The First Week

We made it through our first week home. Everyone's doing great -- better than I expected. Tallie and Valencia get along and have fun together, but are extremely competitive - I need 2 of everything and I'm about to throw away the pink kid dishes because if there's not enough for them both there's trouble in the house :) Valencia is really handling all the changes well - she's very curious about everything and wants to be involved in whatever I'm doing. It's fun to see how new and

Saturday night dinner -- she didn't want to take off her gloves.

Saturday night movie night - the popcorn was a huge hit.

New Sunday dresses -- the one thing I didn't have for Valencia was a dress for church and being an inexperienced adoptive mom (or just a mom with 4 and 5 year old girls) I thought she could just borrow one of Tallie's for the first Sunday, but I quickly learned that the girls need to have their OWN things, so after putting the girls to bed Saturday night I went out frantically shopping for a Sunday dress.

Tuesday -- we took the kids swimming. She had a great time and was very brave in the water and even tried swimming by herself with floaties. Her teeth were chattering the whole time - poor thing, but when I'd ask her if she was cold she said no and when it was time to leave she didn't want to. She's been asking to go swimming since then.

Tuesday night -- Here's a first for mom -- doing Valencia's hair. She came home with corn rows but one of them started falling out so I decided to take them out and attempt to do her hair (!!). It took me 2 hours just to take out the braids. By then it was WAY past bedtime so the next day I washed her hair and tried braiding it. I spent almost 2 hours and did less than half of her head and we were both ready to be done, so since Wednesday she's had a head of half braided hair -- I think I need to find a good salon to take her to!

Wednesday was sunny and warm so I took the kids (by myself!) to see some horses. That ended up not being a good idea. Valencia was TERRIFIED of the horses so we quickly left and went to the beach instead. That was a hit -- she loved running along the waves.

Thursday the girls went to a cooking class. A teacher reads them a story and then they cook a food from the story. I was a little nervous to go by myself with the kids because we're still working through behavior and tantrums, but it was great and everyone had a fun time. She really enjoys getting out of the house and doing things. And it seems to wear her out by the end of the day -- we've been putting the girls to bed at 7pm and she goes right to sleep - I don't think she even moves until morning.


Friday - My two ballerinas. Dance class was a hit. They do ballet and tap -- Valencia was so excited about it and wore her tap shoes all day, and of course Tallie had to as well. A little noisy around the house but we're getting used to it.



Today was Beckett's first birthday, and with everything going on I almost forgot. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind, but luckily I bought his presents a few weeks ago so all I had to do was wrap presents and bake a cake.