Haven is a challenge

Haven is a challenge. She is a sweet, smart girl that has a great sense of humor. But she is also very stubborn and a little defiant. I swear this girl is 2 not 20 months. There is a daily battle of wills with her and she spends a good amount of time in her time out chair. The two biggest issues I have with Haven is her jealousy of Alec and she is not able to keep her hands from touching things she knows she is not allowed to touch. She will tell me no touch and then try to unplug a lamp or something. We changed out the outlet covers so if she gets the plugs off she can't touch the live socket, but she is the type of child that would figure out if she moved it the right way she could. She is very smart and has very good dexterity and that adds to the issue. I find myself getting frustrated with her and I don't like that I feel that way. Every day I tell myself you will have more patience with her...some days are better than others. I know she is testing the waters and feels comfortable with us now... but I must admit the child that didn't challenge me every second of the day was easier to deal with.
She is extremely jealous of Alec. If he is playing with anything she thinks of as hers she comes unglued and starts hitting him. She can be very sweet and kiss him and give him hugs. She tries to help hold the bottle for him. Yesterday she got put to bed at 6:30pm because she was hitting him over the head because he crawled over to her favorite toy and started playing with it. This was after an afternoon of meltdowns and tantrums. I know this is normal behavior but give me a break.
I met with our pastor yesterday to discuss their baptisms and she threw a major temper tantrum because she didn't want to give the pencil back. I know every Mom has been through this, but it was embarrassing!! Thank goodness my Pastor is a Mom and Grandma to young children she helped scoop her up and get her in the car for me because I had Alec too. Ok I'm done venting. Thanks for listening, this stay at home Mom thing is so much harder than I thought it would be. I enjoy being with them, but some days she wears me out.

Two Months

Hard to believe our babies have been home with us for two months. When I look at them, they have changed so much and it seems so long ago..but it has only been two months. How my life has changed. New pictures to enjoy.

Things to document

Alec now weighs 18# yes!!! Last night he actually slept 6 hours. I hope that is a trend that continues. He is now playing peekaboo, loves itsy bitsy spider. Alec loves the Wiggles. He just claps and cries out in glee to the music and sways his body to the beat. He is pulling up and he will take a few steps holding on to our hands. He now eats in his highchair (that is a big accomplishment, he hated it before). Hard to tell what his favorite toy is, he plays with everything including plastic containers. He loves to bang toys and get a beat going. He crawls to the hallway, where the sound echos. He is going through a Mama phase and wants to be held all the time only by me. He says Mama, Dada, Hi, and no no. He now does the sign for eat. He will lift his shirt up and then make a razberry sound asking to have it done to him. He is just adorable. I so enjoy him. Even the late night feedings. I think about his birth mother a lot. How she must have felt giving this amazing child up for his benefit and trying to save his life (he was very sick with pneumonia when he was abandoned). I think could I do something so selfless for this little guy... I don't know.

Haven's vocabulary is exploding. Here are the words she says as of today; Mama, Mommy, Dada, baby, Alec, doggie, gentile, bye bye, hi, hello, up, down, please (we are working on thank you), hot, one, two, sit, ouch, eat, shoes, beep beep, brown bear, push, me, and her latest word is yummy. Wow that is 25 words. She is so curious of everything and wants to help me do every little thing. She loves books. Can't get enough and will also sit down and read Brown Bear what do you see to herself. So cute to hear her little voice say brown bear. She is trying to dress herself now. Gets a little confused and puts shirts on her legs and then gets angry it won't pull up. She is starting to be nicer to Alec. She still wallops him, but will kiss him afterwards. She loves to figure out how things work and how to make it happen. She knows how to buckle the belt on the high chair, knows how her carseat harness works, but can't do it herself yet. She loves her singing dog toy (that I don't like thanks alot Aunt Patty). She likes to give kisses and hugs to us and the dogs. I was told by the lady who runs the nursery at church if she is 19 months she is a genius. I think she is older than the birthdate we have. She has such strong problem solving skills for someone 19 months. I think she is 2. She is a challenge. She is in time out numerous times during the day for not doing what she was asked or hitting on Alec. She does sit in time out very well and hugs and kisses after she is out and then does what she is asked, like pick up the toy she threw.
Bed time has gotten much better and now it is a game to see how many kisses she can get out of Naing and I. Naing builds a tent with the quilt and they say goodnight that way every night. She loves that. There is still a little bit of a fuss, or whining but not like it was when we first came home.
How they have changed in just 7 weeks. Amazing! I am grateful every day for their presence in our lives. I just hope I can be a good mother for them.

Mini Reunion

Saturday we went out to lunch with four other families who have all adopted children from Toukoul. There were 10 adults and 8 babies under two at the Laurelwood Pub. Fun had by all comparing notes and seeing every ones children and how they have changed since our last encounter. Haven loved the chicken tenders and applesauce. She was the last one eating at the table, ate every bite.

Everyone was amazed by her ability to handle her spoon. She is very coordinated. After lunch was done, we lined the babies us in their high chairs for pictures. Sorry our camera doesn't have a panoramic view. Here they are split up into 2 pictures. So cute!

Alec is 10 months & Haven is 19 months

Wow hard to believe we have been home as a family for 5 weeks. The children have just adapted so well. Last weekend they went to their first birthday party. Haven had fun once she got used to the crowd of people. She discovered she loves donuts! She is talking more each day. She says about 12 words now and almost says I do it (her first sentence). She is very independent when it comes to doing certain things like feeding herself. She likes to figure out how to buckle and unsnap things. She is starting to try to climb out of her crib. Yikes not looking forward to her having more freedom!

Alec is pulling up now. He continues to get stronger every day. He now has 4 teeth and likes to bite. We are working on that. He says Mama and hi. He is starting to assert his independence with Haven and they have had some fights over toys. She even closed his hand in a toy to get it away from him. So there is a lot of sharing teaching going on right now. He still is getting up every 3 hours, but is now eating more solids, so fingers crossed his sleep time improves. They are so amazing and light up my life.