Big boy pants...

A baseball hat like Daddy!

             Hello everyone, I'm sure you all are getting spring fever as much as we are!  Poor Kai probably thinks his new home will never be warm and sunny.  We have just been moseying along.  Nothing really exciting or momentous.  I told Reuben the other day that I kind of feel like all the huge initial progress things are sorta over and we are going to get used to celebrating the small things. Like for example one of the things I'm  very used to with working in health care and with developmentally disabled people is giving choices.  This was always stressed so much and I love the concept.  Our social worker too has mentioned letting Kai control the things that aren't a big deal so he won't feel the need to control things we don't want him to.  Problem is, I don't know if it's the language barrier or if the notion of actually being given a choice is just so foreign but Kai will not choose between two things. ME- Kai, do you want milk or water?? KAI- Milk or water.  ME- No but do you want MILK or WATER??  KAI- Milk or water.  UGHHH!  Its kind of frustrating.  But this is one of those little things.  The other night I asked him at a restaurant if he wanted chicken or a hot dog.  He said " hot dog"  Wow!  I could have cheered.  Much easier than me guessing and him not eating it:) Today choice making was not as great but I see a light at the end of the tunnel. 

No caption needed:)

 Probably the biggest thing that has happened at the Miller house is pictured above.  Yes Kai is officially potty trained!  The reason it is not considered momentous is simply because it was incredibly easy!  Day one we had two accidents.  Day two one accident.  And none since.  I'm really not that good, I chalk it up to him being trained before, and regressing.  He still wears a diaper at night and naps, I'm not going to push that because I don't even want to consider waking him up in the night to go potty and having to try to get him back to sleep in his own bed. I know, selfish:)  Speaking of his own bed he has been doing pretty good with it.  We had a few nights of crying here and there but as of now things are going pretty well.

Kai loves to help Momma in the kitchen!  He has a mouthful of our healthy raw cookies

I told Reuben that this spring he is going to have to make it a point to do some manly things with Kai.  It makes me laugh how at the tender age of three he has no concept of gender specific things.  His favorite color seems to be pink.  yep.  He carries around a pink rhino.  Picks out pink balls etc.  He loves to help momma do whatever momma does.  I threw around the idea of getting him an apron but then thought, you know somethings I just wanna save for a daughter:)  So in general things are going well.  We have been home for three months now.  I do feel like the last couple weeks he was struggling somehow emotionally, the crying at night, seeming a little more grouchy at home and at Grandma's house, maybe a tad dramatic.  Nothing severe, just a little something under the surface.  Maybe the finality of it all hit him?  I was thinking that we really haven't had him that long at all, and then I though about when I was a kid, summer vacation was less than three months long.  And it lasted FOREVER!  Time went so much slower.  So to Kai, it probably seems like he has been with us such a long time, I like that.  I still struggle some days, patience doesn't come naturally to me.  I'm still adjusting, I still feel like I'm playing house at times.  But time heals everything, and with God's help I know I can do better and better to be the Mom this little guy deserves!

Life...

  Sorry Guys no pictures today since I'm posting from work but I just wanted to just let everyone one know how Kai is doing!  Well wednesday of last week he ended up with the stomach flu, ya no fun at all.  The poor guy felt horrible but I'm happy to say he is a very responsible puker:)  Awesome for me as many of you know I have a puke phobia like no other.  It took several days for the fever to leave but we are back to good health now days.  Kai really just continues to amaze me with his adaptability.  I feel like sometimes Reuben and I maybe baby him to much or limit him in areas that maybe WE are afraid of or don't "think" he will be able to do something.  But then I think, you know what he deserves to be babied just a little bit.  He didn't have that in his life.  We recently came across some pictures online of him in the orphanage that we didn't see before, pictures of him playing with people from a company who came as a charity thing to the orphanage to play with the children and donate shoes.  That really struck me.  How soon I forget that he was an "orphan" , that he was in need of charity, donations, and attention from anyone who would give it to him.  It's hard for me to think of the little boy snug in his bed, a room full of toys, a closet full of clothes, who eats organic food everyday, and is so loved by family and friends as a child in an orphanage half way around the world. How soon he feels like MY child.  What an emotional journey this has been, harder than I ever imagined by far, and it's just beginning.  Kai is just learning so many new things.  New favorite words, semi, bus, uh oh, OUCH, nope, nope, nope, hey you, and Kai-lan.  He has started imitating the dogs, crawling around, pawing at my legs and making every noise they do.  He is serious about it too, no laughing, no talking, duh, dogs don't laugh or talk.  He still loves his bath and loves his "show" Kai-lan.  He can help a lot in dressing himself and I think he could actually do it himself but he is so headstrong.  This is the biggy though.  Guess who has slept in his own room, in his own bed, all the way through the night with not even a whimper??  Yep, my boy:)  I am so thrilled!  This is one of those things that I think Reuben and I where more scared of than he was.  He truly loves going to Grandma's house while I'm at work and was very ready to go yesterday after being cooped up in the house sick for four or five days.  New things we are planning on working on:  Continue with manners(does anyone know my husband?  I think I'll work on his too. ha), language, and POTTY TRAINING!  We where assured over and over in China that he is toilet trained yet he is not.  That is why we want to work on it soon, We feel like he really does know when he has to go but due to the trauma of everything has just regressed a little, ok a lot in that department.  So we just keep at it and I see big boy undies in Kai's near future!  Please just keep praying for our adjustment, kai's, but ours too.  This is one of those things that is new everyday, and everyday is a journey in itself:)