Day 11, October 15, 2009

Another day, another couple of “firsts”. Our little guy is making big strides in getting to know us. Today when the caretaker brought him out of his room and set him down, he walked straight to Michelle marking the first time anything like this happened. On previous visits we would either take him directly from the caretaker’s arms (we get a little excited so we get grabby sometimes) or the caretaker would set him down and he would stare at us like we each had two heads. Today the caretaker set him down and he immediately walked over to Michelle who scooped him up and kissed him which made him smile.

After the initial greeting, we went straight to the gym to play. His favorite item to play with today was the picture album we brought him on Trip 1 and left with him so he could look at pictures of his Forever Family. He is teething so he likes to gnaw on the plastic edges of the photo albums, but we think he also likes the pictures. He touched and pointed at the pictures a bunch, and this is when he gave us our second “first” of the day; his first laugh out loud (or LOL if you are reading the blog via text message)! He was looking at a picture of Michelle and I when he laughed, so there are two possible explanations for the laugh, either he thinks we are funny looking or he remembered that he bit Michelle yesterday and that gave him a chuckle. Whatever the reason, we were really happy to experience this “first” together. In addition to the photo album, he still liked his gator toy (being Tennessee Volunteer fans, it brings us great joy when he pushes the gator around), his Redskins football and a few items that we bring him each day. Michelle also taught him how to kick a ball, so he walked around playing soccer for awhile. He was soccer natural, so maybe we have young David Beckham on our hands. He was up walking around a lot today which tired him out pretty quickly. He was asleep in Michelle’s arms about 30 minutes before it was time for us to take him back to the caregivers, so we took turns holding him while he slept, then returned him to his room a little early so he could have snack and go down for his real nap. He was adorable sleeping in his Mommy’s arms. We can’t wait to see him tomorrow.

On the way home we stopped at a grocery store for some food for us and the little guy. We also stopped at a pharmacy where Michelle picked up some cough syrup and cough drops. She is feeling better than earlier in the week, but she still has some lingering effects of a pretty nasty ear infection. She’s a trooper though, and we are using a lot of hand sanitizers and cleaning wipes when we are with the little man.

Tomorrow we have our last visit of the week. We only have tomorrow and Monday’s visits left before we go back on Tuesday for Gotcha Day.