Today is Wednesday, August 12, 2015. It's hard to believe it's already the middle of August! Ezekiel has been in our family for six weeks now, and we've been home from China for a month. The time is already flying by, and I know it will continue to do so more and more, so we are trying to make the most of every minute of our family time together this summer.
Ezekiel is progressing by leaps and bounds in his eating, and now he sits in his high chair and eats meals with the rest of the family every time. He does not always eat what the rest of us are eating - sometimes he will just eat one of his healthy muffins (we've tried zucchini/banana, carrot/apricot, beet/apricot, and zucchini/carrot, and so far he likes them all) - but it's becoming more common for him to eat a chopped-up version of whatever we're eating. He still loves his bottle, and we give it to him usually four times a day still. But the way he's eating is really quite amazing compared to just a month ago - we did not imagine he'd make progress so quickly!
He says several words now: Dada, Mama, gege ("guh guh" - big brother in Mandarin), "uh" (up), "duh" (down, or done), "buh" (this is his catch-all word that usually means he wants something, or wants more), "dodo" (doggie, for Albert), and "nar nar" (bottle - that's what they call it in China),
He gets around really well by walking, but still crawls sometimes, especially if it's in an unfamiliar setting. He's pretty good at catching his balance if he starts to fall, but he does crash into things sometimes although not as much as we expected for a kid with impaired vision. Ezekiel has started to wear his hat sometimes, but only if we make him keep it on and he cries for the first few minutes and then resigns himself to the fact that he has to wear it. It's not always practical to use an umbrella to shade his head from the sun, like if he's in a swing for instance. Or if we forget the umbrella, ha ha. We're still working on trying to get him to wear sunglasses, but that's not as important as the hat, since the sunglasses are mostly just for his own comfort in the bright outdoors.
TongJie, for the most part, has been settling into his role as "gege" (big brother) quite well, and that includes getting jealous of Ezekiel and bothering him a lot (and reveling in the fact that Ezekiel is crying yet again), but also making him laugh, helping him, and bringing him toys. It's funny how very different their personalities are. TongJie, although quite competitive, is generally pretty easygoing about most things and it's usually not too hard to convince him to do things that we want him to do. Ezekiel, on the other hand, is very strong willed and definitely NOT easy to please (at least not yet)! I'm sure we'll see more and more of his personality come out as we get to know him better and he becomes more comfortable with us. But I think it's safe to say that he's going to be strong willed.
Here are some pictures of what we've been doing lately:
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| Ezekiel eating some beet apricot puree - yum! |
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| TongJie playing in the water in our backyard on a hot day |
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| TongJie likes to play with his train set in the carport where Ezekiel can't mess it up |
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| TongJie and I slept out in our shed the other night - sort of like backyard camping, but without having to set up the tent :) |
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| Jeff and the kids at Smallwoods |
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| Ezekiel on the swing at Smallwood's |
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| On a walk to Wenatchee Valley College - they have lots of nice grassy areas |
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| Ezekiel having fun |
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| TongJie and his car for the zucchini race at the farmers' market |
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| Ezekiel in the swing in our backyard |
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| More swinging - at Pioneer Park |
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| TongJie at Pioneer Park |
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| Both of them can ride in the stroller |
