Rex - Twenty-Nine Weeks Home

Thursday marked thirty-one weeks out of the orphanage and twenty-nine weeks home for Rex.

The last two weeks have been pretty quiet. Rex’s focus has been on communication. He has been signing eat for months and now has added music and swing to his repertoire in quick succession. He uses both signs pretty accurately, independently and reliably. Rex is also imitating the signs for on, shoes, and tickle though he still isn’t always sure when they’re appropriately used. In addition, we are hearing some spontaneous verbalizations for ball and bubble. All of Rex’s therapists are very excited about this development as are we. Rex is now able to respond correctly to some short commands, such as “go get…”, “come here”, and “let’s go.” When we met with a communication/speech expert this week to discuss and test some communication devices for Rex, she noted that Rex has very good receptive language - finally someone who agrees with me on that matter.

In other developmental areas, Rex has been working on puzzles. He can take big pieces out and also put them back in though he sometimes needs a little help figuring out where each piece should go. He very easily locates hidden objects and when applying the right focus, can even find an object hidden under one of two cups with the cups being switched around. I hope he never runs into a hustler on the street doing that game.

It seems that we have merged into a new stage of behavior with Rex as of late. When he was newly adopted, many of his poor behaviors like raging and hitting himself were related to his inability to process sensory input and his lack of communication skills. Now that he has made so much progress in both areas, his tantrums are more like those of a typical toddler though probably a bit more intense. He is trying to assert his autonomy and get his way, so Craig and I are entering the territory of having to set firm and consistent boundaries for our little boy. He doesn’t like it one bit, but that’s part of love, too.

Rex’s scab from the new, accident-induced lip stitches finally fell off and the repair looks very good. His plastic surgeon said that we should know in about a year how much of a scar will remain, if any. He also mentioned that Rex’s initial cleft lip repair in Armenia was done in a very outdated manner, so it will be a surgical challenge when the time comes for his lip and nose revision. But I’ll worry about that later.

Not much else new, so I’ll leave you with a photo of my two favorite guys: