At first, Stanley Hermane held up a toy phone to his ear as if an expectant caller had rung. Then the 21-month-old decided that the object was a baseball. Then it was a hammer that he banged with delight.

The Haitian orphan that adoptive parents Michael and Monica Simonsen just brought back from the earthquake-ravaged country has already latched onto a favorite object - so much so that he seems unfazed by the reporters who keep coming to witness the latest chapter in his story.

Wednesday was the first morning that he awoke in his new home in Baltimore, and the Simonsens said he slept through the first night in his own room without a whimper.

On Monday, after the Simonsens took Stanley from Haiti to Orlando, Fla., "he slept until about 10 a.m., but he hadn't slept in a bed in weeks," Michael Simonsen said. They flew to Baltimore on Tuesday night.

"Today, we got him up at about 8," Michael Simonsen added. "He's just been hanging out."

Stanley is in the country under "humanitarian parole," a policy recently instituted by the Department of Homeland Security that allows Haitian orphans to go to families already in the process of adopting them. The department's spokesman, Matt Chandler, said that as of Wednesday afternoon, nearly 500 Haitian orphans had received humanitarian parole, up from 96 just a week ago.

"For now, we are considered his foster parents," Monica Simonsen said. "I don't know what the next steps are right now. We just received an e-mail from the Department of Health and Human Services, and we need to process it."

The boy enjoys his father's real cell phone as much as his toy version, holding it to his ear and making a sound as if to say "hello." Stanley sucks his thumb a bit, and Michael Simonsen said immigration officials struggled somewhat to get a good thumbprint. The boy rocks himself to sleep, his mother said.

Even before they knew they would bring the boy back, they attempted to learn Creole. Their nanny speaks French, Haiti's other official language.

Stanley is a bit congested, and Monica Simonsen said his first doctor's appointment is today.

"It will probably be a long visit, because we don't have very good medical records," she said. "We'll probably be starting from scratch.

"He's eating what we eat," his mother added. "The thing is, at the orphanage they start them on adult food pretty young because it's hard to keep bottles clean."

The Simonsens, both 31, have a 6-month-old son, Dane, and he and Stanley met Wednesday morning.

"They were kind of looking at each other, scoping each other out, as if to say, 'What are you doing in my house?' " Monica Simonsen said. "But Stanley's only seen us give him our 100 percent attention."

The Simonsens said their wish to get Stanley here in time for his second birthday in April has been fulfilled.

"Hard to believe," his mother said.