One Week Home

It going to be hard to wrap the last week up in one blogpost so I'll just hit the highlights with some good old fashioned bullets and promise to come back later with some pictures:

• The Flight Home-It was LOOONG but not so bad knowing that we had our own beds to lay in and two boys to hug once we got to the other side no matter what our temperatures may or may not be. Meili was actually pretty easy on the main flight and slept off and on. Coke with ice never tasted so good!


• The Layover-We flew from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, then from Hong Kong to SFO and had a 10 hour layover before our flight to AZ. We felt like death warmed over but managed to make it on the BART, then onto a trolley car to Pier 39 for a salad at Hard Rock Cafe and a peek at Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. Are we nuts or what??? Thanks to Debbie for flying to SFO to keep us company and to Janine and Brice for helping us to burn through the last couple of hours in the airport. I think staying busy and awake for those 10 hours helped us to get back on US time somewhat once we were home.


• The Homecoming-Grandma Judy and Papa Jim Jim picked us up from the airport at about 9:30 pm after almost 33 hours of travelling. We walked in the door and found our boys sleeping on the living room floor in front of the TV. After holding little Meili Grace for almost 2 weeks, they both looked HUGE to me! My mom had casserole in the fridge which tasted wonderful during the 11 pm hour as did the chicken enchiladas that we enjoyed over the next couple of days-thanks, Mom! I think Meili slept for most of the night-can't remember because it seems like a year ago. The boys were so excited to see her and to tell us all about their adventures with their grandparents while we were away.


• The Baby Girl-With another transition under her belt, Meili definitely crawled back into her shell a bit those first few days at home. She wanted mama and her thumb and not much else. She would scream during bath time but open her mouth, say 'ah' and lean forward when she saw a toothbrush or a floss stick which I found interesting. She also wanted nothing to do with her highchair. Now just 7 days later, she's doing great in the bath and the highchair and we have high hopes for short walks in the stroller very soon but we aren't pushing our luck. She has warmed up to Xander and Noah but isn't quite sure what to think of the dog yet. Stuffed animals creep her out right now, too. I don't think she's ever seen eyes on an inanimate object before and isn't sure what to make of it.


• The Pediatrician-Meili had an appt. on Tuesday. It was great fun to try to add Meili to our insurance without a Social Security # but I think we're good finally. Meili weighed 16 pounds even and was 27.5 inches long. She is such a tiny thing! Her head circumference is at the 25th percentile, her length is below the third and her weight is about an inch and a half below the curve. We're working on fattening her up. Luckily for her, we have many tried and true tactics that have done wonders for us! She screamed bloody murder during most of the visit but the doctor was able to count her fingers and toes at least and proclaim her basically healthy. Our ped isn't interested in running titers to check her immunity levels for the immunizations that she received in China and just wants to trust the records we were given and give her the MMR series. (?!) We're going to wait until her next appt for those to give me a chance to check the updated immuniztion record that we were given in China and see if there have been any additions to it from the one we were given at referral. I didn't think to bring the latest one with me to the meeting. I'll blame sleep deprivation...:)


• The Latest-Meili has such a funny little personality. She'll sit on our laps and just make faces back of forth with us for 15-20 minutes at a time. She says mama, dada, bye bye, hi and dog. If we say yay, she will clap. If we say no she will shake her head and she loves to play peek a boo. Sometimes she will smile at us by just scrunching up her eyes and leave her mouth out of the equation. After about day 3 at home, she started to pull up to standing. I'm sure she could do this before we met her but it was the first time she did it for us. Now she is walking around the house behind a little doll stroller and crawling at lightning speed, sometimes away from Mom which is a huge milestone. Meili has been a bus stop celebrity this week and went out this afternoon for our first restaurant outing with 5 kiddos which went surprisingly well.


• Food-Meili ate anything we gave her in China and became a picky little thing once we got home. We could feed her several things successfully one day and she would spit them out the next so we are constantly looking for new items to appease her palate. In general, she is not a big fan of baby food and prefers table food. I made congee for her yesterday and she is loving that. I need to add meat, veggies and some good fat to it to round out her diet.


• Sleep-Meili will sleep great one night and not so great the next so we haven't found our stride yet. The hard thing is to try to limit her napping the day after a bad night so we don't recreate it the next. Matt and I have both been sick with stomach bugs and I have a fresh cold again after fighting one in China which isn't helping things either.
• We are thoroughly enjoying being parents to five children. I think that part of it has to do with how different (and fun!) it can be to care for a baby when there isn't a two year old in the picture! Plus, the older kids are great helpers. They completely understand that feeding, bathing, changing and comforting Meili are Mommy and Daddy jobs and that they are the 'Play Patrol.' Taylor's school bus comes one hour after the other kids' does and he is eager to help take kids to the bus stop or play with Meili while I get a shower in the morning. In the afternoon, Audrey comes home one hour before Taylor does and the first thing she wants to do when she gets home is play with her sister. This gives me a chance to get some things done around the house with two free hands or start dinner. Xander and Noah are enjoying getting to know their baby sister and watching her warm up to them day by day. The little boys already had a couple of school days under their belts when we got home from China but at the end of the first school day that we were home I asked Xander if he missed me and he said, 'Yes, but I missed Meili more.' He is an awesome big brother. I worried about how he would handle being dethroned as the baby after almost 6 years of reign but I guess going from having 25% of your parent's attention to 20% isn't that big of a change...:)