Baby Steps & Leaps and Bounds

Today has been a remarkable day of growth for Peter! The first two days, he could be described as listless, lethargic, passive and vacant. We had read and been told that this would be a possibility due to fear and grief because of being removed from his familiar people and surroundings. Today, he has had an awakening! Here are some of the ways he has come alive today and shown us his true self:

-He smiled multiple times today. His first two smiles this morning were in response to me tickling him, then he smiled when I came back into the hotel bedroom from the bathroom area, and finally he smiled a few times while Matt and I were playing with him this afternoon. 

-He played with little animal toys, balls and a book. His favorite thing is crumpling and tearing paper. He also crinkled empty water bottles and banged them together. 

-He used both of his hands to feed himself. He picked up little pieces of apple and put them in his mouth, instead of us having to spoon feed him.

-These first three things were things we were told he could do, but had not seen for ourselves yet, since he had regressed, which we had been told to expect at first.

-He learned to pick up his sippy cup and drink water out of it. This is new. We were told that up until now he drank from a bottle. He is now off the bottle and actually much prefers the sippy cup.

We are so thrilled to see this curious and playful side of Peter!

Yesterday and today, we did not have any appointments because we are waiting for various officials to process our paperwork, which we will pick up tomorrow. So, we further explored Jinan with Peter. Here are some photos from our walk along the city moat and around various springs where folks collect water, the most popular of which is Black Tiger Spring.

This afternoon we went swimming in the hotel pool. Peter really enjoyed splashing in the water. There are many protocols that must be followed in order to use the pool. Matt and I did our best, but we are pretty sure we inadvertently did lots of things wrong. One of the rules we knew about and made sure to follow was the requirement to wear swim caps. Even Peter thought we looked funny in them and he kept trying to pull mine off.