We have learned so much about where he came from and what he knows. We paid for a documentary of his life and they actually went to his home and interviewed his remaining family. It was hard to see it all but also wonderful. Like looking a little deeper into what makes him, him. One day when he is old enough to understand we will let him watch it but for now it's only for Dad and Mom to know their son better.
This child shocks and amazes us everyday. We just found out he knows his ABCs by sight and his numbers, most of his colors, and most animals all in English. For those of you who don't understand he spoke a different language than Amharic when he came to Acicia Village in Nov 2010. So this poor child had to learn Amharic from Nov till May and now he is learning English. That's just impressive 2 new languages in 7 months!!!!
We are thinking he is ready for kindergarten if he can communicate with his teachers okay by late July. We did the first test run of leaving him with Lawson in his Sunday school class today and he did really well they said so that's the first 2 hours he's been without Mom or Dad in 2 months.
Now some things we are working on that aren't so peachy.
#1. the need to hit when Lawson or Caitlyn do something he doesn't like. Granted they almost deserve it most of the time but timeouts are always given with reinforcements of we do not hit, or kick come tell Mommy or Daddy if they are bothering you.
#2. This fake crying thing he has done since I picked him up. He has this cry that you can not tell if he's hurt or playing. 99.9% of the time when we come running he is just standing/laying/ sitting making a crying sound then he just turns and laughs. Not so funny anymore. Jim and I are now telling him not to do that cause we can never tell if something is really wrong or not. Can somebody say the boy who cried wolf?? So that's gotta stop no to mention it's like listening to a baby cry non stop it's one of those under the skin sort of sounds.
#3. English, that's what we speak here and now it's time to start to learn it. I have been tip toeing around this issue for a few weeks saying well I want him to feel comfortable, and I don't want him to loose all of his language. But when I look at him and tell him to say it in English and tell him the word he refuses sometimes and I know these are all words he already knows. I have even held up a drink and said say it in English and you can have it and he will just smile at me like I am speaking tongues even though he knows what I want him to do.
I just want him to be able to communicate with everyone else not just me.
#4. Asking for everything in the store. I made the mistake of taking all three kids with me by myself shopping. We went to 3 stores. 1st on went okay, second got a little trickier, third I wanted to run screaming from the store. between Micki, Lawson and Caitlyn I was being asked for something every 5 seconds. And with Micki he didn't care what he picked up it was always But please Mommy. And when I said no he huffed and puffed and just went to the thing beside it asking the same question. We went down the movie isle and he proceeded to pick up no lie 10-15 movies at random and each time it was but please mommy. My answer no come on. He was picking up rated r pg 13, things I wouldn't even watch and he wasn't even looking at the covers just picking and asking just to do it. so that was a bad night for me. I felt like I had ticked off all three of the kids and said no 100 times.
So those are my top 4 things we are going to work on. Nothing major just normal kid/ adoption stuff. I just hope he is really as happy as he seems all of the time. I feel he has bounded with us and is opening up more all of the time.
