When he's feeling a bit precocious, he wrinkles his nose, borderline grunts, and slowly back ups with his little feet. He has a dozen predominant expressions, but they mostly involved a wrinkled up nose and showing his chicklet front teeth. He giggles from the depth of his bloated belly.
He's an explorer and definitely finds whatever is not child-proofed in our house. When Brian or I leaves the front door, he's quick to poke his head behind the curtains and blinds to see us walk down our stairs and toward the garage.
He's in the 1% in weight and 0.33% in height, but generally really healthy. He's wearing 18-24 month clothes. He's learned to say "momma" - which he was calling both Brian and I for over a week, "daddy" - which he's still learning is Brian, and "bye-bye" - which he learned from his V-tech toolbox thanks to Auntie Melissa and Uncle Brian. We think he's really smart because of how much he observes the world around him with his massive brown eyes. We can tell he's really beginning to understand English too. His frustration communicating is ever-so-slightly less and less every day.
He loves chomping massive bites of banana. Milk is not his friend. He's a trooper of an eater, and has done really well learning new foods and experimenting with non-Ethiopian food. Today, he pooped on the toilet for the first time. It was the highlight of my day. One less diaper to change and we're on the way to potty training!
He's definitely grieving. We're handling 4-8 tantrums of varying intensity every day. Nap time and bed time can be tearful and scary for him. We're learning how to love him through those and help him grieve. He's learning how to be loved through those tantrums.
He's a cuddler and lover. He's just started kissing me, daddy, and his little sister on the lips. Melt my heart! After a tantrum he wants to be held like a baby [very common for adoptive toddlers]. When he wakes up in the morning around 5:00-5:30 [!!!!] he comes into bed with Brian and me. He likes to sleep perpendicular in bed and always has at least 1 appendage on Brian and me. He prefers that one of our appendages is touching him, too.
He loves, loves, loves bath-time, especially splashing momma and daddy. He's not afraid of water in his eyes, in fact it's almost a game. He loves his sister most of the time and tolerates her the other times. He particularly is annoyed with her when she tries to climb all over him and incapacitates him from moving at will.
He's totally a boy. He's into kicking anything on the ground, sister included, throwing balls and blocks, figuring out how things work, and he's already into the Chicago Bears and Fighting Illini.
