first trip out - success

We had a busy-ish day today. We have all pretty much been home for the past week. I know I said we'd try for a month, but you all know me. Can you really see me staying home for a month? Maybe if I was taking copious amounts of drugs, or am completely off my rocker. We started the day, well the late morning, with a trip to Dr. Joe - the boys pediatrician. Joe is an amazing human, with the kindest of hearts. Oh and have I mentioned that he's fluent is Spanish? A definite plus with a brand spanking new toddler from Guatemala. So the good for the appointment was that he's very healthy - minus the extra bug baggage. Joe said he was one of the healthiest immigrant adoptees he's ever seen. Skye is even on one of the US caucasion growth charts! He's in the 20th percentile for weight, but completely off the charts (on the bottom) for height and head circumference. Whatever, he's Mayan. No extra bugs in the guts and he said that his stomach will start to de-bloat with good food and nutrition. It was great.

The bad part was how completely sad Skye got when we put him in the car. I don't know how much, if ever, he traveled by car except to be moved. It broke my heart when he just shut down in the car. Even though we were reassuring him, he didn't believe us. At the doctor's Chris stepped out without telling Skye where he was going, and I walked accross the office to put away the pens that he was decorating the office furniture with. Poor baby almost completely lost it, but right as the freak out started Chris came back in the room. When we had to get his clothes off for the exam he was just clinging to me. I think the poor little guy thought we were getting rid of him. It breaks my heart just to think about it. There is nothing more sad than a small child fearing that his parents are going to leave him - again. So we got through the appointment and he was still very fearful, we had to bribe him to get dressed again. Continuing to tell him we loved him, he was going home with us, he is going to live with us forever (God I hope not forever, at least until he's off to college!), and that we were his forever family. I don't think he totally belived us until we put him back in the same car and drove home - to the same house. He just glowed like a little firefly. He giggled and skipped all over the house. It was so touching and heartbreaking at the same time.

We decided that because he was so stoked coming home we'd try something new for dinner. We are out of blueberries and thought it would be fun to go to the Eastbank farmers market and get some fruit and dinner. We were totally prepared for whatever. While there we ran into my dear friend Julia, her husband Jeff and the twins (aka the rat babies). We all sat down and had dinner together, along with their friends and twin 2.5 year olds. It was a scene, but such a welcome comfort to see friends. Skye just took it all in stride, gleefully shoving blueberries into his mouth and watching everything. We got him a balloon monkey on the way out, and he was just like any other 2 year old coming home. Didn't want to go to bed, screeched with joy while flailing the monkey, and smiled a purple lipped smile. Do we have a way to go, yes? But have we made amazing progress in just 7 short days? I'd emphatically say yes yes yes! Considering that a week ago I was wondering what I had done to my family, and could we really do this. Now I can say that I love that little guy, for real. Sure we have work to do, the whining is O-L-D! And he makes so much improvement daily.

I did something tonight that I highly recommend doing if you have little babies. If you can, watch them fall asleep, they are a trip! As many of our friends and family know Forrest is not a great sleeper. He didn't really get the hang of how to sleep until he was roughly 8 months old, which meant that mama didn't really get any sleep for 8 months either. Tonight I put bug down, instead of heading out the door, I hid behind the dresser and watched him. We sort of figured out that what makes him scream at night is seeing us leave through the door, so I stayed just out of sight and watched him. It was the funniest thing. He's got 3 stuffed animals in his crib - a teddy bear & ugly doll from Daniela and a monkey roughly the size of him from his great Aunt Christine (whom we have named Akbar due to the middle eastern style vest he is wearing). I always wondered what he did to get to sleep, now I know. He wrestles with the monkey for about 10 minutes, rolling from one end of the crib to the other, jabbering and carrying on. He'd lie on top of the monkey, chew on the bear's head, throw the ugly doll, roll over so the monkey was on top of him, stuff the monkey into a corner of the crib, roll around some more. It was so funny, I can't imagine an adult doing something like that, or even having the room to do so! After about 10 minutes of this, he shoved all 3 stuffed animals into a corner and wrapped himself around them. Totally precious, and totally Forrest.

Okay off to do garbage while Chris wrestles to get Skye to bed. Hopefully tonight will be able to go without too much screaming.