Learning about my baby..

Today, we turned a corner.  The past few days have been great, but I could not shake the feeling like I was second best, a temporary fill in that didn't know how to do anything the same as the nannies.  Someone from my China Adoption group put it as, "In the beginning, I felt like a babysitter."  Today, we finally had a chance to lay low in the hotel and we saw a whole new Ben. 

First, I realized that when he is cranky, he tends to be tired.  I was told he took 1 one hour nap.   It looks like that will not be the case here.  The first nap of the day was at 9:30am, mid diaper change! Literally, I had his pants half on and he was conked out.  I just left them that way and put a blanket on him. 

Otherwise, he has just blossomed today.  For the first time, I swayed him to the music of his toy and he smiled and swayed with me.  He also started hitting his chest in a fun way and cracked up when we mimicked him.  On top of that, he does this hilarious thing where he balls up his fists and holds them by his stomach and grunts.  We called it his "brave" pose, because Yong means brave.  But my personal favorite, the one that finally made me feel "mom" was his snuggles.  He loves to crawl or take a few steps to me and then touch our heads together, then bury his head in my chest. Oh my love. He wants to be held whenever he is bored or tired.  He loves to play with Tom, but gets clingy for me to hold him.  We've read that its normal for kids to attach more strongly to one parent first, so we are just handling the mom clingyness for now. 

He is also such a comedian.  When he realizes he did something funny, he will keep right on coming it for more laughs:

Yes, that is the hotel room key in his mouth.  In our photos from day 1, he is on a sweet little blanket on the floor.  Today, he is everywhere!  I am almost out of boogie wipes, hand wipes, sanitizing wipes, everything!  I just cannot keep up with all our trips to government offices and rides in unfamiliar transportation.  Yesterday he came down with a little cough, as did another kid in our group.  Another one got a mild case of pinkeye.  So many new germs for the kids, and going so many places the first few days, in seemed inevitable, but I am just hoping our little cough stays little.  We trying to have him drink lots of fluids, get rest, and I spent 30 minutes playing with him in the steamy bathroom. Fingers crossed it passes soon!

Meanwhile, we had a few crabby moments.  This is when I broke down and found some Chinese cartoons to stop some tears, and yes, we are about 12 inches from the T.V.  We only watched for about 5 minutes until he was bored anyway.  We also should have brought a life time supply of puffs:

But the few crabby moments are so worth these ones:

This is a smile, its a little crooked due to his cleft scar!

Interestingly, our hotel is decorated for Christmas.  There is a tree out front, a big tree in the lobby, a large wreath on the front of the hotel with a rudolph in the middle, and in the restaurant, they also play Christmas music! It is kind of hard for me to miss all that back in the states, so the music is kind of nice to have- it's the good stuff too, Bing Crosby and all the other favorites.  It also plays by default when you turn on the TV on in your hotel room.  Today Ben had clicked it on, and when "Silent Night" came on, I just lost it.  Here was my darling boy smiling up at me, and I didn't have the words to say in thankfulness   That goodness God can read my mind and heart.  Our first mass at home with Ben will be Christmas mass, and while Jesus was the greatest gift sent by God, I cannot help but think our son is a close second. Happy Advent!