So many positives

The first question everyone asks us is, "How is it going?" I can honestly say that so far life with Yikealo has been going amazingly well - much better than I had imagined that it would. This may be the "honeymoon" period that everyone talks about, but he's been making our transition into parenthood pretty easy overall. Just a few of the positives:

• He is so incredibly affectionate to us. He is constantly hugging and kissing us and saying "I love you." Yet, he's normally very stand-offish with new people, at least until he's been around them for quite some time. He did fall in love with our friend Gwen, though. He asks about her all the time, and today he named a new teddy bear "Gwen." Come to think of it, he told Jason (Gwen's husband) the other night that a picture of a bear in their photo album was "Gwen" too - hmmmmm...



• He frequently tells me that I'm beautiful - "Amama konjo!" Come on, what Mom wouldn't want to hear that?
  
• He typically listens really well to me. Not so well to David, because David is just the big new toy, but we're working on that one. We've been told that this makes perfect sense, because women have always been his authority figures.
  
• He eats almost anything that we give him. Usually, when presented with a new food, he'll look at me and ask, "Yanta no?" (It's yours?) When I say that it's his, he'll usually put on his pouty face and say, "Ah-fell-ah-gimm" (I don't want it.) Once David takes a bite and says, "Yummy!", however, Yikealo HAS to have it immediately! The only things that this hasn't worked with so far are blueberries and strawberries. He doesn't seem to care much for chocolate either - go figure.



• He's picking up a bit more English every day - just a word or two here and there - but I feel like our communication is getting better all the time. He's starting to love having us read to him, and he's begun singing a line or two from "Jesus loves me."
  
• He loves to "help" around the house. Usually it just ends up taking longer that way, but at least he likes to be with us!



• He always picks up his toys when he's finished with them and puts them back in his room.
  
• I put together a little photo album with the pictures of his birth-mom. He calls her "Mihiret," and he loves to look at it. Every time he does, though, he also wants to look at the photo album that I had sent to him at Hannah's Hope, with the pictures of us and our house. He gets delighted when he sees the photo of our home, and crows, "Yikealo's house!!" He also wanted to have photos of Ababa and Amama added to the back of the Mihiret album, and after he kisses her picture, he always has to kiss ours.

• He's so playful, and he's always making us laugh - like when he insists on jumping over every tar strip on the street during our walks.
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• He and Frankie have begun making peace. She's been sleeping on his bed while he naps. Cleo, on the other hand, still wants nothing to do with him - especially after he tried to share his cheerios with her by chasing her around the house yelling, "Kitty, na!!" (come here.) She can often be found hiding in tight spaces in order to avoid him.
• He always sleeps through the night in his own bed. Now, if only we could get him to sleep in later!