ten months

today marks 10 months home. 

i am so so happy we are at this month marker! two reasons...

obvious reason #1:

we are only two months from a full YEAR being home. yahoo!!

not so obvious reason #2:

10 months means something more then the last 9. 

Oliver was with his (second and last) foster family for 10 months.

which means he has now been with us for the same amount of time. 

i feel like i can finally comprehend things.

 like how his foster mother must have felt saying goodbye to him. that pulls at my heart strings and i know my  feelings for him are much different then his foster mothers because she always knew he was leaving...but dang...that had to have been hard!

to see how attached he is to me and b (big smile there!) makes me truly understand his emotions and utter sadness when he first came home. it makes me tear up to think of the loss his little heart endured those first couple months. 

 it feels so good to have 10 months behind us. 

each month feels so much better then the previous one.  

thinking back to the first month Oliver was home compared to now. wow, what a huge difference! 

the biggest difference (besides the bonding) is Oliver's English. Ca-razy! his vocabulary has just exploded.

 he talks so much and remembers words so easily. 

he says 3-6 word sentences now. 

he knows his colors, shapes and can count from 1-10 without missing a number. 

he has the best manners. he says please, thank you, your welcome, excuse me, bless you and sorry. 

i love it when he says "thank you, mommy." he says it a lot but honestly it never gets old!

he knows and says all his body parts and will point to them on his stuffed animals.

he's learning his right foot from his left foot and when i put his socks and shoes on, he tries to guess which foot i'm using. he has started to zip up his clothes and loves to zip his footed pjs. he says "Yay" and claps after he's zipped them up. :)

he's learning his letters and can point out an X, C, O, M and A. 

he loves puzzles and can typically figure them out after the first try. 

he does end up getting bored with them though. 

he's started using an adult fork and does a really good job except for when he flings the fork trying to get something off of it he didn't want. ;)

 he's still using a sippy cup because he tends to knock his cup off his high chair 

at least three times per meal time. 

speaking of meals...he loves pretty much everything now. breakfast has become easier and he is open to trying new foods at least once. 

Oliver shows us so much love. 

he asks for "big hugs" from me and kisses from b. 

when b goes to work, he will stand at the door and say "bye appa" "wuv you"

when we leave the house, he will say goodbye to Ardie and will tell her he loves her as well. 

some times when he plays, he will act like he's leaving and say "bye mommy, wuv you"!

it's too sweet. 

he wants to sit on our lap if we are sitting on the sofa or on the floor with him. 

he loves when we read to him, it's very important that one of us read to him before he goes to sleep. he will ask us over and over if we are going to read a book just to make sure. 

before he goes to bed and after b has read him three board books, he will come find me. 

i scoop him up and give him the biggest hug and the best part is he has started to hug me back, super tight.  

if he gets hurt, he wants me to kiss the boo boo. 

he does have stranger danger (i think that's what we should call it) when we go places though. 

lots of people want to talk to him or say hi or just wave at him. 

he does not like this 

at. all. 

he will growl at them (have no idea where he got this from) or he will turn towards me 

and reach his arms out saying "Mommy"! 

i love how he gets super excited about certain things like food or going somewhere. 

he will say in a high pitched voice..."Yay" and "Ye-haw" 

then he claps and has this sort of nervous laugh.

it's hilarious.  

he loves when i sing a song. he will actually ask me to sing. i love it. 

i don't have a great voice and b will agree with that but it makes me so happy that my little guy loves when i sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" or "You are my Sunshine". 

he adores music and could listen to it all day long if i let him (just like his appa!). 

he loves when b plays music from his ipad. he will mimic b's dance moves too.

it's so funny to see his little body move to the music. the best is when he tries to sing to the song!

oh and he has the best laugh and when he does laugh, his whole face lights up!

it's pretty awesome. :)

Oliver does not like to be told no (most of the time..but what toddler does?) 

and will cry at the drop of a dime.

 tears, snot...the works.

luckily we have moved (way) past the screaming, throwing our body to the floor phase. phew...

he is pretty stubborn too and will occasionally show his stubborn side when he doesn't want to do something.

he still uses the word No, but not as much as he used to. thank goodness.

Oliver is our little helper. he loves to help me and b put away the groceries, paper towels, toilet paper, his diapers and wipes and more. he likes to pick out his diapers before we change him and will grab his changing pad. he does pick up his toys before nap and night night. he may not always want to but he is very proud of himself after the toys are in their baskets. he is pretty particular with how his toys are put away too and it makes this momma so happy because i am the same way!

he still is in love with all things trains and construction vehicles. 

his favorite toys right now are trains from either Thomas or Chuggington, any dump truck, digger or cement truck, big monster truck and Woody from Toy Story. 

he loves to watch a construction/fire truck video we got him for Christmas, Toy Story, Thomas the train, Chuggington or Richard Scarry's Busy Town. 

he would watch these all day long if i let him.  

for the longest time, Oliver did not like to color. it was only after visiting Santa in November did he really take an interest. i wouldn't say he's in love with coloring but he will color now and likes to have all the crayons in front of him...but if you show him stickers, he drops the crayons and wants to put stickers on paper. he LOVES him some stickers. i really need to get the boy a book!

i could go on and on but i think i will end it here... 

for now.

it's amazing how God works and to see just how perfect Oliver is with us is such an amazing feeling. 

we are so in love with our little guy. 

Happy 10 months home sweet boy!!