Twelve Weeks Home!

Elijah & Josephine have been home for 12 weeks now. I can hardly believe it. But when I look back at photos and descriptions of their actions, I can’t believe it hasn’t been longer! They have changed so much in these 12 weeks, as have our lives!

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them that was allowed me under the Family Medical Leave Act. This gave me 12 weeks of leave – and luckily it was all paid leave because of the company’s leave structures. I was dreading the return to work, and leaving my babies at daycare, but the first week went very well.

In the two weeks leading up to my return to work, we visited daycare – the first couple days with me staying with them, and then last week, I left them there for a few hours at a time. We tried out morning playtime, lunch and nap-time a couple days, and then the final day was to test if all five of us could get out the door in time for Kaylen to catch her daycare bus to school and for Jock & I to get to work (which worked just fine).

There were some tears the first couple times I left them at daycare, but the good-byes have gotten easier. Last Monday morning, God gave me an extra blessing of no tears when I left, so I could feel a little more at peace throughout my first day back to work. Most days I hear tidbits about what they’ve learned, what activities they tried, or their little antics that we all laugh about. They’re always happy to see me when I pick them up – especially Josephine. She usually runs to me, laughing. Elijah usually smiles and then finishes what he’s doing before he comes with me. We’re very pleased with how daycare is taking special time with Elijah & Josephine to help them adjust to the language, new foods, new routines, and teaching them toddler things that they are a little bit behind the other kids their age on (colors, counting, etc).

Probably the biggest change we’ve noticed in Elijah and Josephine throughout the 12 weeks they’ve been home, is in their language skills. We’ve noticed a HUGE increase in the amount of speaking they are doing. At first they would just point and grunt/whine – not even really talking in either Creole or English. We usually knew what they wanted, so we’d have them repeat after us the words to use, before we would respond. Then when they got used to that, I’d start just looking at them and waiting until they said it on their own. Now, they are getting pretty good at saying the words without any prompting, especially with praying (at least the “Dear God” and “Amen” parts), saying “please” and “thank you”, “more” and “help”, calling “Mommy” to get my attention, asking if it’s time to “brush your teeth”, saying family members' names, etc. We do still use some Creole at home, but we always try to repeat in English, so they’re using and learning both. They also understand most of what we are saying to them – although it does depend on the complexity of the subject - we we still have to use a fair amount of gestures for some things yet. We also still have the toddler-unclear-language issues, but they’re getting so much better already. Josephine speaks fairly clearly as long as there aren’t more than two or three words strung together. Elijah is still a work-in-progress, but I’ve heard that’s much just a difference between boys and girls.

Potty training is going OK. It’s quite the task to train two at the same time! Elijah still will not really tell us if he has to go and has no qualms about going in his pull-up. He will also tells us “no” if we ask him if he has to go, but will go if we take him. He usually will tell us if he goes #2 in his pull-up though, because he doesn’t like it there... but he could care less about walking around in a wet pull-up. Josephine is now going both #1 and #2 in the potty. I think part of her problem with not going #1 on the toilet was that she had her words confused. She’d go #2 and say “pee-pee”. So I finally figured that out and told her, “no, that’s poo-poo, can you go pee-pee?” That and she probably just finally figured out how to relax and let it go. You should have heard the high praises the first time she went #1 on the potty – I was so excited I even called daddy at work to tell him about it. She did it twice that day (dry diapers all day!), but then didn’t again for several more days. She is doing it regularly, now that I’m starting to figure out her schedule, and be patient with her. She usually is dry most of the day – but she must have a huge bladder and holds it for a long time. At daycare, the first few days she had different clothes on when I pick her up because she soaked through everything at naptime - but they're getting better at figuring her out too! She also takes a while to relax and actually go when she sits down on the potty, so that could have been an issue at daycare. At home, she asks frequently to go potty – I think “pee-pee” and “poo-poo” are her favorite words – but then sometimes when she asks she then says “no” when I start shooing her in the direction of the bathroom. Eventually we'll get this stuff figured out.

Elijah & Josephine have now had three rounds of immunizations. They are still not quite caught up to the recommendations for their ages, but close. Each time I have taken them in, we’ve had them check their weight. Elijah started at 32 lbs, and Josephine at 26 lbs. They both gained three pounds over the next month, and Josephine gained an extra three the following month – Elijah stayed about the same during the second month. They’ve grown inches too – they were both about 36 1/4 inches when they came home. A month later, Elijah was 37 1/2 and Josephine was 37 1/4. This last time, I forgot to have them measure their height, so I'll have to do that at home sometime soon. It’s amazing what proper nutrition – and getting rid of parasites – will do for your body!

Eating is a mixed bag at our house. Josephine will eat just about anything you put in front of her, and almost always ask for "moa pees" (translation: more please). She does not gorge herself, though, or ask for thirds, etc. She likes to feed herself, and is getting more coordinated with her spoon and even sometimes a fork – although she is still quite messy, and she usually asks for help for the last bit or two, because she has trouble scraping the last bits out. Elijah is quite another story. We struggle getting him to eat his vegetables, so we typically give him just his vegetables (a small portion) and have him eat them first before the yummy stuff. He usually is just finishing his veggies when Josephine is finishing her seconds. Sometimes we’re all finished and clearing the table, and if we have anything going on that evening, sometimes he’s not too happy when his yummy stuff gets put away without him getting to eat it. He’s learning though... I think. He’s such a SLOW eater – with just about any meal we give him, so we’ve learned how to say “hurry” in Creole. I don’t think it’s helping though – just depends on the day I suppose.

Playtime is always fun too. Both Elijah & Josephine love to play outdoors. They both like the trampoline, swinging, and the slide. Josephine does not like to touch the grass, so it took some time for her to learn how to go down the slide and not sit down in it. :) They both like to kick/throw/bounce their balls. We have yet to get out the sidewalk chalk though. They both like to ride in the stroller (I have a double jogger), and Kaylen likes to ride her bike with us, so we've gone to the park (about 1 mile each way) a few times also. When we're home, I think their favorites are the tea set dishes (both like these, but especially Josephine), and Elijah likes anything with wheels - the bigger the better. :) Both Elijah & Josephine like to read books, and they're getting better about sitting still to listen to them. They love to repeat the words after us, so that is helping their language skills as well. Favorite books are starting to emerge, but they like books in general.

I can't wait to see what changes and new adventures await us these next 12 weeks! What a blessing our new additions have been to our family! I'll try to get some more recent photos posted in the next few days as well.