The First Days Home

We are all working on finding our new norm. Luke has started back to school. He went yesterday for a few hours. When we walked into his class all off the children started clapping for him and made a great "Welcome Back" sign. Luke was proud to introduce his new little sister to his class. He told us after we left, all of the kids were pulling on him and shouting out millions of questions about his sister and our trip. He was so happy to be back at school although he would never admit it!

Today was Luke's first full day back and we let Tetyana sleep while I drove Luke to school. She didn't wake up until 10:00. I am guessing she needed to catch up on her beauty sleep!! She and I worked on math on the computer and learning English letters. She is very eager to learn which is so different from Luke. It is great! It is hard to keep her busy and get to the things I need to get done. Our house is a mess!!

I do have a dilemma that I am not sure how to handle. I had read about this with other adopted children but they had been home longer. She wants to eat all day. Not bad things...mostly fruit. The refridgerator door is open more than closed! I don't know whether we should schedule eating times or let the free for all continue. I think we do need to teach her to ask before eating so that we can make sure she isn't eating junk. Opionions from other AP's would be great!

Speaking of eating, Tetyana did the funniest thing a couple of times. It took me a few times before I got what she was doing. I have a Williams and Sonoma recipe book that sits on the counter on a display stand and she kept opening it and pointing things out. I thought maybe she was pointing to things she thought she may like, then it hit me!! She thinks it is a menu of things I will cook her! LOL Try to explain that one to someone who doesn't speak your language!

She is testing us ok, really me. Wait till she finds out Drew is the push over and I am the mean one! I took her and Luke to Target for the first time and told them they could both pick out one toy. We looked in the girls section first and she was picking up everything. I told her we should look around and then decide on what she really wanted. She finally settled on a toy and we moved on to the boy's toys. Across from where we were looking with Luke there was some electronic toys, one of them being an Idog for the Ipod which we already have and Luke gave to her. No, she wanted this new one. I didn't want her to get it because I knew she would only play with it for 5 minutes. So I reminded her she could only get one toy. She handed me the Idog back and turned her face away from me and started tapping her foot!! I couldn't believe my eyes! So I made her look at me and pointed to the way she was tapping at me and told her "Neyt!" and made her put both toys back! I felt bad about not getting her a toy but I know I have to stop these behaviors as they happen. She gave me the silent treatment all the way home! My girlfriend Shawn, welcomed me into the world of girls! I will take the silent treatment over Luke's relentless arguing any day! A few more things like this have happened but I am remaining strong. We have learned our lesson from raising Luke.

Overall things are going well. She is comprehending more English every day. She is even counting in English rather than Ukrainian. We do not have any problems with bedtime which is a treat! We can even get Luke to go to bed which is huge in our house! The only problem that is driving me nuts, is her running to the phone trying to answer it. We still have the house phone unplugged! I guess all of the newness will wear off and she will stop running to the phone until she is a teenager!!