2 Months Home

Gyunay loves putting on his sister's shoes, including these rain boots.


It's hard to believe that it's been two months since we brought Gyunay home.   He has done so well that it feels like he has been here much longer.  I read tons of adoption and attachment books, and we readied ourselves for the worst, but this happy little guy has adjusted remarkably well.  We have started bringing him out in public more, like to church and Walmart, and he consistently shows that he knows he is with us, part of our group.  He "checks in" with me visually throughout the day, and he is appropriately shy when he meets someone new.  He's doing better about the shoes issue, and although baths are still hard, they are somewhat better, too.  (At least, he seems very unhappy rather than just terrified.)  He has some "orphanage" behaviors, but nothing too severe.  We have had some feeding/sleeping issues, but really, he is doing so well.  I know that he may have some rough times in the future, but I am confident that we can work through them together.  The older kids adore him, and although Lydia had a hard adjustment to not being the "tiniest and youngest," all of them now get along like your average siblings.  We still have reminders of how little Gyunay knows of the world, and how often things are "firsts" for him.  He is starting to say a few words besides Mama and Dada: Elijah, car, tickle, choo-choo, poop, diaper, hi, bye-bye, nigh-nigh (for goodnight). (And once he said "cuddle" as plain as day, but never since.)  He says "buh" for many things, including ball, bus, bird, baby.  He makes a "guh" sound with the dog, probably an attempt at either dog or good, since we often say "good dog" when we pet Katie together.  He does the sign for "eat".  He also makes the cutest sound for "squirrel."   He also has a tendency to say buh or da for anything in general, whether it starts with those sounds or not.  We have a therapist coming to do his evaluation for speech and other therapies this week, so we are hoping to help him make some progress with the help of some good people. 

As far as his physical abilities, he is really quite amazing.  He loves to tuck small objects under his little arm.  He has good dexterity with his fingers.  He has made adjustments to do whatever he wants to do with just the one arm, and some of his solutions are quite creative.  We have introduced him to stairs, and we have been working with him on going up and down.  He had no fear of stairs, so he just pitched himself rather head first down them, and if we had not been there to catch him, it would have been really scary.  Now, he does fairly well going up stairs while holding either a hand or rail.  Going down is still a little scary, even while holding on to him, but it is improving. 

His overall health has been good.  His lungs look good, which was a relief due to issues he had at birth.  We've almost got him caught up on immunizations, too.  He's a very busy and affectionate toddler, and we couldn't be more in love with him!