First Week Home

Our first week home has come and gone.  Overall it went really well.  Noelle has started to reach out to me for affection and comfort.  After our time in China I thought for sure it would be awhile before I saw any so for it to happen so quickly was very encouraging.

She seems to love being a part of a family.  She enjoys her older sisters and brother quite a bit but the jury is still out on Reagan.   She isn’t exactly sold on her younger sister and I think it’s safe to say that Reagan feels the same way.

A few odds and ends about our new little girl…..

She loves her room but can you guess what it is in her room that she loves the most?  Her dresser.  She practically hugged it.  For the first few nights after we tucked in the girls we would hear dresser drawers opening and closing.  We went in to see what the noise was and there she was in the dark, rearranging everything with a huge smile on her face.

She completely won her daddy’s heart over by asking for seconds (which was a first) of his homemade taquitos and guacamole.

Pretty sure she is keeping the Clementine orange business in business.  She literally eats at least 10 a day.  She is starting to expand her diet and is finally including meat.  At 38 pounds (& that is after gaining 1 pound since getting her) the girl needs to seriously get some meat on her bones. 

In China she wore the same clothes every single day.  She would not wear any of the clothes we brought so I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got home.  Since arriving home she only wants to wear her new clothes and wants nothing to do with her China clothes.  I thought I would be happier when this happened but I actually find myself a little sad that she has already started distancing herself from her life in China.

She can say…let’s go, I’m hungry, I’m full, brush teeth, pee pee, Mason, Reagan, Bonich, Kanika, Buddy, Christmas, her abc’s and count to 20.  Her printing is amazing.  She will go to school this week but only for 15 minutes each day.   She is meeting with a teacher that will help with her reading but I think being able to be in a classroom with no other children will help get her ready.  We are taking it slow.  She gets very nervous and anxious when we are at the school and actually backs up and just freezes when children come toward us but I can tell she really does want to go to school.  She wears her backpack when we take Mason and Reagan even though she is not staying.  After I drop off the kids, she and I walk the halls of the school so that she can get more familiar with it.  She is always excited to lead the way to Mason and Reagan’s classrooms and the library.  I think she is slowly getting ready and will be ready come the first of the year.

One of my favorite things about older child adoption is watching them discover common everyday things.  Like microwave popcorn, the washing machine, a can opener, going through a car wash, the water and ice dispenser on the fridge, an electric pencil sharpener, the garage door opener or the switch for the gas fireplace.   The look on Noelle’s face when making these discoveries was truly priceless.

We will tackle a few medical issues this week.  She will go in for a full evaluation of her eyes.   We thought she had some vision in her right eye but it was evident during the medical exam that she can only see light out of it.  She desperately wants glasses, she is always grabbing mine and if we are in a store she will ask to go look at the glasses.  She saw our pediatrician and the doctor brought up some issues we knew about but she also brought up some others that caught us by surprise.

(No, those are not my glasses.  She pleaded for them when at the store and I gave in thinking it would be fun to have play glasses which I thought I had clearly explained to her via charades and broken Chinglish.  Can you say, Major Mom Fail?   She got home and was so disappointed when she couldn't see any better.)

Noelle is full of spunk and sweetness with a dash of sass.  She is the perfect fit for our family.