I have been lax in updating Ammon's Adventures but trying to grab time, when my thoughts are clear, is still proving to be hard. We still have some transition issues causing us stress in our family and this is to be expected. We still aren't at the six month mark where families generally start to feel more like they are in a routine and closer to "normal"
We did get spring pictures taken of Ammon and Lan and you can see their very lovely photos at: http://www.ahansenphoto.com/stephanie.htm
We are feeling most of the adjustment bumps not with Ammon but with his newly big sister Lan. She is an emotional whirlwind. She is sometimes clingy then stand-offish, sometimes offended I treat her like a baby and in the next minute heartbroken that she isn't the baby. I'm trying to get better at understanding her triggers but I don't think even she knows what they are. I find that I am losing my patience with her, something that I never did before. That upsets the balance between us. At times she is very protective of Ammon and does not want to leave him out. At other times she has a fit if he is too much in her personal space or handling her things. Heaven forbid if he should touch her cup or plate! That food is completely inedible after that. The other day she even told me that if a stranger tried to take Ammon that she wouldn't even try to stop him from getting in the stranger's car. Thankfully, I believe that is that ever did occur, Lan's protective nature would win out but its obvious that she is not completely happy with her little brother.
I do find it very interesting to witness Ammon's behavior these past couple of days. I know that there are many that don't believe that we humans have a biological clock that remembers, subconciously, events that affected us greatly. I thought this idea was hokey but the more I watch my children, the more I believe this is true. Ammon's finding day was 4/15/04. The three year anniversary of that day was just this Sunday past. He was taken to the police station and then to the a very small SWI in their county that really wasn't set up to care for children. When his parents were not found, the small SWI had him transferred on 5/9/04 to the XiaoXian SWI that cares for infants and children. XiaoXian is where he stayed until we adopted him 12/4/06.
Ammon really struggled with grief when he first arrived at the SWI. He was estimated 14 months old at the time he was found so he knew he had lost those familiar to him. This describes his initial sadness at leaving his family and entering the SWI's.
"When "Ammon" first came to our SWI, he was quite dissocial. He usually walked by himself and had no interest in toys. He would find the leaf or a small feather on the floor and play with those instead for a very long time. He could play with a
He is such a happy, smiling boy that you wonder if on any level he still carries this grief. How can he not? And this past week or so, he has been whiney, aggressive, clingy, beligerent, and inconsolable. We've seen some humdinger tantrums on a level we haven't seen before. Part of this is age appropriate, frustration in communication, and to be expected, but how interesting to see it peaking at this specific time.
Ammon is making so many huge strides! He jumped all the way off the bed this week. And during one of his tantrums he even got both feet off the ground and got some air before flopping his behind on the floor. He is learning "The Flop". He can ride his tricycle well and kick a ball. He is starting to play appropriately with toys. He kisses anything that he likes. This includes people, food, characters in books and his newly beloved Baby Einstein DVD's.
But, he still does not talk and hasn't responded well to signing. He will imitate speech but we don't have much spontaneous speech....but his vocabulary is growing! Pretty much all verbs but still words. We don't get any word combining either. These are new words he will say on his own:
Push
Drink
Eat
Go
Thank you
He loves to ride the ATV's and he did make up a new sign the other. He wanted to get on the ATV and ride with his daddy and so he ran to me and put his hands on the sides of his head and squeezed. I had to chuckle as it was clear he wanted a helmet so he could ride off with dad. So, we seem to be able to communicate with him but it isn't through words.
I believe he has apraxia and while he isn't diagnosed with it yet, he is being treated just as if he was. We'll keep working with language and keeping his environment language rich and love on him, love on him, love on him.
