Ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! (BTW, I also thought I was prepared for an all-natural, no drugs childbirth with Sam, so my track record for preparing for the pain of children leaves much to be desired.)
It's a bit like having the neediness of an infant with the separation anxiety of a one year old with the communication/frustration issues of a two year old with the curiosity of a three year old with the guile of a five year old with the size of a six year old with the strength and agility of an eight year old. You know those flour-sack babies they give to high schoolers to teach them about parenting? Try it with a 50-pound bag of concrete, add flailing arms and legs - that's adoptive parent preparation.
But, like childbirth, while this may be the hardest thing I've ever done, it's also the most rewarding and incredible. I see God with every tiny victory, every connection, every empathetic gesture, every hug that heals his heart.
Paul is sleeping through the night, thanks to your prayers and my amazing husband who convinced him that the camo pull-ups are cool. He's even had several dry nights with the pull-ups, so we may be turning a corner here. He generally sleeps 8:30 pm until 6:00 am, then snuggles in our bed watching Orangutan Island and Chimp Eden (thank you, Animal Planet, for airing two shows that capture his attention) until 6:30 or 7:00. He'll have a 6:00 or 6:30 wake up call for school, anyway, so I'm not pushing (too hard) for a later wakeup. God has been waking me up at 4:30 am for prayer time, then I go back to sleep on the bed on the floor in Paul's room. I stay with him until he falls asleep in the evening and I'm there when he wakes up.
We discovered the cause of Paul's tummy troubles. He brought home a little bug from Africa, which to eradicate required the bitterest medicine I've ever tasted. We had a bit of trouble convincing him to take it and NOT spit it out, but by the end of the course of treatment he was a pro, even squirting the medicine into his mouth then shoveling in yogurt (seems to cut the bitterness) and guzzling the water. Hopefully he'll get the all-clear on the next check.
Paul's English is growing by leaps and bounds. I'm amazed at what he picks up. Today he said he was going to stretch. And then he stretched! I don't know where he heard that word because heaven knows I haven't stretched recently. His new favorite phrases are "Whadisit?" "Wha'doing?" and "Where going?" (The "Whadisit?" question, BTW, is a lot like the "Why?" question in that it can expand into infinity. "Whadisit?" "It's home plate." "Whadis hompate?" "You stand next to home plate and shapa, I mean hit, the ball into the outfield. " "Whadis oudfield?")
He's grasping the ownership of things, the fact that several (lots of!) toys and movies and electronics and food are HIS and are not going anywhere, which seems to help him be OK with leaving Mom's and Dad's and Sam's stuff alone (most of the time). Now when he asks, "Whadisit?" and I tell him it's Daddy's stapler, he'll nod and leave it alone or will ask if he can "Try it paper only" rather than try to snatch and hide said stapler.
He's also getting way better at stopping when he is asked to stop, be it while riding his bicycle (one thirty minute lock-up of the bicycle did the trick) or when playing jump up and grab Mama or climb Mama or hang on Mama's leg (did I mention his strength and agility?).
I mentioned Paul's love of the Lowe's race car cart. That, plus the fact that Paul is an amazing helper (he swept and shop-vac'ed the sidewalk of grass clippings while Trent mowed! Sam is going to need to step up her game!) means that we go to Lowe's quite a bit and as a result the left-side of my garage - the side with my car and with all the bikes and toys - is super clean and organized. Everything else feels like chaos, but the garage is now my place of peace and orderliness.
He visited the library and school this week, and while he needed to be carried in, he walked around and out of both places holding my hand and happy! This afternoon he even wanted to go back to school! This is huge - school has a tough place in his history. The fact that my office at school has lots of toys and balls is a bonus, but today he watched the preschool kids, showed off his papers to Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Carroll, showed his pictures to Miss Teresa, and thought about interacting. He also had a play date riding bikes with Jonathan Nagy, (he didn't actually TALK to Jonathan, but he played and rode his bike in the same general vicinity) and then talked about his metswalla (friend) all afternoon.
He is SO funny. I know no one else has seen it, yet. Heck, no one else has heard him talk above a whisper, if that, but just wait. Soon you, too, will be privy to the chicken dance and the playful teasing and the corny jokes (most of which have something to do with pee pee, which may be a boy thing and/or may be the English word at which he's most proficient).
He loves the pets, and is so loving and gentle. He and Peyton are best buds. "Paul rata (loves) Peyton" is a phrase heard often at our house. He's a bit scared of Scout, (she's old and cranky), but he still treats her kindly and feeds her and lets her outside. He likes to laugh at the cat, and sometimes charges him to make him run (the cat does have a funny run), but he'll also pat the cat and say, "Good boy, cat."
Sam has been on a mission trip, and while Paul says her name several times a day, sometimes with a little whine, he is doing a great job of counting down the sleeps until she returns. Today it was four sleeps, so several times he said, "Four sleep, den tree, den two, den one, den Sam HOME!"
I'm still exhausted by 3:00 pm and wishing it was time for Trent to come home from work, and I'm still dreading softball game nights and weekends (which makes me sad because I used to love to watch Sam play, but now it's just more time that Trent and Sam are otherwise occupied and not able to help), but the 6:00 am to 3:00 pm time with Paul is so fun and rewarding that I know God will get us through the long, tough hours, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment