delivered this wonderful Christmas crunch toffee/saltine/chocolate bark thing that we make every year to our neighbors. (I can't take credit for the recipe. I have no idea who the genuis was that came up with this pairing of saltines w/ chocolate and homemade toffee but it is really good.) Since Jamie didn't seem to want to say bye bye and wave at people as we left their doorsteps, David said to say night night. Well he loved that. He was even looking over his shoulder as we were leaving people's houses, walking down their driveways shouting ' NIGH NIGH!!!' ' NIGH NIGH!!' It was so funny.

We've taught Jamie to do something I think is cute. Sometimes when we say, "Sing music Jamie!" he will hum. I will ask him whenever we get into the car, " Do you want to listen to music?" and he will start humming with an Mmmmmm sound. ;-) We listen to Christmas music pretty much exclusively these days both in the car and most of the day at home. Sometimes I think about how to Jamie, this music must start to sound completely 'normal' and yet these are hits from decades ago. I like that he is enjoying some old fashioned music. I will miss it when the season passes and we're back to the typical music.

Jamie has started to try to say run run run when he plays with his stuffed donkey (thank you for that, Pop Pop!) He picks it up like we demonstrated, by the back making it appear to be running. But he growls ru ru ruuuuuu!

Hope I'm not boring you or gushing too much about his language development. It's just so fascinating. I will have to talk with my mom (a speech therapist for preschoolers) about whether we might need some speech therapy in a few months if he doesn't start adding some consonants on the ends of his words and start to sound a bit more intelligible. But I would think for his age he is doing really well.

Jamie has another doctor's appointment tomorrow. I feel badly for him b/c it will involve more shots. :-(

David and I sure feel extra blessed by God to have been given this particular boy as our son. I think of all the possibilities that could have happened and that are not uncommon in adopting from China. He could have been in a situation of malnourishment or neglect and developmentally delayed. He could be having obvious attachment problems early on. He could be very, very ill and he might not have been cute or smart. We are amazed that he not only is healthy and from the great CWI he was from and he is ultra cute to boot but now we are quite pleased to see that he seems typical or maybe above average with his perception and smarts. We are so happy for him. We would have loved him even if he had a lot of mental delays and all but it does make us so happy for him to see him just shine like he is. We don't know why God has shown us such extensive grace in giving us this little one but we are so happy to have him. I am glad that all those years I wasn't able to have children or we would have missed out on this little ray of sunshine.

More pictures

A few more pictures. I only seem to be able to upload about 5 with each post due to resolution and I don't know exactly how to downsize, so 5 it is. ;-)

Looking at the picture of Jamie with Santa on *his* lap makes me imagine Jamie saying, " So Santa. Tell me what *you* want for Christmas." Some of these pictures are from David's mom's house (Mimi to Jamie and her other grandkids.) She always decorates with lovely decorations for Christmas. Jamie really likes the deer on her fireplace hearth and is always sure to go in there and point it out to me and try to say deer (he says it like die die or something like that.) The one of Jamie with his cousin Ava (2.5 year old niece also from China, home a year ago) is incredibly cute. Even though it is dark and a bit blurry I had to post it. ;-) David's parents are doing a lot of landscaping out front at their house and you can see Jamie thinks the front loader (or whatever that is called) is the most cool machine ever! He really enjoyed steering it and you can see his Mimi is clearly enjoying him having so much fun. ;-)

More on Jamie...

Jamie continues to entertain and be entertained. ;-)

He has learned, as you've probably seen in the video, how to stand up on the seat portion of his little riding car. Well the other day I was in the kitchen and suddenly saw the lights go on and off in the living room. Hmmm. How did *that* happen?! I went in and lo and behold, there was Jamie, standing on a chair that we had under the light switch, turning both the fan and the lights off and on with great joy. He had pulled his car up alongside the chair and used it as a step stool to get up to the chair. He was just delighted.

I mentioned that Jamie started saying die-ah for tiger and loves to find them in his animal picture book and point them out to us. Well the other morning I had on a shirt w/ leopard and tiger markings on a portion of it (normally I wear solids so this was new to him.) He immediately touched the stripes and said, " Die-ah!" ;-) His latest words are fi (fish), fa (fan), guh and stah (go and stop) and he loves to say guh, guh, guuuuuuuuuuuhhhh! when we're driving in the car and start up after stopping at a light. I notice he doesn't put a consonant on the end of any word yet. That's interesting how people, kids or adults (like with some of my adult friends learning English as a second language from Burma) will not bother with consonants on the ends of words if people will get the first part of the word. Such as gah cah for golf course (where some of my friends work.) I thought of them when Jamie started speaking in English b/c it's the same. I just emphasize the last consonant and exaggerate it for him but don't tell him he's saying it wrong. I've read that if you do that you can contribute to a child starting to stutter. So if Jamie says "Gah!!" for cat (which is all day long) then I say, "Yes!! Cat!" and smile.

Jamie seems so trusting and content with us. He is allowing David more freedom now when he's home in the evening to actually do things besides constantly hold Jamie. David got to cook eggs for dinner the other night and Jamie played in the other room. I couldn't believe it! He didn't even ask to be held (he *still* says ma for up. Does anyone know if that is Mandarin for 'up'?) as soon as David got home Thursday and Friday nights. He wanted to immediately show him where the cat was near the Christmas tree and show him his toys instead.

I'm so glad that Jamie was able to get his seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccines done. Thankfully no side effects that we notice yet. He gets the boosters in about 3 weeks. He wouldn't have been able to get the H1N1 vaccine without a regularly scheduled check up so that is good. They are telling the people that just want to bring their kids in for the vaccine that they don't have any. Too bad for them. I didn't find out until we were with the doc and I said, " Well, when do you expect to get any in since you're out?" and he said oh we have it for regular appt people!

Jamie and David and I went out with David's parents last night for David's birthday dinner. David wanted them along so his mom could help us feeding Jamie so David could actually enjoy his dinner more. ;-) It was great having them along. Jamie *loved* having his Mimi dangle a spaghetti noodle over his head and he would eat it like a bird. He also got the biggest kick out of when she took a straw and put it in a glass of ice water then put her finger over the top to stop the flow and put it to his mouth and let it run in. He LOVED drinking water that way and was as delighted as ever. He was so delighted that he was drawing his shoulders up with delight and shaking his head a little and waving his hands. It was so much fun to witness!

Tonight some friends with young kids had an early dinner get together. There were 10 kids including Jamie. One was a younger baby by about 5 months, one was older than Jamie by about 5 months and the rest were 3-6 years. Oh, they all had a blast! Jamie LOVED it. Well he love3d the toys as much as the kids, lol. We knew he was a social kid at the CWI (orphanage.) He was all about looking through the multitude of great toys and running around with a huge grin on his face as the big kids raced around with toy trucks. Later on that evening there David and I found a large, life-sized soft stuffed kitty cat and I put it over by Jamie to see what he'd think. In the past he's been afraid of stuffies but lately he's into his small stuffed squirrel more (carrying around on his car and feeding with plastic spoon) so I gave it a try. Oh boy! He was sooooo sweet with the cat stuffy! He took it with a big smile and immediately loved on it, hugging it and laying his head along its head several times. Then he turned it so he could see its face and stroked the plastic whiskers gently. Oh my, my eyes starting getting a tear welling up in them, he was so gentle and really loving with that stuffed kitty! I want to get a life-sized one now for him! That was the first time I"d see him act that way with a stuffed animal. It made me think how much he wishes he could do that with our cat. Believe me, he would if she'd let him! Today and yesterday he went to her and tried to pick her up, gently putting a hand on either side as she stood on the floor. Well you know she wanted none of that and walks away. She is too delicate and old for him to be able to pick her up anyway, but I wish she'd let him love on her more. He gets such delight from going over and brushing his hand across her fur and he's been easy to correct with her. Also, and this is a bonus for me, he just started enjoying screeching at the very top of his lungs two days ago. UGH. Well, it was obviously bothering our cat, so I told him, "Shhh! Quiet Jamie! (saying in a whisper) Kitty cat doesn't like loud. Be quiet!" Then Jamie made noises at a normal level (not quiet but normal, lol.) Twice he's done that. I know he'll go into screeching fests galore I'm sure, but I like that I might be able to use the kitty not liking it as an excuse to get him to stop! ;-)

On the pictures, I wanted to take a bunch of pictures of Jamie with him angled so I could get those adorable 'balloon' like cheeks while he still has them! I wanted to capture them b/c who knows how long they stay. Those cheeks are utterly adorable and love caressing them. So I included a close up w/ his cheek for you to enjoy too. ;-) (Notice his trademark 2 fingers backwards finger suck. He has callouses on both fingers, lol.)

Jamie really loves his picture books (ones with real photos) and asking what everything is by pointing. The other night he decided he wanted to look at three books at once and so I included a picture of him 'multi-tasking'. ;-)

Adding three videos...

Uploading videos from flip video cameras takes FOR.....E.....VER!! Today's took 2.5 hrs to upload to youtube so these are kind of random videos that I'm linking to here and I won't be doing it often, lol. Please read the previous post I made yesterday for updates on little man! These are all ones since home, the Christmas one and the alien coat one from today and last weekend. The squirrel one was from a few weeks ago. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEU991u82Z4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUmx39YWeco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF863XSZijk

I love Jamie! Want an update?

Here is Jamie in a now typical blurry picture (partly my camera's fault b/c something is wrong with it and partly the fact that our active son doesn't sit completely still long, lol.) Still, he is so adorable in this picture and I just love the alien jacket. This is the coat and actually those are also the pants that match it which he came in at the orphanage. I just love that coat! I think I'll have him wear it tomorrow and try to get some video of him if I remember. He won't be able to wear it much longer!

I've been meaning to post links to some videos but I don't have much time to view them to see which ones to take the time to upload. Uploading one video to youtube or the flip site takes 30 minutes to 1 hr or more! I have no idea why.

Jamie continues to be incredibly adorable as always. It is amazing how fast he's been adjusting. Even one week home he was already acting like he's been here for months. I think while some of that is his personality, a lot of it is because he was in a Half the Sky program. I think I've mentioned them before but if you are ever looking for a charity to support, their work is invaluable. Look at how happy and well adjusted and on target developmentally our little guy is! Half the Sky is an American foundation that works with selected Chinese orphanages and they train nannies to nurture the children well and help provide a great situation for the kids that find themselves in orphanages. For instance Jamie's nanny only cared for 4 kids including Jamie! Jamie was with her since he was about 3 weeks old. They play with them, bring them outside, do all kinds of activities and help them grow developmentally. Some orphanages children just lie in cribs all day long, never getting outdoor time or even playtime out of the crib or loving caregivers to have any one on one time with at all. It is very sad. That could easily have been our Jamie had he been in a different orphanage. So we LOVE Half the Sky. Their website is here: http://www.halfthesky.org/ Jamie's orphanage is the one in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

Another cool thing about Half the Sky (added side benefit) is they give the adopting parents a book that tracked the development of their child w/ written reports and photos every quarter during their stay at the orphanage. We have dozens of pages written by his nanny that we have yet to get translated but we get to see his hand and foot prints at various months, photos galore and even a baby picture from when he was 16 days old! ;-) What treasures that you normally never get when you adopt from China.

Jamie's comprehension of English is really cool to watch. It's amazing how quickly babies learn things. In terms of verbally trying to speak in English that is of course a slower process. He signs the words for milk and more and please and occasionally thank you but he thinks the thank you sign and blowing kisses are the same b/c they are really close, the thank you being from the chin instead of lips. He can clearly say dada and bye bye very well. His first two words were cat and squirrel but of course he is saying ga and sku. ;-) It takes time to learn consonants and vowels! Dada and variations on it make up a lot of his words. For example I have learned that certain pitches and variations of da da mean Daddy, dog, tiger, truck, 'something is in that tree', 'hey look over there!', etc. etc. It's funny but if I'm in the other room and a nature program is on, I can tell if he just saw a tiger or a dog depending on how he says dada, lol! He actually sounds pretty Chinese w/ tones and cadence when using the dada's--very consistent w/ the difference between tiger and dog for instance. Today he also said dada for doctor and he is trying so hard to imitate us. Oh yeah, dada is also for snowman and again, he has a distinct way of doing it for that so if he does it I know he just saw a snowman on tv. We've been watching a lot of a channel of Christmas music which shows repeating winter scene photos during the songs so he sees several snowmen during those.

Well I've talked a bit about Jamie but that is what you're here for so I figured you would like that. ;-)

Oh by the way, we had the big doctor's appointment today for his first big checkup. Doctor said he could hear a little murmur in his heart though last three couldn't. Doctor thinks it's pretty small from the sound of it so that is good though I would have liked for it to have closed already. He said the hernia is nearly closed already but not quite and looking great. I had him look at a birthmark we hadn't previously been told about on Jame Jame's bottom and he confirmed it is a birthmark but no big deal. He said it won't fade but it won't change in size at all but will stay the same size so as Jamie grows up it'll appear smaller and smaller even though it isn't really getting smaller.

Jamie, if you're reading this years from now, please forgive me for mentioning the birthmark on your fanny to the general public, lol. Love you! ;-D

I just think it's interesting that they didn't note it in his adoption paperwork but they might have not intentionally or else never saw it b/c it isn't obvious. The doctor wrote up a note I'm going to get laminated to keep permanently in my diaper bag documenting the various Mongolian spots (which look just like mild bruising) so if we ever have to go the the ER someone won't think we've been hitting our boy. Mongolian spots are on most asian children, at least Chinese and Korean (I assume others too) and they tend to fade or even go away as people age and grow up.

Jamie got his first flu and H1N1 shots today. I am so glad. He gets the boosters in 4 weeks. Jamie hated the doctor's. I knew he would be terrified b/c even just getting his head measured he was going nuts so the prolonged blood draw to get titers to see if his Chinese vaccines took was agony for the poor little guy. But his cheerful disposition quickly came back after coming home. We are going to be testing him for a common orphanage parasite that is probably the culprit behind the 6 weeks of mild diarrhea. (Again, sorry if you're reading this as an adult Jamie, lol!) We won't find out for another week if it is that or not. Ghiardia is what they think it might be, either that or just toddler diarrhea. We'll see. If it's the toddler thing and not the single celled parasite then he may already be lactose intolerant which is highly unusual for asian children this young. It is extremely common for older asian people to have lactose interolerance but usually not babies. I heard as many as 90% of grown asian people have varying degrees of lactose interolerance so Lactaid pills are probably in our future! Thank the Lord they make lactose free whole milk. We've been giving him that as his dairy exclusively for a week now.

By the way, we bought our tree a few days ago. Once home, David worked the base onto the tree outdoors then dragged it in while Jamie and I waited in the living room. As soon as David stood it up in the living room Jamie let out a huge "Woooooooow!!!!!!!!" as he had his head tilted back looking up at the tall tree! It was hysterical. If only we had it on video! He learned to say wow while my parents were here over Thanksgiving.

Well I'm tired and need to go to bed. So there is the update for today. ;-)

Jacqueline

A nice Thanksgiving visit...

My parents came to visit for the holiday weekend, arriving early enough on Wednesday night to enjoy meeting Jamie for the first time. Boy, he sure did enjoy his Pop Pop from the start. My stepdad really loves to cook and especially enjoys preparing Thanksgiving food each year for the family. His stuffing is awesome and we were all pleased that Jamie really liked the stuffing. Sadly, while Jame Jame loved the turkey the night of Thanksgiving, he didn't care for turkey any of the following days and we've had to hide tiny bits of it behind the stuffing as it goes into his mouth or he quickly spits it out. We also found out he loves sweet potatoes. He was a delight for my parents and I was so happy with the way the days went w/ their visit with him. I'll share a few photos from their time here.