Our Little Superman

We definitely have a Superman on our hands!!!

We put Max down last night at 7:30. I woke up at around 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. I kept reliving the previous day in my mind as I am still trying to process it all. It feels like we have had him for longer than a day and a half ... he is ours and I can't say it enough but we are so taken already by this little boy. I think you could say he has both of us wrapped around his little finger. As I laid awake I watched him sleep. He would lay on his tummy with his little butt in the air and when he shifted he would roll to his side and his little foot would thump 3 times. A few times he would wake himself up enough and bring his two middle fingers back in his mouth.

I waited for 5:30 to strike in anticipation of Max waking up. I know that sounds crazy and if anyone knows me they know how much I love my mornings to sleep. The orphanage had said he wakes at 5:30 and has a bottle. We were sure he would act like clockwork and wake up when he was used to. I couldn't wait to see those big brown eyes this morning and see how he reacted when he woke. Well 5:30 came and went, then 6:00, then 6:30, then 7:00. Finally, Eric and I decided we were just going to wake him up because we couldn't take it any more. Look at how cute he is with his little fingers in his mouth.

His first eye contact with his daddy this morning was precious. He fussed a little as he looked around and tried to figure out where he was or maybe it was because these over eager parents woke him up. I really can't believe we woke a sleeping baby ... that is so not like me.

Eric gave him his morning bottle and it looks like day 2 is going to be a successful bottle day as well.

It was then time for his 1st bath. I am pretty sure by the look on his face you can tell what he thought of his bath this morning.

We went to breakfast and then spent some time just hanging out in the room. He continued in his busy body mode again today. He is just so funny to watch. He loves making faces and makes tons of different noises. One of his favorite toys today was a water bottle that was half full. He also thought it was pretty fun to slap his hands on the coffee table to make noise. The stacking cups were once again a hit. The bottom right picture is him playing one of his favorite games of the day. He would toss at toy under the TV table. He would then try to reach it but if he couldn't he would scoot as fast as he could to either side where he could reach it and swat it out. He would then toss it back under and the game started all over again for him.

Late morning we headed out for a little walk around Jinan. The picture above is off our hotel right in the middle of the town. Eric and I can't get over all the smog and pollution. It was supposedly a sunny clear day but we couldn't even see the sun the smog was so thick.

This is what you see one street over from our hotel. This is a street of local people with little stores or cooking some type of food.

It was amazing just to sit back and watch and take pictures today. I will let the lens speak for itself on this one.

Max decided to take a little snooze on our walk.

We came back to the room to get some lunch for Max and maybe take naps a little later since he had a short one on our walk. He wasn't too interested in laying down so he was right back at it. He was very excited today when he found himself in a mirror.

Max also figured out how to play catch with daddy today. He was all giggles! Oh by the way ... who needs a ball when you have a bowl. If you haven't noticed our little boy is Mr. Personality. In our classes and in our Orientation this week they talked about how these little ones just blossom during their first weeks and months with their mom and dads. Eric and I both agreed today if he keeps blossoming we could be in real trouble. I am not sure how much more personality can come out of this little guy.

After he played for a little while he crawled over to me and reached his hands up. We got comfy on the couch and took a little snooze together. After about an hour and a half he started to stir and was acting like he was in his crib trying to roll over and try a new position. He started to cry a little in frustration. Eric took him for a while and he fell right back asleep for another hour and a half on Eric's chest.

After Max woke up we met our guide Lillian to do some shopping. We had brought some clothes and socks for the orphanage but wanted to pick up a warm outfit to replace the one Max came in and also get some toys to bring tomorrow. Shopping at a Chinese department store was a new and fun experience. I am so glad we had Lillian or I would have no clue what to do. We then went out for another yummy dinner. Max wanted to stay on my lap tonight instead of sit in the high chair which was just fine with me. Lillian is totally catching on to Eric's personality and jokes. She is starting to throw the jokes out too. Tonight she was asking Eric about his job and when he said he worked with computers she said, "Oh I always thought computer people kind of .... " Eric jumped in and said, "nerdy!" She laughed and said. "Yea, Yea that is it but you are different." It was pretty funny. She is amazing and we are going to miss her when we head to Guangzhou. We are trying to talk her into coming to the US for a visit.

Max is doing great but hadn't had a bowel movement yet so we broke out the prunes tonight. He loved them.

After his prunes Max got ready for bed. He finished off the day with another game of catch with daddy. Notice his little feet in the air. When he gets excited his little feet go absolutely crazy. Tonight when he was eating prunes they were going around in circles and all his toes were wiggling at the same time.

We laid Max down and he started to cry. He cried for a bit and when I picked him up I quickly realized why he didn't want to go to sleep. He had a dirty pants. We got him cleaned up, I rocked him a bit and then he went down for the night.

Thanks for all your prayers we had another amazing day with Max. We continue to see good bonding signs like really good eye contact. He also continues to go to both of us willingly. Today he started to crawl to us and extend his arms to pick him up. He also would make little whimper noises when we were out of sight. The only obstacles we have right now are he doesn't respond to his Chinese name Da, Da when we say because our intonation is way off. He has no clue who we are talking to when we say Max and he definitely doesn't have a clue what "no" means. If those are our biggest hurdles right now we will totally take them.

Tomorrow will be a big day for us. We will be driving about 40 minutes to Max's orphanage. We aren't sure what to expect or what emotions will surface but it will be good to see where Max spend the first 17 months of his life. We will hopefully meet his caregivers and get a feel what his daily life looked like. We also will go to the spot that he was abandoned. Yesterday we got a copy of his abandonment announcement. When kids are abandoned an article is posted in the newspaper announcing their abandonment. From our paperwork we thought he was left at the bus station but we found out yesterday it was the train station. So tomorrow we will also be going to the spot at the train station where he was found.

I had to go back and update my last post. I can't even believe that I didn't even write that when we left Civil Affairs yesterday Fu Zhi Da became Max Lei Fu and is officially ours.

Signing off to head to bed but thanking God for another amazing day with our little Max.