Finding the New Normal

We're in the middle of the second week home, and wonderfully, it feels nothing like the first week home. And, that's a good thing!

A lot of things have sorted themselves out. Biruk is mostly sleeping through the night, and we've over the jet lag. Biruk actually didn't want Alan to leave for work this morning, and kept clinging to him, which was sweet.

We're getting more vocabulary words down. Apparently someone taught him how to count to at least 1 in English, because if I start counting, he'll hold one finger up and clearly say "ONE!". It gets a little fuzzy after that.

Celie and Joey have a sports camp this week, which has given us a very welcome sense of structure and schedule to our days. I'm scrambling to figure out how we can keep this up until school starts!

The relationship between Celie and Biruk is developing nicely, but it seems much harder for Joey. It's not easy losing your place as the baby in the family, no matter how it comes about.

It's the little things that I notice these days about Biruk that reflect the huge journey he has been on. For example, by 22 months, every kid knows that the first thing you do when Mom unbuckles the car seat is you pull your arms in toward your chest and out of the straps. Biruk, on the other hand, will try to fling himself out of the seat with his arms still hooked in the straps, and then squirm around in frustration as neither he nor I can then get him out.

Biruk has also taken to walking around with my car keys. You might think that he associates the keys with me driving the car. But actually, he thinks the fob on the key chain that remotely locks, unlocks, opens and closes the doors of the van is a cell phone. He keeps holding it up to his ear and saying 'allo!, 'allo! He loves nothing more than going for a car ride, but when I put him in the car seat, he gets mad that I want the car keys back from him. I'd show him that it's putting the keys in the car and turning them that makes the car go, but given how smart he is, I don't think I want him to know that just yet.

All in all, the bonding/adoption-related stuff is going well. Now, it's the work of adjusting back to life with an energetic and inquisitive toddler that lies ahead!