1 month as a Forever Family!!!!

Wow, I got all teary just typing the title for this post.  One month ago today we walked into the civil affairs office in Guangzhou, China a family of two and walked out a family of three.  It is so hard to believe that it has only been a month.  I truthfully don't know what we did with all our time before he was with us.

Konnor has made remarkable advances just in the almost 3 weeks we have been home.  He is still walking holding onto 1 finger, but I really don't think it will be long before he realizes he doesn't really even need that finger.  In the last 2 days he has started taking himself from a sitting position on the floor to standing without pulling up on anything.  In the last 5 days he has discovered his hands big time.  He will just sit in his carseat or lay on the couch and play with his hands like he never knew they were there before.  We play alot of patty cake and are really working on him pointing/pushing with just one finger to help with his fine motor skills.  He has now used his pincher grasp a couple times to pick up Puffs off his plate.  He has no idea what to do with it once he picks it up, but at least he is trying.  Let me just tell you that it didn't take long at all for our dog Baxter to figure out that if he sits under the highchair he gets the discarded Puffs when Konnor knocks them off : )  He is still eating alot of baby food mixed with cereal, but we have been finding more and more table foods that we can mush to the right consistency for him to eat and he does great.  Just in the last 5 days Konnor has started to show us when he is full.  Previously we had to cut him off b/c he would just eat until he would throw up and even then he would throw a stark raving fit if he could still see the food.  I think he is finally starting to realize that we will always have food for him and he doesn't need to gorge.  It is sad to think that a 1 yr old understood that, but it is what it is and he is doing so much better.  We have also finally found a sippy cup that he drinks really well from.  For any other soon to be cleft parents out there the Reflo cups are amazing (you can buy them online).  He makes a total mess, but he is getting significantly more fluids than when we were having to spoon feed liquid to him.  I weighed him on Friday and in just 2 weeks he has gained a pound.  He is starting to outgrow some of the 9 month onesies/rompers which is great!!  He still has an itty bitty little waist, but looking at pictures from a month ago compared to now you can really see a change in his appearance.  I was looking at one last night from I think the 2nd day we had him and I was telling Mark that he looks so skinny and now his arms and legs are starting to chunk up : )

The last 3 nights he has slept straight thru the night (9-10 hrs--whoohoooo!!!!)  He is still VERY restless and tugging at his ears, but we are hoping this 3rd round of antibiotics will kick in soon and get him feeling better.  The last few days we have also been getting 2 long naps a day instead of 4-5 short naps a day.   This really helps me get a few things done.  We have found that he is an outside kid and on the days when we get walks in or outside playtime he naps sooooo much better.

Oh and big news is that in the last 4-5 days he has totally become a Baba's boy!!!!  He is still wants me too, but he has really started to latch onto Mark and wants to know where he is all the time.  Yesterday Mark went into work for a few hours and when he came home Konnor got this big smile and crawled straight to him.  It was so sweet.  We have also noticed that he is more partial to men than women.  When we are around a group of women he just kinda looks at them, but if a man comes up to him he smiles and laughs and wants them to hold him.  Until Mark he probably never had been around many men so they are COOL to him now : )  I don't mind as long as he still wants his Mama too : )  Towards the end of last week we also started introducing him to some close family and friends.  He LOVES children.  He will latch onto a child any day of the week before he will go to an adult.  It was sweet to see all the kids playing with him and how well he did.  Also a big Thank You to all our family and friends who took the time to explain to their children about why Konnor looks different.  Kids are so honest in their questions that it doesn't bother me when they ask, but I think it helped them to adjust that they already knew what to expect.  Also, we were at Lowes yesterday and it was so nice to walk thru a store and nobody stopped to stare at him.  I LOVE AMERICA!!!!

I think that pretty much catches us up for now. I need Mark to teach me how to upload pictures and then I will post some updated shots.   HAPPY 1 MONTH FOREVER FAMILY KONNOR!!!!