Good times

After a short stretch of rougher days, today has been a truly delightful day for Krassi. We've seen this pattern repeating quite a few times since he's been home. We'll have a really good week, and then a week that's much rougher for him, followed by a few days where he's obviously fully relaxed and enjoying himself, and then another stretch of days that are challenging for him.

Last night Daddy was home with just his oldest and youngest (Krassi and Rinnah) and when Reuben and I got back, we found them all lying on the living room floor together with Daddy giving Rinnah some pretty exciting airplane rides that ended with a "crash" landing on the nearby couch. After seeing Krassi eyeing things up pretty intently, with some help from me, Krassi was able to have his first "Daddy-airplane" ride, which he enjoyed even more than we had anticipated. His rides didn't end with the bounce on the couch (yet) but they always ended with a smile!

I've also been trying more "rough" play with him with seemingly positive reactions. I will sometimes lift him up above my head (not really a toss for both his sake and mine!) and have gotten a number of smiles and giggles that way. When he laughs we're often looking for other cues as to whether this is a response to stress or to pleasure, and in this case are taking his relaxed sounding coos afterwards as a sign that he's liking it. ;)

Relaxed is a good descriptor of his physical condition lately, too. Even with the rougher days that he's coming out of, we will frequently find him on the floor with his legs open in a position that he was not capable of when he came home, and we're guessing that's a result of increased movement on his part, good physical therapy twice a week and little bouts of stretching from mom throughout the day combined with him continuing to settle into his new environment. Last night after the airplane was done he was sitting in my lap for a while, and we caught this! Check out how relaxed and limber those little legs look!

Today Krassi needed a blood draw to check the levels of vitamin D that he's been supplemented with for bone health. We did eight weeks of fairly intense supplement therapy, and before we decide to continue or stop his doctor wanted to pause and see where his levels are. Thankfully Krassi has been a pretty easy poke (especially compared to Reu and Rin who have impossible to find veins!) This is the third time I've been with him through a draw, and once again, he's tense and nervous, but doesn't cry (and we have enough experience with him to know that he will cry if he is really in pain) and we didn't even get "the lip"! I still felt kind of bad doing this to him on a day when we'd been having so many good times. We had about a 15 minute wait at the clinic, and what a joy that was - just Krassi and I went, so he had my undivided attention, and he sat on my lap facing me (and Baby!) and we played "rewire the brain" (better recognized as "Krassi throws the toy on the floor, mom picks it up, repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.") I LOVE times like this, because I know it is so different from what life has taught him up to this point, and sometimes its almost like I can see the expectations in his little brain changing before my eyes as he grabs the toy and drops it with anticipation.

He is, in so many ways, a quick learner.

These posts get written in little snips as I have moments in between other tasks. ;) Just now as I was reading through to see where I was, I don't know if I had more I intended to say in that last paragraph or not! So that's what you get.

And, since another day is over now, I've had a chance to download and have a few more photos to share. Along the lines of trying new things, burning lots of calories, and just in general being happier and more relaxed, look at what Krassi did for the first time today...he got himself up to sitting in a semi-cross-legged fashion!

It's hard work for him! (You can see in his face how much concentration this is taking.)

But then look how pleased he is with himself when he's got it!

 And before supper, Daddy had a few minutes to come play and after the success that the airplane rides were last night, all of the little ones (meaning not including Owen and Leah) got a few turns, and again, Krassi was delighted - perhaps even a little more than last night because, as a quick learner, I think he remembered the good times from the night before and was able to draw on that new little memory in anticipation.

Days like this are precious. My hope, as I expressed it to Matt on our way to bring supper to his mom's, was that with time these days will become more frequent, and the rough periods will become shorter and have more space in between. We've had, so far, less than three months to build new habits, new memories, new responses with this son of ours, and are up against over 9 years of his very different past experiences, but day by day, layer upon layer, we will do our best to build a foundation of love and security that this boy can grow on.

It's nice to have good days. ;) They make it easier to get through the rough days.