People with bodies and hands and feet

K. has been doing a lot of drawing recently.  Just about a month ago he started drawing 'potato' people for the first time.  You know, those early first people drawings which young children do with legs and arms coming straight out of the head.  Since he hadn't done anything remotely resembling a person before this, we were pretty thrilled.  But in the past two days, not only is he drawing people, but his people have bodies... and this one has hands and fingers as well.  (There is also a second, smaller person and a table in this one if you were wondering.)  And to add to his developmental accomplishments, he has also started to copy his name if an older brother or sister writes it out for him. 

I know that to many of you, the fact that a nearly 5 year old is just accomplishing these things hardly seems like news.  Many children pass these milestones two years earlier.  But if you have been following K.'s story, you know that he has overcome many hurdles to reach this point.  To catch the rest of you up, when we adopted K. at two years old, he was the size of a US 12 month old, had no language, and had never had solid food.  He looked and acted like a young baby.  We had no idea what the future held for him and on some level that was scary.  What if there was something more going on than just environmental delays?  What if he couldn't overcome the deprivations of his first two years?  What if... ?  What if... ?  What if... ?  We were committed to him no matter what, but we hoped for the best.

We are so blessed that all of K.'s delays seem to be environmental, we just need to be patient as he makes up for lost time.  His language has exploded and he now speaks (all the time!) at an age-appropriate level... complete sentences, correct use of pronouns, verb tenses, fairly large vocabulary (especially if he is talking to you about cars).  But we had yet to see other signs of school-type readiness... an awareness of numbers and letters, knowing how books work, beginning color recognition and naming, etc.  These things, along with his new drawing ability, are all starting to make an appearance.  To me, it is nothing less than staggering to think about what he has accomplished in the last two and a half years.  I know I have said it before, but in some ways I feel blessed to be able to parent a non-typically developing child.  The successes seem bigger and more joyful; successes I took for granted with my other children.  K. has taught me to rejoice at everything, even what would seem to be the small things.  Perhaps especially the small things.  He has broadened and enriched my world.
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