ON THE MOVE

Zach playing in his room

Peek A Boo mommy-pulling myself up for first time

Pulling himself up and standing

Zach and our social worker Nancy

I can't believe it. Just a few short days ago I posted that Zach was trying to stand and then before I knew it, I was sitting on the couch and looked up and there was Zachary peeking at me from over the coffee table. He had pulled himself up all by himself and was standing while holding on to his dinosaur toy. He also was having a hard time pulling himself up the step from the sunken living room into the foyer and now that is just a piece of cake to him. My little boy is on the move. I had to get a gate to put across the kitchen but he has the run of the hallway and his room and living room. He even goes into his room every now and then to play whereas before he always played with his toys that were out in the living room. We also had to say goodbye to Mr. Duck(the bathtub). He was getting frustrated as there was not enough room for him and his bath toys. I was actually a little sad when we said goodbye to Mr Duck. My baby is growing up so fast. He was a little frightened of the big tub at first as he was holding on to me with a deathgrip but as soon as his toys went in, all was well.

Our social worker Nancy also came for our first post placement review and she seemed to be very pleased with his progress and how he is adjusting. She had only seen him for a few minutes previously when she came to the airport to meet us when we first came home from Vietnam. He even sat on her lap for a few minutes. Zach seems to warm up a lot faster now to people he has not seen before. Of course, he always has to study you at first for a few minutes trying to decide if you are ok and if he should smile at you or not. People are always coming up to us whenever we are out to say what a beautiful baby he is. I was at Target on one side of town the other morning and then the other Target on the other side of town that afternoon. I was in the bathroom changing Zach when a woman came up to me asking me if I was at the other Target that morning. I said yes and she said that she recognized the baby as she was admiring him that morning at the other Target. People are constantly coming up and talking to him. There was also a sweet older man at Target(can you tell I go to Target all the time) who kept waving to Zachary and then asked if he could "see the little rascal" as he called him. Zach is always in the carrier whenever we go out so people who come up to us do not hold him, they just talk to him and sometimes he smiles at them and sometimes just stares them down. It is pretty funny sometimes. You can tell as people are talking to him or telling me what a beautiful child he is that they are trying to figure it out but of all the comments we receive, the only times people have actually asked if he was adopted have only come from people who have adopted themselves. I was at Kohls(again changing Zach in the bathroom) when an older woman asked me if he was from "an Asian country". She told me her son and daughter in law had adopted from China 13 years ago and we talked quite a bit. I was at Sams Club yesterday when a man came up to me and asked if he was adopted from China. I told him Vietnam and his wife came up and they showed me pics of their 3 children adopted from China. He just thought Zach was so cute and kept going on about what beautiful features he had. We kept running into him and he asked questions about his transition and if he had been in an orphanage over there. It is really nice to talk to people who have also adopted internationally. I have heard from other people that have adopted internationally that they have encountered negative comments from people sometime but I have never had any of that and people have always been very nice that have come up to us.