Well, we've been home for almost 7 weeks now. People are wondering if we are settled and how the boys are adjusting and all. Well, they continue to amaze everyone with how wonderful they are. What are some of the major differences between them and their American peers? Not having been a parent yet myself, I couldn't say definitively. However: They take "no" for an answer, unlike their American-born counterparts. This is truly a delightful aspect of our lives. They are very polite and easy to redirect. Also they rarely cry. They go to bed without incident on a regular schedule for naps and bedtime. They eat anything and everything that they are served for meals and often have 3rds (or 4ths...). They love to clean and enjoy cleaning up their toys and doing chores along with Mommy and Daddy. What are some things we have a tough time with? Not listening, selectively listening, getting out of bed when they should be napping (well Garak gets out of bed but he is sometimes being called by his brother to come out and play in his bed...) wetting pants because they are distracted by playing, being naughty to get attention...hummm sounds familiar? My point is the things they are doing are completely normal for their developmental stage. How are they doing with English? Their vocabularies are rapidly expanding. This is very exciting. They understand most of what they are told (I am learning to require eye contact when I am making a request and this has helped tremendously). I talk to them constantly so they are always practicing their words. At meals we play a game where we play with language. For example, I'll say "Hayden likes dirty ice cream on his shoes" and then he will feign disgust and say "Momma likes baby doggies on-a be-wy [on her belly]" and I'll say "baby doggies on my belly! No thank YOU!" Then I'll say "Garak likes..." and so the game continues all through breakfast and lunch so we practice sentence structure while laughing. Are they bothered by being around only white people? No signs of it if they are. More often get get stared at by people here who aren't used to seeing people who look like they do.
OK If you don't already pray with your kids before nap, I HIGHLY recommend it just for the fact that it is the CUTEST thing EVER!! They pray for their friends (so far their neighbor baby Jay and the little girl we played with today at the park, Ava and her baby "brozer") and for each other and Momma and Daddy and blankets and juice and baby dollies [what they call their stuffed animals] and for daddy coming home from "werk" ...good stuff. It really melts your heart.
