Home two months!

We've been home two months. We've had Ty 2.5 months. Look at the difference:

Then, in China






Now, in the last two weeks




And of course you can scroll back to previous blogs in the last few weeks. Wow, what a difference SEVEN pounds makes. Yes, I said seven. Now I'm getting concerned. He's at about the 50th%ile for weight now, but still only just above the 5th %ile in height. I want to scream, "GROW GROW GROW!" He hasn't grown much at all. His head has grown 1 cm in the last two months as well.

Sleep update: Sleep is going GREAT! It will never be perfect, but I can now leave the room after tucking him in. Sometimes he cries, sometimes he doesn't. If he does cry, it's less than 5 minutes, then he stops. This for both nap and night time. We have a good book routine before both "night nights". Tonight I was reading "Clifford" to him, and in the cartoon there is a character named T-bone. Well I went and got Kacie's old T-Bone stuffed animal, and Ty thought that was the neatest thing ever. He is sleeping with T-Bone right now. And when he wakes up in the mornings, he doesn't cry. He just yells, "Ma MA!" I was telling Dan about that, and as Dan pointed out, that tells us he's not scared anymore! He knows where he is, and he's just ready to get up.

He really enjoys it when we have a stuffed animal of a book character. So far we have Pooh, piglet, pugs, Clifford, T-bone, and then many other animals in general. He also loves plush talking/singing toys. Elmo, a teddy bear named William, and Baby Tad from Leap Frog are some of his favorites. Ty requests for me to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" so he can do the moves, or just to watch me. He also like patty cake and "if you're happy and you know it". We are working on Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, but I do all the pointing. There is one show on TV he will watch: The movie "CARS". His bedroom is all Cars, and thank goodness, he loves it! He uses a driving motion and says, "rrooom rrrooom!" for a car noise everytime he sees or hears a car. All day long, his two favorite topics are cars and birds. The other show he gets excited about is Ni Hao Kai Lan, but that lasts for 15 seconds, and then he's no longer interested.

Ty is still very challenging at times. He still hits, and I don't know what to do to get him to stop. I model, I use time out, I talk to him, we say "nice hands, soft hands, etc..." I'm feeling really stupid for not being able to stop this behavior. Of course it's only at home. He does it when things aren't going his way. I'm sure it's his way of controlling a situation that he has no control over...so is that an adoption thing or a two-year old thing?

And I continually realize just how much English he understands. I muttered to myself this morning, "Ty needs to wash his hands." Well, he picked up on it and started rubbing his hands together and walking to the bathroom.

Everywhere we go, I am not kidding, I am told how cute Tyson is. I look around at all the other kids, and they are cute, but what is it about Tyson? I thought about this for a long time today, and here's what I came up with:

1. His eyes. Even men in elevators in China told us how gorgeous his eyes are. In his referral paperwork it said he had "Big sensitive eyes". That was about the most accurate piece of of information in the paperwork.

2. Being a conspicuous family. We are a very fair skinned family with Scandinavian heritage. Then there's Tyson, not of Scandinavian heritage, obviously. Here's what's funny: people who haven't seen me in a long time ask me when I had a baby! Hmmmmm... But my point is, we stand out, and that could be why Ty is noticed.

3. I am happy. I mean REALLY happy. I think I am still in new mommy mode, and I'm so in love with Tyson. In public, I smile at him, love on him, talk with him, laugh at/with him. Maybe our happy vibes just rub off.

But I think this is it: people have the same reaction to Ty that we had when we first saw his referral photos. You can't help but fall in love with him. We are so very blessed God matched us with Tyson. I can look back and see why our wait was so long and why things fell into the places they did. And now, I am so very thankful.

Oh, one more thing! Tyson played Mario Kart on the wii with me tonight! That is a rite of passage in this family!