We have been blessed with two special daughters and two sons from Eastern Europe. We welcome you to follow our journey as a family of five, waiting to travel and pick up #6, with the ins and outs of family, education, farm life, and love!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Adjusting

We have been staying close to home for the most part this week, so we can adjust as a family. I didn't expect it to happen for either girls (or Doug and I for that matter) overnight, but overall things have been good.

Mila is doing wonderful. She is making lots of noise and constantly vying for Papa's attention by calling his name! She is allowing Hannah to smother her with her kisses and hugs. She has had some minor issues when napping or going to bed for the night. She tends to "fake cry" (no tears, just sounds pathetic) when we put her in her crib. We have stood and rubbed her back and rocked her, but she still tends to wail. We have put the "wait it out" tactic in effect. She typically finds that no one is going to rescue her and that it's time to sleep, so ends up putting her thumb in her mouth and falling asleep. Mila's other issue is food anxiety. I think the girl would eat until she exploded! We feed her plenty! She starts to whimper as soon as we finish feeding her. As soon as we distract her with anything else (book, toys, etc) the whining stops.

Hannah is adjusting. We have had many tearful episodes, but they quickly fade. She adores Mila and wants to help do EVERYTHING (hence why we have to talk to her more often and why we have had more tears lately). I don't think she is sleeping as well as she did when she had her own room, but she doesn't typically complain about sharing a room. Today she is in a funk. I took her to PT and she refused to try anything for longer than a few minutes when asked. Her therapy session is typically 60 minutes, but today we quit at 40 because of her refusal. She "didn't want to do any-shing" today, yet when we told her we were going home because she wouldn't work for Lindsey, she screamed and cried all the way out of the hospital because she didn't want to go home!! (AUGH!!!)

These are the days I struggle as a parent. There isn't much that truly motivates Hannah, especially when she has decided that she isn't going to do something. It doesn't matter what you say to her, reward her with, or privileges you take away from her, she typically could care less. I don't like to raise my voice with my children in public places, nor do I like to loose my cool. Swatting her bottom, she could care less, so we don't do that. Hannah enjoys many things (Dora, her baby dolls and baby stroller, her truck-car, etc), but could easily live without any of them and not be overly upset about it.

As I'm sure many of you parents know, every day I am reminded that parenting is trial and error and what works for one kiddo doesn't work for another. We continue to wake up each morning and start fresh, determined that each day will be a good day, and we roll with the punches when they come our way. We have two wonderful children. We don't expect every day to be perfect. Thankfully the good days outweigh the bad. Hopefully with some more adjusting on every one's part, we'll tip the scales and the good days will become more frequent than the challenging days!

2 comments:

ArtworkByRuth said...

Welcome home! I too struggle with how to best motivate the kids. Sometimes it seems the more I try the more I fail with one of them. I try to head the self-defeating and lack of motivation off if I can, otherwise ignore it and try again the next day! HUGS to you and praying for rest for you all!

junglemama said...

Mila sounds delightful!