Eli and us

Eli continues to show us who he is as the hours go by. After the 90 minute cry and sniffles that first night and waking up crying, he's been absolutely perfect. This little guy is such a fighter and wants to learn and do everything he can. He eats well and is a solid 20 pounds. He especially likes bananas and steamed egg. He did enjoy the dumpling/meatball soup last night and yet because of his cleft lip and palate he still takes a bottle with formula mixed with rice cereal twice a day. He's starting to talk a little (babbling sounds) and will show us what he wants by grabbing our hands and moving them. He covers his eyes on his own to play peek a boo and loves it when we run with him or bounce him up and down. Such a boy is he. He loves to laugh and gets real excited. We can tell he is attached to us and yet will take some time to play on his own. No longer does he fear when we leave his sight, but he does keep a watchful eye out. On all our journeys around Nanchang he has been perfect. Doesn't whine, complain or cry. Just hangs out and takes everything in. Absolutely perfect. The best thing right now is he sleeps ALL night and 11 hours worth...we don't get that from our two daughters. He's so easy to put down for his two hour nap and bedtime, it's almost ridiculous. He whines for about a minute, but once we sing to him he closes his eyes and is asleep within 4 minutes. He really enjoys his baths and likes putting clothes on...something else he has one upped his sisters on. Finally Kim has a child who she can have fun dressing. We do need to work on his upper body strength because his arms and back are weak. He cannot crawl and being on his stomach is difficult. He enjoys sitting and pulls his legs in to scoot on his bottom across the floor. He does like to stand and walk, but cannot get up on his feet without help...even though he tries so hard. That's another great thing about him, if he can't do something he doesn't whine, he just keeps working and working and working. As you can tell we love this little guy and just feels so much apart of us and feels like he has always belonged to us.