Week 2 – Progress!

It was funny writing this title because it doesn’t seem like only week 2 at home. We truly are Charlotte’s ‘forever family’ – it feels like the four of us have always been together.

Week 2 started off looking pretty grim, but there has been great progress in a number of areas!

Health: Charlotte had a NASTY cold. Mucous everywhere, nose running all the time, awful sounding cough that was so rough it made her throw up usually twice a day. To add to the hassle of cleaning up mucous vomit a couple times a day, I came down with a milder version of the same thing. Until about Thursday we were all feeling like crap and then, quite miraculously really, we all started to feel better.

I am happy to report that as of today we are all doing well. While she was sick Charlotte went on a bit of a hunger strike, but she is now back to eating like a horse.

AJ: AJ also did very well this week. There was a little bit of acting out, and a good deal of ‘testing’, but none of the “send her back” stuff and fits from the first week. I am really impressed by how well she is adjusting, really. She is sharing her house, her room and most of all her parents and grandparents. For someone dealing with such a radical change she is doing pretty well. That said, I must confess that I am slightly dreading June 15….The Last Day of School. I have a sneaking suspicion that part of the reason that things are progressing so well is that life is ‘normal’ and AJ is occupied for several hours of the day. We’ve been really flexible with her with respect to school so she feels she has some control in life. Some days she asks to be picked up @ noon, other days she wants to stay until 3:30 (normal end of day), and a few days she has asked to be picked up @ 5:00 (her regular time while I was working). Doesn’t matter to me, so I go with whatever she decides. (although the longer days are nice because I am finally making some headway against the weeds that have taken over the gardens).

AJ also had some great sports milestones. Wednesday was her first soccer game, and she had a great time. Sunday was her last swimming lesson for the session. She passed Pre-School Level B and has graduated to the next level (whatever that means).

Charlotte: Char has made amazing developmental progress! As we suspected, her large head (although not freakishly so) must be home to a very large brain. This week she has:
- gone from no self-feeding, to putting things in her mouth but mostly biting her own hand, to successfully putting her hand to her mouth and releasing food. If you’ve watched a child try to figure this out you will know it is no small feat. She responds VERY well to positive feedback and beams and laughs when we cheer for her.

- managed to sit steadily and doesn’t require pillows all around her anymore

- started standing on her own (yea for activity tables)

- managed to take some tentative sips from a straw (OK, mostly I squeeze the container so the liquid shoots into her mouth, but she likes it!!)
- learned to press the button on the musical toy to make music and make us cheer some more. Notice the "watch me." and "Aren't I cute?" poses....

- pulled tissue paper off her head when I put it there (unlike last week where she just cried)

Amidst all this she has sprouted 2 new teeth – one on the bottom and one on the top.






She is still waking at least 2x to 3x per night. The first is always almost exactly 1 hour after she goes to sleep. This is a nasty one…we think she is having night terrors. We’ll hear her screaming, I mean really screaming loud. When we get to her she is still completely asleep, hot/sweaty and thrashing around. No amount of comforting seems to work. She just wails for about 5 mins. and then lapses back into sleep.
The second wake up is usually around midnight, but can be as late as 2:00 am. This one is for a feeding. We think this is mostly just habit as the orphanage used to do a midnight feed.
The third one is around 4:00 am. This one is for a quick hug and then back to sleep.

The last 2 nights there have only been 2 wake ups….so let’s hope things are settling down a bit. Her daytime routine is either 1 big nap starting around 1:00 pm, or 2 shorter naps of 1 hour each in the morning and the afternoon.

This week also marked an important ‘first’ in her life. She got her first mosquito bite while playing outside. An important milestone for any Canadian.

Meeting and Greeting

A lot of people have been waiting a long time to see Charlotte, so once she started to feel better we made a point of getting out to see some of them.

Last weekend she got to meet Auntie Jo, Ross, Brina and “cousin” Odin. Here is Odin and AJ playing the piano. Jo made a wonderful albumn for Charlotte with some special photos + all the posts from this blog. It will be a great keepsake for years to come.

She also spent a lot of time with my parents this week, as has AJ. This was really nice because AJ really enjoyed/needed some time away from her sister and one-on-one attention. For Charlotte, it has been a chance to get to know them better and understand that they are special people in her life. And, of course, we want her to be comfortable with them just in case they want to do some babysitting…. : )

Later in the week we went to my office so she could meet all her new “aunts and uncles.” She was a total star!! We were there the whole morning and she smiled and charmed people the whole time (and then had a BIG nap on the way home in the car!!)

On Wednesday night she got to meet her local at AJ’s soccer game, and on Friday we went to the Dickinson Day parade. I’m willing to be this was her first parade. She LOVED it!!!

Yesterday our friends Kohji and Tamara came over for a pre-trip visit. They are headed to China at the end of the month to pick up their daughter. Very exciting!! We sent them packing with a bunch of advice, a whack of meds that we didn’t use, and one of our giant suitcases. I can’t wait ‘til they get home so that Charlotte and Kiyomi can play together

And finally, tonight we had an impromptu dinner party. My parents, Whitney and Michael, and Mark and Emma came over. It was great to see them and the kids had a great time running around.

All in all it has been a great week. Thanks to everyone who sent emails, called and posted comments. It is nice to get back in touch with everyone. Although things are mostly coming up roses here, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that we are still adjusting to being parents of 2 kids. Yes, all of you who warned me were right. Having 2 is definitely more than double the work! So, I will commit to posting once a week, and will try for more when I can. Hope you enjoy the pics.

H