Transitioning Home

We've been home almost two weeks. Time sure does fly alot faster at home!

The Trip Home

The flight home was almost non-eventful. Both kids were great for the first 6am flight out of Warsaw, the long layover in Amsterdam, and the second flight which was delayed an hour. If you fly through Amsterdam make sure you take advantage of the baby room which has cribs for sleeping, calm music, and diaper changing stands. They also have a decent play room with slides for older kids. At the end of the second flight Mason got sick during landing and started crying. Alissa couldn't see him since he was sitting in front of her and she got very upset. This triggered a tempertantrum since I couldn't let her out of her seatbelt. She was pretty loud for about 5 minutes and then calmed down. I actually thought she had been pretty good considering and she needed that little release.

Then the whole flight had very delayed baggage. Mason fell asleep on the floor of baggage claim at Dulles airport and didn't wake up to walk through customs (he was sleep walking). Once we figured out that he was sleep walking we were able to wake him up a bit more. Luckily the customs people moved us to the front of the Visa line, took our package and waved us through. Phew - there were at least 20-30 people waiting for their Visa to be processed. Alissa was very nervous as we came out of passport control because there were people waving, pictures flashing, etc (not for her since we had given strict instructions to the grandparents), but international arrivals at Dulles is just boisterous. So it took her awhile before she would show her face to anyone. She finally got over it when her Aunt handed her a welcome sign that she had made. Once she had something to wave around she was very happy!

Sleeping

Going to sleep in Poland had been difficult for Alissa. We had worked on it each night and had made decent progress moving from being able to pat her next to us, using a pacifier, rocking her, then bottle of milk and rocking, then just rocking, etc. However, the constant was that she didn't want to sleep in the crib she wanted to sleep in our bed and had to be reassured where we would each be in the morning. The first night after arriving at our house, I figured she would also want to sleep in our bed, but as always we asked her "Where Alissa sleep?" She immediately said our bed, but she could see her room from our room while I was holding her. She seemed to look around our rather boring room and then her very cute purple room and said, "No, there" pointing to her bed. She went to sleep while rocking her and slept in her bed. She has slept there each night. The first few nights she woke up between 3-5 and came into our room to sleep. But since then she is sleeping through the night until 7-8 in the morning. She has rolled out of her toddler bed a few times, but Matt can successfully pat her back to sleep in her bed. We aren't necessarily even using milk anymore at night time. Sometimes she asks for water or milk and we started using a cup instead of the bottle. It seems to satisfy whatever the need is and she can move on.

We are still rocking her to sleep which we aren't really worried about since all books we have read say that it is good for attachment. However, in a bit we will try to see if we can help her fall asleep in her bed while we sing and pat her back. She loves "twinkle, twinkle", "mary had a little lamb", and "silent night" to help her go to sleep.

I think this tells the story. When Alissa first came to us she slept on her stomach all tucked up with her hands on her ears. Last night when I went in to check on her she was on her back, legs and arms out. Such different body language.

Language
(To the left - Alissa's first art project)

She seems to be doing really well acquiring language skills. We haven't been insistent on using english words and have encouraged the Polish words she knows. Instead we have concentrated on communication and stringing words together (whether Polish or English) to communicate more in 3 or 4 word sentences. So she is now talking in a mixed language. But she is communicating! Telling us she is hungry, she needs to go to the bathroom, that the oven is hot and she can't touch it, etc. She has learned the concepts of "open/close", "in/out", "on", numbers, and the alphabet up to L. She still has speech issues and can't form certain words correctly, but she knows the words and what they mean. She has dramatically increased her 3 and 4 word sentences since being home.

Stability/Comfort

I didn't know what to name this section. But Alissa is doing really well recognizing that she is at "her home" and "her room". We have had less tempertantrums while we are "home" each day. It seems she feels secure here. She somehow knows this is the "end" of the traveling, this is what "it" was all about. When we drive up to the house she says, "our house"! You can tell she is more at ease here.

We've been practicing every day life. IE getting in and out of the car, going to the grocery store, doing errands, dropping Mason off at friends houses and school, picking him up, etc. We have even done activities with her to expose her to other kids like, open gym, her first playdate, a children's museum, etc. She can get overwhelmed, but if we keep the visits short she does well and enjoys them. The only thing we don't have to keep short is the visits to the pool! She loves the pool and swimming.

Food

She is eating less food than when she first came to us. Right now the only constant is the toddler cereal I give her in the morning (for the DHA) and meat. It doesn't matter what kind of meat. She even ate the lamb from my curry dish at an Indian restaurant! Tomatoes are also typically accepted. Other vegetables or fruits doen't really seem to go down. I'm resorting to the "sneaking chef" cookbooks and pureeing fruits and vegetables and hiding them in the food. The meatball soup had pureed cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, and spinach in them. The hotdogs wrapped in whole wheat pizza bread had purred carrots and sweet potatoes along side the cheese. I'll be making Mason's favorite peanut butter muffins this weekend that have pureed carrots and sweet potatoes in them.

Car rides

We did take a trip to Maine in the car to see one set of grandparents and her aunt. The car trip 12 hours each way was a bit long and we had to stop every two hours to ensure she didn't have a melt down. But she had a good time while in Maine and liked meeting her grandparents and aunt Nini (looks like she bonded well with her aunt and grandparents doesn't it:).)