It's a process..

It's a process....I think I have said this a million times through our travel and arrival home.   The trip from China was easier in many ways than I expected and infinitely more challenging in others.  Here at home, Aoli and Violet are trying to sort out their relationship (not kidding).  I thought we were lucky to not have to deal with sibling rivalry but it turns out that V. thinks of herself as a person too (well, we do as well, truthfully).  Jealousy abounds but today Aoli was really trying to be nice.  She came down from bed in perfect form (dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed, bed made with "Good morning mama & baba & doggie."  Then the dog barked at her a bit aggressively.  In addition,  Aoli is small and when she gets down on the floor, the dog thinks she might be a mate!!  Oiy vay.


We had a fun night tonight.  Aoli is pretty consistently silly at the dinner table.  Tonight, Gerry had turned some music on and A. was playing various instruments and conducting with her chopsticks.  I think just having dinner with a table full of food and people to share it with fills her heart with 10-year old-style joy.  It may have been a perfect night for her.  She got to show off her newly pierced-ears (I promised her in China she could do this in the U.S.) and new clothes from shopping trip today, had a great dinner, computer time with Baba, and then a bath and book with the all four of us.  No major meltdowns today, thank goodness.  Afternoons between 2 and 4pm can be hard.  Sometimes Aoli has a an issue with following directions and I noticed this timeframe is particularly cursed.  Other parents tell me that this can be a problematic time of day for many kids.  As new parents, part of our ongoing challenge is just figuring out what is normal kid behavior.  I have found that keeping up with food helps a lot and also just understanding (on my part) that it will pass.


Yesterday we had a pretty successful trip to our pediatrician's office.  I LOVED her doctor.  She is going to assist with getting our expedited orthopedic appointment (for Aoli's foot) with a particular specialist at Children's Hospital.  Aoli has a medical issue that impedes her walking. At the doctor's office, Aoli, at first, refused to dawn the johnnie, can't really blamer her.  She do this eventually and did ok at the appointment until we had to wait in the lab for her turn to have 7 vials of blood drawn for tests.  Good grief.  She was hungry and bad mama neglected to bring snacks.  Won't happen again, I can assure you!


Some images from home:

Math Fun.  Last night Aoli enjoyed her new craft scissors by writing her numbers 1-110 and cutting them out into individual squares.  Today she wrote out and completed some math tables.

A girl after my own heart:  she LOVES workbooks.

Tonight Violet stayed up in Aoli's room for a few minutes when she went to bed .  I just noticed that Aoli took the ribbon off one of her teddy bear's and put it around Violet's neck.  Too cute.