As every parent knows, children grow so fast, and that is certainly true of Jadon. Since our last page was posted in April, Jadon's physical and mental abilities have grown tremendously, leaving Julie and Tim wondering how they have accomplished so little while Jadon has learned so much. One thing that has not changed, however, is that Jadon is still a good-natured, happy young boy.

Jadon's speaking vocabulary is now probably around 100 words, and he understands most of what we say in either Chinese or English. He can translate a couple dozen words between Chinese and English upon request. Tim is now getting nervous that he will be unable to learn Chinese fast enough to keep up with his two year old toddler.

Jadon puts together simple sentences, often using a combination of Chinese and English words. He commonly strings together four or five words, and we have counted up to 9 words in a sentence. Typical sentences include:

• "No boody in dare!" ("Nobody in there", said whenever looking into an empty box, behind a piece of furniture, etc.)
• "Than choo much Tian Ming daddy!" (Thank you very much , Tim daddy) and "Than choo much, Yan mommy!". He drops the "k" on "thank" and has a Chinese-accented English "choo" instead of "you" which he learned from a Chinese woman he spends a lot of time with.
• "No than choo, already ate tumting" (said when he is offered food but is not hungry. It means "No thank you", with "tumting" instead of "something")
• "this bee-bee boo working" (Chinese/english combination for "This pen is not working", said when he tries using a pen/pencil that apears not to work)
• "umm-hmmm, That would be naish" ("nice" pronounced with an "sh" sound instead of an "s" sound at the end)
• "toas" (pronounced like "toast" without the final "t". This is Jadon's abbreviated english version of "of course", as in "do you want to watch Little Bear on TV?", "Toas!". It took us several days to figure this one out!)
• "Bye bye hoe toe Bob house" (Chinese/English that Jadon says sometimes when we go away in the car. It literally means "Bye bye, backyard Bob's house" and refers to Bob, the neighbor who's house is behind ours; in our back yard, as far as Jadon is concerned)
• "Bye bye shan shan jay jay nye nye house" (Similar to the previous sentence,but meaning "bye bye, Susan's grandmother's house")

Jadon could walk reliably in the spring, but he has now learned to dance (which he loves to do when he hears music he likes), climb indoors (his latest adventures involve climbing between and end table and the sofa, or the sofa and a chair, without touching the ground), climb outdoors (he tries, usually unsuccessfully, to climb small trees he finds), run, and fearlessly go up and down the stairs in the house.

Jadon is growing more independent. Beginning in August, he started to be unhappy if anybody, including mom or dad, tries to help him with something he wants to do himself. He often expresses his unhappiness by throwing the item down and walking away.

Jadon is a good eater, and likes a variety of foods. One of his favorites is "daddy o-doe" (daddy yogurt). He gave up on baby yogurt as soon as he tried dad's yogurt. It's a fruit-on-the-bottom kind of yogurt he especially likes to eat without mixing the fruit into it (leaving a fairly sour, lightly fruit-flavored taste that everyone is amazed he likes). Some of his other favorite foods are milk ("hot baby nai nai"), tofu, beans ("doe jiao"), dried mango slices ("man go tiao"), dried apricots ("shing shing"), bananas ("shang jiao"), Cheerios ("doe doe"), flax flakes ("how dong shee"), and rice ("me me")

Jadon loves to play games, and started playing little tricks on mom and dad soon after he was a year old, smiling as they fell for his tricks. Some of Jadon's favorite games are "Daddy's hiding; where's daddy", "Is there a spider up there?"

Jadon loves to watch "Little Bear" (a cartoon on TV). He's almost learned how to use the Tivo remote control to play it whenever he wants to (he actually knows how to do it as long as everything is set up properly beforehand).

Jadon enjoys listening to music, and has been able to remove and insert CDs in to the CD player, and start them playing, since before April. He often grabs one of his favorite CD's, climbs up on to the sofa, puts it in, and plays it.