Getting to know our son.

Samuel has been home with us for 88 days, today! He's just over 16-months old. In this time we've really come to know him - he is an amazing little guy with a very outgoing, funny, curious and strong personality. Sometimes demanding. Sometimes loud. Mostly always smiling.

We fall more in love each day as he continues to thrive and shine. He's gotten so much bigger (almost 20% of his weight!) and his hair has grown back from when it was shaved when he was in the orphanage. He has started walking, and mimics nearly every sound we make - and often has us mimicking his sounds. The social worker said on our 3 month visit that "he's as active as any active little boy, and as chatty as any talkative little girl!" He can feed himself now - although is not a big fan of some textures like chicken and eggs. But give him mushy texture or something like sweet potato, avocado, bandannas, mandarin oranges or cheerios - and he'll eat as much as you put in front of him! (And, therefore, he is a poop machine. All day, all night.) We think he's gotten so big - and he has - for Samuel. But we get him with other children close to his age and he's just a tiny thing.

Sam knows 5 signs, and although he really only understands 2, he'll sign the other 3 when we say the word (but can't associate it to the thing it means.) He's also a big fan of peek-a-boo, but covers his ears instead of his eyes. He gets SOOOO excited when he learns something new or is able to communicate with us. It usually ends up in excited shrieks, clapping and waving hand in the air - on both our parts.

Samuel loves to hide things, we find lots of block and little wooden people under the couch and in the baskets and trash cans around the house. He's a very busy little guy, but loves books, too, so will sit still long enough for us to read to him - especially after nap time, which is when he's a little calmer. When Sam walks he does the sign for "all done", which looks very close to "jazz hands", we often look up to see him with a huge smile on his face, his tongue going from side to side, and doing jazz hands while walking across the room towards us. Samuel (who we still call Sam-well, the Ethiopian pronunciation) is a very smiley little guy. He loves to flirt, and it's hilarious to take him to the grocery store because he throws one arm back across the seat of the cart, smiles and says "hieeeeee!" to anyone who makes eye contact. He loves sounds, and pays close attention to any sounds in the room, noises we or Jackson make - or music that we're playing. We've just started him in music class with Daddy, and later toady we're going swimming for the first time.

Speaking of eye contact - he's got incredibly great eye contact. (Much better than many adults I know! This kid takes in everything. And knows a lot more than we know.) All of his multitude of tests and assessments have come back excellent - and he's surprisingly right on track developmentally - no delays due to his time in the orphanage that we know of. He definitely knows we're his parents, and comes to us for comfort and checks in with us when we have company over or are out with friends. He's a good sleeper and I have started pulling him out of his crib at night for a cuddle on the bed. He lays on his chest and I just hold him and rub his back and tell him I love him. (Something we both missed out on very much in the first year of his life.) I guess I'm trying to make up for lost time and still hold him while I can - he's growing so fast.

So that's our guy! Smiley. Funny. Curious. Active. Chirpy. Learning and sharing his opinions. Very busy. Sometimes sweet enough to cuddle. He's more amazing than we could have every imagined - we are so excited and proud to have him as our son.

We're all adjusting. The first 2 weeks were really hard - and having Samuel and Terry on a different schedule (by 10 hours) didn't help. But as he's come to know us, and we've come to know him, and he's come into himself so beautifully - it's gotten so much easier. I have the guilt of going back to work full time - but am adjusting. Terry's adjusting to being a part-time stay-at-home dad while also trying to maintain his new business which is doing great. And Jackson is probably having the hardest time adjusting - poor pup. We love on him and walk him as much as we can, but his world has changed. He's still our first-born.

I guess I won't be posting as often - I used to post every week. Time is precious these days. I also struggle with how much of Samuel's life and our story to make public, so that's an ongoing thought in my head, too. We'll see.

Here are just a few pics of the last few weeks.

We love hiking!

Mardi Gras!

Yup, I can just stand up and walk away with my green bean!

My brother and me:

Mom and dad dress me as a combination purple-people-eater / Gumby:

Now that's a big dog!:

And of course, our sweet first-born: