You know, after more than a year of having "Sasha" home, it's sometimes hard to remember how much progress Alex has made . . . until you go back and look at those orphanage videos. So, just take a few minutes to compare these to the videos in the last post (from his birthday):
It's simply amazing what sixteen months have done to transform this boy. Notice how very childlike he seems -- especially notice the fascination with dropping the wand in the first video, a sort of infantile developmental task. Notice his environment -- very nonverbal. He's spoken to, but rarely speaks; when he did, his Russian was almost always deemed unintelligible by Russian speakers both in country and back here. It's amazing to compare this practically nonverbal child of sixteen months ago to the kid who chats up a storm with anyone who will listen today.
If anyone ever doubts the importance of giving kids the right environment in early childhood, they should take a look at these videos and then compare them to the kid we have today -- the kid who has emerged thanks to the dedication of an amazing team of professionals in the ISD 861 school district, his amazing PCAs, and the loving influence of his siblings.
