Milo, An Update of Sorts

My baby boy.

Oh this boy.

He is my dream come true & so much more.

He drives me so crazy one minute, then turns around & melts my heart.

I mean...

Seriously.

Those eyes!

It was the first thing I fell in love with when I saw his referral pictures. 

I've thought for a long time about doing some type of update on Milo's limb difference.

I've gone back and forth with it because,

well,

there's not much to update.

I've already posted about Milo's school experiences so far.

There really isn't anything that I can honestly think of that this boy cannot do.

He may do it differently than others, but he can do it!

We had a little incident last week with some kids at Xandra's bus stop.

But all in all, it really wasn't a big deal at all.

Milo doesn't usually wait with us at her bus stop (another example of Matt's & my policy of "divide & conquer").

But Matt had an early morning appointment, so Milo got to wave his sister off.

A couple boys walked up & stared at Milo - blatantly (& if I'm honest, a little rudely; but they are little boys so... I'll let that go).

Then they began saying he was "weird"& "looked weird."

I corrected them - "He's not weird, he's different. We're all different. If you have a question about him, please ask me. But please don't call him weird."

They didn't really ask any questions we haven't heard before:

"What happened to his arm?"

"Is he from China?"

"Are you his mom?"

As I always do in these situations, I second-guessed all of my responses, my tone, how long I waited before I "stuck up" for my son, how Milo "heard" my answers & will answer these questions himself later on.... 

Does it ever get easier??

Matt & I recently discussed (again!) getting Milo a prosthetic.
Matt has been thinking about it a lot, and thinks it might be good for him.
Not so much for me.
I really don't think he needs it.
He does everything - & I mean everything - including a lot of things I don't want him to do!
I can see both sides of this issue, pros & cons for each case.
But, for now, I'm in the camp of "let him be."
Because he's doing so well, and because he's still growing (lordy! is he growing!!), I think we could just save the couple/few hundred dollars it would cost to refit him every time he outgrows it.
We'll reevaluate again in a few months (& probably will forever more).

We're restarting speech therapy, as of today.
Matt took him (no more home visits-boo!!)...
& apparently, he did really well!
I'm really happy about it.
After last school year, when we took the summer off, I was pretty discouraged.
We hadn't been making any progress, except for what he was picking up at his school
(which is one of the huge reasons we wanted to keep him there!).
So, now he'll be getting good practice at both places.
Love it when things work out like that!!

So that's my non-update on Milo.
Not too interesting... but that's where we are.
Love that boy!!

PS
Anyone know of a way to keep a kid in their crib? Milo's driving me nutty with all the climbing out! He even managed to scare the bejesus out of Xandra this morning - he got up way too early, climbed out of bed, snuck into Xandra's room...
& let's just say, I woke up to insanely loud screams at 6 am.
Not fun.

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& check out some other great pictures!!

Milo Speaks

A couple videos of Milo

Scootin' Along {Sunday Snapshot}

Nikon D90
ISO 100, f2.8, SS 1/320

I don't know why this picture speaks to me so much.
But I love it.
It's just so...  Milo.
The scooter isn't the easiest thing for him to use - he loses balance easily since he can only hold on with his one arm.
But don't for a minute think that stops him. Ever.
He always figures out a way.
I love watching him learn something new.
He is so driven, focused.
He is a survivor.
It's what saved him in China.
It's why he was so loved in the orphanage.
And it's what makes him shine now, and will serve him so well later in life.
He does not, will not quit.

I've been thinking about how adoption has affected our family and our friends lately. 

At this point in our journey, for me at least, it is virtually identical to the feelings I had after Xandra was born.

I cannot remember our lives without our son.

Well... I can. But I don't want to.

An update on Milo's progress in speech:
We've transitioned out of the Help Me Grow program in our county (we hit a plateau with the current speech therapist, and decided to leave the program a little early).
We started moving Milo into the local school system.
He was reassessed on his speech, and the therapist told us he is just ever so slightly below average.
She actually told us that he is so close to "normal" that it was a real toss-up over whether she should qualify him or not.
But she, as with most people we meet, fell in love with him & really wanted to spend more time with him.
He's a charmer.
During this process, we met with multiple people (gotta love all the red tape).
Almost all of them were shocked that Milo did not qualify for physical or occupational therapy.
One woman in particular was just amazed with Milo's abilities - especially when he showed her how he could wash his hand by himself.
I think we blew her mind when we showed her the video of him peeling an orange by himself.
We decided not to send him to the school system's preschool.
We have thought about this decision well over a month.
Ultimately, though, we decided that his current daycare is exactly where he needs to be.
They love him there; we're not just familiar with his teachers, they are our friends.
I am so happy we have this decision behind us.

Now.... On with summer!!!

I'm linking up with Sunday Snapshot.
Click the link below to check out the wonderful
Stefanie (@ Ni Hao Y'all) & other great blogs!

Progress, Silliness, & a Surprise! {Fav Foto Friday}

I need to get more video of Milo talking. Something in his little brain has kind of clicked on, and he's started really trying to communicate with words in the last week. More than just the grunts we've heard for almost 9 months. I can't say it's really an onslaught of words, but he's trying so hard.

You can see the wheels turning as he tries to remember the word he wants, form it in his mouth, and make it understandable. I was shocked tonight when little man said 3 words together. We've been working on putting 2 words together for months.

But I don't think his speech therapist will count this as a 3-word-sentence (darn it!). She's let me know that even though he regularly, spontaneously, & correctly will say "all done" & "thank you," those don't count either. Because those words are regularly put together (a common phrase), it only counts as one word. Boo. Oh well- it's still exciting to hear him say new things!!

Ok, the next one is just wrong of us. As parents, we should probably not be encouraging our kids to do these things. We are so immature. I'm ashamed. Well, I'll try to be after I quit laughing.

The other day, I was trying to clean up some things in our bedroom. We've been home from China for about 9 months now.... yeah, I still have a half-packed suitcase in our room. No clothing is left in there, but a lot of the stuff that we purchased as keepsakes. Anyway, I was looking through things and discovered this:

I don't remember getting this in China! It was like discovering the most precious gift I could dream of (with the exception of a baby picture, of course). I don't know how old he is in this picture, but I know it's younger than 21 months (that's how old he was when we first met him). I love this little baby face!! 

Happy Friday!!

Christmas Eve Blitz

Here in Ohio... we're experiencing some interesting weather. A couple days ago, I wore a short-sleeve shirt out & about running errands. {Say what???} 

Today was a bit colder (around 40'ish), but absolutely beautiful! And, as Milo had quite a bit of energy (don't know where it came from - he didn't take a nap!), I took both kiddos outside to run some off.

I wish I could remember what was cracking him up so much... 

It was probably Xandra. :-)

I LOVE stripes (but can't seem to pull them off in my own wardrobe), so I force the kids to wear as much striped clothing as possible. I'm mean like that. Oh, and polka dots, too (for Xandra).

Xandra is beginning to come down with some sinus-y something or other. Matt's got a sinus-y thing - he's been the only sick one for the last few days, so I knew it was coming to all of us sooner or later.

So, Xandra has been a little bit emotional the last couple days.

She's also kinda bossy (especially to the easiest target- her brother)

He doesn't really appreciate her bossiness

"Mama!! She's taking my toy!!"

"Don't you see her?? She's being mean to me!"

"Ok. So you just keep taking pictures while Xandra continues with this injustice!!"

Not to worry - I wasn't being a totally mean mom. We've put all of our outdoor toys in storage, except one: the cozy coupe. Seeing as it was the only toy, the kiddos immediately started fighting over it. I tried to set up the taking turns thing... but Milo was not pleased with that idea at all!! 

On another note, I was recording a couple videos today while the kiddos were pretending to sleep on the couch (they were both "snoring like dada"). At the tale end of this video, it sounds to me like Milo says "I love Dada." 

Which, of course, is awesome!! 

Cause that means he's stringing words together!! 

Like in short sentences!! 

WOOOO!!

:)

So what do you all think??

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Updating That Day (& Speech)

Sunday was probably the worst day we've had in our family of 4. Milo woke in a bad mood at 5 am & remained in a bad mood until dinner time.
It was. A. Very. Bad. Day.
A lot of screaming.
A lot of crying.
A lot of kicking.
Crying.
Hitting.
Screaming.
:'(

I'm still not 100% sure exactly what was wrong with our little guy. In my heart, I think it was multiple things. I'm almost positive there was grieving in there at least part of the day (if not all). As well as being tired.
And teething.

It wasn't until tonight, while I was horsing around with both kiddos before bed, that I finally caught a glimpse inside his mouth. He's got at least one new tooth that popped through at some point. After I got that one little look-see, he clamped down & wouldn't let me look any more. I know when we got home from China, he was working on 2 teeth at once. Xandra was like that- always popping at least 2 teeth at a time. So, just guessing... but he may have gotten another one on the other side, too. I'll keep looking every chance I get.

I must say, however, that my boy has been back for the past 2 days. :) And it's been a wonderful couple of days!

We had another speech therapy meeting yesterday. Milo likes his therapist, Miss L. But yesterday, her supervisor came with her to check on his progress. So Milo decided he'd clam up for the entire hour they were here. Grrr!! I'm not exaggerating when I say, the second I closed the door behind them after they left, he started chattering away! He even yelled "BYE!!" to them through our open front window. The little stinker!!!

Needless to say, the supervisor just took our words for how Milo is progressing. And she seems pleased. Woo! She'd like us to work on putting 2-word-sentences together. Miss L did say that most kids need to have a good 50-word vocabulary they're using pretty consistently before they begin putting 2 words together. Unfortunately, Milo just isn't there quite yet. But we'll keep working!

Also, Milo's really good at imitating. He'll usually try to repeat words you ask him to say (not always well, or distinguishable, but at least he's trying). Miss L would also like us to work on getting him to use the words he does know spontaneously, without our prompting. Hmmm. So, we're supposed to "wait him out." Ask if he wants something, and wait for him to answer before getting it. In other words, try to discourage the really annoying "pointing & grunting." :)