January Update

Chris's Quartet in Concert

Tyler Entertaining Nikolai

Baptism

January has been a good month. We had an appointment with the local craniofacial team on January 8. The appointment was kind of neat – they brought in about 12 kids and they all got their own room and then the 10 or so specialists (speech, dentist, plastic surgeon, cranio surgeon, and others) rotated around the rooms to look at all of the children. There were two other adopted kids (both from China). We were in a room across from a little boy a couple weeks older than Nik and the two boys played together. The boy’s parents were really friendly and interesting, so it was nice to have someone to talk to. Based on the appointment it looks like Nik is in good shape. His hearing is good, his speech is normal for his age, his palate is fine (despite what the pediatrician had suspected), and the cleft in his alveolus may fill in as his baby teeth come in bringing bone with them. It is possible that he will need a bone graft when he is 7, or just orthodontics, but the cranio team thought there was a chance everything would be fine too. This was all good news.

I went back to work on January 5, although with all the various appointments I have not worked a full week yet. I was really nervous going back at first, but work is really fun and I am able to leave at a reasonable time to avoid some of the traffic and get home to play with and feed Nikolai. My parents watched Nikolai this month, although he starts daycare the first week of February.

We had our first post placement visit. We were worried that the social worker would nit-pick all of our attempts at baby proofing, but she did not even take a tour of the house. She is easy to talk to and talkative (unlike us) so the meeting went well. Nik of course was charming as he is a flirt and really wanted her pen. She, like the IA pediatrician, recommends avoiding daycare. We would not choose daycare if we had a choice, but finding good in-home care is difficult and I have no idea how to start. I think Nik will be ok at daycare as he is the type to demand attention. He also likes playing with other kids. If he is not – then we will find other options.

Nikolai got his first tooth on Sunday, and another one on Monday!! He got the upper right and lower left front teeth. There will be no stopping his eating once he has teeth to bite with. Nik has started eating a variety of table foods while we continue to clear out the freezer of baby food. He has a new favorite – refried beans! Pears are still up there, though, especially the wonderful Royal Riviera pears from Harry and David that we have now.

Nikolai was baptized on Sunday. Our friends from Salisbury, MD, Chris’s mom, and Chris’s aunt came into town. They had all been planning to come to see a concert Chris’s quartet gave, so we asked the church if Nik could be baptized then as well since everyone would be in town. We had tried to get Nikolai used to the minister before hand, but he had always cried as soon as Jason picked him up. But during the service Nik did great! He was amused by the video of a waterfall on the screen above him, and really liked everyone looking at him. I on the other hand hated being in the front with everyone looking – it is strange raise such an extrovert :-). When the minister put the water on Nik’s head, he whipped around to look at the bowl of water and tried to climb down to get to it. It was great having so many people here to entertain Nik, especially our friends’ 5-year old, who was willing to push Nik around on his fire truck and generally entertain him.