Kaylen's New Haircut!

I was nervous because Daddy took her to get her short cut instead of me, but it turned out REALLY cute!
...and the back:
And it's going to be super-easy for her to care for as well. I was worried about this with a short haircut, but she showered last night before bed, went to bed with it wet, and it was really fluffy and cute this morning - she just brushed through it quickly.

One Month Home (+1 day)

Yesterday was the one-month mark of having Elijah & Josephine home. So much has changed in our lives and even more in theirs, as we have melded our lives together. We're so blessed to finally have all three of our children under one roof. They are such a blessing!

As I sit here typing one-handed (even left-handed), (because my children are at my side on the couch with my right hand on Josephine who is very upset that Elijah is between her and me), it's hard to think back to the long wait for them to come home. That pain seems a distant memory now. God has eased that pain with the blessing he's given us out of the horrible tragedy in Haiti.

Mesi Jezi!

Fun Photos

I thought I'd post a bunch of photos tonight to get caught up - but there are TOO many cute ones (It helps when you have such cute subjects!), and I'm falling asleep. But here are a few...

Four Weeks Home Already!

I can't believe it's been 4 weeks already since Elijah & Josephine came home! It's gone so quickly! We've had our challenges, but mostly things are going well. Here are some fun pictures from the 6 days they were home in January. I'll go through my February photos soon - there are even more good photos as E&J continue to get more comfortable and their smiles and sillies come out! :)

Intro to "Elmo's World":
Naptime with Daddy:
Just Playtime:
Naptime:
Playing with big sister, Kaylen:
Visitors - J with cousins Kenny & Shauna:...and E with aunt Amy and cousin Kenny:...L-R Kenny (3), Elijah (3), and Caden (4):...Elijah with Daddy and cousins Jared, Kenny & Caden:

E&J's Behaviors/Discipline

Both E&J have been pretty good. They of course don't like being told no, but are pretty good with even that. Although Josephine has sort of gotten a little attitude where she thinks it's funny to do it again even after you've told her no. Elijah is more stubborn. He'll just stay there with the funny look on his face and wait until we're not looking to try it again.

For discipline, we've done Time-In's, where we take away whatever they're holding in their hands, and hold them on our lap and count out loud to 30 or 40, before going back to what they were doing and telling them don't touch/throw/hit, whatever. We've also tried a few time-out's when it's at a time (like fixing supper) when we can't hold them and count. They usually then quit - although it's the same things each day. They love to touch everything - especially light switches, and open and close doors. I know they're just trying to figure things out and explore things, so I'm trying to choose my battles.

E&J are good at tattling on each other too - I can't usually tell what they're saying - and sometimes they just grunt not really using words, but they get my attention and point at the other. Many times I just look and ignore whatever was being pointed at, or say it's OK and they understand that. Sometimes it is something I should be aware of. Definately something I'm not used to with an only child up until now.

Both E&J are a little jealous of each other (or any other children) who gets to sit on my lap or get my attention, but more-so Josephine than Elijah. Elijah was sitting on my lap the one day a week or so ago - facing me, so he was further down by my knees. Josephine didn't like this, so tried to squeeze in between - which probably would have been fine except that then she started shoving Elijah off. I picked her up and moved her off my lap and next to me... tantrum ensued. Boy, she was mad/sad. Another day, when they'd been home just over a week, I was watching a friends' kids for an hour or so while they went to Kindergarten registration. When the baby woke up and played, he crawled over to me to sit on my lap or stand up next to me. Josephine didn't like that either. The very next day Elijah came down earlier than her from his nap and then sat on my lap in the recliner for a bit and fell asleep. When she came down, she climbed up on me - but was mad because she only got one leg/shoulder to sit on. She adjusted this time though, because she knew she would've gotten sat down on the floor instead of getting half of me. Poor girl. She wants mommy all to herself. We still have these little events, but they are learning to share me with each other a little better.

They're now starting to fight over toys. Not really surprising giving their little hoarding tendencies after living the last couple years with few toys to play with, but they're having to learn that they shouldn't - we have SOOOO much! A friend suggested I put the toys in timeout if they fight over them. Tried it a few times now. Sometimes they both throw a fit, and sometimes one or the other will throw a fit while the other just moves on to something else. And a few times they both just move on. Too soon to tell how it's going to go with this though.

When Elijah throws a tantrum, he sits down on the floor - not really kicking and screaming, but just mad/stubborn-crying and floundering around a little... and drooling! Josephine tends to sit still with her high-pitch whiney cry. Sometimes her little lower lip pouts out about two feet - it's almost hard not to laugh and take a photo of it! I let it go on for a few minutes, completely ignoring it, and then finally telling them sternly, "Kanpe" or "Stop it" or "That's enough". Usually does the trick. They both then will sit in that same spot for a minute or two silently, and then when they decide to move, I hold them for a minute and talk to them again about it and then tell them I love them. I think it's hitting home - don't have these come up too often - although with the toy-fighting increasing, we'll see.

Oh! Has any other family dealt with their Haitian child spitting? Elijah will spit at leisure. I've caught him spitting on the floor and into the toy tea-set cups. I've told him no-no while pointing at the spit and then covering his mouth, but I'm not sure he really understands that he shouldn't do it again. He's done it a couple times now, so we'll see. Any words of advice or creole words for me? I think it started with spitting in the sink when brushing teeth, but sheesh - that's not acceptable in my house at non-tooth-brushing times. Hmmmm...

Anyway, mostly good, and we'll see how things progress on a few of these things... :)

Hair Day #2b - Zulu Knots, part 2

Finally this morning, I got around to splitting the three zulu knots that I'd put in Josephine's hair. They were three, now they are eight, plus a (not very good) cornrow across her forehead, with beads at the end. Thought I'd try that cornrow to see how I'd do before I tried them in her hair. I'm horrible at braiding with my palms up! Also, my pieces weren't even so I couldn't get very close to the end of it - and I didn't put enough beads in it. I may try to fix it later, but at least it was good practice. I'll keep trying. Maybe one of these days I'll get it down. Here are the photos, first with her aunt Amy, then on Daddy's lap...

Hair Day #2 - Zulu Knots

I started removing the tiny box braids yesterday at breakfast:

...which then turned into coloring-time:

...took a break, then continued braid-removal at snack-time:

..then took another break before washing and re-styling:

The finished product:

...well, not entirely finished. It's already coming out on the edges, but yesterday she'd had enough. So I plan to change the three sections into more, smaller sections, so it'll stay longer. Anyway, I think the two knots on top sort of look like antennae - but she's the cutust little bug you ever did see, isn't she? :)The beauty is that it's not quite as technical or time-consuming of a style, so it'll be easy to redo one section if it starts looking ratty before I'm ready for another style. It's just like putting hair in pony tails, and then I twisted the pony-tail until it turned back on itself and then put anotoher tie over it to hold it.

Haiti Update

An American adoption processor who lives in Haiti posted this update on her observations regarding Haiti and Haitian adoptions. An interesting read.

Hair stuff again

I did a little research because I've been seeing in a few places where people were saying their daughter had "3b" or "3c" or "4a", etc. I had NO CLUE what this meant! But apparently there are different textures and different textures have different ways to care for it and to keep it healthy.

Here is an excellent website that describes the different hair types and how to tell what texture/type of hair you or your child has. It also has suggestions for how to care for each type of hair, and links to products that work well with that hair type. Type 1 (straight hair) is omitted from this website - It's all types of hair - straight, wavy, curly, kinky. For example, my hair is most likely type 1 or 2a.

It's still a little confusing, but I *think* that Josephine has type 3c or 4a hair right now. It's a little hard to tell with her hair up in braids. But, she's got some little curls that have fallen out of her braids at the back of her neck, and they're in teeny-tiny coils - maybe about the size of a coffee-stirrer straw or the spring in a clicker pen.

It makes sense now that her little box braids are still looking pretty good after two weeks. I thought her hair was starting to look a little fuzzy in between the braids a few days ago, but they're really not. Must be that it's getting enough moisture that it seems it's not even looking as fuzzy as it was a few days ago. She's been dumping water on her head at her bathtime - both Wednesday and today, and on Wednesday I put coconut oil on it, so maybe that helped.

For Elijah, I don't know what hair type he has, but not as concerned because his is shorter and we plan to keep it pretty short. It has started to grow out slightly, and is starting to ball up a tiny bit. Someone shared that they use a soft boars' hair comb in between clippings, so I'll be getting one. Apparently it will help train it to grow a certain direction if you do grow it out a bit - and it'll make it sort of wavy. We'll still keep it fairly short, but keep him in the habit of getting his hair combed too.

Anyway, still experimenting a bit, but thought I'd share what I've learned in case others are wondering the same things. Happy hair learning! :)

First Two Weeks Tidbits

• Jock went back to work Thursday afternoon the week we got home, and then full days after that. I've been busy! But having fun playing with and loving on the kids. They seem to be adjusting fairly well. Josephine reverted back to not liking Jock after those two days, but after the weekend together she's been good. They both run to him, hollering excitedly, when he comes home from work, which is really nice.
  
  
• I did a phone interview with a reporter from my hometown newspaper. They published a really nice article on us last week. I've seen the online version, but haven't yet received the copy of the paper they were going to send us. She said it might run on the front page, which from their website, I'm guessing it did, because it was the top story. Very nice article - thanks Jessica!
  
  
• Friends from our small group Bible study at church had a celebration dinner the first week we were home instead of our usual Thursday night Bible study. They also have been preparing meals for us about every other day since we got home, and got us some gifts and gift cards. They are awesome!!!
  
  
• Clothes: I'm still trying to figure out what size clothes Josephine is in. Elijah is fairly squarely in 3T clothes. Josephine can wear 24 month pants that are too big around her waist but too short, she can also wear 3T pants that fit her perfect - go figure! She's wearing 3T tops and those fit her fine. So, I'm going with size 3T, with safety pins to cinch up the waists as needed.
  
  
• Bed/Nap-times: Elijah is usually suddenly very sad when we lay him down in bed. One of us usually lays down with Elijah until he falls asleep. If we don't he's out of his room and standing either at our bedroom door or at the top of the stairs sad and waiting for us! A few nights, Elijah would wake up at midnight, or 3am or 5am. Those times I would just go in and lie down with him again - or if it was a 5am thing, I'd just stay for a couple hours, because he seemed more wide awake and I wasn't ready for him or anyone else (including myself) to get up yet. It's fine with me for now, as we know he needs that attention and love. We'll probably try to ween him off of this, but not quite yet. Josephine usually goes to sleep on her own in her toddler bed right next to E's bed. They're in the same bedroom for now. Maybe this summer we'll try to put the girls together, but who knows. We'll wait and see how things go.
  
  
• Routine: well, it's not set in stone, but it seems to usually play out like this...
  6:30 - Jock gets ready for work, I help Kaylen get ready for school.
  6:45-7:00 E&J wake up and I get them breakfast.
  7:10 Jock leaves for work, taking Kaylen to daycare on his way.
  7-8ish E&J breakfast, possible bath, lotion, get dressed.
  8ish-11:30 playtime then snack at ~10 then more playtime before lunch around 11:30.
  12ish naptime - E usually sleeps one hour and then comes down to snuggle/sleep more on my lap while J sleeps for another 30-60 min. Then more playtime until snack at 3, then they get wild! Sometimes I take them to pick up Kaylen at daycare - between 3:30 and 4:30 depending on the day and the evening plans.
  ~6:00 Dinner, then more wild playtime with Daddy.
  7:00 start to try to settle them down, bedtime around 7:30 - although they usually are not asleep until around 8. Of course, this is mixed up a bit if we have appointments, etc. Also, on evenings when we have things going on I try to feed the kids earlier so we can get out the door sooner.
  
  
• More later on medical stuff, behaviors, playtime...

E&J's First Two Weeks

It's hard to believe Elijah & Josephine have been home for 2 1/2 weeks already! This time is flying by! I'm trying to cherish every moment, because as soon as I know it, it'll be time to start taking them to daycare and going back to work for me. April will come all too fast, I'm afraid!

OK - So, I've been really delayed getting things posted. I've been posting things on Facebook since that's quicker tidbits, but not good at getting things down on my blog. So, I'm going to go back through some of my FB posts here and add some more detail, for you all to read and so I can have a little bit of history for us later...

Turning a Corner

Kaylen has really been struggling the past few weeks. I'm sure it has a little to do with leaving her for a week, but also the big changes in how much attention she is getting.

We're doing what we can to give her some individual attention, but she's just been a bear! We're talking deliberate disobedience (even right after we've told her something), not listening/selective listening, crying over just about everything, complaining that she doesn't get ANY time with us anymore, attitude problem, etc... Especially this weekend and yesterday. I'm sure it also had a little something to do with her being sick (ear infection), and probably not sleeping well because of it.

However, today she was an angel compared to the past few days, so we're praying we've turned a corner with her. Even though she was still sick, I got to spend some time with her while they were napping, playing a game. Also, I got to instruct her on how to play with the kids, and how to help me with a few things with them without her trying to be the mini-mommy. She did great! It was a complete 180, and I was so impressed today!

E&J's first two weeks

(this somehow remained draft instead of actually posting, so back-dating it to the right time period)

Talking: When we first went to the doctor, Elijah & Josephine had only been home a few days and hadn't been talking much. Elijah would say a few words repeating after Daddy, and we knew they understood some of the Creole we spoke to them. The doc recommended we consult the AEA and get them some services for this. However, since then, as they've become more comfortable, they've opened up quite a bit more. They are talking quite a bit. They both will repeat words after us. We have a few picture books we'll look at - especially the one called "100 First Words", we'll look through and point at things and they'll repeat the words. Also, when we're playing, we'll call out the names of the toys, the colors of the blocks/cars [although I think they just like to say the word yellow (or Lellow as it comes out sometimes) because half the time I say a color, they repeat yellow instead of the color I say], etc, count to 3 or 5, sing the alphabet song, etc. Just as we play - not really working hard at it. I figure the more exposure the better. We have a set of alphabet/number blocks that are 7 different colors, and the toy cars - so I just mention the colors, and they have fun repeating. I also count the blocks to 3 or 5 with them, or sing the alphabet song. The funnest is the animals - Josephine loves to look at dogs/puppies and bark like them. :) They're picking up on English fairly quickly just in conversation - we can tell they're understanding us when we tell them some things - especially when we use gestures, etc. ... The other VERY amusing thing is when they speak to each other. They jabber on and on to each other in Creole. We can pick up a few words here and there, but they totally know what each other are saying. It's so cute! They like to sing too. One day I caught them singing the same song together. Josephine started it and then Elijah joined in. I have no idea what song it was, but it sounded like Allelulia something-or-other. Saturday night when we put Elijah and Josephine to bed, I leaned down to kiss Josephine goodnight. For some reason that night I said, "Good night" and "I love you" in English instead of both English and Creole -- and she repeated me! I was so surprised that I repeated it a few times - I think I was making sure that she was saying it. What an awesome moment! Then today Elijah did the same. After I change his diaper, when I stand him up to pull his pants back up over his diaper, we've gotten into a routine of a kiss (and he definitely reminds me if I forget), and I tell him I love him and then hug him a bit. This afternoon when I did that, he repeated the, "I love you!" Again, I was surprised and so I said it again a couple times and he repeated it again - then went on his way - he was busy playing. Another awesome moment!

Playtime: Elijah and Josephine really like to play! Elijah is into just about everything, but he leans towards toys with wheels. Josephine likes all sorts of things too - but nothing in particular has emerged as favorites yet. Just a few fun stories...

I sorted through one of the toy bins this morning - Josephine LOVED it! Elijah ignored us and played with his cars on the HW floor.

I think we have more toys than we know what to do with. :) They've been playing with plastic dominoes, small toy horses, and match-box cars all week - and just transferring them from one container to the other.

Geotrax Trains a friend gave us - Elijah spent a couple hours one afternoon playing with this set on the hard-wood floor one afternoon. He'd woken up earlier from his nap than Josephine and played without interruption - so fun!

I think by far the boxes and containers (of any sort) are their favorite things, the way they like to be little hoarders. THey'll gather up as much as they can and carry stuff around.

Both kids like to play with the baby-dolls. They feed the babies with bottles or the tea set tuff, and sometimes a baby is being naughty, or other times the "bebe ale machin" (baby go in the car).

Tea set - Josephine thinks they're real though, and will really put them in her mouth. Just so you know if you visit with your kids. :) Elijah is better and just pretend drinks. Josephine puts many things in her mouth though.

Adoption Finalization

The following message came from the FHG Director.

The USCIS has indicated that they will have an outlined process for the completion of the adoption process within the next 60 days. Please do not attempt to begin the adoption process prior to this. If you do you are likely to complicate your overall process and likely increase your costs. The best route forward is to work with USCIS when they give clear direction. In the mean time, invest your time and energy into your children and helping them adjust.

Please pray with us as we wait for more information, that whatever the process is, it does not cause us much added expense or grief. We have heard so many possibilites, but it's all up in the air -- so we wait...

J's First Mommy-Made Hair-do!

Last Wednesday when we had the kids down for their nap, I took off to get some products for Josephine's hair and Josephine & Elijah's skin. It had been in a couple box braids in the top middle, and the rest was in cornrows. They were getting really fuzzy and didn't seem very clean anymore, so I decided it was time for a new 'do. (You can click on the photo at right to enlarge it and see the fuzz in between the rows I'm talking about.)

In addition to some lotion/body butter/oil that E&J were desperately in need of for their skin, I picked up shampoo, conditioner/detangler, and lotion for J's hair. [For skin products, I got some Vaseline-brand cocoa butter gel (really greasy - I don't like it much), a tub of cocoa butter - really like this stuff, and a container of coconut oil from the health food mart at our local grocery store. I like the coconut oil too, but don't like having to melt it (by soaking the jar it in hot water) - and it is pretty greasy and runny to put on their skin. More on skin stuff another time when I've got it more figured out.] For hair products, I got Motions shampoo, and Just for Me products - which smell really good too! I like all three so far.

After naptime, I took the cornrows out - with the comb pictured above that has the metal tail on the end of it. It worked really well for taking them out. Then I hauled her upstairs to the laundry room to wash her hair in the laundry sink - since that one has a sprayer on it - and since it's not in the bathroom that she is already afraid to go in because of the previous day's bathtub experience.

Jock and Elijah had gone to pick up Kaylen from after-school daycare, and I was glad, because Josephine SCREAMED!!!! She was so frightened of the water and/or the sprayer - and I was soaked by the time I was done wetting her head - she was grabbing for me, and not really leaning back as I'd tried - except that I was leaning back with her attached to me - quite the balancing act! Then I sat her on the counter with the water off to scrub with the shampoo, before we started all over again to rinse. Poor girl was traumatized.

Once the shampooing was done and I'd blotted her hair dry, off we went downstairs - I sat her down in Elijah's booster chair, pushed up close to the table (for less wiggle room), complete with sit-still-bribery-snacks: a sucker, fruit snacks, juice, and cheerios. The first job was to comb through her hair, using the conditioner/detangler and lotion. Her hair really combed through surprisingly well.

Then the parting began. I started with a part from hear to ear over the top of her head. Then in the front half, I parted to the left of center from her forehead back to the ear-to-ear part, then started "box-braids" with triangle-shaped pieces (instead of boxes). I put three beads on the end of each braid. I tried to use some snaps at the end, but that didn't work well, so instead I wrapped the end of the braid around the last bead, then put a rubberband above it and pulled the top two beads down over the rubberband to cover it up.

It took me about 3 hours to do the old 'do removal, shampoo, and the front-half braids. That was enough for Josephine's sitting time - and it was time for supper. She did AWESOME sitting still for that long - more than I expected for a 2-1/2-year-old - but I can tell she's used to having her hair done - and that helped tremendously. I could tell she really liked having beads on her braids - and likely has never had them before. Once I got the first couple braids in, she kept shaking her head to make them flop around. She still does it, and it's so cute!

Because we had a busy day on Thursday (dr. appt, Jock working in the afternoon, Bible Study party in the evening), and Jock was planning to work all day Friday, I decided to leave the back half of Josephine's hair free for a couple days, until I could finish the braids on Saturday. It really looked cute that way too! I just combed it out each morning, to make sure it wasn't going to be too unruly for me Saturday. It combed out fairly well again with the conditioner/ detangler and lotion - and I had to pick the pieces of lint out of it. :) The back braids (I did in actual boxes) probably took about 3 hours as well - I need to work on doing this more quickly!

I'm curious to see how long the style lasts. So far it's been 10 days since I did the front and a week since I did the back. The front is just starting to get a little ratty in between the braids, but the back is still looking good. I've been putting the conditioning lotion on the braids and on her scalp in between the braids every day or two, and I think that is helping. I'm going to try to leave it in until next weekend - although it sounds as though we'll have family visiting next weekend, so we'll see how it goes.

I will say that I've had to put the beads back in on several braids. I think with the fairly rough play of a 2-year-old, and tops that have been tight to pull over head have been rough on the beads - and the rubberbands I used to secure them on weren't really rubber but plastic and broke. They were the only clear ones I had, but I switched over to pink actual rubber-bands to secure them and they're working better. I'll figure this out yet...

Any suggestions for what kind of style I should try next? It should be something fairly easy still... I may try the box braids again, with just a different pattern - or maybe twists. Don't think I'm up for cornrows. Hmmmm... My sister will likely be visiting. She's a super-awesome hair stylist so maybe she'll have some easy ideas for me.

Several people have asked me how I learned to do it so fast. Trust me, I've done some research - even before E&J came home. I was looking forward to the challenge. Here are a couple websites that have video tutorials: www.snapaholics.com (this is where I got my beads) and www.shuruba.com. There are a couple blogs I read that post hair tips and styles periodically: Cate's blog and BraidsBeadsTruth. Ooh - I just noticed Cate is doing raffles next week - check it out!

E & J's eating...

So many people have asked us how Elijah and Josephine are doing with eating. They're doing great! They pretty much have eaten what we've fed them, and aren't too picky. They do tend to eat mushed food better than meat or something they have to chew but they're getting better. Hamburger is fine for them, if it's in tiny bits, but I have seen Elijah spit out a bigger chunk like he didn't know what to do with it. We haven't tried other meats yet, except in tiny pieces in a soup or casserole, so I'm not sure how that would go.

They wouldn't drink milk, but that was fine for a while - probably would have just aggrevated their digestive issues they had going on anyway. We did get some sweet acidopholus (sp?) for Josephine, but she wouldn't drink that either. I did try putting chocolate in their milk, and that worked OK, but still not the best. So for now we're not worrying about it too much. They do eat yogurt, so I'll probably just use that for their dairy/calcium for a while.

So far, the only solid food they won't eat is fruit (except bananas). I tried peaches, pears and a single blueberry, and those got spit back out. They've eaten spaghetti, shepherd's pie, bananas, homemade chicken noodle soup, broccoli-cheese soup, potato soup, pizza, bread/biscuits, chips, crackers, cereal, yogurt...

Also, their table manners stink (spitting out food or throwing food on the floor if they they don't want it, chomping, etc), but not surprising at their age, and we're choosing our battles at this point.

E&J's First full day home...

We didn't do a whole lot on Tuesday - just played and hung out together. Things were fairly mellow around here - E&J (and likely all of us!) pretty unsure about what was going on. Elijah woke up around 5am, and Josephine around 6. Jock got up with E, and let me sleep until Josephine awoke. Then we fed E&J breakfast. We started simple - with bananas, which we knew they liked from previous trips to Haiti, and from the hotel Monday morning.

We decided that baths were in order for Elijah & Josephine, so I took Josephine upstairs with me (since I think she was stuck to me!) to get the bath water run. She was very frightened by the bath water, so I just decided to get in with her. Jock came up with Elijah about the time I got in, and then she was reaching for him! (This is a huge being she hadn't warmed up to him much yet - she's not used to men since she was just around the female nannies at the orphanage almost all her life.) He left the room, but she still cried the whole time and clung to me. She would sit on my lap, but not down in the water. I finally finished and passed her back to Jock and he passed Elijah in. He wimpered a bit, but was OK with the bathtub. He wouldn't sit down at all though. If you've seen a clip on CNN of a boy being bathed at an orphanage - we think it's Elijah. They just stand in a basin of water and scrub and pour the water over the children - they're not used to sitting down in water - or running water, which explains things a bit.

The rest of the morning, we just played. For lunch we had shepherd's pie, left-over from dinner the previous night - Mmmmmmm! We had many phone calls, a little bit of company, took naps, and played some more. Nap time was fine, but we seriously need to get curtains in the E&J's room. It's so bright in there in the day, and they're not really used to sleeping in day light! Another thing to add to the to-do list. I've got the bed skirt and pillow sham that I want to use somehow since I don't plan to use them for their intended purposes, but we'll see.

Jock and Kaylen headed out to a pre-planned Optimist Club event on Tuesday evening. We thought about all going, but just didn't think it was right to take E&J on their first full day home. They need time to adjust to life at home. So Kaylen & Jock headed to the Bass Pro Shop for dinner and bowling with friends. Just a few minutes after Jock & Kaylen left home, Elijah and Josephine suddenly got wild and silly! It was like they'd finally broken free of their shells. Elijah had fun with Jock earlier in the day - and always has had his funny low chuckle when tickled, but Josephine was finally playing and giggling, so I had to call Jock and let he and Kaylen listen to her little laugh. It was a bright spot in the day. Then after supper, more giggling and silliness! This was where the photos I posted a few days ago came from. I'd instructed Jock to come home with a new camera that night. I did, however, have some internal memory space on the maddening camera so I did take a few shots of the silliness.

After the silliness, it was time to get them settled into bed. ... E wimpered when I left room (seemed scared & lonely), laid down with him until he fell asleep - about 5 minutes! We have E in a twin-size bed, and he does fine in it. I think he's only fallen out of it once - it was at naptime one day. He cried a little bit initially but by the time I got up there he was wandering around his room dazed and confused. I just laid him back down in his bed and he went back to sleep. Josephine is in a toddler bed, and I don't think she's really fallen out of it. She goes to sleep very well on her own too. A few times I've held her for a bit first if she was crying. She'd sit on my lap and rock a few minutes before getting up on her own and crawling back into her bed. She sleeps pretty soundly too.

Other than that, Tuesday was a day to catch up on laundry (although I'm still doing that - do we ever really catch up?!?), help Kaylen get caught up on her math homework and reading, catch up on emails, etc.