Getting To Know You…

We are beginning to see some of our little guy’s personality emerge, and he is sure fun!
Some things about baby J:

He loves food…all food; the more garlic, the better! His favorite vegetable is broccoli, smothered in oil and garlic, but he is pretty happy with all veggies. He loves meat, and will eat any of it. He even ate some calf tongue the other night!

He is a tea drinker. In China, they serve every meal with hot tea. It is not sweetened, just plain Jasmine tea, and it cracks me up when he asks for it, and downs the whole cup.

He loves to play. He has cried several times when he has seen the playroom at the hotel, and we have not gone in.

His favorite toys are cars. We brought some with us, and he picked out some more at Walmart. He loves them, and carries them all around with him in a little gift bag we gave him when we saw how frustrated he was getting trying to carry twenty cars around.

He has SUPER cute dimples when he smiles.

He is funny, and likes to make us smile.

He loves little M, and wants to be right next to her and watch whatever she is doing. Little M is not too sure about this.

He calls for little M if she leaves the room. He yells “jie jie!”(big sister), until she comes back.

I am hoping he and little M will be good friends. He loves to play with her so much, and his laugh when they play together is hysterical.

He has no fear at all, and will fling himself down any slide face first. It worries me. He reminds me of his uncle Micah! Daring, and no fear…and getting hurt a lot!

He has a very high pain tolerance. We are wondering if his leg/foot hurt or have been hurting a lot, and he is just maybe used to pain. His little leg and foot get very stiff, and his hobbling along is even more pronounced when he first gets up to walk.

We went to his finding place this week, and it was hard for me. Not hard to see it, because it is a good place, as far as being abandoned can be good. It made me think that whoever left him really must have loved him and wanted him to be found and cared for, because where he was left he would have been found and cared for very quickly.
It also made me sad, because little M’s finding place, while still busy and public (so she would be found quickly) was not as good. How will I explain this to my children?

He has obviously been “out” more than little M was. She was frightened of everything, and the stroller terrified her, but baby J loves the stroller, uses the Chinese word for it, and has no fear of the crowds and busyness of the city.

He is not afraid of men like little M was, and he loves the husband.

He is a total boy. We have had to work on throwing things and hitting a lot. Every time the husband gets down on the floor, he gets tackled. Ha.

He is very tiny. He came with three pants, two shirts, and a fleece vest on (not unusual at all for China), and he still felt light. When we went to change him into pajamas later, we started peeling off the layers, and got to a very, very skinny little boy. You can almost see all the bones in his body, his wrists and arms are stick thin, and you can count every little rib. As much as he loves to eat, I am wondering if he had enough food…

We couldn’t be happier to have our little guy, and we are thrilled to be a family of four!