How is he doing??

I get this question a lot.  We've now been home with Silas for 4 months and, I know I've said this before, but he's a completely different kid than he was when we got him.  At 9/10 months old, he was content with laying on the floor on his back and playing with our fingers.  This kept him entertained for quite some time.  He was able to crawl and pull up but he wasn't very good at it.  He had this spacey look on his face as if he was somewhat disconnected with reality.  I don't blame him!!  He had no idea what to do with an object in front of him and we had to teach him to play with toys.  He was very content about most things but once he found out we were there to meet his needs like no one ever had before, he became extremely demanding quickly!!

He's come a long way.  He crawls, cruises, and took his first three steps Friday night!  He hasn't done any more since then and I doubt he will for a while.  We'll just keep watching.  He learned to clap and grasp toys.  Then he learned to pinch and finally put food in his mouth a few days before his first birthday.  He learned how to nap in a quiet room all by himself for longer than a few minutes at a time...that was quite an accomplishment!  And exhausting for me!  He's still not great at it but at least he sleeps well at night.  He transitioned from formula and cereal (the only food he had for the first 10 months of life) into a full diet just like ours.  Now he eats everything he can get his hands on and begs for more.  It took a while, but we taught him to play with toys, rather than just the people in the room.  He needed to be able to have a curiosity about objects and figure them out on his own.  He will now go play by himself from time to time and is curious about new things and spaces and has a need to check them out.  As far as his health goes, we got word while I was in the hospital that he no longer has rickets!  So thankful!  He's also getting up to date with his shots and is about at the 50th %ile in just about every area.

He's also gotten verbal and does little 'tricks'.  He gives kisses, blows kisses, can "vrrrrroom" a car, says "bye-bye" and waves, "hiiiii!!!" with a wave, "mama", "dada", "moh!" (more), "muck" (milk), "bbbroooose" (shoes...doesn't make sense, I know), "thiiiis?", "uh-tiz-it" (what is it?), and DANCES!  He's got some moves, let me tell you!  He makes us laugh so much.

He also loves his brother.  Those boys are absolutely smitten with each other.  I have so many stories about funny things Cooper says about him but this one comes from yesterday.  We were listening to a song at lunch that had the African Children's Choir in it.  I had explained to Cooper who they were and where Uganda was.  He said to me, "I like African kids......I really like OUR African kid."  He makes me smile.

So to answer the question, Silas is doing great.

This picture is kind of funny to me.  The one on the left is of him as a baby-I have no idea how old he was.  This was stamped into his Certificate of Citizenship for the US but our last name was spelled wrong so we had to get it redone with a new passport picture (right).  I had to compare the two and it think it's so cute!  He's grown so much and gotten some much needed vitamin D/sunlight!!  Ha!  Once this gets completed, we will be able to do a legal name change, apply for his state certificate of foreign birth (instead of a birth certificate), and then redo his social security card with his new name on it.  Right now, he's Selamu Justin Taylor.  That kind of makes me laugh.