Seven Weeks Home

We have survived being home for seven weeks. It is hard to believe that much time has passed. We are having more good day versus challenging ones. I wish I could say everything is great. I will be honest. I got to learn to let go of some things. Language barrier is one I need to just be a little more understanding. I know he understand a lot and is really starting to mimic but he needs more time. I hoping once he gets in a classroom setting he will have more immersion and this will help. He repeat a lot of words and we can understand his attempts but most people cannot. He was evaluated by the Plastic Surgeon and he says everything looks great. Will probably do a revision before kindergarten. We will have his team meeting on October 1st and will post more about that later. We keep getting the run around to have him evaluated by the school district. We were schedule to have a meeting the 11th but they asked if we could postpone until the 25th. I voiced my frustration and told them I will just wait for the team meeting before coming to them. Maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt but I send my DD to private school because of the things CA schools do. Yes we live in a area with good schools but I worked for LAUSD as a consultant for 8 years and saw the waste and know more than I should about my local district. I realize they are working with the limited budget that they get and I know it is beyond their control. I digress! So will call after October 1st and will try again later. I have him in a gymnastic to help with his gross motor skills and we have all the Speech Therapy tools when PT did speech. He does not seem to have any issues there just needs immersion.

PT is getting to like her brother more. She is tolerating him and even saying he is cute when he does certain things. I should have spent more time reading on her transition than his. This has been most of my struggles. I try and remember that she had 6 1/2 years of our undivided attention and now has to share. I knew she would regress but how she regress was not expected.

Thankfully I am reading other adoptive moms struggles and it has helped me with my issues. As I said earlier I need to learn to let things go. Being a Project Manager for a number of years, you always learned to solve problems. But LM problems are not a easy fix and time is the best. I really miss having some me time and am trying to work some in. I forgot how busy we are once school starts. PT has gymnastics and music outside of school. We are working on time schedule that works. The kids have decided that the 15 minutes Mom has in the morning to herself is a no go. They keep waking up earlier each time I wake up earlier and I have given up that so begging hubby to take them when he gets home but again PT schedule interferes with my me time. At least I have the hour she is in gymnastics this gives me some time with other adults. Things will come with time. I just need to get a good schedule going. Then I will work out my issues. At least I can say I have not gained any of the weight I have lost during the trip to China. I am getting more exercise with this one. He keeps me on my toes. He also likes to take walks but not everyday. He really likes the jogging stroller and that helps with me getting more exercise too. I get an upper body work out pushing the stroller up the hills we live in. Problem is the air quality is not so good with the Station fire. We do not live that close but the jet stream brings ashes and debris our way. You can see ashes on the car some mornings. So far my allergies are not flaring to bad.

Potty training is my other item which is slow in coming. We were told he was potty trained and just had a pull-up for travel. Well he regressed which was to be expected. When you think that we is ready to go again, he takes a few steps backwards. He is just too comfortable in a pullup and too busy to go to the restroom. He also drinks a lot of water and seem to need to urinate every 15 minutes which also has made pullup easier for him since he does not have to stop and go. I tried training pants and after the 4th clothing change before lunch I decided he is not ready. The preschool we want to send him requires that he be potty trained and can not send he there until he is. Due the dependent care deduction that DH has we need to get him into preschool as soon as possible. I do not want to make this an issue and will give him the time he needs. So I am research other preschool which will take him without being potty trained.