Back in Durango

Hello to everyone!  The travel back home was pretty hard on Leaf.  He caught a flu on the airplane and dropped quite a bit of weight (we've been very worried about him). However, now that he's recovering, his stomach and digestive issues seem to be better than before.  (Those little stem cells are sneaky, I'm never sure what they are up too.)  

The last few days Leaf has been extremely verbal - he's trying to imitate more and more sounds.  He especially likes the rooster crow sound on the new Christmas toy he received from grand-mommy Joyce. He has never been a silent kid, but the stem cells seemed to jump start him into trying out more sounds.  Leaf is VERY happy to be going to his little preschool again.  He had a fantastic day yesterday.  The report from his teachers was that he was laughing and talkative all day.  A few days ago in the doctor's waiting room I was holding Leaf close in my arms.  I noticed for the first time that he was watching my mouth.  So naturally, I slowly mouthed all of the little sounds babies make while he continued to watch.  It was fun for me to know that he could see that. 

Leaf is still fairly shy to use his vision - he didn't like using his light box when we first got home. He rubbed his eyes and acted like it was overly bright, but he is adjusting.  The vision therapist said that he is visually attending more quickly and more often. She was excited to hear that Leaf was clapping and that he could look at his hands.  She knew that before our trip to China that he wasn't able to see his hands.  

Just now I set one of the Christmas  toys out on the floor for Leaf to play with, but I set it out of reach.  It's the first time I've seen him know exactly where to go to find the toy at such a distance - he simply rolled over a couple of times until he could reach it.  It was far enough away I felt that he found it with his auditory sense, even though, I was surprised and happy to see this. He usually will not leave a sitting position to find toys - he will simply feel around where it is easy to grasp things hoping the toy will be there.  Leaf's physical therapist told me several months ago that low vision kids tend to be "sitters" meaning they aren't very mobile - but I have a feeling we are in the beginnings of beating these odds.  

Today I'll be working on posting some photos of the doctors, nurses and interpreters from the hospital.  The Chinese are such wonderful people - they are very warm and caring.  I don't mean to send a negative light by exhibiting images of all the exotic foods they eat.  I actually like eel, but I don't know how to prepare it myself, and the French have always enjoyed eating frogs, so that perhaps isn't as unusual.  I found Hangzhou to be an amazing spectacle of humanity. Though we experienced our fair share of culture shock - the Chinese culture in my eyes is truly lavish and beautiful.   

The photo above is Leaf preforming his famous protest raspberries.