Blog Entry
Posted by Kristen Alldrin on January 01, 2010 to Adoption blog
(click any image to enlarge) Big Sister Samuel seems to have a special affinity for his biggest sister. Maybe because she can actually carry him... Riding Wahoo The girls love their inflatable bouncy dog named Wahoo. Cleaning Day The new kids get shown the ropes. Olivia knows how to clean! Cleaning Day II Emily shows Naomi how to run the vacuum. 1. Samuel is smart and stubborn. (What Samuel has learned is that we are smarter and even more stubborn!) 2. Samuel can now do the signs for "more" and "please". We think he got by in his former life with his pointer finger and big, expressive eyes. He's going to have to communicate with us in other ways to get what he wants. He's too cute for words and he knows it! 3. Our new girls have a fear of the dark. In spite of going over and over the rules, they kept getting up and turning the lights on in the middle of the night because they were scared. We have nightlights right by their beds and leave the light on in the bathroom. We have taped the light switches down at night or pulled the chain on the overhead light to disable the light switch. This seems to be doing the trick. They are getting more comfortable in their new home and seem to be having less trouble at night. 4. They do not like to be alone. A fate worse than death is to be put on your bed all alone in a time-out. We have only done this a couple of times when the girls have broken a serious rule. They are learning quickly to obey. 5. Cutting down on water before bed will save you countless trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Our girls have never had this problem, so it came as a surprise to us. That said, these new girls drink a ton of water and if we don't limit it after 6:00, we will be up all night. 6. I forgot how nice it is to not have to wipe other people's bottoms. I won't allow the girls to use the bathroom alone until I am satisfied that they are consistently practicing good hygiene. They also prefer to shake their hands dry over using a towel and I'm not fond of water all over my cabinets. Being in the bathroom with them will also help next week when it is time for me to collect three stool samples per child 6. Tickling is a universal language. Back to: Adoption blog Here's what we've learned in the first week home.
Fun, fun!