Smiles, Hugs, and Kisses

We met our LM almost 1 year ago. Incredibly enough. 43 weeks home. In our field, one thing I can say is that we both do all we can to appreciate and love on LM every single day -- we know too well that you never know when you won't have that next day, not to sound gloomy, but it simply gives us a perspective to be sure to love, respect, appreciate, and enjoy every moment we can with LM... while we've been exhausted (both), frazzled (me), and in a major learning curve (both), I look at our boy and know that every single day we take delight in him that he seems to be responding in kind -- and as a result, we get the great pleasure of being bedazzled by his brilliant glow -- I wish I could describe his energy to those who haven't met him, but let's just say that his nickname of George Clooney has stuck.... his charm is unbelievable. I know, everyone feels that way about their kids, and as a pediatric OT, I must say, i find all kids incredibly sweet and tug at my heart; but it is true, when they are your own, the bias' change.

And it's incredible the "bias" I had when looking at him 1 year ago.... I thought he was an amazing kid with a great personality, and he was, but I realize now we both saw that behind his "shield" and thank the gods for making that happen... I have looked a lot lately at photos from our first meeting -- and I realize now how, really, he was scared, lonely, and "what the heck is going on here?" confused... was he a trooper? absolutely. But if you look back at photos from May and June to now, the difference is striking.. And, I believe it is not just about a baby growing up. It is about a little soul who feels safe and loved, and regardless his crazy mother, not only seems to want to stay with us, but actually likes us :)

His smiles are much deeper and meaningful. And overall his ability to understand emotion is blossoming. A fun game he and I play right now is to "make faces" -- we play "happy" (which comes with a great "he he he" from him), "sad", "mad", "scared", and "surprised". It is hilarious. Notoriously these days, almost every game we play ends up with him throwing himself into our laps, laughing and then looking for physical attention... For each of us he has his own little "baby" game that he loves to kick back and snuggle -- and he just gives us this big grin all the while... I am game for giving him as much of the snuggle and baby love he wants, regardless his age. He missed it for 17 months, and nothing will ever make up for that, so I am happy to dole out hugs and kisses...

On this particular day, he decided hanging out on the couch would be grand... never one to miss a snuggle, Ashton hopped on board as well... it was a really heart warming way to start the day... (and hey, it wasn't 4am so that added to the snuggle fun!)

Snuggle Fest March 2010

His visual scanning and discrimination skills for matching/sorting, categorizing, etc are sky rocketing. A crazy example - Jeff loves to play ice hockey, but rarely gets to go because of the scheduling... when he does, it's usually like 10pm... This past weekend, a blessing in disguise of a GI bug kept me home from a girls weekend, and Sunday am he got to go play hockey -- so LM and I "met" him there (also one of LM's big things == at the end of the day, he'll say "Meet Papa UP, Mama?" ie: let's go walk to the end of the street and wait for papa to come home)...when we got there, our little Russian at heart literally acted like he'd just re-found a 2nd home. .. Jeff had on a Flyers jersey, and I took off LM's hat and showed him the emblem, then said "look for papa, he has a shirt on like this"... Don't you know that kid scanned the ice like an eagle -- and within moments not only alerted me of his "papa find" but then proceeded to watch him move and narrate:
LM: "mama, PAPA!!"
M: "yes, LM, there he is, good finding him"
LM: "mama, Papa ho-stick" (hockey stick) with a "swisch" motion of his arms (from playing w/ his hockey stick at home)
LM: "mama, Papa, ball, NOW" (literally when jeff got the puck, LM was watching all the movement and saw immediately)...
It was pretty incredible.
He does that kind of stuff all the time at home, now, too.
"LM, where is your red train" and he will literally scan the room and, if he left it in another room, tell me what room it is in, then go there and find it right away. Good thing since I always loose things right under my nose... He's going to be a huge help around here.

"Don't worry LM, we've great plans for U to get out on the ice as soon as it's safe"

Between the raindrops, we got his "weekly" photo --

Home 43 Weeks "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere" Fun... See what I mean about the smile?

Spring is coming. River house is open, and we hope to have the boat in the water soon...
Please come on by for a smile anytime.