One week later (Tim's random musings) part 2

Alright, let's keep going shall we?

More random thoughts / observations, in no logical format:

Love communicates without using Mandarin, English, Wu dialect, etc.

My wife is awesome!

Jaden loves to laugh.

One of the things that we had been worried about was figuring out what in the world Jaden would eat.  His first meal with us was dinner and we went to a buffet so he could pick out what he wanted ... he wanted everything.  I thought to myself that there was no way he would eat all of the various foods he picked, but he did.  This continued for the next 2-3 days.  But since then he has started changing his eating habits.  He will shake his head no now for certain foods on the buffet, and if he has something on his plate that he decides he does not want then he won't eat it.  The first few meals we figured out that we had to get smaller portions because if it was on his plate he was going to eat all of it!

Part of this new eating approach is due to the fact that he now realizes that he has some choice in what he eats, but I suspect that the other part is due to the fact that if he did not eat a meal in the orphanage then he was out of luck until the next time they planned to give food.  Sorry Charlie, no access to on-demand snacks there.

One of the huge issues for many many orphanage kids when they join their forever family is related to food, and because of this most families make food available at all times until the children know that they are not going to go hungry.  For some kids this is a lifelong issue.  (There was a famous actor who had an impoverished childhood who, even after making it big in the movies and being a star, always carried a candy bar in his suitcoat pocket so he would never be without access to food.)

Anyway, this "always have snacks available" philosophy goes contrary to how we approached food with our kids because we wanted to enforce healthy-ish mealtimes, but we are sticking with the plan and will modify slowly over time as Jaden realizes that he never has to go hungry again.

Jaden has lots of energy!  No matter how long the day is or how much walking we do, or whether he gets tired for a while, he always bounces back with enthusiasm ... he loves to do a run-skip gait and when he can't get us to go fast he swings his arms and legs like a toy soldier doing a military march (controlled, pretty military march I might add)

Love wins

He has a mischievous look when he is testing boundaries ... he will get a grin on his face and look at you from the corner of his eyes.  But he (almost) always takes re-direction well.

I am older than I was when my first two children were three.
I act younger than I did 2 weeks ago.

Jaden likes to run / laugh / skip / spin me in circles.  He likes to go up and down escalators.  He likes to walk up and down stairs and tries to take each step up with alternating feet, no matter how big the step might be.  He likes to take a jump down from the last step.

He can say more and more words in English every day.

He was scared when we went for his medical appointment, and ecstatic when we came back to the hotel room that day ... I think he expected to go for another surgery, having had two previously when going to a medical clinic.

Jaden likes to share ... food, snacks, toys.

Adopted children are drawn to people who speak their language.  I wish I had known that he would understand so much Mandarin ... I would have spent more time on language that would help us communicate with him and less time learning how to order Roasted Duck, learning how to say the days of the week, or learning how to say that I am an American.

Love wins

God is good.

I am going to regret not being able to sleep tonight when Jaden wakes in a few hours and wants full attention for another (glorious) day