One week home!

Tim here with some home-for-one-week thoughts

At 8:08 Monday night I turned off Jaden's light after we finished our last book.  (Tracy had already settled Katie into bed for the night, and Katie was either asleep or very close to it.)  And I realized that exactly one week ago (at just after 8 PM) we were landing at the Tulsa airport, ready to start the next part of our adventure.

And I realized that our home life has already settled into a new routine.  (Granted, some of the routine will probably change in the weeks ahead, like the midnight Cheerios snack that Katie likes to have and some other aspects of our routine.)

And I also realized that our perception of time is a strange thing ... For example, it sure seems like we have been home for much more than one week ... and while in some ways it seemed like we were gone to China for a long time, in other ways it seemed that our time in China went more quickly this time than it did with Jaden's adoption.

Anyway, thinking about these things set my thoughts in a one-week-home flight of ideas moment, so here are some random comments and observations that came to mind.

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It's a lot harder to do stuff one-armed ... holding baby in the other arm really tends to make tasks more challenging ... But that's certainly a good trade off!

Being awake at midnight or 2 AM or 4 AM when you child cannot sleep is really pretty easy to take with grace if you stop and think about how much you had been dreaming of having time with your child over the past eight months.

Love wins. (This is a repeat thought from Jaden's adoption blog, but every bit as true for Katie)

Jaden is a super big brother ... but Jaden still wants to be the "baby" sometimes
Jaden plays the big kids card for stuff he wants (certain toys or foods) ... "Big kids get to do this, but it's not for babies.  Sorry, Meimei"
Jaden shares really really really really well ... he shares his stuff better than I do.
Jaden is patient and waits for a turn when Katie is in our laps or our arms or is taking our attention ... usually with good grace

      

Oklahoma spring is great and it is great to share it with Katie.  This morning we spent a lot of time outside and for a while she just stood and watched the wind blowing the trees around.  It was cool to see her enjoying it so much.

 
Katie likes to swing ... and Jaden likes to push her or to swing next to her and to tell me when her swing is slowing down.

   

Love wins.

God is good. (This is also a repeat thought from Jaden's adoption blog, but every bit as true for Katie). :-)

Based on all of the pictures that we had ever seen of her before the adoption, we wondered what her personality would be like and if Katie would ever smile ... and if so how long it would take ... now she smiles and giggles all day long (reference previous two comments)

Katie likes to laugh when she hears Jaden laughing, and sometimes they will just go back and forth laughing at each other.

Katie has already learned several words ... Mama, Dada, Gege, Sister, kitty, doggy, pretty, up.

Katie was unsure of the cats at first, but she warms up to them quickly and "kitty" was one if the first words she added once we got home.  It is taking her a little longer to get used to Doug, which makes sense since he is about 140 pounds of giant furriness.  But she is making great strides about Doug and is ok to stand near him now as long as one of us is nearby.  She actively seeks out the cats and will go over to them when they are lying down and will talk to them and try to pet them.

   

An 8:00 bedtime is awesome sometimes ... But the challenge is getting the kids asleep first ... Just sayin'!

Cheerios at midnight is fun if you have a 23 month old to feed you.

Love wins.

Katie slept very soundly in China ... Not so much here so far ... She is more likely to wake here, although she does tend to sleep more soundly once the sun comes up (which matches the sun being down in China) and sometimes we have to wake her in the mornings to try to get her on Oklahoma time.

If Katie wakes in the night she usually lies quietly in bed and does her adorable leg kick thing (or sometimes she does an arm flop) ... Sometimes she pokes us or pats / rubs our arms or backs.

I really thought we were done with these!
   

... And I certainly did not foresee driving around Tulsa looking at several locations for the perfect nipples.  (Wow, did I just type that?)  Anyway, I don't remember the style of bottle nipples being a problem with our first two kiddos, but part of that may be due to the fact that they were not still needing bottles at 23 months of age.  Unfortunately Katie had not been fed any solid foods at all at the orphanage ... when we first got her she had no idea what to do with solid foods.  Tracy started working with her, and she made progress quickly but at times she would just hold solid foods in her mouth ... sometimes we would get little bits of solids back from her several hours later (she would just hold food in her cheeks and would not be willing to get rid of it until we offered her more food at the next meal.)

Katie's entire face crinkles up she she laughs big or smiles big.  It is adorable.

Love wins.

Katie giggled at Laura all the way home from the airport.  Katie is in a back-facing car seat and Laura sat in the far back.  At Glenpool Laura said, "my face hurts from smiling so much."  :-)

Katie's first interaction with Mitch was not so smooth.  She had not had any exposure to males at the orphanage other than her surgical team, and she had been been very leery of me for 10-12 days in China and has continued to be leery of other men.  So it was odd that she just walked over and sat in Mitch's lap when he got home from college ... She was happy and relaxed with him, at least until she saw me enter the room and she realized that Mitch was not me!  ... Not a happy surprise for her, in case you are wondering how she took that realization.

Katie likes dresses, but she especially seems to like the dress on Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
 
She continues to be shy and standoffish with most people ... She still needs to cocoon from people and figure out this new world she is in with all of its new sounds and sights and smells ... So : sorry to everyone who wants to meet her and hold her and talk to her and touch her, and if we run into you at walmart and we try to shelter her, please understand.  Thanks.

And one final thought ... I miss Hong Kong and China, but you've got to love being home in the good old USA!!