Sushi & Swimming

Before Kate arrived, Sam woke up fairly early every day by my standards – around 7 – but sometimes on Saturdays, Dawn would entertain him for a while and graciously let me sleep an hour more. This morning, both kids were up at 6:30, and Dawn needed some more shut-eye after another night of jet-lag-induced tossing & turning. It was fine, because I’m not sure I’ve made it to 10pm once this week, which is definitely not the norm. So Kate & I played together while Sam took in a brain-building Curious George video. Kate is more comfortable with me every day, and played with me for about an hour while Dawn was upstairs [this is a big step and a welcome break for dawn]. After being home for about 9 days, she is adjusting really well – better than we had expected.

But our precious Sam has been more challenging than we expected. Sam had learned to play independently before Kate’s arrival, but now a full-time referee is needed to keep the peace. I’ve gotta think it’s pretty normal for a kid in Sam’s position to be struggling a bit: he didn’t grow up with his new ‘virtual twin’, and he didn’t have the gradual process of learning to share with a new baby sibling. Of course we’re trying lots of different tactics & tricks, and working hard to ensure that he gets equal attention & affection, but your prayers are appreciated.

They got an awesome gift last week from several members of Dawn’s Mom’s family. You’d think that this new kitchen would be easy to share, or at least peacefully parallel play, because it has like 37 different stations. And they have their good moments, but there are plenty of tears, and Sam’s trips to the naughty mat are on the rise.

Last night we took Kate out to her first restaurant in the U.S. and it was a blast. We ate out a ton in China, so we expected her to do well. But I didn’t expect her to have an instant love for sushi! We had to cap her after several pieces, but I’m curious just how many California rolls she would have polished off if we’d let go of the reins. For breakfast, she had 2 whole bananas, a hard-boiled egg, some sausage, and other stuff I lost track of. A lot of you know that I can put away some serious grub, so it’s a bit odd to be ridiculed by my 30lb toddler.

This afternoon we took Kate back to the pool. The first trip in China was far from successful, but she has started to really enjoy her baths here, and she freaked in china when we tried to bathe her. So we met our friends Blake & Chrissy, whom Sam adores, and re-tested the waters. We started slow, with Kate sitting in Dawn’s lap on the edge of the kiddie pool. Over the next hour, we saw the party-girl that we know and love, and even more. She was fearlessly jumping and flailing all over the kiddie pool, probably drinking in way too much chlorine. She even went up to another man – a stranger to her – with no coaxing and started playing with him. It was our friend Matt, who apparently has the midas touch with post-institutionalized Chinese girls.

Kate and Sam were both having a blast! Kate even seemed to enjoy the application of the 60 SPF sunscreen, which is another blessing, just like her affinity for shades.

It’s interesting how Kate seems to do much better with new friends when we’re not in our house. She still gets super shy when anyone comes to our house, but at the pool, grocery store, library, she acts pretty cool & confident. Tomorrow we’re going to roll the dice and take her to church – hopefully that won’t be too overwhelming. [how nice to use a gambling analogy for church…] It should help that her new pool-pal Chrissy will be her teacher, and dawn will probably stay with her too. Speaking of church, Dawn told Sam tonight at dinner that “God gave us Kate as a special gift.” Then Sam looked at me with a totally straight face and said “Daddy is Jesus.” Well, I’m flattered, son, but it looks like we may need a theology refresher course.