One Year Ago . . . January 18th

A few pictures from our hotel apartment. Forgive the mess; it was already starting to look pretty “lived in.”

This morning, Kellin was sitting on my lap and he started pulling my hands back and forth to request “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” just like yesterday. He remembered from the day before and he wanted to sing some more! This was an exciting moment for me! He also loved to stand on the couch that stood in front of the living room window and look outside.

We headed out to visit a Buddhist temple with our guide and fellow adoptive family. We had gotten a stroller from the hotel, and this turned out to work very well with Kellin. 

He “stimmed” a lot – poking and spitting – but he didn’t fuss nearly as much as when I tried to carry him around. The Buddhist temple was busy and very interesting to see. Our guide was amazing as she explained the significance of different features of the building and the activities that went on there.

Afterward, we went to a park to walk around. It was a beautiful sunny day, warm by our standards (I think in the 70’s), and it was so nice to be able to go out and do something without Kellin falling apart. One thing that stands out in my memory from this walk is that the little girl of the other family picked up a piece of paper from the ground and handed it to Kellin – and he held onto it! For several minutes! This was THE first time I had seen him choose to hold something (I had often put things into his hand but he didn’t really have much awareness of them and they would slip out of his hands pretty quickly, without him noticing or caring). Of course, I wasn’t sure about Kellin holding onto this random dirty piece of paper from the ground, but NO WAY was I taking it away from him!

We saw these decorations in the park. I don’t know what they were or what they were for, but they were impressive!

After returning to the hotel, I decided to check out the playroom with Kellin. This was a lot of fun. I showed Kellin all sorts of toys, and he seemed to enjoy a few things. It was fun to get in a few minutes of real play with him.