Vanie’s Progress

Warning: LONG update

Updates from the last few days with the kid “home”.
Keep in mind that Vanie is almost 13 months but he’s spent the 1st 12 mmo's in the orphanage. It’s said that a child loses 1 mo of development for every 3 mo’s spent in an orphanage. I don’t think he is that behind. He strikes me as a 1 yr old with lots of energy and readiness to learn. He is a fighter (just missing the horse and sward) and not letting the “1 yr without parents” thing slow him down.

Sleeping: The perfect baby! Sleeps through the entire night (sometimes I have to wake him up in the AM) and usually has 2 naps during the day. Doesn’t like falling asleep but does so on his own.

The daily sleeping rituals: 1) All the toys get thrown out of the crib one by one (hoping someone will pick them up and go play with him). 2) The bed sheets are completely taken out and rolled into a ball somewhere in the bed. 3) When no toys are left, the knocking on the neighbor’s wall starts. We call is the “Free Nelson Mandela” riot. 4) Several attempts to pull the socks off his feet until he succeeds or gets bored. 5) Left thumb in sucking mode (supported by his right hand, in case that thumb decides to escape). 6) Some kind of singing follows (with the thumb in his mouth). 7) A crib corner is picked and the accidental falling asleep starts followed by laud snoring.

Eating: Loves to eat and usually does so 5 times a day. Still on formula 2x a day and prefers the bottle. The rest of the meals: purees, oatmeal and yogurt. Knows how to eat with a spoon but can’t feed himself and uses his fingers a lot. Since mom can’t handle the mess right now in the hotel, he eats everything out of a bottle and loves it. Loves sweet foods only and is not so big on the oatmeal and veggie purees (but will eat them when hungry) and absolutely dislikes soups or meat baby foods. We will have to work on upgrading to chunkier and not so sweet foods once we get home.

Drinking: The kid just doesn’t know or like to drink water. If he does, it has to be warm and with a bit of either sweet or formula flavor or he won’t drink it. Doesn’t know how to use the sippy cup yet.

Walking: Almost ready to walk. In the last week he has made progress from walking holding onto two fingers to holding onto one finger only to letting go off one wall and making up to 7 steps toward mom on his own. Sometimes it’s more like flying than walking. I have to confess: once I saw he is willing to let go off the wall (oh and it’s one specific wall in our room, not just any) I made him do it like a hundred time and didn’t let him go to bed until he got to the 5-7 steps. He seemed to like it and since I can’t potty train him yet I figured I can at least teach him how to walk.

Talking: didn’t say much once we got him but now he is up to the basic “mamama”, “bababa”, “dadada”, “nanana” and all kinds of monkey sounds that I don’t know the meaning of yet. No whole words yet.

Teeth: so far 4 upper and 2 lower front ones, no new ones since we saw him in October.

Bathing: hates the bathtub and water. He doesn’t even cry, he screams while in the tub and I am in with him… but we are making progress, it’s getting a little bit better every day. The screaming stops the minutes he steps on a towel outside of the tub. Becoming a surfer is sliding down on our sports list.

The Mirror and stroller story: so our kid loves the mirror. The problem is his stroller is in front of the mirror and he hates the stroller. So after 2 days not being able to see himself, he started pushing the stroller out to the bathroom and making room for himself in front of the mirror. If that doesn’t tell you he is smart, I don’t know what does. Ok, maybe not smart but practical. :-)

Favorite toys: there is nothing like the laptop, mom’s cell phone (so much better than the toy phone he has) and the remote control, the mirror, a small ball, colorful books and musical toys. Not sure who thought him but he LOVES to dance (baby style) to kids music or someone singing to him. He doesn’t do it to music on TV or radio so it seems to be kids songs for now. Not sure if he is going to be a singer, a musicion or a dancer… yet to find out.

Things he learned over the last few days: shaking his head left/ right and up/ down for ‘no’ and ‘yes’, chasing and playing with a small ball, doing a version of “high 5” with mom, clapping his hands, walking a few steps, pulling the laptop by its cables to get it closer to him, pushing the stroller out of the mirror’s way, taking his socks off, sticking his tongue out, making farting sounds with his mouths… and most probably other things I can’t think of right now.