Four Months As A Family

Lots has happened in the last month where Davis is concerned. I spent about an hour one Friday morning down at the Social Security office applying for his Social Security card in his American name - we had received a card with his Chinese name shortly after coming home. I spent time at two different windows getting help that morning - interestingly enough, the first lady had a coffee mug with Chinese characters on it in her cubicle window and the second lady was actually Chinese-American. We had no problems applying for the name change and should receive his new card soon in the mail.

We have also begun the process to re-adopt Davis in the state of Florida. Florida is one of several states where this is necessary in order to file for an American birth certificate. The benefit of that is two-fold. It prevents us from having to carry around a Chinese birth certificate and an adoption record any time we need to prove his age. And it will mean that any time he needs a certified copy of his birth certificate for the rest of his life, he can apply for a copy from Marion County. Not exactly an easy thing to get more copies from China should the need arise. 

We've also been noticing how well Davis is doing in terms of adjustment and attachment in the last month. He is much more comfortable at church and before going to the nursery will run around now in the sanctuary and try to talk to some of the older folks and even hand out hugs and kisses to the ladies I sing with on the praise team. At Sea World, in the big crowds we noticed that he started tugging on his ear a few times and got quiet - that's when we realized its been several weeks since we've seen this behavior at all from him. And at Coon Hollo Farm this weekend, instead of being content just hanging out and watching his brothers do things or go along with what they want, Davis made it clear that there were certain things he wanted to do, like sit on the big tractor and ride in the barrels behind the other tractor. 

We realized by accident this week that he has been observing and now understands the discipline procedure for his big brothers - counting to 1, 2, 3 as a warning - and Davis will follow along before you get to 3 if you say it to him as well. Davis also no longer requires a grownup to lay down with him at night to fall asleep. You can tuck him in with his blanket and bear and he will fall asleep on his own. Some nights he will even share a bed with Wesley, which was a big no-no just a few weeks ago. He is once again sleeping through the entire night without waking up or getting up.

Davis is also a very good problem solver. He got a snack out of the pantry yesterday afternoon, took it over to the ktichen counter, went to find a stool to reach the counter, dragged the stool over, stood on top of the stool, grabbed the kid scissors from the catch-all on the counter and cut open the small bag of pretzels all by himself. He was grinning from ear to ear when he was done. 

Language has been coming along as well. He's been learning the ABC song at school and gets the first half right. He's been learning body parts and can name and point to his nose, ear, mouth, eyes, knees, shoulders, feet and toes. "Mine" is a favorite word. So is "no," usually accompanied by a pouty face with his arms crossed. But if you smile and tease him, his pouty face no turns into laughing and smiling.

Food wise, he has also become much more adventurous. The other night he ate a corn dog for the first time without us having to take the breading off first. He now likes macaroni and cheese and loves to point to it on the kid menus with the pictures. He scarfed down two helpings of scrambled eggs recently without any prompting from us. Davis is eating warmer foods now and also drinking slightly colder water. Davis even tried some of Grandaddy's milkshake when we met him and Uncle Daniel at the Leesburg Steak N Shake during men's retreat. But for the love of God, do not attempt to put tomatoes or pickles on his sandwich - he will pick them off and throw them with a scrunched up face while yelling "Ew!"