Family of Four :)

 

 

 

We met Katie one week ago and have been home for 4 days. It has been a crazy ride so far but we are attempting to figure out our new normal. I have learned a lot in this last week

 

1) I am pretty sure Katie was allowed to do whatever she wanted when she wanted. She gets pretty mad when redirected or stopped form doing something.

 

2) Grief in toddlers SUCKS! If it isn't sleeping issues, it is food issues. No fun and to make it even more fun throw in a 14 hour time difference and just for the heck of it she is teething. We are working through it and have made progress. Katie naps by herself. We lay with her at bedtime until she is asleep and in order to get her to eat we went back to baby food. She doesn't do well eating with utensils either by herself or with help. She is finally eating 3 meals a day....well she did yesterday and has had 2 meals today. Yogurt is a huge hit and she likes Oatmeal. We did finally get her to eat rice again last night and she ate the whole bowl. Once asleep Katie usually sleeps well. She is known to take 4 hour naps and has slept 13 hours at night before.

 

3)I am also pretty sure that Katie never had to sit in one spot to eat. She was probably allowed to walk all over and roam around. We are making progress there too thanks to big sister.

 

4) Becoming a big sister after 3 plus years of undivided attention is hard. We have seen Kiya be a lot more whiny, turn into a tattle tale and have had some potty issues. She loves Katie and wants to play with her and hug her but doesn't understand why Katie sometimes pushes her away or won't talk back. Patience is not Kiya's strong suit and she doesn't grasp why the rules are different right now for Katie. Add that to her missing me a lot. I try to spend special quality time just the two of us and will continue to do so. She is sad and in a way grieving the loss of what life was like pre-Katie.

 

Tomorrow I start a 3 day stint with just me and the two girls. It is going to be interesting. Kiya is a big help overall we just need to find ways for her to expend all that energy she has. Katie isn't really ready for parks. We have taken her to the store without incident minus the projectile vomit at Kohl's. I am pretty sure after tomorrow I am going to look forward to Friday when Kiya goes back to preschool. In hindsight I wish I had waited one week to change her schedule. Next week will be better. She has preschool all day on Monday, half day Tuesday, Wednesday she is home, Thursday half day again and then all day again on Friday.

 

On the plus side, Katie seems to love her big sister and she has really taken to the dogs, Sebastian in particular. We will find a way to make these next few days work and get on a schedule and get a system in place that allows us to leave the house before 10:30am.

 

And blogger finally let me post a pic :) So here you have it, our happy family of four at the airport.