Update on Mateo adjusting to his new family & this Kansas weather!! LOL

Mateo has been home now for over 3 1/2 months. Its amazing how much he has changed since he has been here! He has gained about a pound and 1/2 & has grown over an inch. He has been in preschool two days a week for 2 1.2 hours since the first week he got here and has really adjusted to the kids well! It helps that his cousin Max is in his class. Mateo is ALL boy!! I am not sure if we were ready for the "difference" between our girls and a boy!! He keeps us on our toes that is for sure!

The loves to LOVE on Mateo as much as they love to PICK on Mateo! Every night he wants to sleep with one of his sisters. He prefers to sleep with Adyson because she has a "Grande" bed. He has been going to his share of both soccer & basketball games and has really enjoyed getting to know all of the players & the other parents on the girls teams.

Mateo LOVES his chocolate " chocolate milk"; although we have had to start giving him just white milk because we think he is a little too "busy" and that extra sugar just puts in over the edge... He loves to jump, wrestle, run around, jump off things, play trains, airplanes, cars, dinosaurs, & anything that boys typically like. He does like to read. We just recently got him his library card and have been going to the library to check books out a few times a week. He will sit in my lap and let me read to him for 30 minutes or more.

He can sing his ABCs, and most of the nursery rhyme songs. He counts in both Spanish and English. He understands everything we say in English and responds in what I call "Spanglish"...he mixes most English nouns and verbs but instead of using ( he, she, they, me, here, there, etc...he uses the Spanish word for it.". We will be starting him in a Spanish class every week in January so he can keep up on his Spanish. He loves going to our local Mexican Restaurant as they SPOIL him when he is there!! He loves the owners who are also good friends of ours. They typically take him back to the kitchen so he can say "Hi" to all of the cooks in the back. He likes it when they speak Spanish to him.

Kind of a funny story...Mateo went upstairs to go to the bathroom one evening and came back downstairs and said "me go pee pee outside!" with a big smile on his face!! So Rylie went upstairs and opened the backdoor and saw a little "trail" of his pee-pee on the patio...so I guess he thought it was okay to do outside because he was probably at the farm sometime with his daddy when he got to go outside there! So we had to explain to him the difference between being on the farm and being outside at our house in town...

Mateo still talks about some of the nannies at the orphanage..he talks about a Mama Tooley & a Mama Kata...they must have made a pretty big impression on him! He also talks about his friends Eduardo & Christian. I try to pull out their pictures regularly so he doesn't forget them.

Mateo got to meet Santa for the first time a few weeks ago and jumped right up on his lap and told him he wanted a train for Christmas. HE even pulled on his beard to see if it was real! Then we went on a little horse carriage ride around our town square.

I still cannot believe he is home with us and this year we will actually ALL be together for Christmas!! Doug & I went Christmas shopping on Friday and we were able to buy for all 3 kids

Mateo has special relationships with all of his Aunts & Uncles. He has little names he calls them & knows all of their kids. He talks about his "Guncle Paul" who cleans carpets and even got Adys tooth brush and was "demonstrating" how Guncle Paul uses the floor cleaner..with Adys tooth brush.

He likes talking with his Grandpas and Grandmas and has his little routine when he goes to Papa Forest & Nana Kaye's house..he always get a cookie and sometimes Papa will cut him up an apple.

We got a new dog names Lila, Mateo liked the name because there is a girl in his class that he likes that's named Lila. We have had to teach Mateo to not kick or hit the dog. I don't think he is trying to be mean, but I think he is trying to see what he can get away with. We have had to do timeouts off and on the last few weeks.

I have to say we have been VERY blessed that there haven't been HUGE issues we have had to deal with since he got home..just the basic adjustment to a 3 year old boy entering a home that has primarily been run by girls. Of course he doesn't LOVE to take naps, but Daddy always has a way with getting him to go to sleep where I tend to take forever getting him to go to sleep. I think Daddy is a little firmer with that than I am.. LOL

Thank you again for all of your prayers the last year and I will keep you updated on Mateo's first experience with snow, Santa, Christmas, etc.....