Two things I've learned

I'm constantly observing my new son, learning more and more about him on a daily basis.  We talk a lot about our first attempt to adopt him and the relationship we built with him during that time.  I'm amazed at how vividly he still remembers details of most of our conversations.  That has definitely helped us to bond very quickly.  He accepted us as his family immediately and began calling us Mom and Dad very naturally from day one.

Two main things that I have learned about him so far are these:

1. He likes to eat.  A lot.  He will not leave a crumb on his plate, nor does he like to see anyone leave a crumb on their plate, either.  He's quite healthy, though, and he gets so excited whenever it's time to eat fruit.  (We eat fruit with breakfast, have natural fruit juice at lunch, and have a designated time for fruit in the late afternoon.  Then after dinner, if we don't have anything for dessert, he asks for fruit again).  I think he's going to go into shock when he gets to the States and cannot find many of his favorite fruits, like pitaya, guanabana, fejoa, granadilla, etc. However, he's not picky in any sense, so I know he'll find new favorites quickly.
2. He loves his brother (Julian) and has quite a bit of respect for him.  Though they hadn't seen each other in nearly a year (since last year when we had them both together), their bond has not changed a bit.  He gets so excited when he hears that we might see his brother.  Last night we played a little conversational game, and he had to answer the question: Who is someone that has had a lot of influence in your life?  It didn't take him long to answer, "Julian".  He said his brother has helped him with so many things in his life.  He doesn't even know yet just how instrumental his brother was in this second attempt to adopt him.  I'm so thankful to know and love Julian like we do so they don't have to ever feel like they need to let go of one another.  It saddens me that here they've been living in the same city for the last year and a half with absolutely no contact with one another.  Even though we're taking him somewhere 2500 miles away, we made it clear that his brother will always be a part of his life.