5 weeks

Another week has flown by and things are going well. As anticipated we face new challenges and hit new highlights.

Highlights:

Katie: Katie is babbling and talking a lot. While she doesn't use a lot of English words or use the ones she does have often she is understanding so much. She does say happy and mama a lot. We are thinking her next official words might be "what" which Kiya says all the time and puppy. She is finally willing to walk regularly while holding one of our fingers. I can even get out of the car at preschool and have her walk with me all the way to Kiya's classroom which is a pretty good distance. This is saving my back :) She is also more willing to walk up and down stairs with help of course. She will do the entire flight of stairs instead of just stopping after one or two steps.  She at this point seems to be able to sleep through the loudness that is my early rising Kiya so that is great.

Kiya: While at dinner the other night Kiya wrote her name. It was so legible and really quite good for almost 4. We are so proud of her. She loves learning new things. She insists during her special time with mommy that she practice her letters, or do snip soup to work on her scissor skills, or do puzzles or other learning notebooks that she has. She is very bright and very well spoken. She really wants to learn how to read and is trying to point to the right words when we are reading books. I just ordered some early reading books from her school book club. While she keeps me on my toes I love the conversations we have a bout serious stuff like adoption and why we can't just leave the water running to silly stuff like why I don't drive a pink van. We did implement a happy chart for her. If she has a fabulous day at school she gets a sticker and when her chart is full she gets a prize. She really wants these princess dishes at Target. She has had two happy days so far, one at each school.

Me: I am hitting my stride and seem to have a more regular schedule now. I am comfortable getting both girls up and ready and out of the house. I try to take Kiya to school without Katie but that doesn't always work. I am grateful that Dave helps with Katie if I am trying to get Kiya to eat breakfast. I can go shopping with both girls and we all survive the affair and I am getting better at balancing my time between the two girls when we are all home together.

Challenges:

Katie: She is a precocious little one. She gets into everything. She is starting to show a sneaky side where she waits to see if you are watching her and then does something she has just been told and shown not to do. She also has quite the little temper. She is fast approaching 2 and while 2 was a walk in the park the first time around I am thinking we may have our hands full since Katie won't have the language part like Kiya did. We shall see I suppose. We are still trying to figure out if she is allergic to something...my fear is milk. I am hoping the nurse will call me back today and we can set up a plan to get this figured out. Katie also likes to point with her middle finger. In Korea this means nothing but many a person including Kiya has picked up on her doing this and even commented on it. We are working on it and Kiya knows that she is to never do it as it means something naughty.

Kiya: Kiya has good days and not so good days. 4 or almost 4 has been tough on her. She is very sensitive and dramatic and emotional. She still cries a few times a week that she is missing mommy. The worst being went I spent 4 hours with her watching movies and undoing her braids. We were literally inches away from each other, sharing snacks and laughs and frustrations. After we were done she was watching a show and I went to check my email in the same room and I heard her crying. She said she misses mommy and needs a hug. Those moments are getting less frequent and we had a happy Kiya most of the weekend so that was great. School drop off this morning was easier than it has been in weeks so not sure if that will turn out to be a good or bad thing.

Me: Still working on that patience thing. Kiya and I are a lot a like that way which makes things interesting. I am insisting on quiet time for Kiya most days in her room. She can nap if she wants but she usually doesn't so I can have just a few moments to myself. I am finding the lack of time to do anything productive really hard. Nap time is the best time to do things but also the only time I have to just sit and relax for the most part until after bedtime anyway. I am still getting used to this stay at home mom thing and wish on most days I could snap my fingers and someone would fold all the laundry or clean out my garage. One day at a time.

So there you have it in all its glory. I am loving everyday of this new adventure and feel very blessed. At the same time I am exhausted most days and so very grateful that both of my girls are wonderful sleepers. This whole thing would be so much harder if I was sleep deprived too.