Anatomy of a Swim

Welcome, Summer!

These past few days in the beauteous Northeast region have shimmered in the dreadful Triple H's: Hazy, Hot & Humid, with temps hovering around 90.

Auntie Rachel invited us over for some refreshing pool time, and Jesse Yong's first -- shall we say -- testing of the waters...

First was the Scope Out:

Followed by the Purification Ritual:

Then the Great Climb:

Once realization of what we were attempting suddenly hit, safety precautions had to be taken.

So next came Tactical Prevention of Wetness:

This was followed by much splashing (by Mama) on Mama's bathing suit, with reassurances that wetness really was the name of the game today.

Once assured of that, next came the Great Plunge:

Quickly followed by Palpable Uncertainty about this whole enterprise:Then after much encouragement and enthuasiasm, Mucho Fun:

Happy pictures

Our dirty little secret: we never really traveled to the Far East. Sigh. It came down to a matter of logistics. The adoption was just so much easier once we learned you can literally get anything made in China directly from Walmart.

SIDE NOTE: This is the only picture we got, because every time we directed the camera his way, he deliberately turned the other way. I don't know if it was his mood that day or what. But he definitely was NOT a fan of being the subject of any photographs. Hmmm...am I seeing a Hendrickson trait developing???? (pun intended)

I've mentioned that our son loves order. He is very meticulous. When he colors with his crayons he pulls one crayon out, colors with it, puts it back in the box, and chooses another. Cycle continues.

When he plays with his toys, he does the same thing. Pulls one toy out, plays with it, puts it back where it came from, then pulls another toy out.

Sniff. It's a beautiful thing. Brings a tear to my eye.

I know all you other parents are seething right now in the grip of the green-eyed monster. Yes, I know how lucky we are. And I fully intend to ensure it continues.

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This is Day 2 of him "playing" with his blocks (really more like "organizing"). Apparently he relaxed the rules on Day 2. On Day 1 of Block Building, not only were all the blocks meticulously aligned, they were also sorted by color (all green sides face north, etc).

All the pictures I had taken of Day 1 were scowls so I didn't include them here. But somehow the mood shifted and it was made abundantly clear to me that since I had brought out the camera the last time he sorted blocks, I needed to bring out the camera this time as well. We're nothing if not consistent.

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These zoo animal sunglasses were a huge hit (leftover from last year's "It's a Jungle Out There" church booth at the Strawberry Festival). He couldn't get enough of them (or of the camera; that's him trying to take it out of my hands in that last picture).

Spontaneous English Day

So many of you are probably wondering...
How's it going?!?!

Well, we've been home just barely three weeks now. It's amazing to simultaneously realize how long ago it seems that we met Jesse Yong...and yet how fast the time flies.

It's becoming so natural to think in terms of three rather than two. Weird, though, considering it's been 10 years that it's been just the two of us. (Jason and I met at a cafe this summer ten years ago; how prosaically romantic, I know.)

I haven't written many stories lately because there haven't been that many really wild anecdotes to share (at least none publicly... hehehehe). Nah, really, it's been very uneventful. Yet crazily FUN!

Things are going so very well that I keep (metaphorically) looking over my shoulder to see what big disaster must be approaching because it seems impossible that adopting a 4yo could go this smoothly.

He is a great kid: funny, SMART, talkative (in Chinese), happy to have a family, friendly to others (after initial shyness). He now likes giving hugs to people (esp. to little friends and cousins, etc, not so much to big people).

This morning was what I'm calling his first official Spontaneous English Day. I am so excited!!! But let me backtrack...

Everyone's been asking about the communication issues and how it's going and how in the world do we know what he's saying? Well, we don't. But it's surprisingly easy to figure out what he needs/wants for the most part. And as far as communicating to him, well, wild gesturing and SPEAKING REALLY LOUDLY AND SLOWLY LIKE THE PERSON IS REALLY REALLY HARD OF HEARING always works really well with the French-Canadian tourists that visit our area, so this really isn't that much different. We just have to be a lot louder, because we have to communicate a lot more information a lot more often. And he's 4, so he gets distracted easily.

Kidding.

Lest you think we spend our days hollering at this poor kid, I'll say the best way to describe it (although the simile falls short) is that it is like having a two-year-old in a 4-year-old body. Based on his responses, I'm guessing he understands about 90% of what we directly say to him.

What's crazy is that sometimes I have no idea if I've used some of the words before, but I'll string a sentence asking him to do something.....and off he goes! I find myself raising my eyebrows in surprise a lot.

So, back to this morning.

Although he's been mirroring our vocab for a while now, today was the first day he spoke spontaneously in English. By that I mean that he voluntarily (and appropriately) spouted English in lieu of Chinese, and he did it completely unprompted by us.

What did this genius of a son have to say, unprompted, at breakfast?

I quote:
"Mother, your food leaves much to be desired. A bit more cilantro for the liver, or a miniscule placement of garlic for the blood would vastly improve this dish."

OK. Well. That's what he meant to say. But it came out sounding more like:

"Thank you."

That's right folks. A crisp, clear "Thank you."

To top it off, later in the day I gave him a candy watch to wear (with chiclet treats inside). He was all excited because Baba wears a watch, and Jesse always points to it and tries to put it on.
So I told him that he could show Baba his watch when Baba came home. A few minutes later he comes up to me and says (clear as a bell), "Show Baba watch" and he pointed to the front door to indicate later, when Baba came home.

I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but this morning's voluntarily English at breakfast was a thing of auditory beauty to these ears that hear nothing all day long, day after day, but an incomprehensible smattering of consonants and vowels strung randomly together like those ceaseless strings of blinking Christmas tree lights strung all across the Griswalds housetop and lawn in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

Imagine putting a Chinese or Japanese martial arts film in and letting it play continuously for 8 hours each day. Over and over, lots of harsh gutterals and spittal. With NO SUBTITLES. Only it's not in the background. It's sitting in front of you at the table in the body of a very verbal 4-year-old. Hah. Now you know my pain and can appreciate our enthusiasm.

Lost in Translation

My friend Sarah wanted to make sure I took pictures of all the poorly translated signs we saw. At her request, here are a few of the notables:


I don't know about all the other tourists, but although it was a very nice entrance indeed, we were really more interested in visiting the warriors.

Nailed to the Great Wall of China:

This one was on our hotel side table in Xi'an. I read through it at least three times and still had absolutely no clue:

In our hotel hallways in Zhengzhou:

On a streetside sign, like an advertising billboard in NYC or something. In case you can't read it, it says:

"Luxury only the surface, temperament generations from the deposition"

Sign posted in the Visiting Hall of the Ming Summer Palace:

And although it doesn't really fall into the English-Chinese translation category, last but not least is the sign at the Starbucks in Guangzhou (near the Consulate building):

Good luck telling them which blend you want!

A la Peanut Butter Cookies!

Today Mama and Jesse Yong made our first batch of cookies together. Peanut butter cookies, to boot! Jesse Yong was very excited to put each one of the ingredients together in a big bowl, one at a time, and then use a blender on the whole concoction. There's something innately satisfying about pulverising things when the occasion calls for it.

As the pictures show, he took his job very seriously, wanting to make sure each part of the process was done properly.

The whole experience was very exciting for him, although slightly trying on his patience, as we had to let the batter "chill" in the fridge for 2 hours. A bit difficult to understand/translate that concept... And waiting for the delectible comestibles to cook - and worse yet, cool - was another small hardship, but we got to watch them bake (oven lights were a wonderful invention), so that helped.

Judging by his expression, it was worth it!

Memorial Day

Today we got a chance to visit with our friends Tyler and Lee. It was an absolutely gorgeous day here in Maine, so we went to a park near our house to fly a kite, toss a frisbee and generally goof around.

Jesse Yong was a BIG FAN of the kite flying. He pretty much wanted to do that exclusively. (Didn't even care about the twisty slide, which he has LOVED all the other times we've gone!)

When we got back to the house, the boys took turns tugging each other around the driveway in the big ol' red wagon (that big jug of bubbles held closely in tow by Jesse Yong):

We also pulled out the Fire Engine house and were amazed at how excited Jesse got about it. He was giggling and cracking himself and Tyler up the entire time. I guess it's pretty cool to live in your own miniature world for a while.

I know we keep saying it over and over, but we feel astonished at how well he's doing adjusting to life here with us. We have such a great kid - resilient, accomodating, adaptable, eager to please, sharp as a tack. We couldn't have hand-picked one ourselves. He's truly a joy to be around!

As far as language goes, I'm guessing he understands about 90% of what we tell him to do (when specifically/directly addressing him). I'd say he's kind of comparable to having a 2-year-old but in a 4-year-old body. He understands A LOT of what we say (in general), but he doesn't speak much English voluntarily although he repeats basic English words (please, thank you, water, milk, etc) when we say them first.

A good portion of his comprehension is (obviously) from association of our gestures with the words we use. But it doesn't take much repetition on our part before he knows what the words mean on their own ("put your shoes on," "wait a minute," etc). One thing I know is that he does way, way better than either of us would do immersed in Chinese.

I figure, give him a couple months, maybe even a couple weeks, and he'll be flying right along...

I think a huge part of his success is him absolutely LOVING having a family. My dad's birthday was Saturday, and we brought him a framed collage of photos of he & Jesse together. We had Jesse hand Pappy the present. But when Jesse saw the final framed product (he had only seen me working on it), he broke into this HUGE grin and wouldn't stop smiling and pointing to pictures of himself, pictures of him w/his Baba & Mama, pictures of him w/his Grandpa Pappy.

He just kept staring at the pictures, holding the frame, this huge grin splitting his face, refusing to put it down. He is soooo very happy to belong, to be loved and cared for. I think when he looks at the photographs he sees it tangibly represented, like proof he is part of this thing called "family."

It's the same thing with prayer over dinner. He loves it, eagerly points to our hands and each other, trying to say, "Hey, guys, come on! Grab each other's hands!" and bows his little head for prayer, ending with an enthusiastic "Amen!"

For him, there's something about all our hands held in a circle around the table, doing this little routine together that symbolizes togetherness. He's part of it, and he loves it.

I mean really loves it. I think our record number of prayers over a meal so far is four. I guess we had some especially sanctified food that night.