December 2011
Cristian is really enjoying all of the excitement surrounding Christmas. When it gets dark outside he loves driving around and looking at the Christmas lights. We have found a couple of neighborhoods where we can walk around and look closely at the decorations. Cristian will often ask how the homeowners "made" certain decorations. When we decorated our homes Cristian pulled a kitchen chair outside so he could watch all the action. When asked if he wanted to help put up the Christmas lights he stated "No, that's too dangerous. I'm watching safely." We all got a laugh out of that. Cristian has been really well-behaved during the Christmas parties we have recently attended. Is great to see him growing-up and learning how to self-regulate during activities that might otherwise stress him out.

December 2010
Cristian doing very well. His extreme behavioral challenges are few and far between these days. While he still has problems with transitioning from one activity to another, Cristian is certainly more willing to accept change without a big blow-up. Cristian continues to enjoy participating in community-based activities. He not only enjoys going to the movies but he also loves live theater. Cristian has also attended professional hockey games, college basketball, and his brothers' football games. Cristian's favorite amusement park is Legoland but he also is thrilled to go to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm as well.

Cristian is still struggling to eat enough food to sustain him. He has become very picky in terms of his food preferences. Food that he used to like he no longer tolerates. In September Cristian had a g-tube placed because he had lost a lot of weight and was chronically dehydrated. Amazingly Cristian hasn't fiddled with the g-tube and seems uninterested in it except for occasionally asking when the doctor is going to "take it out." Since supplementing Cristian's diet with formula through his g-tube, Cristian has been much more healthy and strong. We hope that Cristian will again get to the place where he consumes enough calories every day to sustain himself and will not have to use the g-tube to provide supplements.

May 2010
Cristian is having a great time now that it is warm enough to spend some time at the beach. Cristian enjoys collecting shells and building sand castles. He even likes taking the dogs to Dog Beach, but he definitely doesn't like to touch the dogs after they are wet and sandy. Cristian is looking forward to going back to Wild Rivers this summer as well.

This month Cristian's New York mom is coming out for a visit. Cristian is deciding which activities he would like share with her on her visit. Of course, Cristian loves all amusement parks and the higher the roller coaster goes the better. Cristian also enjoys boat rides and visiting science museums. Luckily Cristian's other mom is up for anything! Now we are just waiting to hear what Cristian has in mind for this much anticipated visit!

November 2009
Cristian continues to improve in his social skills. Cristian has decreased many of his inappropriate behaviors that challenged us for many months after he joined the family. Cristian continues to love to be in the community. Although he has his favorite places to go, namely amusement parks, Cristian is usually ready for any new adventure we propose to him. Certainly Cristian could easily slip into "a world of his own" without our encouragement to participate. However with encouragement from his brothers or the adults who support him Cristian can be an enthusiastic participant. Cristian continues to use Twitter.com as a way to communicate with his New York mom on an almost daily basis. This system seems to work well to keep his other family informed of his day-to-day thoughts and activities. Cristian is not long winded most of the time so 140 characters per tweet meets his needs just fine! Currently Cristian is looking forward to snow skiing season. He asks every day whether he can go skiing today. We point out the mountains and tell him we can't go until we can see the snow. I'm going to need help when we CAN see the snow because Cristian is going to want to go skiing every day!

July 2009
Cristian is finally at a school where the staff seems to understand him. We have not had to pick-up Cristian from school or transport him to and from school since he started at the Costa Mesa Annex High School. This was not the case at Canal Street School or our neighborhood middle school. Cristian tells us that he likes school. While we know, through his daily communication book, that he does exhibit certain serious behaviors at school, the school staff don't seem afraid or flustered by his behavioral challenges. Cristian's summer school program runs through the first week in August. Cristian seems to do well with this schedule. After school Cristian participates in a variety of community-based activities. He tolerate bowling, enjoys going to the movies and loves the beach. On the weekends Cristian is enjoying Wild Rivers and Knott's Berry Farm the most. He is enjoys rides that go "very high" and rides that go "very fast." Cristian enjoys the water combined with rides so Wild Rivers is his type of venue. Cristian is willing to stand patiently in line and watch others ride the rides. This is amazing growth from the first days when Cristian started living with us where long lines were a thing to be avoided at all costs! Cristian is also enjoying the Orange County Fair. This is one of my favorite places to go to in the summer and the boys are taking advantage of the fair's month long run in town. Despite the crowds and heat Cristian's behavior has been pretty good while attending the fair. He is enjoying the food choices and the array of rides. He even tried his hand at some of the carnival type games. Slowly but surely Cristian seems to be coming out of his shell socially and it is becoming increasingly easier to take him into the community.

April 2009
Cristian now has his own Twitter account under the name of "CristianFromCA" on Twitter.com. Cristian has been pretty agreeable to typing something new on his Twitter account every day. It is sort of fun seeing the world through Cristian's eyes. Cristian loves looking at the names of his followers and those who he is following, so follow him if you dare! :-)

March 2009
Cristian is adjusting to family life life with lots of brothers. Some days Cristian gets overwhelmed by the action and the noise level at home. Other days Cristian seems quite content to play video games or to go swimming with his brothers. While Cristian's behavioral issues often challenge us, we do see progress on a daily basis. Cristian is quite smart academically but his interfering behaviors often impede his ability to show his true level of cognition. Cristian is now attending a private non-public school where his behavioral challenges and his academic development can be addressed. Cristian biggest struggle, however, is his social skill development. Cristian has many social behaviors that resemble children who have severe autism. The good news about being part of a large family is that Cristian has lots of natural opportunities to learn and practice emerging social skills. At the moment Cristian is learning how to play video games with his brothers. Cristian is learning how to share his video game system, how to take turns, and how to communicate with his brothers in age-appropriate verbiage. Parenting Cristian is like taking two steps forward then one step backwards! We are happy that Cristian ultimately continues moving forward.

November 2008
Cristian (13) joined our family early this month. He was originally adopted from Romania as a young child. Cristian has multiple medical, emotional and developmental needs. For the past several years Cristian lived with his mother in New York. In his previous family Cristian was an only child. In order to develop his social skills it was decided that Cristian needed a family with siblings. Of course, where else could Cristian have more brothers than our family? So far Cristian is transiting well despite some significant behavioral challenges during the first few days. He still requires eyes-on supervision at home, at school and in the community Cristian enjoys going into the community, especially going to the beach. Cristian recently really loved a trip to Sea World where he was able to touch dolphins, se killer whales and even go on some rides. Cristian also loves reading and using the computer, We look forward to watching Cristian grow both socially and developmentally as he acclimates to our family.