I cannot believe today marks one month since we have had Brayden with us. Part of me thinks "that went fast" but another part of me thinks "it seems like he has been with us much longer". This boy definitely keeps us on our toes and makes us all laugh every day. It so great to see him learning things every day. It's also great to finally feel like we are settling into a routine and he is getting use to his new life. Those first few days home were hard but I know now that the tiredness and lack of sleep made it all seem more hard than they were. Brayden struggled (and still does some) with bedtime. He does not like to be seperated at all from Bradley at night. In the hotel in China they were in the same room but not right next to each other. But since coming home he thought he had to be practically on top of Bradley. Bradley is such a trooper. For the most part he lets Brayden be where he wants to be at night. Luckily Bradley is the cuddley type. On the weekends Bradley likes to have some space and sleep by himself on the floor in our room so Kennedi volunteers to sleep in Bradley's bed next to Brayden. Problem comes when Brayden could really use to go to bed earlier but he will not go without Bradley and Bradley doesn't want to go to bed early. I am hoping we can slowly seperate their beds and he will get more comfortable sleeping on his own. Until then, we will keep doing what we're doing. Brayden has been in school since the Thursday after coming home. He was ready to go (was really bored at home all day) and has enjoyed it every day. Last week he started going to the after school program and has enjoyed that as well. His classmates were prepared by their teacher that he would be joining the class and so they were all excited and welcomed him with open arms. He had friends the first day which was a relief to Kennedi who said that showing him around was going to be "very hard on her and will make her have a bad day". Haha, that girl! Because he came in at the end of the quarter, the class was doing benchmarks and then had a week of early release due to conferences. So this is the first week he has had a "normal teaching" week. His teacher has been assessing him on where he is and he is being pulled out for ELD. He knows his letters pretty well (with the exception of a couple) and knows many of their sounds. He can do the math with the class but seems to not know what any of it means. He has a hard time counting in English passed 20 and so we are practing that as well. This has been his first week of homework and we are doing basically kindergarten work to set that foundation. It takes some convincing to get him to sit down and work on it at night but once he gets going he tries hard and is willing to work on whatever I ask him to do. He has this week been in trouble by his teacher as well as his after school teacher for not listening and making too much noise in class. He is getting way to comfortable and pushing his limits to see what he can get away with. When someone doesn't speak English it is hard to make them understand why they can't do something. Both teachers, and myself, used the translators and tried to explain to him the best we could that he cannot do that. Today was better. :)
He absolutely loves his brother and sisters and whenever they are not home he asks for them many times and wants to know when they will return. When he sees them after school he is so excited. He loves Sriracha hot sauce and puts it on anything and everything. Spaghetti, french bread, fruit, corn, etc., etc., etc.! He will eat pretty much anything and often way too much of everything. He has changed our computers to some Chinese stuff that I can't figure out how to get off. He loves computers and video games and we have had to limit his time on them. He loves riding the scooter (doesn't know how to ride a bike yet) and is really good at shooting the basketball. His favorite English words are yes, no, I don't know, good morning, okay, good night, hungry. He has facetimed his friend from his orphanage who lives in Washington and lights up when he does because he can finally talk to someone in Chinese. Seems like all they do is yell at each other but they are so excited to talk. We took him to the Fresno Fair this last weekend to see Katelyn and her pig and he wasn't too impressed with anything there. Couple weeks until Halloween and next month we are going to Disneyland so we will see what he thinks about all that. :)
Next week we visit the doctor for the first time. I'm sure we will be referred to have his hands and arm looked at. Hopefully no shots will be given at this visit. I may just request we wait on them if so.
So blessed that God chose us to be this boys parents. It is going to take some time and learning on all our parts but he fits so well into our family. Can't imagine life without him and we wouldn't have him if it weren't for many of you! Blessed.
