Weeks 3 and 4

Before Coming Home After Coming Home

I thought you might like to see the before and after pictures. This is Ethan at about 8 months when he had just completed his surgery in China. The second picture is last week, taken of Ethan on his 100 wishes quilt. When Rob was doing his business tour in the Shandong province, one man he met said that his daughter had a 100 wishes quilt, too. So, it's a tradition still honored in Shandong. Can you tell how much his hair has grown in a month? I think his cut was from the summer based on pictures, but it was still pretty thin. It's almost ready for a haircut now. We didn't want to even out his hair with it so short in the winter. I was afraid he would be cold.

New words today: waffle, buckle (the carseat), Cheerios

New words yesterday: cereal, Marmie, PaPa (he really drawled out the Paw Paw, too. He will be a Southern gentleman soon enough. I can hear his Chinese cadence fading in his babble now. It's bittersweet. I'll be sad when he doesn't say Yo,Yo, Yo anymore)

In the last two weeks, we went to church and visited my grandfather, who is 90. But, that's it. We stayed home mostly. We are back to a full schedule of school, but it takes all day. We've been finishing at 5 PM most days, but we take a lot of breaks to play. Everything takes longer, breakfast, lunch, getting dressed. If we have a bath, that's about an hour. So, as long as we take it easy and use the time when we can, the work gets done. Some things just can't be done until naptime, which is late afternoon. Algebra explanations and read-alouds just can't be done with a toddler in the room. Please don't send me any helpful hints. It's just better to tackle it during naptime.

On Valentine's Day, Rob planned a stay-at-home date. He brought home sushi, and the kids went to bed (or at least upstairs in their rooms for the older ones) at 8:00. It took me ALL MORNING to shower, hot roll my hair and put on nice clothes and makeup. I really mean a long time. Ethan kept pointing to my curlers, looking confused and concerned and babbling at me. When it was time for swim practice, Ethan got to visit with Daddy at work for a few hours and I picked him up late afternoon. While he was with Rob and the older ones swam, I went to the bookstore to do my Valentine's Day shopping. Wow! I felt really normal that afternoon. That evening, Rob and I had time together to relax, eat our sushi and talk, and I felt totally normal. I think it was the turning point for me.

So new normal for us is good.