Katie is adjusting to life at the Herring household very well. She is very attached to Everette and I and loves for us to hold and play with her nonstop! She knows where everything is- art supplies, silverware, snacks, her clothes....down to her socks and shoes which she insists on putting on by herself. Ev and I are trying to simply "live" each day. 3 kids is more than 2! There are many days where we have over scheduled and it's just too much. Katie needs so much individual attention- and well deserved- but sometimes it's hard to do much else! When she needs us, our reaction is immediate to help with attachment and bonding, and we are trying to learn all her little personality quirks so we know her like we know Charlie and Edie. We have many moments of peace and calm, but we are definetly still in a transitional phase with our family and probably will be for months. She understands a lot of English- and we try to teach her new words/phrases everyday. But she grunts and yells at us all anyway! We are trying to reinforce a few phrases to help her get what she wants instead of being the servants that she yells at....up please mama/baba (dad in mandarin), help mama, thank you mama- and she is using sign language for more and please and points to objects that she wants to play with. Her speech is not that clear- but some words like "owl" she can say perfectly!
Our most time consuming aspect of taking care of her at first was that she is potty trained and will not use a diaper- so for the first 3 weeks we were sitting her on the toilet AT LEAST 30+ times a day- as she was yelling at us to clearly take her there. Too many for my back and to be parenting 2 other kids. After a week of "bathroom boot camp"- we convinced her to use the little toddler potty by herself, finally, and she is using the regular bathroom too. And, we are through with diapers! Love that!
She struggled with sleep for the 1st month- but now is sleeping mostly through the night except when she needs to go to the bathroom- one of us is sleeping with her in the guest bedroom- she's in a crib for now and seems to like it.
Charlie is still being the BEST big brother. He loves her sooo much and simply won't take no for an answer. She gets excited to see him after school everyday and sometimes even lets him comfort her if she falls down or is sad. Katie is warming up to Edie but that relationship is taking a little longer to bloom. Just yesterday they started playing a game where they cover each other with blankets on the floor and belly laugh. Baby steps.
A few pics from our overall first 6 weeks! I'm SOOO behind on thank you notes but they are being written! I used to read every night for an hour and now 5 minutes after my head hits the pillow I am out. Thanks for all the wonderful meals that everyone provided - it was SO nice not to worry about cooking for the first few weeks. Without the meals I'm sure we would have been eating cereal every night!
Will try not to wait too long before the next post! Julie, Ev, Charlie, Edie and Katie
No comments:
Post a Comment