A smile to melt your heart

Wow, the difference really is like night and day.

Last night, we had a cranky, scared and confused "I don't want to be with you people" little boy, and today we had our first smiles and even a few laughs.

Once he finally went to sleep last night he slept until about 5 a.m., which is early for him (the orphanage says he sleeps to 6:30 a.m.). Of course, it didn't much matter Violet and I both were up. So we changed his diaper and played with him some.

Violet bought him this cute little flashlight. It's a horse and when you push the horse's tail his mouth opens and the light comes on. He also whinnies. Jacob loves it. He got such a kick out of playing with it. That's when we got our first smile.

At breakfast, this kid ate like a pig. He ate some of his Cheerios, some sausage, some eggs, some noodles, some congee, some bacon, some fried potatoes — you get the idea. Silly us forgot the orphanage had said he can feed himself with a spoon, so we were busy shoveling the food in. Then, he reached out and grabbed the spoon and started feeding himself his congee. It was so good just to sit there and watch him eat.

After breakfast, we had to go to Shaanxi Province civil affairs to do the paperwork we need to take care of here and pay all of our fees. We also had to get photos taken too, our first family portrait and Jacob's passport photo. He handled all of that like a champ. He just sat and ate Cheerios at first. This kid likes to know where all his Cheerios are at all times! If he drops one, he has to find it before he can continue on. It's so cute.

Violet pretty much got stuck with all the official duties with the various officials while I babysat. We got our first laughs from Jacob while Violet was answering questions from some official. Jake kept flipping his snack holder and laughed a few times. I may have egged him on a little. LOL

He got a little cranky near the end because he needed a diaper change and he was getting tired.

Thank goodness the orphanage brought him to us with a pretty decent pair of shoes (and they are NOT pink!!!! LOL) because all the shoes we brought with us are WAYYYYY to big. The foot sizes they gave us obviously were not accurate. So, after we make one more official stop at the passport office this afternoon, we are going shopping.

OK, enough words. Now take a look at this photo. Isn't that the most beautiful smile ever!



We call this one "You people are amateurs. This is how I eat."