One Month Home

We've been home one month as of yesterday. I can't really believe it, since it seems like a week and yet it's hard to remember our house without Sam in it. In the past month he's been to the doctor, tried to go to church, learned his whole alphabet, celebrated mama's birthday, had a birthday, made new friends, watched a million hours of Super Why!, charmed all of his grandparents, and stolen all of our hearts.

For any of you that our curious here is where Sam is at in the following areas:

Bonding: This is a work in progress. Sam is just starting to really believe that this is permanent. He loves when Tim and I tell him that we are his mama and papa forever, he loves when we empathize with his dislike and fear of the orphanage, he will make eye contact with us on his own but not for an extended period of time. He loves his Papa to death, literally I think it may be killing Tim. If Tim is home Sam is glued to him. Sam loves mama in a different way. If he needs something than he usually asks mama, and at bedtime it is the mama show. He is so sweet when we snuggle and he rubs my hair and gives me little kisses.

English: Also a work in progress. He learns words quickly, and understands a lot. He loves when he can use a word spontaneously and gets lots of praise for it. My favorite thing is when he says "Say thank you Sam." when he does something for you. He can count to fourteen and knows about 50 words. I may be hurting this more than helping because I let him get away with too much Russian and I speak too much Russian to him. It's easier to communicate with him in Russian but know one else can.

Here are some things that Sam is doing right now that I don't ever want to forget:

The way he sings along to everything when he doesn't know the words. My favorite is a Super Why song where Princess Presto says "S-P-E-L-L, I really love to spell." and he sings the letters with his little accent. Super cute.

The licking. Two hours with Miss Lesley's golden retriever and Sam replaced kissing with licking. Super gross but also kinda cute.

The way he says "Santa Claus" and you hear the magic in his voice. Not everyone is into Santa but I'm not going to take that magic away.

How much he loves games. Any games, board games, computer games, made up games. He fits right into our family.

The way he runs to the door when he hears the garage door open in the afternoon screaming "Papa, Papa!" Dad is totally a rockstar in this house.

Sam's favorite song is "Fe, fi, fo" which is a little song they sang on Super Why.

How he says Henri's name "Kenari"

There is more stuff I'm sure that I'm not thinking of.

Okay, here's what you came here for. Pictures from the last month!