Two Amazing Months

Yesterday, Ian celebrated his second full month with us! On November 6th, we met him for the first time in Hangzhou, China. I'm not exactly sure what I expected life to be like two months from that day, but I can definitely say that I never would have expected to already be making such great strides in so many areas.

Ian is really doing amazing in terms of catch up. It's so hard to believe that only two months ago, he was hardly using his legs and as of just a few days ago, he looks for excuses to walk (a little less the later it gets in the day) and is up and down the stairs on his own.

He was primarily drinking from a bottle at 19 months in his orphanage, which didn't last 24 hours once we had him, and now there isn't even a bottle in our house and he is eating everything in sight with his fingers, even trying to use a spoon by himself.

This time two months ago, he was spending his first days outside since 3 months old, had never seen a dog, ridden in a car seat or stroller, or slept in a room alone. Since the 2nd week home, he has slept completely through all but one or two nights in his own room and this includes during a week in Arizona. That by itself is pretty amazing. In all, Ian has been much easier than we expected. He has his moments, but heck, he's a baby. It would be a red flag of a problem if he wasn't pushing our buttons every once in a while.

Yesterday, we ventured out for our first real meal in a restaurant since coming home...The Rainforest Cafe, which is a wild animal themed restaurant and gift shop with Disneyland style animation/props throughout the restaurant. I have to say I don't know what I was expecting, but the food was awful and overpriced. Ian was in awe of all the noises, lights, and moving "animals" though. There was a moving butterfly mounted right over our table and he was mesmerized by it for most of the time we were there, looking upward in all directions most of the time. It was really cute to see him taking it all in, but it might have been too much. He cried ALOT at bedtime. As it turns out, his diaper had come apart inside his jammies and he was soaked and had a soggy mess of diaper guts throughout his footie PJ's in the morning. Since I was at work during this discovery, Shawn had his first nasty clean up duty. He had slept all night like this, but it might have been why he was so upset at bedtime. Poor little guy.

To make matters worse, while I was home for lunch today, he had the worst blowout on record. Let's just say if I had more time before leaving to go back to work, I would have given him a bath. He did need a whole new outfit. Bad, bad, bad, bad bad. Folks, it was bad. It was clear that maybe he wasn't overstimulated from the restaurant, but had a bit of a bug. He was acting just fine, but Shawn said he had been clingy all day. It was hard to go back to work after this. I knew he needed me. Instead, he had Mr. Toughlove. Poor Ian!

He seems to be clearing up and went to sleep with only a few tears tonight, so I don't think it's time to call in reinforcements. We'll see how things go in the next couple of days.

Below are a few pictures from lunch yesterday and Ian's first day with us in Hangzhou. It really is unfathomable that it was only 2 months ago!

Ian with his caretaker. He didn't even look back at her when we left. He was already getting comfortable with us before we were even in the car.

Shortly after waking, the first thing Ian did with Shawn was go for this car's wheels... his one true passion.

Same day in the hotel room...This is one of my favorite pics of Ian. Look at those cheeks!

This was day 2, but it's a classic... This has been on the blog before, but it's worth a reappearance. Don't mind my razor within his reach. I was so young and naive then! :-)

At The Rainforest Cafe yesterday. He was mesmerized by the waterfalls and animated animals.

Ian was pointing at the giant moving butterfly and saying "Da", which is his word for almost everything.

Still staring straight up. We didn't get many other pics since the restaurant was very crowded and dark.