Settling In

You would never know that Noelle is a new addition to our family.  She toddles around the house like she owns the place, like ho-hum, been there and done that!  ;D  After being in that orphanage all these years and coming to this small intimate "warm" house with pets and one other child, you would think she would be a bit freaked.  But she is not.  She loves to play and can play on her own very well and is very methodical and enthralled with her playthings.  She does make good eye contact with us, seems appropriately attaching and bonding with us (still I am the favorite over Wayne which is common - no surprise there - meaning common with most adoptions).  She loves to be silly and laugh also.  She is just overall an easy child thus far.  She has her moments when you put her down and she doesn't want to be put down.  She will throw a fit but typical for a 19-month-old!  She says a lot of things we don't understand and honestly sometimes I think she is repeating English - Emma was swinging in the swing today and she was saying "go higher!" and I swear I heard Noey repeat that.   Bottom line she is smart, she is doing well emotionally, she is sleeping through the night well except for the jet lag aspect, she loves to laugh and have fun and IS fun and she is way cuter than a bug.  ;D We are so lucky to have her as part of our family. 

Jet lag is for the birds and tomorrow we will try to color some Easter eggs and go to a local Easter egg hunt at my alma mater.  :)  We HAVE to get up at a decent hour (instead of 1 p.m.) tomorrow to get more of a handle on the jet lag or Easter Sunday may be a wash.

P.S.  I forgot to change my date and time time on my camera until just a few hours ago, FYI.  The camera was still on SE Asia time and so is my body!!  lol

 Our 2 beautiful girls. 

 Noelle is not very into the grass thing yet or the yard - obviously she doesn't know what to think of it.  I truly believe she never played in grass.

 Noelle chews on everything and we try to steer her away from the cheap plastic toys because of the BPA.  She has a teether. Obviously she still has teeth coming in and it has been so long ago with Emma with the teething that I am going to have to research again on the web to see what is going on right now with Noelle.

 This child knows how to play!  That is a very good thing!  Emma was coddled and hovered over too much by us and certainly by Wayne.  She never did learn how to play well by herself at Noelle's age and is now only starting to get more into imaginary play on her own.

Some middle of the night playing - we have been waking up around 2 and the girls don't fall back asleep for 2 to 3 more hours.  We are all "lag jet" as Emma says.  :D   We tried to get out in the sun today more.

 This is here at home.  The family bed situation is working out better than I expected.  Emma doesn't even seem to mind if Noelle is by me.   The girls are every which way in the bed all through the night - horizontal, vertical, cross-wise, spooned (sort of), etc. etc.  They will bond very well this way and it is helping Emma most of all I think.

 This was the hotel in Hong Kong - the last 2 days of the trip were totally exhausting - almost did us all in. 

This was on the train - these are tops from water bottles and Noelle was having a ball and laughing and giggling with her sister.