Birthday celebration, Legoland and blood test

Saturday the 4th was Jinbao's birthday. He turned 12 although he still thinks he is 13. He does not understand that when you are born in China they start with 1, but here you start with 0 and are 1 when you have lived a whole year. I am going to wait to explain that one because he is very proud of being older. I imagine it will feel like being left back. I was glad it was his birthday since Friday was a rough day when we went to visit the doctor. We had a chance to score points with him. We started out by giving him a Lego set. 1 point. He covered his face for the picture because sometimes he gets tired of us taking so many pictures of him:).




Building Legos with Matthew.




After lunch we had an ice cream cake. Point 2. He sings happy birthday in English.




Dig in!




Then we went for a ride to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law at the hospital to see their new baby who was born 9 weeks early. I was concerned he would be afraid of all the machines hooked up to his new cousin in the NICU but he handled it well. We decided to take him out to eat crabs at Rustic Inn for his birthday. He was in heaven with goo running down to his elbows. Point 3.





Later that week we took the kids to Legoland and told him it was for his birthday. Point 4. He said he loved roller coasters, made a terrified look while on them then begged to go again. Here of some pictures of the pictures they took. Sorry for the quality but check out his face!









Some other shots from the day....





















So he had a pretty good week. He had one incident when he tried to take Makenna's computer from her when she was on it. When I told him no he went it his room and locked the door. I could hear him punching his welcome home balloon so hard I'm surprised it didn't pop. I tried to talk to him with the translator and even with Andrew translating some of it but he was so stubborn and kept saying he didn't understand. So I let him know I think he did understand and left him alone. He kept punching the balloon, jogging around his room and sat sulking for a while, then came out a new man. I decided not to worry too much if he gets upset because he seems to work it out himself and finally gets over it.
It was a similar situation with his blood work today. He was nervous but cooperative....at first.....until the needle was in and filling up the tubes. The nurse was great and patient. He got really angry and would not say goodbye to the nurse or let me touch him. Ten minutes later I was trying to explain to him on the translator why he needed to have it done and he kept making jokes about farts on the translator. Typical boy. So my new motto is let him get mad, he'll get over it!
Thanks for following! Donna

Two weeks home

I have to say Jinbao is doing much better than I expected. He has figured out how to get his music and movies on my iPad. The only disadvantage to that is I rarely get my hands on my iPad! :) But it keeps him occupied while the kids are doing the school work they have been given to do over the summer. Matthew is also taking 7th grade math via Florida virtual school so it is taking a bite out of the time he has to spend with Jinbao. On Saturday Sensei let Jinbao join the wood breaking class with Matthew. He broke every piece of wood on the first try, even with his head! Thursday we went to the water park. He was very unsure when we first went in so we started with the lazy river. I pointed out the slide and he said "no, no, no" but after a few more rounds of the lazy river he decided he wanted to try it. After the first ride down the slide he was hooked and kept asking for one more try.
Even though he is doing well at home, I am starting to notice that he is not as happy as he was when he first came home. Earlier this week we went back to the school to work on getting signed up. He was obviously very afraid and not breathing in a relaxed way. Matthew and I tried to distract him while we waited. We struggled through a conversation about WWII and the Japanese, using google translate. He believes that China is the best for everything, the best athletes, best cars, best girls, etc. He even told me that he only likes Chinese girls and would never have an American girlfriend because they can not mix. I just chuckled and told him dad is Chinese and I am American (according to what he thinks American is) and we are married. He just looked at me with a puzzled look on his face. Of course I just nod and let him go on and on about how superior China is because it is his birth country, but it shows he is really starting to miss it along with being scared about starting school in a few weeks. Today he had his first doctor appointment. I am glad I made it with a Chinese doctor down in Ft Lauderdale whom Makenna saw when we adopted her in 2005. Even though it was an hour away it really helped that she could speak to him in Mandarin. Before we went this morning he was panicked. He wrote on the translator that he did not trust American surgery. I wrote back, "you do not need surgery!" He wrote back," Then why am I going?" I tried to explain checkup or physical in the translator and he didn't understand because the translation is not always accurate. He just ended up saying he likes to be in China not America. But it goes to show you what strange things are going through their minds which makes them have a lot of fear. If you do not realize that then you could possibly think the child was having a lot of oppositional behavior. When we arrived at the doctors office he began to panic again and was repeating something I did not understand over and over again. I ended up calling Andrew's dad who was able to calm him enough to cooperate when we went back into the room. When the doctor came in she talked to me first then spoke to him in Mandarin. I could see him relax as she went through the exam. She explained to him that it will take about 6 months to feel comfortable here but it will happen. She told him how to take care of his teeth, about helmets, strangers, eating healthy and all the other things he needed to know. He left with a smile on his face and we went for pizza. Next week I think I will have to start working on teaching him the basic things to say in English so he can start getting ready for school. Any suggestions beside name, address and I need to use the bathroom?


Thanks for following! Donna