It has been a fun ride!

We have been home for about 6 weeks now and boy have we come a long way. Alex is learning new words every day and loving his new life in the USA! He is really a great child and I couldn't ask for anything more. When we were in the adoption process, I prayed every day that we were blessed with a child that fit perfect in our family. Well, I got what I asked for b/c he couldn't fit any better with us and the other family members. All of the grandparents, aunts, and uncles all love him to death and get great joy out of seeing him explore, learn, grow and play. He has brought so much happiness to all of us and brings more and more each day.

Now I would be lying to you if I told you that it was wonderful from day one. We had some growing pains. When we first go home, Alex had temper tantrums and tested every boundary possible. The language barrier didn't help much either. After about a week of that, we started to understand each other and things got much easier. I'm knocking on wood right now, but Alex really is a pleasure to be around and very well mannered. He is even almost potty trained. He always goes poo poo in the potty and sometimes he tells us when he needs to go pee pee. We are still working on that one.

The week that we got back we had a doctor's appointment for Alex. It was probably a little early for that b/c they had to take A TON of blood and we were not able to calm him down or comfort him since at that time he really didn't know us too well. We are glad to say that all of his blood tests came back negative. He had hearing and vision tests and he hears and sees great. He has a nystagmus in his eyes where they shake sometimes, but other than that he is in perfect health. They said at this point there is nothing we can do about the nystagmus, but if it gets worse, they can do surgery when he is about 6 years old. Some children with this get better and some get worse. We will just keep an eye on it.

Our schedule is already getting really busy. Alex has 2 b'day parties back to back to attend on Saturday and many more of those to come. He is already a popular little boy. He is just starting to play with the other children that he has been around lately. I know 2 year olds don't really play together too much, but it looks like they are starting to interact some. We try to have playdates with other children at least once a week.

OK, I have said enough in this blog. I promise to keep it up better in the future. See below for some pictures from over the past few weeks...