Week 3 – Settling in now.

OK – this might win an award for the most boring post ever, but I am happy to report that we have had a pretty normal week. Sure, the poop and sleeping stuff is interesting, but really we are just settling into the domestic routine. I hate to admit this but I am loving it.

I now you are hanging on the edges of your seats to hear more about what’s happening with Charlotte, so let me get to that first.
Poop and food report: Just when we thought we had the right mix of foods – blam – another 3 a.m. poopy diaper change. Don’t get me wrong, this is better than nothing at all, but if dirty diapers are going to happen I would really prefer to deal with them in daylight. So we fiddled with the amount of prunes (7 spoonfuls at breakfast is our new number), stopped feeding cantaloupe as an afternoon snack, and added in a bunch of Nutrios, and by Saturday we had success. (I’ll spare you the details). We’ll see how long it lasts.
Charlotte’s menu is still pretty boring so far. She seems to only like orange fruits and veggies. For the past week she has spit out everything (potatoes, green beans, broccoli) except cantaloupe and carrots, oh, and applesauce is OK even though it isn’t the right colour. We are still boycotting bananas.
Her only protein comes from eggs right now, so we’re going to try and introduce more meats and tofu this week.
And, as proof that kids are completely unpredictable, she seems to be ‘off’ all bread products. This is a total shocker as it is the ONLY thing she would eat while we were in China. We’re not particularly worried though, as she can still pack back rice, and is loving the different pastas we’ve tried. There is no shortage of carbs in her life.
Here she is having dinner with my Mom at a restaurant.

Developmental report:
Good stuff here. She is playing and enthusiastically exploring all the toys, and particularly loves rolling balls back and forth. She is challenging to play with right now though, as all she wants to do is practice pulling up into a standing position, and then standing…even though she is none too steady! We’ve also been working on taking some first steps. It is all such fun.
Charlotte has probably made the most progress WRT feeding herself. The first week home she mastered picking up things off her tray, but rarely did they make it into her mouth. She has now figured out how to release! I think she is most proud of being able to put the Cheerios in her mouth.

Sleep report: I don’t even want to talk about it. Let’s just say that I really, really don’t like having to get up every three hours.

As for the rest of us, we’re doing well too.
Steve visited the doc on Thursday and he won’t need surgery on this hand. Hooray! It still is not completely healed, so he is to keep it wrapped for another month. He starts physio this week though. That’s right, he has to do thumb exercises. He, he, he. I know I shouldn’t laugh because having little/no range of movement is not a funny thing, but it is pretty friggin’ hilarious to watch someone concentrate on moving their thumb. Even AJ begged to watch tonight because, well, it is a fascinating thing. It will be even more amusing when he goes to the actual physio place and all the people with knee, back injuries are watching him doing weight training for his thumb. Can’t you just picture the mini barbells? All right, I better stop now because I can tell this will go downhill.

AJ’s adjustment fits are down to a dull roar and we are now just back to the usual 4 year old stuff. (wiggling out of her chair at suppertime, dawdling, being stubborn at inopportune times….you know the drill). The biggest excitement for her was her dance recital on Saturday. This was a HUGE deal – the show they work all year for. Not only did she get to wear a costume, but make up too. The recital was very long, and her number was # 21 out of 38, but it was fun all the same. We went out for dinner afterwards to celebrate at our favourite Vietnamese restaurant. (Note: Charlotte definitely prefers rice over noodles).

As for me, I am settling into the stay-at-home mom thing. It still seems a bit strange not be heading off to the office in the morning, but on days when the weather is nice it is not hard to adjust. After a few days of action packed weeding, (and lots of help from my parents) our garden is back to being respectable. Charlotte and AJ also helped with potting. (AJ is putting gardening gloves on Charlotte in this photo). All our China stuff is unpacked and the laundry is done. I feel like our home is getting back in order.

Now I’m on to the fun stuff – getting into the local bookclub, taking golf lessons (can you believe it??), finding good playgroups and other kid activities, and planning with AJ when we want to go to the library, museums farm, etc. It is so great to finally be able to do this stuff with her. The other plus is that there is a great group of “Moms” here, so I’m sure that often our daily activity will just be going over to someone’s house to play. We did that on Friday afternoon and while the kids played Steph, Lil and I decided that we should have a beer. It was late Friday afternoon, after all. Yep, the next 18 months are going to be a good time!