Niko - Day 2 Update

It's hard to even know where to begin! Niko slept very well last night and woke up in a wonderful mood. He was ready to explore the world, and we caught some great videos and pictures of him happily playing with both of us. I mean, how cute is this hat?

We have learned that Niko likely only ate pureed food in the orphanage. Here in Bulgaria, they have a baby food service (called Baby Kitchen) that purees organic and nutritious food for kids until age 3. It's pretty cool, but Niko spits everything out that requires any type of chewing at all. So we have quickly scrambled to get good, soft foods for him. His favorite is probably yogurt, and he is often trying to point at it so we will give him more. One really high point today was dinner when he ate about 7 bites of buttered noodles (shells). He has been watching us eat, and he is trying to mimic us, keeping an eye on our reactions. If only he could mimic us brushing our teeth - he has a huge aversion to the toothbrush and won't let it anywhere near his mouth. Something to work on!

As for attaching, we are doing pretty well. Yesterday he was more comfortable with mom, but today he is all about dad. Since men are not very common in the orphanage, Brad is a strange and alluring creature. Niko was unsure of him at first, but today has followed him around everywhere.

It's wonderful except that Niko doesn't listen to me quite as well as dad, and if I try to redirect him, he can display some behaviors we will need to work on.

We had a lot of fun adventures - he loves seeing the city and people watching. When we push him in the stroller he very often will wave at strangers (one man even yelled Zdravey back as we passed him, which means hello). He is friendly like his mom, and he is very content to just take in the sights.

When we're home at the apartment, he mostly wants to explore. The freedom to walk around and look in drawers and cabinets is totally new to him, so he has opened every cabinet 15 times. His favorite game is to close a bedroom door, knock, and then open it and smile at whoever he sees. We must have done that for hours today. He is not very interested in the toys that we brought, but we will give him time to get used to his new surroundings. So far he seems to be drawn to empty water bottles, cardboard, and street garbage (face palm).

We are communicating pretty well, all things considered. He points a lot, but his needs are pretty basic. Water, food, shoes. He has special orthopedic shoes, pictured here, which help him to walk much better, as his ankles still seem weak (he was born with clubfoot). He wants to wear shoes at all times, although he prefers the "regular" ones we brought. If he has to do any walking though, the orthopedic ones are much better!

While he is technically 2 years old, developmentally he is more like a 1-year-old. He has not experienced most of the things a child raised in a family would experience. He doesn't know stoves are hot, for example. We turned some music on today (River Beds by Mark Jay), and he spent a lot of time trying to find the source. It's a challenge because he acts more like a 1-year-old, but has the strength of a 2-year-old. He can rip off his bib and throw it during dinner. He can reach things across the table that he shouldn't touch. He can walk beside the kitchen counter and grab things that are near the edge. He will learn, but it's a different type of parenting experience.

He also knows a few words! He said daddy today (he pronounces it "diddy!"). It melted our hearts and was the sweetest thing! He also knows how to say "phone," which is basically the same in English and Bulgarian. He is OBSESSED with phones. He doesn't even really want to do anything with it other than hold it up to his ear and say "Ello." But then he doesn't give it back, and he wants to walk around with it, and of course he eventually drops it. It's a whole thing. So we have started hiding our phones which is good to make us less dependent on them as well! Here is he, playing with Brad's phone and taking his first accidental selfie.

The hardest part of the day was tonight when he cried and cried before bed. We were putting him down slightly earlier than usual (since he's had the most active day in his life). He kept pointing towards the door, motioning like he wanted to go back to the living room to play, but we took turns rocking him, rubbing his back, and consoling him. It still took a very long time and was harder than we'd want to admit. In talking afterward about why it happened, Brad and I came to the conclusion that his brain has been so stimulated for the past two days with sights and sounds and tastes and smells. We think his brain just couldn't settle down for bed. I kept promising him we would have many more days like this, even better ones! Hopefully he sleeps well tonight, because I know we will!

I'll leave you with the video of our first meeting. As you can see, he was timid and especially shy around Brad. Below the video is a picture of how they are doing today.