China Update - July 20

As Angie is in the shower preparing for today's activities, I thought I'd pass along a few more things.

He's a lefty! I think that's a first in the family???

We asked him and his caregivers when he found out about us and was given his package and, it appears, merely a day or two before our arrival. I believe that the person answering told Mei that this is how they usually do it. He had an apparently new backpack they had given him, along with new sandals. That's all we could tell at first. He proudly opened the backpack to show us the hat and sweatshirt we had sent him, both obviously having not been worn. He also was quite proud of the photo album we had sent, and even put his own money in the sleeves in the back. We were given a set of ~4 inch stuffed animals from the Beijing Olympics from the orphanage staff. Cameron later showed us a little MP3 player he had that he bought with his own money. When we asked about this we were told that they (and I'm paraphrasing and giving this second/third hand, so it might not be fully accurate) start the month on paper with an "allowance". As the month goes on, they get some deducted if they misbehave, don't follow rules, don't do chores, etc. At the end of the month, what's left is theirs. According to Cameron, he had months where he had all his money, and some where he had had some taken out for whatever reason. So, for a number of months he saved his money, and now has the MP3 player that he likes to listen to, and you can hear him quietly singing to himself. Adorable! He's also been trying to get it to play on my laptop, but so far without success.

Although he doesn't know how to swim, he wanted to go to the pool last night. He didn't want to get into the pool since it was cold (to him.....dad was in the pool, though!). He decided he wanted to get into the hot tub. No problem. However, there was another father and son in at the same time. Cameron decides he wants to splash everybody.....not so cool. Had a time trying to get him to understand that this was not appreciated by the other folks. I'm sure this is just an offshoot of his orphanage rearing and what the kids would have done there. He also happened to slip and fall on the tile, thus skinning his hand and knee, with a little bit of blood (fairly minor) coming out. He toughed it out while the pool staff "triaged" him.....the whole nine yards - washed off, Q-tipped, antiseptic, then some kind of dry powder to dry and clot it, and finally four (yes, four!) bandages! Nevertheless, he's doing fine.......and now knows not to run on wet tile! Lesson learned, the hard way!

That's it for now.....heading downstairs for a cup-o-joe while Cameron and Angie get ready for the day. Cameron is still snoozing away on the bed. Wonder how that's going to work with Madison (our German Shepherd that absolutely *loves* kids) "nosing" him at 0-dark-thirty once we get home!

Ciao for now. Thanks again for all your thoughts, well-wishes via email, and prayers. We read all the emails and respond to most where possible. All is going well.....we absolutely adore our little guy!