Visit from Meemaw and Papa

Last week Johnny got to meet his Meemaw and Papa for the first time. As always, we had a great time while they were here and were sad to see them go home. Emma ate up all of the attention and took daily naps with her Meemaw and Johnny loved playing with his grandparents.

Our trip to the zoo.

Fish

Meet "Fish". This was Emma's valentines day present from Daddy. Yesterday I passed by Fish and she (she is a girl according to Emma...and she also talks) was laying on the bottom of her tank, struggling for life. Now a good mother would have taken care of the situation immediately. Being a bit overwhelmed with two and it being close to dinner time I pretended that I didn't see "Fish" in the hopes that Daddy would be the one in the room when Emma discovered the plight of her new pet. About twenty minutes later Emma was standing over the tank saying "What wrong with Fish Mommy?". Yikes. Ok, so how do you explain death to a two year old? I explained that it looked like Fish was dying and that Daddy would tell her what to do when he got home. Since she doesn't understand what dying means she looked at me and said "Can I get a blue one next?". Phew. No crisis. No sadness.

So John gets home and tells Emma that Fish is just sleeping and that when they sleep they need to be flushed down the toilet like in Nemo to go the ocean. He was appalled that I would bring up death to a two year old. How would we explain this to her? I started singing "It's the circle of life....." which was very helpful and said a few words for Fish. Emma didn't seem to care about either explanation so we will save any real conversation with her for the future and just get her a new blue fish.

Crisis averted.

Shower for Johnny

My coworkers at SMC threw a shower for Johnny a couple of weeks after we came home. It was a lot of fun and a great oppotunity to introduce him to friends. Thanks for the fun and all the great gifts!!

Emma loved the cupcakes and even got a big sister gift of her own.

Transitioning

Most peoples first question when they see me is "How is Johnny transitioning to being part of your family?". The answer to this is wonderfully! When we received information about his personality he was described as laid back and lovable. I would say that he is exactly that. He is happy unless hungry or ready to go to sleep. He loves to snuggle and be played with. He laughs at Emma while she dances, grabs everything he can get his hands on so that he can shove it in his mouth and is already soooo close to crawling.

The only real challenge we have had with him is sleep. We were told that babies process grief in their sleep so it would take a while for him to feel comfortable sleeping for long periods of time. This has proven to be very true for him. When we first brought him home he would wake up every hour and many times he would wake up screaming. It was a different type of cry than the typical half asleep, slightly hungry, dazed cry. It was more of a "where am I and what am I doing here?" cry. He will still wake up every once and a while with this cry but he is instantly calmed when he see our faces over his crib. He is finding comfort in us. He is trusting that we will be there when he wakes up (still sometimes every hour). It is amazing to us how quickly he has learned to put his trust in us. We are so thankful for this.

Though he is doing so well it has not been an easy transition for John and I. We have found that going from one to two children is quite the challenge. We were warned by larger families that the step from one to two was the hardest so were prepared somewhat for this. Emma was a very easy baby and for whatever reason, the transition from no kids to one was pretty smooth for us. We never had that month or two where we were just trying to keep our heads above water. I have asked a lot of mom's with two children how it went for them and the trend seems to be if they had a hard time with the first, the second was easy. But if the first was easy, the second was a bigger challenge. I can't really put my finger on why it is so much more challenging but I think it has something to do with being pulled in just one more direction and having to respond to the immediate needs of two instead of one. I am getting better and better at it without getting frazzled so hopefully this trend will continue.

We are beginning to feel a new "norm" come over our family and are coming out of survival mode. Now we just need to get him to sleep through the night....hmmmmm.......don't think that will happen anytime soon.

Trip to the Pediatrician

Johnny had his first pediatrician visit a couple weeks after coming home. He passed all of his tests with flying colors and was described by the doctor as being very healthy with no apparent problems. He cooed and played with the doctor during the whole visit at least until he looked in his ears but what kid likes that? He weighs almost 18 pounds and is in the 75% range for length and 50% for length when compared to other American children. He was obviously very well cared for at the orphanage. He had to have five vials of blood drawn and had some pretty difficult days after this traumatic experience. This is over now and we shouldn't have to do it again. Phew!!

Snow Day

A Visit from Aunt Heidi and Hailey

Aunt Heidi and Hailey came to visit at the end of January to meet Johnny. It was go great to have them here visiting and also to get some great advise from my little sister regarding having two children. Thank you so much for flying here to see us!

Johnny and Hailey are only two months apart. Hope they have lots of fun as cousins as they grow up.
"Ok sister....loosen the grip a little"

Johnny gets these type of kisses from Emma at least a couple of times per hour. She loves her hugs and kisses. Luckily, Johnny loves them too. As long as she can keep herself from squeezing his chubby belly.

We spent most of our time indoors in our pajamas but did get out a bit when the weather permitted.....

First Week Home

We are a family of four! Can you believe it? The first week home was pretty exhausting. Johnny was waking up every hour at night. My parents were here until Wednesday so they were a huge help but Thursday Emma came down with the flu and we were on survival mode for the rest of the week. Johnny did great through it all and put up with his new sick and tired family. Here are some photo's from our first week home.

Each day when you ask Emma what she wants to wear she shouts....a petty dress. Can't believe that she is so grown up and she makes the best big sister.

We were a little bit worried about Johnny and a car seat. They do not have them in Ethiopia so thought he might protest. Turns out he is a big fan. He falls asleep in his car seat and plays with Emma in the back seat while awake. Yay!!!!

Christmas in January

Emma insisted that we leave the Christmas tree up so that baby brother could see her handy work. So we had a second Christmas in January when we returned from Ethiopia. We were able to celebrate with Yaya and Pappy and had a great time opening stockings and presents on "Christmas morning"