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.