Since returning to Chicago on Thursday, we've been working on settling Miss Jenny into her new life (and us into ours). We've taken the advice of our developmental PhD again and are trying to keep these first weeks home simple--not a lot of visitors, toys introduced one at a time (hard), only mom or dad holds Jenny (also hard), new foods introduced very slowly, no visits to Toys R Us/grocery store/other mob scenes. Jenny hasn't even been introduced to the basement yet. It seems to be working: the first 2 days we were home, Jenny went to bed at 10:00 pm and woke at 2:30 am--for the day. Great. The last 2 mornings, we've been up at 8:00 and 7:30 am. Much better.
Milestones for mom and dad? Kristen has perfected baby rice congee in her Chinese rice cooker. This is the rice porridge that Jenny lived on in Guangdong. Besides being very familiar to Jenny, it is the perfect medium for trying to slip in a little vegetable (fruit still does not go undetected). We've started to let Jenny try to feed herself during mealtimes. Mom gets most of the food to deliver directly, and Jenny gets her own pile to eat, pick up, smear, etc. Yesterday she actually tried to feed herself with her spoon!
Dave, he's become Jenny's bedtime comforter. Jenny is having a hard time settling down at night. She becomes very restless, cries, kicks and will even shake the crib. What's worked for us, so far, is to lay her down and rub her tummy, using very soft comforting words. Dave has been doing this the last few nights, and brilliantly. I told her she was lucky to have him for a daddy.
Jenny continues to show us more of herself everyday. She is babbling more and more, and we highly suspect that at least some of the more intelligible babbling may be her Cantonese. She has picked up a little English. She can say Momma and Daddy quite clearly, especially when upset. She has said "there it is," while playing ball. She says Hi, Bye (with visual affects) and can sign "more" (although it's not clear whether she understands it yet). What's wild is that she says all these things with an American accent.
Jenny is intrigued by her kitties. Socks is also intrigued with her (Dot, less so). Socks spends a lot of time with us in her room; Dot tends to show up at our mealtimes. Jenny has learned to say "Hi Dot," which just kills us! She wants very much to pet the kitties, but so far they scatter when she goes for them.
She's been running a lot, and loves to play ball. She also adores bathtime, and she has brought some of her activity from our pool time to the bath (i.e., splashing and kicking).
Most interesting, Jenny has a new game where she runs out of the room from Mommy and Daddy, waves Bye, then runs back in and up to Kristen (or Dave in her absence) and plants a big wet kiss. Besides being totally taken with her kisses, we see this as a great sign that she is feeling comfortable and experimenting with leaving the secure presence of her mom and dad. She has also been wandering away from mom for some days, exploring the house.
We hope you will pardon our delay in posting from home, but highly suspect that all of you understand. The days in Guangzhou were such a luxury--no cleaning, cooking, laundry, shopping, or calls and visits. Just us and our daughter, getting to know each other. Now, it's us, and the rest of life. Quite an adjustment, for all of us.
See you later. Will leave you with pics of Jenny in the backyard, and Jenny with a great new toy (thank you Pat!) that is perfect for her.
