Six Months

As of today, six months have passed since we first met our son, Wei-Che!  Six months.....

Wow, so much has happened and so much of our lives- as individuals and as a family- has changed in these 6 months!  Every day there is something new, sometimes many new things, we get to experience together!  The bonds that have formed between Sammy Wei and each of us are so strong.  To see that my two sweet dumplings have truly become siblings and the love between them is so wonderful.

So I thought I would write down some of the things I want to remember about my precious son, now that we've known each other for 6 months.

Let's see...some of his likes is a great place to start!

• He loves to play chase, even if you just stay in one place and he runs to you!  As long as you "catch" him he will giggle with glee!
• He craves eye contact and can get into a fit of happy giggles just looking into your eyes.   He likes to look intently into my eyes when he's sleepy, when he's eating, when he wants to play...whenever!
• He is a great eater, and really enjoys both eating and watching others eat.  Mealtimes are always fun and have been great times for bonding.  His favorite foods are mac n' cheese, applesauce, bananas, cheese of any kind, yogurt, lox....well almost anything!
• He is a cuddle bunny and loves to get all snuggled up on you.  He can cuddle as long as you want to hold him some days!  And he doesn't just sit in your lap or allow himself to be held, he conforms to your body and snuggles right in.  Ahh, so nice!
• He so enjoys copying us and is a master imitator.  He will copy actions, noises and facial expressions-  then you do it, and then he does it.  It gives him great joy to play this game back and forth!
• He likes to topple everything.  Nothing should remain on a shelf or in a row around him.  It gives him such pleasure to be "the destructor" as he's known in these parts!  Boys sure are different than girls!  (But...he is a great cleaner uper too and will help put away anything if you sing the "cleanup song"!)
• He love, love, loves to dance! A phone ringing, a commercial with a jingle, a toy that has a song, me singing....all can make the boy break out the groovy moves!  And he started "singing" as well this week, so I guess he just loves music!
• He loves electronics and toothbrushes.  These trump any toy you can give him.  He wants the TV remote, the Wii remote, computer mouse, phone, clock radio...just to use or to carry around.  He delights in changing TV channels or making the phone light up.  And hide your toothbrush, he will take off with it before you know he has it!  He likes to sit on the counter while I brush my teeth in the morning and choose his brush to carry around.

And some things I've learned of his personality...

• Well, he is determined.  Very determined- when he wants something or wants to do something he is hard, impossible really, to persuade into a different direction.  He sure knows exactly what he wants and will find a way to get it.  With this comes this amazing curiosity and a need to explore cause and effect.  He will be the child/adult that takes it apart (whatever "it" may be at the moment) to see just how it all works. 
• Sammy has a very sweet and loving personality and is quite a social butterfly.  He is always ready to give huge hugs and cuddles.  He greets me with loud hoots of delight anytime I come back into the room or he finds me in another room.  Even when he's keeping me chasing him he is a true joy to be around.
• He's not an "easy baby".  He is always challenging.  But that's okay, because the rewards in the amount of love and affection he gives back are so worth it.  He is as his name says - Wei meaning great, mighty; Che meaning wise, sagacious, philosophy.  I know he will grow up to be a fair but strong willed adult, it is in his personality now!
• He develops deep and strong attachments and likes to be close to people.  He is very attached to us as his family, and to the people he sees on a regular basis.  He really knows who Mama, Dada and Sissy are and is happiest when we are all in the room together. 
• He is a constant contradiction of personalities.  He can be so very serious when he first meets a new person, or he can climb up into the lap of a stranger at Cr*cker Barrell -just depends on the mood of the moment.  He can sit in the cart sweetly and silently or decide to roam the store greeting everyone with a gleeful wave and smile -just depends on the mood of the moment.  He can sit through story time somber and unsmiling or he can go to each parent in the room with a big grin and a wave to the other kiddos -just depends on the mood of the moment.  I must say though, this outgoing Sammy Wei is being seen more and more often these days.  His giggles fill the house now almost constantly where two months ago it took serious prodding to get a laugh.  He smiles almost constantly and seems to be happy.
• Sammy is very vocal.  He doesn't have a big vocabulary with actual words but "chats" non-stop still.  His favorite word is "hot" and he finds anything he can to say it- someones coffee, the deck when the sun is on it, a car tire..anything just to say it.  He also says cold, up, down, dog, uh oh and of course Mama and Dada.  Oh and "Casey" (sounds like a real hard C followed by eeee "CCCCeee" - and Casey is one of the horses next door to the house) Now all of these are pretty open to interpretation, the only reason we say he is saying these words is because he consistently uses the same noises in connection with the object or act.

So these are the things I want to remember about my baby, 14 months old now and growing every day!  Six months ago we had no idea the amazing amounts of joy and completeness we would feel with this little guy in our lives.  Our hearts have swelled with love for him and we know that life is as it was always meant to be.

Six months ago I also had fears and doubts about how a new child would effect Simone and I am more than thrilled to say she is a great big sister.  A typical big sis, oh yes....we have a few of those moments here and there but overall she has been a wonderful helper and has grown so much in the last 6 months.

This was all so worth the wait and the journey to Samuel!  And I look forward to all that will come in the next six months and beyond, with these awesome kids of mine!
J