We went to the Petting Zoo at Thanksgiving Point. Ivy loves going there because she gets to ride the horses. She has been going there to ride the horses since she was 4 months old. Needless to say, she does not let us hold on to her anymore, she rides all by herself. She also likes to show off that she can ride one handed, as you will see.
Luke's Chinese name is Huiyu, and his nick name is YuYu. He still responds to that, or course, but is also starting to respond to Luke as well.
Luke absolutely loved seeing all the animals. He just kept screaming with laughter, it was so cute!
Tomorrow we will have been home for two weeks. I am finally feeling like we are getting into a routine. For the the first week, we would fall asleep at 8pm, we would ALL wake up at about 11pm and not get back to sleep until 2am. Then wake up at 9 or 10am. Our schedule was so off!!
Thank goodness for wonderful friends and family who brought us dinners, and some frozen dinners I had bought before we left because I didn't get a chance to go shopping until this week. - and by "didn't get a chance" I mean, I was too afraid to venture out to the store with two kids all by myself. Rick worked from home for the first week we were back, and that helped me a lot.
Having two kids is not so much hard as it is busy, trying to help both children feel loved. With all the changes in both Luke's and Ivy's lives, there is a lot of insecurity right now.
Luke has adjusted pretty well, a lot better than Rick and I expected.
The first little while he didn't want us to leave the room, very anxious, I think, that we wouldn't come back. Now he doesn't like us to leave the house, but leaving the room is usually alright. He used to wake up 3 - 4 times each night crying. He would seem confused and disoriented. I'm sure he dreams he is back in China, so waking up to a new place is hard.
He is used to sleeping in the same bed as his foster parents, and absolutely insisted on doing the same with us. He would cling on to us and sob uncontrollably until we held him in our arms to go to sleep. He didn't want us out of his site at night. It has since gotten better. One or both of us will lay down with him, but he dosen't always insist on being held. And after a few minutes he is fine with us leaving the room, even if he isn't asleep. After we come back in the room to go to bed ourselves, we move him to his pack 'n play right next to our bed. He usually only wakes up once a night crying now. Poor little guy. He has gone through so much and he is being such a little trooper.
Ivy is struggling a bit as well. She is so used to having both of our undivided attention, and doesn't always appreciate sharing that now with Luke. She tries hard though, and we like to give her "special Ivy time", like staying up 15 minutes later than Luke. If they are having snack time, I put her in charge of the snacks and she is responsible for giving Luke some when he runs out. Luke doesn't care who gives him the food, so for right now this gives her a small feeling of taking care of her little brother (or a superiority complex - one or the other, either way, eating = not fighting, so I'm fine with it). I can see how this practice may eventually back fire on me as they both get older and he begins to want to have a turn 'being in charge'. I don't like to think too far in the future, though, mostly because I don't have time. :)
The biggest disagreements they have are about parents and toys. Whatever or whoever one has, the other one wants immediately as well. Lots of drama! Surprisingly I haven't lost it yet, or hit anyone, or screamed, or thrown anything. I pray more than once a day to be happy, and by happy, I mean to not have the desire to loose it, hit, scream, or throw things - I think God knows what I mean, even when I talk in code like that.
Luke is not having a problem adjusting to food. He pretty much eats anything we put in front of him, ANYTHING.
