Joshua has now been home with us for almost 4 months and will be 18 months old in less than 2 weeks. It feels like he has always been a part of our family. I really don’t remember what life was like without him. He has been so much fun to have around and fits in so well with our family. I wondered for a long time what it would be like when we brought Joshua home. I wondered if it would just feel like I was babysitting someone else’s child for a while, but I have never felt that even from day one. I guess you can say it was love at first sight. I know Joshua was always meant to be part of our family. I don’t feel any differently towards him than I do my girls. I even forget that he didn’t start out his life in our family. It is amazing how much he has changed since we first brought him home.
When we first came home communication was a bit of a challenge because he only knew Tagalog. I quickly learned some important words in Tagalog like “stop that right now”, “are you hungry”, “are you sleepy” and a few others. Jason still speaks to him in Tagalog on occasion but I think he has already forgotten a lot and seems to be understanding English quite well. We have been teaching him american sign language to help bridge the gap between the two languages and he loves it. We have some really cute DVDs that help teach sign along with music and animations. He has learned quite a lot of signs and has even started saying some words. His first word was “no”, probably because I tend to say that one the most. Yesterday when he was watching his signing videos he learned the sign for “ball” and actually started saying it. He was so proud of himself and he has been practicing it along with the sign all day today. He has been trying to say a lot more words as he learns the signs. It is pretty cute to watch him. We have been working on animal sounds because he thinks everything says “roar” even fish.
He loves books and loves sitting in my lap to read his favorites over and over again. When he first came home he didn’t even know what a book was or that it even opened. He loves paper, especially ripping paper, and unfortunately ripped one of Breanna’s art projects from school into tiny little shreds all over the living room in just a matter of minutes. He is very fast and very busy. He recently learned how to climb and has been climbing everything to get into even more things he shouldn’t have.
We are still having issues with him having tantrums for food whenever he even thinks about food, but they are getting less and not so bad. He doesn’t throw himself backwards quite as often and he is more careful about where he lands when he does. After we first brought him home we bought an Amby Baby Hammock to sleep in but he quickly outgrew it but he sure did love bouncing that thing. We actually moved him to a toddler bed a couple weeks ago. He wasn’t happy with the change at first but now he loves his little bed. He has fallen out of it a couple times but it usually doesn’t even wake him up. He still has to have a bottle to go to sleep but we will hopefully be able to wean him off that soon.
Physically he hasn’t changed too much. He looks older to me and has a few more teeth but he weighs the same and has only grown about an inch. He is still in 12 month clothing but can wear 18 month shirts. His health has been a lot better. I have him on a really good diet and because he loves food so much, he will pretty much eat everything. When we first brought him home he wouldn’t eat anything cold or even room temperature, but that doesn’t seem to bother him at all now.
We have already had 2 visits from our social worker and have one more at the end of July and then we will be able to complete his adoption by going to court and having it finalized. Then he will officially be a Stewart and we will be able to have him blessed and go to the temple to be sealed to us. Our social worker was very impressed with how well he has adjusted and bonded with us already.
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