First Day of Kindergarten…and other stuff

So I guess when you increase the size of your posse to five children, your blogging starts to drop off a bit, and it becomes weeks between actual posts vs. days!  Tonight, I, Mom, am sitting here typing while one is sleeping to Kidz Bop “Rotten to the Core,” two others are playing electronics and two others are fast asleep in their bunk beds along with Daddy (who’s on the floor).

Anyway….Tyler has had a busy few weeks since his entrance into the U.S.  To make sure that he is as healthy as the linebacker physique that he seems to carry, he saw the pediatrician who determined that he only had one of a series of two shots for many vaccinations in China. Not sure why that happened, but it’s not surprising due to the more scarce medical care in his province.  So we spent the first week home updating a first series of shots, much to Tyler’s dismay.  At the same time, he tested very high for lead poisoning.  The pediatrician seemed a little bit worried, but after a detailed conversation with the County nurse to confirm “no, he wasn’t eating lead paint chips from our walls and windowsills” and about his province (highly polluted and coal capital of China), again it was not unusual.  (Come to think of it, maybe that’s why he kept getting flagged for secondary screening at Airport Security?)  She felt that the lead levels should start to drop immediately upon his now being in the US, and due to the fact that he eats a lot of calcium (which is very helpful for lowering lead levels).  He’ll be re-tested again in three months, just to make sure that his levels have dropped back into more normal ranges.

Next stop was the dentist…the entire Lockhead team invaded the office one afternoon last week, with 5 appointments in 90 minutes with several staff involved!  This was yet another fun activity for a child that has likely never seen one, but he did very well at the visit and had no cavities.  His teeth are in surprisingly excellent condition, which is quite unusual for many adopted children, so we are very lucky.  Just to be on the safe side, he made sure that his siblings didn’t suffer any dire consequences while they had their own teeth cleaned and checked – he checked on them regularly in the treatment rooms.

Then this past week was the most important medical visit for his vision check.  Unfortunately, Tyler’s medical records were “less than complete” in terms of his medical diagnosis, although we have known all along that his vision was limited in some capacity.  His original diagnosis on paper didn’t seem to match what we could see when we met him, so we were glad that CHOP (he and Ryan use the same eye doctor) was able to review his eyes in-depth (assisted by three Mandarin translators, who all had problems understanding some of his northern dialect but enjoyed playing with him while he was waiting to be examined).  His doctor diagnose him with Aniridia (a genetic issue which causes him to lack an iris in either eye).  In a nutshell – he has no irises in either eye.  Since irises contract and dilate to allow the eye to control the amount of light coming in, he has no way to regulate the light.  He compensates with squinting and holding his head at particular angles (usually with his head slightly down, but eyes straight ahead). He also has Nystagmus.  These issues also cause him to be extremely near-sighted, so he was subsequently fitted with glasses similar to Ryan’s (as you can see in some of our pictures, except that Ryan’s are bifocals).  The glasses are a trial and error process, as he spent more time taking them on/off or throwing them (love those durable Miraflex frames!) this past weekend vs. wearing them.  He still really hasn’t said “wow, I can see great now” to us, but he seems to like wearing them at times to look at things more closely.  Additionally, there are some potential other genetic issues that may be present with the Aniridia, so Tyler will spend some more time at CHOP in November undergoing additional tests with a kidney specialist.  Hopefully, he’ll be given a clean bill of health in that department, post testing.

When he wasn’t visiting doctors and dentists, he was working with Charlie on more day to day routines including helping the kids get on the bus in the morning, walking Murphy around the bike path, grocery shopping, and running errands.  He has gotten much better at walking (most of the time) and isn’t a bolt of lightening racing off into another direction.

He is still learning language so he ranges from using a lot of Chinese with us (even though we don’t understand, he speaks to us like it is our second language), grunting (because everyone knows what a grunt and a hand wave means!) and picking up bits of English – tramboleen (trampoline) is one of his newest words as he LOVES our trampoline, and he has moved to Mommy and Daddy vs. Mama and Baba.  He is starting to use the kids’ names more and can say Murby (for Murphy).  He seems to understand quite a bit so he can get his shoes, go to the bathroom and pick up things from the floor when you ask him to. He also knows what “do you want to go to the brown chair” means (our time out chair) and he will yell “boo born cher” for “no brown chair.”  He loves for Kyle to carry him on his back, too, and Kyle just figured out yesterday that the term that he uses when he sees Kyle means something to the effect of “carry me on your back.”  He will also grab your hand and lead you to what he wants, like when he guides you to the snack shelf in the pantry every 20 minutes!

He is very delighted with all kinds of foods and spends many nights at dinner just laughing and laughing while he eats, as you know that meat and chicken can be hysterical.  He loves food and he loves to eat!!!  He definitely belongs to the “clean plate club” most nights of the week.  Last weekend, we all went to Benihana for Kyle’s birthday and he spent the night thanking the chef each time a piece of food came his way.  It was very funny, and the chef could not stop laughing (the chef was from Tibet and asked Tyler what his name was. It came out like “mini me” when he said it (vs. Min Min) so we were all laughing even harder.)  He is definitely a snack and dessert fiend, and a food sampler (as everyone else’s food looks very delicious too!)  We took him to Chik-Fil-A tonight and that was quite tasty for him.

He is probably one of our better sleepers, second to Kyle, although he does not like having to go to bed before Kyle and Dylan and he voices his displeasure quite loudly at times!  The first few nights home he made the rounds at bedtime to make sure everyone was in bed before he went.  He is learning to dress himself now, so he often is sporting his PJs on but backwards — not a care to him as he is satisfied that they are just on.  Yesterday, somehow, he got his underwear on over his shorts but only on one leg, so when he was in the garage, the underwear must have dropped off and the other kids were hysterical that a random piece of underwear was on the garage floor and that he was going commando.

Last weekend, due to the rain and clouds, we spent most of the weekend putting up Halloween decorations.  Those were a big hit to him.  He was outside hugging our Mickey vampire blow-up (just in case any of the neighbors wondered what was going on in the front yard!) and he loves the singing toys that we have from Hallmark, so he is constantly playing them in the living room.  Most of the kids are still deciding on what their special Halloween costume will be, although Ryan has already decided.  Tyler will probably love a night of free bags of candy, although he has never celebrated the holiday before.  We are looking forward to some of the upcoming Fall Festivals with hayrides and pumpkin picking.

Today, was one of the biggest milestone days for Tyler, as he started Kindergarten today.  When we originally met Tyler in China, we weren’t sure that he would even be able to go to Kindergarten this Fall, since he seemed to be so wild and unsettled.  However, as each day passed once he was home, he seemed more and more ready.  He is in the afternoon Kindergarten class with the amazing Mrs. D.  He has looked forward to his day for weeks as he watched the kids get on and off the bus without him every day.  Our Chinese friends from around the corner helped us to explain to him that even though he could not ride the bus with gege and jiejie (his brothers and sister) he WOULD be going to school and WOULD be riding the bus in the afternoons.

This weekend, we gave him his backpack that he wore all weekend and he packed an entire lunchbox of snacks (just in case he had a case of the munchies!)  On Tuesday morning (his first day), we let him carry his backpack out to the bus stop in the morning to see the rest of the kids off.  As we should have realized, there was a huge misunderstanding – he thought he would be getting ONTO the bus (after all he did have his backpack).  It was tough holding him back through his teams and yelling, but he was able to compose himself enough to be able to help Murphy go on his morning walk.

He’s in Afternoon Kindergarten session.  Not the most convenient, but actually better, since there are fewer children, with more time for 1-on-1 attention.  We weren’t sure how he would react when Charlie dropped him off, but he gave him a Bao (hug) and a quick bye bye (and a “see you later, get out of here, Dad, I am ready to go now!” glance) and off he went hand-in-hand with his Teacher without looking back.  He had an amazing support system at school (including his siblings who were keeping an eye out for him) and he seemed to have a fantastic day.  We are very friendly with the KG Teacher and she even sent us a few quick snapshots of Tyler in the classroom.  When we were considering adopting him, this was one of our biggest desires for him to get schooling, as he was not being educated at all in China due to his rural living and his vision issues. He has such strong desires to try and do new things and to try and experience what every other child is doing.  He’s very much like Ryan in this this way, and won’t be held back from trying new things, no matter how challenging or intimidating.   We are grateful that we are able to give him access to such a good educational experience.

The rest of us are syncing back into our normal lives.  I went back to work last Monday after a five week leave; Kyle and Dylan are playing in the band and orchestra; Kyle is taking lots and lots of pictures for the yearbook this year using one of our old DSLR cameras; Ashley is busy being a fashionista and trying to convince me to buy every new type of fancy boots that she sees, along with losing all of the teeth that seem to come out in second grade (especially right before picture day!), and Ryan is getting into the swing of a full day of First Grade and homework this year.  He has an excellent vision support teacher, so he has been doing very well in school.  She has been able to enlarge all of his school work, so that it is very easy for him to read.  Charlie is glad to have a few hours of free time to himself again, while the kids are gone during the day.

On Wednesday, our school had its annual “Walk to School Day”.  The Kids/Teachers/Parents all gather in a local playground that is connected by walking/bike paths directly to the school grounds (no street crossing required).  Then a little after 8AM, everyone walks to school together.  There is usually a good turnout and this year was no exception.  Tyler met up with some of his siblings’ friends – it seems that even after just ONE DAY, everyone knows Tyler!  He was really excited to walk to school with everyone.  He lost sight of Dad for a moment, but quickly recovered once he knew everyone was there.  He was even escorted most of the way by several of the older girls and Safeties…already a Popular Little Man!!
Here are some pictures from the last few days.