“You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby (or rather, Little Man)”

Wow, I knew that we were behind in blog postings on Tyler, but didn’t realize that the last post was made in October as he was just starting school. Time flies when you are having fun…busy all the time…life is chaotic but so fun. It’s hard to even remember all of the things that have gone on with our little man over such a vast amount of time, and he has changed so much.

When we brought Tyler home, he really was more of a 4-5 year old child in so many ways. He had had very little medical involvement for his vision needs, no academic skills, no English and even minimal Chinese language skills. He wanted to be carried everywhere and he would grunt or yell loudly at us to communicate his needs. He had fairly minimal motor skills – i.e. could not dress himself, brush his teeth, wash himself and ate with his hands and he had an attention span of about 5 minutes or less on anything requiring thought or work. He was wild and chaotic in China and we weren’t sure what we were going to be in for.

He was anxious to go to school (or at least go where the other kids seem to disappear to every day on the bus), so we started him in K at the elementary school. A big step for him and everyone involved with him at school. He was very different from Ryan, as Ryan had a solid English basis and had gone to school in China, before we adopted him, so he was “ready” for K when he started. Contrary to Ryan, Tyler was struggling with language (speaking and understanding), sitting in a classroom for any extended period of time, new routines, not being carried and having to walk and not been able to eat snacks and play on the playground all day. He was fitted with his glasses in October and we hoped for the best. Although, most of the time, he seemed to spend more time chewing them, throwing them on a floor or tucking them away where no one could find them for a few hours (thank goodness for indestructible Miraflex glasses!) or just now wearing them.

At the same time, he was and is surrounded with a great support staff at school in class, for vision and for ESL. These women have worked diligently and patiently with him over the last several months, and we are seeing tremendous progress in so many areas for him. We are very lucky to have such a great support network for him. They have learned that he is very determined, very stubborn, loves to eat snacks off the floor (if you don’t catch him fast enough), and he loves to run the hallways as he goes to his special classrooms. Additionally, he has surrounded himself with a posse of little lady Kindergarten friends that “walk” him into school each day when he is dropped off, and several “older” girls who are the bus safeties that compete for his attention in the afternoon. It must be good to be the king at the age of 6!! He gets very excited when he sees his siblings at school, and will greet them loudly with big smiles and hugs.

He is also being “home-schooled” in the mornings, before school, with Charlie. Charlie runs a strict boot camp type of environment with worksheets, pencils, crayons, apps etc. – ha.ha. They have worked on motor skills, letters, puzzles and drawing together. Tyler still has a long way to go to catch up with everyone else, but he hit a milestone this week when he was able to write his name all by himself for the first time. He will start getting more occupational therapy in the next few months, to refine his fine motor skills, and then will do another year of K next year.

In the meantime, the grunts have moved to more and more basic language skills with names, the words “me do it” or “me go, too” or “get out” or “3 more minutes” as he runs downstairs for a few extra minutes before bedtime. He learns very quickly what the other kids say to get their way and he is a fast mimic! He wants to do everything and anything that the older kids do. He is moving more towards some basic English with a few random Chinese words thrown in. Many times, we ask the kids to translate the garbled message to us, if we can’t understand what he is saying. We also have become very proficient at pointing and gesturing.

Just like his siblings, he LOVES technology – ipad and iphone. Peppa Pig all.the.time and when Peppa isn’t in rotation, Mickey Mouse and/or Paw Patrol to the rescue! Peppa comes in both Chinese and English (just in case you are wondering and it’s annoying in both languages!) It’s funny how quickly a young child can learn to manipulate an ipad and its apps. He also likes to look at the little Chinese babies on the waiting children websites, although we have assured them all that we are only looking for “others” and not our family anymore.

Over time, we have continued to assess his medical needs and found that his vision isn’t as poor as we all thought – he is now 20/200 in each eye (uncorrected) so if and when he wants to wear his glasses, he might actually see even better. His vision will probably never improve much but will be assessed over time. He still does not do well with bright lights, sun glare or camera flashes (very light sensitive). Due to his aniridia and some issues that might possibly be genetic problems because of it, we also have had to do kidney and genetic screening on him. Luckily, he passed all testing with flying colors and will not need any further monitoring in that area!! He is still working to get his lead poisoning levels down (they were very high when he was adopted due to the pollution in China) but they are slowly and surely coming down and should be “normal” by spring.

Tyler has also had the fun of experiencing all of the new holidays from the wild and crazy costumes of Halloween (which he loved due to lots and lots of candy) to Thanksgiving with so many fun foods to Christmas with lights and toys (he got so excited to see the Christmas tree and decorations) to Valentine’s Day with the cards and more candy – who knew that these things existed! He has loved all of the friends and relatives involved in the holidays, too.

When he first came home, he acted like he would melt in the rain (and showers!) and snow. He still hates the rain but he LOVES the snow. We haven’t had much this winter, but when we have, he has gone out for hours with the other kids to play and sled. He also still loves to go out on the trampoline with everyone where he can jump and play for long periods of time. We hope to start him on a bike later this Spring, once it gets much warmer out. As he has gotten more exercise and healthy foods, he is growing very quickly. Soon, he will have a head up on Ashley!! He, Ryan and Ashley are running neck and neck now with Tyler weighing in a bit heavier than both of them. He is a strong little boy.

He is still such an affectionate little one, who will give a big smile and hug, when he knows that he is being naughty and doesn’t want a time out all the while saying “I good boy” – ha.ha. Just like the rest, he will have everyone wrapped around his finger.

He loves to help and have jobs – this is such a great age when they WANT to help vs. begging them to help (or getting the eye roll or grunt – ha.ha.)

Here are a few photos from our recent adventures…