It is Saturday at noon. Charlie is down for a nap, Amelia is at a playdate, Clara is at soccer and CJ is at a boy scout event. Grandma and Grandpa left today (we'll miss them). We can't thank them enough for watching the kids while we were gone. We are so blessed to have such supportive family (both sides) and so happy they played a role in bringing Charlie home. Life is getting back to normal! Except for the fact that Lisa wakes up at 2 am every night and can not get back to sleep...Pete and Charlie are slowly making the adjustment...what's up with me??
Charlie's reaction to home was more than we hoped for! He walked in on Wed night, laughing, giggling, and very playful (I guess he would be after a 13 hour flight...ugh!). He even sat down and took off his shoes (which he would never do for the 10 days we had him in China! What a joy to see him interacting with his siblings! Clara (our oldest) has really taken on the motherly role, CJ loves teaching him about trains and football, and Amelia likes him, but sort of wishes things were how they used to be...it's hard to give up the baby position of the family. Charlie seems to really take to Clara and feel more threatened by Amelia. I think that's probably how it was in the orphanage. The older kids helped take care of him and the younger ones took his toys away! We are slowly teaching him how life is in the Schmidt house.
And, did I say he was 2? And, what comes best with 2-year olds, but 2-year old tantrums??? Boy, can he throw a fit when he doesn't get his way. I'm not sure he ever got told "no" at the orphanage...he will slowly learn here though. What doesn't he like? Our very large, but very lovable dog, Doodle. He is very scared of her and whimpers and whines when she is in the house. All I know is he better get used to her. She's big, but she's sweet!
Finally, he is learning how to kiss...he doesn't seem to have the hug and kiss skills down. Grandma Judy practiced with him and guess what? He gave Amelia kisses this morning! How sweet!
We were greeted by all our wonderful friends and their kids when we got home. It was so sweet to see how much the neighborhood kids wanted to meet him. Charlie seems to enjoy the attention and even learned how to throw a football with a couple of CJ's friends!
It's sooooo good to be home!
PS...to all my blogger junkies...sorry to make you go cold turkey the last few days! Needless to say, we've been a bit busy!
2 comments:
Glad you are settling in. How sweet that Clara has bonded so well with him. He seems to fit right in with your family. I always loved the first interactions between the kids when we would first arrive home.
The only thing that helped me with jetlag was forcing myself to get up in the morning and stay up no matter how tired I was and go to sleep at a normal time. Hope you get back on eastern time soon:-)
Great pictures !
Glad you are home.
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