We have been home now for three full days and are starting to really settle in. The suit cases are all unpacked and most clothes washed. Now just to put away the massive piles of stuff unpacked! Claire is doing amazingly well!!! She is enjoying exploring a little more each day and it is so fun to see more of her sparkly personality shine through! Night time is still a hard time for her and she grieves but last night it was much less in duration and she was able to calm herself quickly and fall back asleep in my arms. Henry has been waking up at night too (not at the same time) because of his asthma. I think that the smog and possible a little cold (fever in airport) finally caught up with the guy. We are making progress in jet lag though!! Today we all woke up by 9 am!!! Yesterday after a rough night it was 11:30. The day goes really quickly when you wake up at 11:30.
Henry and Claire had a very instant and intense love for each other. They literally light up when they see each other. Henry has been the huge stepping stone and safety net that Claire needed to make such a huge life change. Not that there are not any little things that we need to work on. Claire can love a little too hard on Henry. He does a really good job of taking it but he always has such a wounded look on his face. We are working on being gentle and if you repeat "gentle gentle" to her she will start softly petting Henry. Henry is still getting used to the fact that she touches all his stuff. He is still over tired and gets more emotional when an offence happens. Yesterday I set him behind the gate so that he could play cars uninterrupted and still be in the same room as all of us and it seemed to work well. Finding the sibling dynamic is a work in progress but we will get there!! The sweet moments far out number the drama. Henry asked if Claire could take a bath with him again and was thrilled to hear she could always take a bath with him! Two at a time is way faster!!
Claire has also decided today that its ok to have Appa do more for her. I am not going to lie he totally bribed her with food to win her over but hey it worked!!! Claire always liked Jason and thought he was funny but she like him from the seat next to him. She would have preferred that he not hold her at all but would deal with it no longer than a minute or two. She would put up with it but just stick her bottom little lip out. Yesterday Jason worked really hard at winning her over and huge progress has been made!! He was even able to do two diaper changes today! It all takes time but today was a big day in their relationship. I was told were Appa is all day and during our walk she kept turning around and waving to him.
Claire is hilarious!!! She is a sassy little lady with loads of personality! She trys to be a little mother to Henry and will pat him and try to feed him. She also mimics everything I do and I have a little shadow. I was folding clothes this morning and she was right there with me helping. The lady has style. She loves jewelery, purses and shoes. I was putting clothes away in her closet and she wanted me to pick her up. She slowly looked at all the clothes in her closet. I am going to be in trouble when this little fashinista is a teenager!!! She is a really good sleeper. She has been waking up some at night but that is because of grieving and she falls asleep again almost immediately. She cuddles into me to fall asleep and then I am able to put her in her crib in our room until she wakes up again. Last night she was only up once so knock on wood we are getting there! This girl can eat. She will try almost anything and if she does not like it she will wave her little hand and shake her head. She has liked almost everything we have given her. The first thing to go on her plate is always the fruit, she LOVES the fruit. Cherries are the favorite but grapes, raspberries and strawberries are good too. She will try the blueberries but still not a fan yet. I made kimbap today for lunch and she inhaled it!!!! We had been giving her lots of seaweed but I had not made rice yet and she was sooo excited to eat it. When she needs a diaper change she scrunches up her little nose and pinches it while waving her little hand. The first time we saw it yesterday we just about died laughing. When she is tired and just about ready to fall asleep and right before she wakes up she takes her pointer finger and taps her lips. It is the sweetest thing to watch.
 |
| I was in the kitchen and I looked over to see these two cuddling!! |
 |
| Looking fancy for breakfast the first morning home! |
 |
| We needed to upgrade our gate at the bottom of the steps. Two monkeys, Henry pulling it down/falling, Jason busting open his toe and just having forgotten how annoying it was to take up and down or step over led to us buying a new permanent gate. The fantastic news is that Henry figured out how to open it in exactly 10 minutes. The gate is not for him so as long as he remembers to close it we are ok. He was pretty proud of himself. |
 |
| Appa is so lucky to have two helpers now! |
 |
| Seriously melts my heart. |
 |
| They were so excited for me to take their picture. Can you see it all over Henry's face? |
 |
| "Kimbap!?! Yes, I would like about 5 more of those." Normally the fruit is the first thing she eats but today all of her Kimbap was gone first! |
 |
| Happy Girl!! |
