A few first week pics

The second week of having M home has been much easier than the first. We are finally over the jet lag (it took about a week), and now we are just nursing head colds. M caught the cold over the weekend and has been a crusty oozing mess for the past four days. She was less snotty today, and I'm sure she was happier about that because she HATES having her face and nose wiped. Happily I must write that for the past three days I have been a very lucky mother and she has gone down for her nap without any fuss at all. To lessen the burden of the nap trauma, I am sort of transitioning her from two naps to one, which starts around 11 or so. She drops off when I feed her a bottle and I've made the move to the crib without her waking up. (Again, lucky me.) But the late afternoons and early evenings have been full of fuss because she's tired and cranky, but won't eat. By the time Kevin gets home, he manages to spoon a few more bites into her and give her that last bottle of the day and she goes down like a lamb for him. Then we try to finish up the night's chores without passing out before C and K go to bed.

Daytimes are manageable for me when M takes a nap. And my days have slowed WAY down this past week. I have been watching the Food Network during the day... the ultimate luxury for me. Today, Rachel Ray was making some really tasty food that was totally inspiring, if I could only have that much stamina around dinner time!

Some photos... not the best, but I really haven't had enough energy to lift the camera since we've been home.

Here we are happily together the day we returned from Russia with M.

Our pink princess with a Russian tiara (or whatever that thing is called)!

K being the big sister.  Today K sat in the car with M while I ran C over to his soccer practice and when I returned K said that M had eaten the book she was showing her.  I told K it was okay... that why we use board books for babies.  Later I had to scratch board book crumbs off M's chin.  Mmmmm, paper.

M had never fed herself before we took her from the orphanage, unless you call having the spoon held in your hand and being fed with it self-feeding.  (No.)  On day three of having M she reached for her first Cheerio and tried to get it into her mouth.  Here she is on her third day home working on Cheerios and stale toast.  She totally digs Cheerios now and really enjoys being able to feed herself.  She can also grab a graham cracker and eat it.

Here is M's classic comfort pose.  She sucks her thumb with her hand turned palm up, and takes the fingers of her other hand and taps, rubs or pinches her wrist and palm.  Then she'll alternate with the other thumb, doing the same thing on the other side.   When she's really upset she'll whine and/or whimper while doing this.  (Thankfully I haven't heard too much of that the past few days with our improved nap situation.)

The kids are starting to get over the novelty of having a new baby in the house and reverting back to their own interests, which I expect is normal.  They both enjoy pushing M in the stroller, and K will spend more time with her than C, but not for very long.  I'm not pushing it at all and have told the kids that M may not be all that interesting right now but in time she will be.  M does like being around the kids though.  And I am SO convinced that this is the right baby for us because she likes getting into the car to go get the kids from school!  She babbles away when they are riding in the backseat with her.  Big sigh of relief there.

We have our first pediatrician appointment next week, although I wish it were sooner because already it seems like M is growing and I really want to have her measured for a benchmark.  I also had her out in the cold on Monday and when we got home it seemed like she broke out in hives where she was cold.  At first I thought she was allergic to polyester because she had a new sweatshirt on... a scary thought.  (Not that we all dress in polyester... but a 50/50 sweatshirt is so nice and soft; and isn't every stuffed animal on the planet polyester?)  She was still a little pink the next morning, but mostly cleared up.  I think it may have been the cold, and that she's never been exposed to anything less than 65F... we had fog blowing in that night.  Her little body has not been seasoned to the outdoors, and her cheeks were a bit chapped too.  She's like a perfect little doll, thrown into our "let's go kill ourselves having fun" lifestyle.  Poor thing!

On the way to K's soccer practice Monday night K mentioned that M's head was wiggling back and forth in her car seat as I was driving a windy road.  (Every road from our house to anywhere is windy.)  I told K that M didn't have her "windy road car neck muscles" strong yet.  Poor thing!

But this poor thing loves to be cuddled and every day when I go to pick her up from her nap she looks at me and I can tell she's thinking, "Hey, you're that same lady that was here before!"  She gives me the strangest look, and I wonder what the heck, does my hair look funny?   But I think she must be amazed that I'm the same person.  Today C and K wanted to watch the end of Star Wars (not really what I want M to be watching yet) so I held her close to me where she couldn't really see it and she was very content to just lay there with me.  I think she's doing well.

When I'm not wiping off her face and nose.