We brought Andre home at 26 months. I personally love this age because you're done with teething, ear infections (for the most part), and coming out of an orphanage, you're also mostly done with potty training.
Laguage is developing at this age, and they pick up English amazingly fast!!!!!
Our DS was speaking at least 24 words of English, that we could understand, by the time we got home from Russia. We were home 2 months and his English was just as good as any other child his age here in the states. He also understood us as well as any other child his age.
We spent the first 2 months in the "honeymoon" phase, where our DS was an angel. Slowly, as he became more comfortable with us, he began acting like most any other toddler.
I would say that it took 3 - 4 months for our DS to attach to us (maybe not fully, but well on his way). It took a little longer for our older child, 5 years old, and our new toddler to attach to each other. It took them closer to 8 - 10 months.
We are home 10 months now, and our DS doesn't show any signs of having memories of being in Russia. If we look at the pictures, he doesn't seem to remember - this wasn't the case just a few months after coming home.
We were on the lookout for signs of attachment issues, and began to see some between 2 - 4 months home. When this happened, we took the time to really focus on attachment parenting, and those issues seemed to work themselves out.
We have a happy, healthy, good natured, funny little man who will turn 3 next week
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I just love toddlers!!!