Day 10 - June 9, 2007

First - I managed to get a peek at our blog, and noticed that one of the pictures from yesterday's SWI visit was covered up. That is fixed.

Todd peeked around the corner today and said to me, "You know, this whole adoption thing is like experiencing parenthood at a super accellerated speed. In just 5 days we have experienced EVERYTHING! Ohhh, his first smile! His first crawl! His first bottle! His first solids! His first . . . " It is so true. Everyday Micah makes a few more steps toward being a normal little boy in a family that is crazy about him.

Micah discovered syrup this morning while Todd was eating French toast. It is this wonderfully sticky stuff that makes things stick to your fingers. He hasn't discovered that it tastes good yet. That will be tomorrow's task :)

For those of you who are wondering - yes, he does still have a fever, but it responds well to Tylenol. I called the doc back in the States, and she said it sounds viral at this point, but if I decide to start giving him the antibiotics, that would be fine too. As the day went on, he developed gunkies from his nose, so I did start the meds around dinner time. He only drank 2 bottles today. Hopefully the meds will help him feel better so he can eat more tomorrow.

Today's activity was the Guangzhou Zoo - a very quick trip since Micah wasn't feeing well. The landscaping was gorgeous! It's very tropical here, and the plantlife sure reflects it. Todd and I had a ball looking at all of the animals. It took Micah a while to figure the whole thing out. Most of his life has been spent focusing on his fingers or other things close to him. It takes quite an effort to get him to focus away from his immediate area. Luckily, the zoo seemed to have plenty of opportunities for him to look around. For the most part, he just chilled out in Todd's or my arms, or hung out in the stroller. One of my favorite displays was the gold-fish area. They had tank after tank of really exotic looking goldfish - some of them even looked human - hee hee. Sofia, I managed to get a picture of the panda, although not a good one. It was pretty far away.


By far the best display was the monkeys. For a very very small fee (roughly $1), you could go down into the enclosure and feed the monkeys. Todd, being Todd, opted to do it. We thought he would just go down and hand out the food, but NOOOOOO, the caretakers set you up so that the monkey climb all over you. He had so much fun that I just had to follow suit. I can't believe how SOFT and light those little guys are. They must have liked me because one of them sat down and started to groom my hair. I'm pretty sure he didn't find anything living on my head - I hope.


Micah's big discovery/first event today was the discovery that eating can be a good thing. Todd force fed him a Gerber puff thingy (new invention since our other kids were small - they just melt in your mouth). I wish I had been able to take a picture of his face - yuck! Then, he stopped and thought about it, looked down at the others in Todd's hand (he had been pushing them around on Todd's hand for about 5 minutes), grabbed Daddy's hand and SHOVED it into his face. He couldn't get enough of them! We aren't going to push him to feed himself yet. According the the attachment info I have read, it is a good thing to feed him for a while until it is firmly established in his mind that we are his providers - food, love, comfort, safety, etc. His new discovery seemed to transfer to dinner time. Previously, he has just sat on our laps and watched his fingers with an occasional glance around the room during meal time. If we would try to put something in his hand, he would pull it away. Tonight, however, he became a little octopus! He started by grabbing one of Todd's chopsticks. He looked at it, waved it around, twirled it, touched it. Then he grabbed another one - two fisted! When Todd started to eat, he tried to grab the food as it went into Todd's mouth. The plate provided endless entertainment. Did you know that if you lift up a plate and drop it onto a table it makes noise? At one point he was holding a Gerber puff in one hand, the plate in the other, and looking at the food going into Todd's mouth. Multi-tasking!! And a huge step forward. I never thought I would be so happy to have one of my kids break a plate :)

I am also posting a picture of the lobby of the White Swan Hotel and the requisite picture of Micah sleeping.