Introducing Big G
After last week's post, I realized that I hadn't shared anything about his very big personality!

Well, it wasn't long after we got him that we realized HE IS HYSTERICAL. I mean, part of that is probably a bad sign, because it means he realized that he needed to charm his way into getting his needs met. But there are a lot worse ways to get your needs met! After his first few hours of being totally freaked out and withdrawn, he started laughing at everything and everyone.

He's got this epic belly laugh, and he thinks much of what we do is funny. For a few weeks he also thought it was funny when he got in trouble, but thankfully we're past that stage already. He also has a bad cold (and has had it since we picked him up), so his laugh sounds a lot like a duck call. His favorite things to laugh at are 1) his sisters, 2) his sisters being fussed at and 3) me gasping. He is extremely ticklish and will happily play tickle games with H for an hour, laughing hysterically the whole time.

He also does great impressions of H doing impressions of him, which are enjoyable for everyone. His language is pretty delayed, but he's so motivated to learn that he imitates everything we say, regardless of what language it's in. The girls are working hard with him on "Elsa," "Anna," and "pancake." His favorite way to play is to collect small things into bags or boxes and carry them around. This means he is a huge fan of our small lego collection! Building the legos is another question, but he loves collecting his favorite ones all together, first all the clear blue pieces and then all the big purple bricks and then all the red flowers. Although in the last week he has started to be able to put bricks together, so we're seeing progress!

At first he wasn't interested at all in books, but after a few weeks of seeing M permanently attached to one, he's started to want to look more. So far, he doesn't really sit through a story, unless it's Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. He always joins in on the part about "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" He loves to play with bouncy balls and calls everything shaped like a circle a ball. When we had had him for about a week, we walked by a pizza shop that had pictures of pizzas (viewed from above, it's a circle) on the windows. He excitedly called out, "Ball!" Well, we had to fix that. Now at least he calls it bread! One step at a time!
There have been some serious challenges for us in the last few weeks, but we feel so lucky to have gotten such a bundle of joy!