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| Some signs of growth |
| Saturday, January 05, 2008 |
The cool thing yesterday was our first visual sign of Andrei's growth. He has these jeans that we were rolling up the legs because they were too long (basically that's the situation with all his pants). Anyway, yesterday I noticed that I didn't have to roll them up! We also had bought one of those wall growth charts in Russia so it's in centimeters with some writing on it in Cyrillic of course. When we got home he was at 77 1/4 centimeters and now (3 weeks later) he's grown a little over 1 centimeter. We know it really takes a few months for the little ones to get that major growth spurt assuming their size was reduced due to institutional issues (nutrition, exercise, etc.). So we're not expecting anything major just yet.
However, there are some other signs of his growth. His hair is looking and feeling much better. It was really coarse and thin which his IA doctor calls "orphanage hair" (a term both Stef and I, sorry to say, think is really funny). It's yet another thing caused by the lack of nutrition in their diet. And yes, we first just tried baby hair conditioner which doesn't really help. But that stuff is good for his scalp and new hair so we use it.
On the development side there are just so many things he's doing it's too much list. His comprehension is continuing to go at an unbelievable pace. He can point out his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth when asked. But we're still waiting for the speech to get going. Another great thing is his attitude is getting better as he seems to understand that there are going to be some things he doesn't get to do (usually because of some safety issue). Naturally this new found understanding has not eliminated the temper tantrums as he still gives us plenty of those. But clearly the less interest we show in his tantrums the shorter the duration.
The food front is the one area where things are getting worse. I suppose worse is the way we view it while Andrei would say he's just trying to be more assertive. And assertive is a euphemism for fussy eater. He was never big on vegetables (although we get him to eat them by hiding them in other food). But now he'll eat something (like sliced turkey) for a a few bites and then decline it five minutes later. Of course this is just typical toddler eating behavior, but boy is it annoying.
The spitting out of food he doesn't like is also annoying but is so funny to watch that we have to literally turn away because he was noticing us laughing so he thinks he's doing something good. Yes, there are plenty of things that as new parents we have to show poker faces to avoid teaching negative behavior. And since both Stef and I have some pretty dark senses of humor, we have to do a lot of poker faces. |
posted by Steveg @ 8:28 AM  |
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| 3 Comments: |
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Don't worry too much about the slow speech. I taught toddlers for over 6 years and most of the time the kids didn't say more than a handful of words until they were about 21 months. And then it was a language explosion. The boys always seemed to be a couple months behind the girls as well. If he's understanding you and doing a lot of that "practice talk" - the baby babbling - and picking up on sign language, then the language is coming.
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Oh, orphanage hair! Boy, was I glad to see that go away.
It is so wonderful to see those little signs of growth. Having a child enriches your life so much, and it is great to see the physical evidence of how having a loving family affects the child.
Sounds like Andrei's adjusting beautifully.
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Love reading your blog and learning about Andrei.
Sounds like you guys are doing a terrific job and he's right on track!
He's such a cutie too!
jane
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I'm Steve and this is my wife Stefanie. This is our story, mostly seen through my eyes, of the journey to create our family by adopting a child from Russia.
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Don't worry too much about the slow speech. I taught toddlers for over 6 years and most of the time the kids didn't say more than a handful of words until they were about 21 months. And then it was a language explosion. The boys always seemed to be a couple months behind the girls as well. If he's understanding you and doing a lot of that "practice talk" - the baby babbling - and picking up on sign language, then the language is coming.