Happy Birthday Cortney!

We get silly face picture from Taylor and he likes to make them too and send them to her.  Unfortunately, all the silly faces looks the same.  He tries hard and is very serious about it so we play along and applaud at his talent.

We are all dressed up and headed out to have Korean BBQ for Cortney's birthday.  Joseph picked out Cortney's present and help wrap it.  He is proudly holding it.

Sister Taylor couldn't make the celebration so she send her sad face picture!

We had fun seeing Joseph get excited.  He is always so glad to see his brother and sister.

Joseph picked out Dora fruit chews for Cortney's present, he helped her open it and held it for her all night.

He loves the candle part of the birthday.

There was a beautiful garden outside the restaurant so we took some pictures.  The weather and the lighting was perfect.

Mark operates the cameras at our church and this past Sunday he got to go back in the media room between services.  Joseph enjoyed sitting behind a camera with the headset on.

We did lots of fun stuff this week.  Magic show on Monday.

Kiddie Acres on Wednesday with Cortney.

We found a great pool on Friday (no pictures) with lots of fun slides he can ride.  He loves the water and is fearless of the water, I have to watch him like a hawk.   He is continuing his therapy 3 times a week and he is making good progress.  He likes his therapist Andee a lot, she makes therapy fun.

We got ice-cream after therapy.  I go through the drive-through at Mc Donald...I know I will have a mess to clean up but I am making memories and he gets to learn how to eat melting ice-cream and try to stay clean.  He hates getting dirty more than anything.  I doubt it if he will want to eat ice-cream in a cone for a while.

What we do for our kids!!!

Mark pulled Joseph shirt over his head to be silly when he at the potty and now he wants to do it all the time.  I gave him a book to make the process quicker.  I love the picture.

My face-painting skills are getting better.

We got Joseph a bike and a helmet with his Birthday money from his Grandpa.  He cannot pedal but with his new brace on his legs, his feet reaches the pedals.  Even though we have to push him on his bike, he is getting a good core workout and learn to balance.  He only had his brace got few days and is having a hard time with them but we are already seeing improvements.

Watermelon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Joseph loves watermelon and somedays it is all he will eat. 

But we are making small progress.  He ate a sandwich this week.  I tried the white bread with no crust since it was the plainest.  He ate the sandwich but he didn't seem to like it too much.  He loves ketchup and he dipped his sandwich in it.  he actually ate more ketchup than the sandwich.

I left Joseph for the first time since he became our son.  I went to a friends birthday party for a couple of hours.  I was hesitant but thought it would be good to get dressed up for a change.  I was little upset Joseph did not seem to mind me leaving :(

Cortney and Eli taught a Kindergarden class at Church this past Sunday so we decided to leave Joseph in their class and attend Church.  It was so nice to be back at Church, I missed it so much.  I knew Joseph would be ok, he loves Cortney and Eli.

Funny story!  Joseph likes to open junk mail for us.  He found a car brochure and enjoyed looking through it.  Anytime he see something he likes, he says it is his.  He told us it was his big car.  After Cortney and Eli left our house on Sunday we asked if he wanted to go ride his car.  He got so excited he stated to put his shoes on.  But when we headed to the back yard, he was headed to the garage.  He thought we were going to get him a Lincoln Navigator!  We thought it was funny but Joseph didn't think so.  We felt really bad for him...he cried and he rarely cries.  We told him he had to get his drivers license before he can get a big car and it seemed to satisfy him a little.  Very little.

We had so much rain this week, much needed rain!  I took him to Chick-fil-A late morning hoping to miss the crowd so Joseph can play alone at the indoor playscape.  Playscape gets too overwhelming with kids running around when Joseph can only crawl around.  He played by himself for a little while when these two, Caroline and Bubba came in to play.   They were so sweet to play with him, I noticed that girls are very maternal and want to take care of Joseph.  Joseph was happy to have a friend.

I wanted to mention that we still call him by his Chinese name Duo-Duo but for pronunciation purposes I introduced him to his new friends as Joseph.  I explained to him his Chinese name is Duo-Duo and his American name is Joseph.  Caroline used his name so much, Joseph will answer to it now.

I'm learning a lot from Joseph's therapy sessions on what we can do at home to work with him.  A friend gave us pots and pans and play foods and it is perfect for his fine motor skills.  It is a great way to play and learn all the names of fruits and vegetables too.  The dishes were a little dirty so he wanted to wash them.  Him leaning over like this is good for his core strengthening.  Because of his spasticity, his body automatically want to lean back so it takes effort for him to lean forward.  I am learning to change Joseph's posture and repositioning him as he play is therapy.

Towel as a cape!!!  He is a Super Hero.

Houdini in the making?  I have to admit, I wanted to immobilize him for a while.  I wrapped him up like a burrito with his arms by his side.  He gave me a pretty good show.

We went to Austin Children's Museum today.  Very crowded, but we made the best of it.  Kids can be rude and down right mean.  The kitchen had some cool gadgets and whatever Joseph was playing with was taken by other kids.  Oh well, I guess mean kids grow up to be mean adults.  This world is full of them.

We tried to find places with few kids as possible so he can play without getting knock over.  The nuts and bolts were in different shapes that went in the appropriate hole.  They drop down to the first floor and from the first floor they are sent back up through a shoot.

From these pictures, he seems to stand up effortlessly but it is very hard for him to stand.  It is so hard for me to see him struggle to get his legs and feet straight so he can stand up.  He knows it is important to stand and stretch/strengthen his muscles.   He is such a champ.

He was able to stand and grab the rails and go up this slide by himself.  I was a proud momma!

His braces for his legs will be in next week.  Yeah!  But I know it will not be fun for Joseph.  Joseph also goes in for his MRI on Thursday morning.  He will be sedated so I am asking for prayer for a safe anesthesia.  

I thank God I can be Joseph's mom, it is hard to believe I can love someone so much.