One thing that alarmed me when Joshua first came home was his reaction to getting hurt. If he was hurt he would either ignore it or cry in a very isolated way, closing his eyes, tilting his head back and to the left. When he cried this way his whole body exhibited how alone he felt, how he "knew" that the only one he could count on was himself. If I picked him up while he cried he would almost not notice. As he became a little more comfortable, if he fell and got hurt he would welcome me picking him up - but then push me away and scream for Daddy, Krissy, or Jay to comfort him as if it were my fault he was injured because I was the closest to him.
Now you are just going to have to trust me when I say these reactions were unlike any I have experienced with any other children. I know there are tough kids that rarely get hurt. I believe Joshua is tough, but why? Because he just is? Or because he had no expectation of anyone caring that he was hurt? I have often read of how silent it is on infant wings in orphanages because eventually the babies quit crying knowing no one will comfort them... I suspect that Joshua's lack of a reaction to injuries early on was similar to this.
I tell you all this to put into perspective how much his reactions to "owies" has changed. He now almost looks forward to minor injuries because they are an opportunity to ask each of us to kiss it! He put a sticker on his leg today, just for fun. But when he pulled it off it hurt a little. He went from me to Krissy to Jay to Sierra to Brenna and made sure each of us noticed and kissed his owie, grinning bigger with each kiss.
Yesterday he had his first "big" owie. He fell on the sidewalk and scraped his knee. It bled! He looked down and saw the blood, then reached his arms up to me and said, "Momma help you! Joshua owie!" He burrowed his head into my chest, sucked his thumb, and wept as I carried him into the house for a band-aid. He then was "totally unable" to walk until after nap because he had an owie knee. It was all blessedly, beautifully normal!
