TEN

JiaQing has been with us for 10 crazy, interesting, fun, stressful, awesome days.

Where to begin??  Well, he's doing GREAT.  Seriously, we are amazed at his ability to adapt to COMPLETELY new surroundings.  If you flew me to China to live with some Chinese strangers, there is NO WAY.  I would be so miserable, longing for what was familiar.  He has been so easy going, so happy, and so adaptable!  Although we have certainly offered him many familiar foods, he's also been more than happy to at least try most things.  He is learning our family's routine, our habits, etc., and he seems very comfortable. 

Before tucking the kids in bed, all 5 (now 6) of us pile on our king size bed to pray.  The first couple nights he had no clue what we were doing.  Praying was very foreign to him, and soon after we started, he would just wander out of the room.  Now, he sits on the bed, folds his hands and closes his eyes.  He folds his hands before we pray at meals, too.  SO SWEET!  Although to my knowledge he has never been to a church service EVER, he did so great on Sunday.  He sat quietly with us, coloring and doing math problems.  He tried to sing, and whenever the congregation stood, he stood, too.  He's crazy smart, for sure.  He LOVED the Christmas Eve service.  Here is the video of him singing, in case you missed it on Facebook...

  He knows a lot of the words to O Come O come Emmanuel, Angels We Have Heard on High, and Jingle Bells (he STILL says "Jingo Bongs!")...just from 10 days of hearing those songs on the radio, here and there.  Amazing!  He also kept asking Chris to point out where we were in the program/bulletin.  He's very good at sitting still when he has to be.  When he does NOT have to be?  Oh. My.

The child is loud.  I mean LOUD.  When he gets excited, he is like a hurricane ripping through the house.  Chris loves it!  Not.
Last night when we were celebrating Christmas with my inlaws, he was in rare form, for sure.  He's so flippin' cute though, you just kind of have to laugh at his antics!  He took a real liking to our 15 year old nephew, and pretty much lovingly terrorized him the whole time!  Oh, sweet Nick.  He was a good sport!  Here they are, in a rare moment that JQ wasn't tackling him...

 

It's so wild to think that this was his very first Christmas.  It's no wonder he was beside himself with happiness, joy and pure craziness!  He loved it all.  Decorating and delivering Christmas cookies, gifts, the music, the stockings, the food, the Christmas tree- all of it. 

HE made this such a special Christmas for US!!

 

Our kids with their cousins, Katie and Nick

 

 

Last night after opening gifts and eating dinner at Chris's brother's house, we drove about 15 minutes to Chris's parents' house to sleepover.  He was SO cute.  There were 3 different rooms:  one for Loren, one for the boys, and one for us.  He pointed to our bed and said, "mommy?  baba?"  I said, "yes, this is where mommy and baba will sleep", and he clapped his hands and smiled.  Then, I guess to be extra sure, he went out in the hallway and asked Chris the same thing, using the translating app.  Chris told him where we were sleeping, and he clapped again.  I'm not sure if he was relieved that we weren't leaving him, or what, but it was really sweet.  Then Chris typed, "go give mommy a hug.  it will make her very happy."  So, in he runs to give me the best and biggest hug he has yet to date.  I was fighting back tears!  Hugs were COMPLETELY new to him.  It's like he'd never been hugged, and just had no idea how to receive a hug or what to do.  At first, he would either push us away entirely, or just go stiff as a board.  This was huge.  HUGE.  He also would not be comforted his first couple of days here (found that out when he slipped on our hardwood stairs and got a walnut on the back of his head.  He tried very hard not to cry, and didn't want me touching him.)

 

  On Christmas Eve, he fell eye first into the corner of Cole's bedframe.  He was bleeding, so of course I freaked.  BUT...this time he let me hold him and check out the booboo. 

That was also pretty huge.  (please don't start counting the injuries....

they really just go hand in hand with the 2 teeth he's lost!) 

 

Today when we pulled into the driveway after being gone for over 24 hours, he started clapping and laughing and saying the Mandarin word for "home."  Melt.

 

You know what I like most about him, though?  He is soooo funny.  You can totally joke around with him, and he gets it!  He even makes his own jokes!  Today Loren got her ears pierced as a belated birthday present, and I was saying "JiaQing do it!", as I pressed on his earlobes.  He was DYING laughing, saying "NOOOOOOO!"

 



He also makes hilarious faces, animal noises, etc.  Love him!!

It hasn't all been rainbows and lollipops, but honestly, we can't complain.  Even the very few times we've had to reprimand him, he is very remorseful.  He doesn't want us to be disappointed in him.
We seem to be finding our groove, and we're really enjoying him.  He seems to be enjoying us, too, and his "social butterfly" personality is a good fit for our family.  The kids love him (when he's not annoying them, of course!), and Chris and I love him, too!

Here are a few more random pics...enjoy!

These 4

Decorating Christmas Cookies

 

Reid likes having a little brother around!

Playing with their yo-yos from Aunt Karen and "Chief!"