Next Steps

Today was Petey's (so nicknamed by Noah) hearing test that is part of three appointments evaluating his development in order to make a therapy plan, most likely for OT and speech therapy. In the following weeks, we will have two one-hour evaluations at our home where our early intervention service coordinator will assess him while he plays. The hearing test showed that he can in fact hear, which we knew but had to have confirmed as part of his evaluation. The service coordinator, however, did note that he has a concerningly short attention span. She thinks that while he can hear language, he is possibly not able to pay enough attention to language to learn to speak it. This will be evaluated further during our two upcoming evaluations.

Speaking of Petey's service coordinator, she asked me to clarify what country he is from because "he does not look Chinese." What this really means is that he does not look Han, which is the ethnic majority group that makes up at least 92% of China's population. Ironically, Matt and I have been talking about this recently because of his dark skin. There are 55 ethnic minority groups in China. Based on physical description and geography, we think it is possible that Petey has Mongolian or other ethnic minority influence. If any of you readers happens to be Chinese or is well-versed in Chinese ethnic groups, we'd love to hear your input! We are fascinated by this, simply because we are interested in anything and everything about Petey's background.

Here are some more pics of the brothers:

 

Thank you for Mickey, Aunt Sue!

~Allie

Peter's Baby Pictures!

We are so blessed that Peter's orphanage gave us a CD containing lots of photos of him during his time there. It is so amazing, heartwarming and exciting to be able to look at pictures of our little boy and see what he was like as a baby and young toddler! I am so very thankful to his orphanage staff and caregivers (one of whom is pictured) for providing us these photos. Here is a sampling of the best photos:

April 2013 (5 months old)

April 2013

August 2013

March 2014

April 2014

May 2014

July 2014

August 2014

November 2014 (LOVE the jacket!)

November 2014

January 2015

~Allie

We like to move it move it

So, we are doing two of the most stressful things a family can do...at the same time: integrating an adopted child into our family AND MOVING! Granted we are just moving 10 minutes away, but we are moving nonetheless. Not the best timing, but it is the opportunity of a lifetime that we just could not pass up. We are blessed to be moving into a house no more than a couple hundred yards from Matt's parents. We move at the end of the month and the home's location is perfect for us. In addition to the close proximity to family, the house is on a cul de sac, and we can easily walk to the neighborhood playground and pool. We are very excited about our move.

In other news, Peter has had a few promising developments. He now climbs the 14 stairs to the second story of our home on his own (with me walking behind him as a safety net, of course). Peter learned by following his big brother upstairs a few steps at a time and is now quite proud of himself each time he motors to the top.

Also, the last two times we went to the pool, Peter played with other children in the kiddie pool. The first time, Peter approached a girl his age, traded his bucket for her two containers, and they bee-bopped around in the water together. The second time, Peter similarly approached another girl around his age, traded his yellow sprinkling can for her blue one, and the two traded back and forth several times as they played with the toys in the water. It made my heart smile to see him interacting like that.

Peter is also starting to be able to follow simple instructions once in a while. It involves a lot of pointing, gesturing and repetition on my part, but over the past few days, he has succeeded in following:
Get the box.
Roll the truck.
Put the apple in the bowl.

Here are some recent photos with Peter.

Peter's first train ride:

Playing around in the kitchen:

~Allie