Many many moments of family life over the past 3 weeks.
zoo (and Isaac and Abby showing what amazing big siblings they are!)
Poor sweet baby just chillin'
And nappin' (this baby is three years old. Unbelievable.
Family fun at Kemah with a friend of Abby's
And moments at home
This makes me laugh. The babies are outside the door while I'm trying to have a moment of privacy. They do not like to lose sight of me for a moment. And to top it off, one of the big kids slips a note under the door. For the love, can a momma not get a moment's peace?!
Melt. My. Heart.
Baby Boy -
When he came home, he was hardly talking. If he wanted something he would let you know by cries and grunts and he maybe had 10 words that I heard him say that first day. Now some of his favorite phrases are: "Door open it!" "Be quiet!" "Where's (his name)? There he is!" "Turn on light." He talks constantly, sometimes still baby babble, but often he will fixate on a new word or phrase for a day and then file it away as he moves on to the next one. You can just see his mind soaking language in, spongelike.
He is learning to trust us. When he first came home, we could not take his sippy cup out of his hand, even to refill it, without the most mournful crying. Now, he happily hands it over and asks for "more please." He has learned to trust that we will not take his food away. He used to have to have it in his hands (actually the whole first week he carried two full sippy cups in his hands at all times) as assurance that he had a next meal. Now he plays for hours at a time without thinking about his next meal. He has learned to trust that it will come. When he first came home, he would cry that same agonizing cry when we put him in his crib, as I'm sure it brought back awful memories of his abandonment. Now, he may protest for less than a minute, and half-heartedly at best. He has learned to trust that we will always be right there.
Before he came home, the report that I read said that, although he was three years old, he could only crawl, not walk. When he came home, he was walking, but he was very unsteady on his feet, like a one year old, toddling around, needing the parent right there. He could not pull himself up to standing without assistance because his legs were so weak. The first time he stood by himself, we all cheered. Now, he stands by himself without anyone even batting an eye and, oh my, he is fast! If we leave the bathroom door open, whatever was in his hand will be in the toilet before we can say "no wait!" He has learned how to get off the couch safely by himself, how to get down the little step from the back door to the patio by himself, and he now instinctively catches himself with his hands when he falls.
I cannot wait to see what kind of growth the next three weeks hold for this little champion.
Baby Girl -
When she first came home, she identified me as "mommy" right away, which of course I love. She became very quickly attached and any time I would need to leave she would cry. Now she is able to handle my leaving with the trust she has gained that I will come back. Up until three nights ago, she was sleeping in a pack-n-play in our room but she has slept peacefully and all night long in her big girl bed the past three nights and has done so wonderfully that I could just dance for the joy of it. She feels safe in this house now. She still gets anxiety about going to her "class" at church but does well there and likes it, although she cries pretty brokenheartedly when I'm one of the last parents to come pick her up (a side-effect of working for the church). I pray that she will learn to trust in that situation as well.
She is completely adorable, and she knows it. She talks with her hands in the cutest possible way and happily performs songs and her own jokes (when we took her to the zoo, she said "the giraffe has chicken pocks. bawk-bawk, bawk-bawk!"). She also has a feisty side and will throw a little temper tantrum on occasion. But even her tantrums are getting more manageable now that she knows the drill and has learned to trust the consistency of my response to it. She is learning to ask politely for what she wants, to be patient as she waits for it, and to sometimes not get what she wants.
One of the most exciting things to see with her is a newly awakened interest in books. When she first came home, she had a few books that were given as gifts from the hospital, but I'm sure none of the nurses had time to read to her, and I'm certain no one read to her before the hospital. She would pick up a book and ask me to "read" it, but as soon as I would start, she would get up to play something else. I finally got her to sit through one book. The next day she wanted to read it (but only it) again. I finally got her to sit through a second book. Now she has two books she asks me to read. Today I read her a third book and tonight I read her a fourth book, and she was still and interested as I read. She is beginning to realize the treasure of the stories they tell. So amazing.
In three weeks she has learned new shapes, new colors, new animals (she had never seen a squirrel until last week). (Baby Boy still calls all animals "dog" and says they all say "woof woof," but we'll get him there). Her mind is growing daily, and what a pleasure to be along for the ride. How much we took for granted with Isaac and Abigail that just our every day interactions with them are what helped them learn so much.
Yes! Sleeping babies!
Bitsy is scared for her life and comes to me for protection. Let's just say Baby Girl is a wee bit overbearing with the little fuzzball.
Bravos Bend would have been a fun outing, except that momma left all of our jackets at home and it's freezing.
Dog as sweater.
That peaceful moment they fell asleep on my lap, only to wake up later at the same time screaming inconsolably!
Slow to get a boys' jacket in the right size, necessity brings boy size 3 to girls' jacket size 5.
We met up with the siblings. This family has five kids. Two older girls, age 7 and 8, and an 18 month old baby sister. The kids were split because mine were the only two in need of hospitalization. The two older girls were fed free lunch at school and the baby girl was fed formula and treated better since she is step dad's bio child. All sweet kids.
Isaac's award day at school.
Abby teaching Baby Girl how to pick flowers.
Bubble master
Lest you think we have thrown Isaac and Abigail to the curb, let me also report on them.
Big Sister -
Abigail, who has always said that she wanted to stay the baby of the family, is actually the most phenomenal big sister. For the past eight years she has performed constant silly antics for the pure joy of annoying her older brother. Now she uses her mad skills of annoyance to perform silly antics that endlessly entertain her younger siblings. Oh how they laugh when she does her "beaver dam" dance or hand puppets and funny voices. As an added bonus, she is not currently annoying her older sibling since she is too busy entertaining her younger ones.
This does not leave her without her hard times. She mostly struggles with the Baby Girl getting in her space and taking her attention.
A heartfelt note from Abby
Big Brother -
Isaac has been waiting and praying with us for many years for his new siblings. He seems to love being the eldest brother to this crazy brood of littles and he does a great job of protecting them. He helps carry his baby brother in from the car, fetch whatever he needs, and push his stroller (even better, he knowns how to unfold and refold the impossible umbrella stroller). We have told him more about the babies' history than we told Abby, and he is very compassionate toward them.
We have been working constantly and VERY hard in taking care of these babies, and Isaac and Abby have had to be patient and helpful, and receive less attention than usual. But, we make it up to them in little ways. Isaac is learning to go along with whichever parent is running an errand to get some one-on-one time. He and I had a quick dinner just the two of us tonight and got his hair cut. And Abigail is at this moment asleep next to me in my bed, and I'm sure next week we will sneak away for a short mother-daughter "date." They both adore their younger siblings and although they are having to work through their own loss and adjustment to the new order of things, they are (if I do say so myself) two most amazing individuals.
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Lastly, lest this picture leave you with the idea that everything is coming up roses, let me also report on some of our bloopers of the past few weeks.
Last week at Mimi's house, Baby Boy woke up from a late-in-the-day, very deep nap and I could tell that he was grumpy and about to lose it. So I suggested we go eat, as dinner was in progress. We sat down at the table and the only thing on his plate was...salad. He cried the most brokenhearted cry and did not stop for the next 15 minutes. Even though an army of family members ran around trying to offer him any other food we could find, he was too mad to take any of it until he had cried off the salad insult.
This Saturday, he had a diaper blowout on my fabric sofa AND pooped in the bathtub on the same day.
This Sunday, both Babies fell asleep snuggling with me on the couch after lunch. I took lots of pictures because it was so sweet and so cute. An hour later they both woke up crying inconsolably. They wanted to be held but were also mad so they were fighting being held, which played out as five minutes of both of them wailing and writhing on top of me. At first I earnestly tried to console them, but it wasn't long before the impossible situation had me laughing until I cried.
So, the short answer to how we are doing is, we adore them and we are loving (almost) every minute of this joyfully hard work.
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