Maria's View-Today has been a great day! We decided to hunker down a bit and just relax at home as a family for the first time in over 60 days! I have needed some down time since getting sick and Chris and Griff really needed to recover from jet lag. We are all antsy to get back in church regularly as a family but it will have to wait a bit longer.
Little G woke up at 0700 and I put her in the bed with us. She is so excited to see her Papa again. The funny thing is that she calls him "momma" and she calls me nothing. I tell you, this girl is something else! So she sat in bed with us for awhile, constantly saying, "mommmm-ma!", "mommmm-ma!" and finally, I was like, "Chris, she's talking to you!!" haha
I scooped her up, finally, after realizing that sleeping in would not work out for me, and headed down stairs. I fixed oatmeal for the 2 little ones, thinking that Griff would wake up at any minute. Before long, Big G came bounding down the stairs wanting to make breakfast in bed for her papa. That's all fine and good but it was only 0730 and I knew that Chris needed to sleep. So I told her that we would wait until he had plenty of time to sleep in, because that's actually part of Father's Day for him, and she was disappointed, but agreed.
1000 rolled around and Griff was still sleeping! So Chris decided to wake him up. I prepared his oatmeal, again, and he gobbled it down. He got a bit fussy with it but it wasn't too bad. By this time, Little G was ready to go down for a nap. We must get these kids on the same nap schedule!Lunch rolled around and little G was still sleeping, so I fed Griff his left over chicken noodle soup from last night and he did pretty well with it. Fussy at times but nothing too bad. Chris and I had leftovers, Big G had a sandwich and fruit, and once Little G woke up, we fixed her a plate of ham, cheese, and Mandarin oranges. She cleaned her plate for once! Very proud of her.
Then we decided to take a walk to the park and have some fun. It was so awesome to see all of our Gs playing together. We piled them into the German style swing and they would have stayed like that forever, had I not been too concerned about sunburn! I forgot the sunscreen. The sun was blaring right in their faces. Griff and Little G loved the slides! He hasn't forgotten how to do it. That little boy is BRAVE and so is his little sister. He would go down headfirst without hesitation, Little G would only go down the right way. I'm good with that. ha ha.
Big G is so sweet with her brother and sister. She did her best to shield their eyes from the sun and shared the swing every time they wanted to use it. She also insisted on pushing the stroller, even though the weight of it and the kids are hard enough for me to push! She did say, "It's so good to have 2 babies in the family." I love her. I keep picking G's brain about her new brother and she just keeps saying, "I like him!"
Dinnertime snuck up on us and it was 5:30 and Griffin was ready for bed. Since he had slept so late, and then we went to the park, he did not have a nap. So we decided to just feed him a jar of his last baby food from his old country of roast, potatoes, and carrots, while I cooked. He ate it with not so much as a peep of a sound. As I was cooking spaghetti, I gave him the empty noodle box to bang the high chair with and he was just as happy as he could be. Baby food doesn't trigger the fussy response. Interesting. By the way, I gave him a baby food thing of prunes this morning as well. He didn't care for it but he ate every bite. But anyway, after he had eaten, Chris put him to bed in his cute little Southern Miss PJ's at 6. SMTTT! All of this to say, we still have yet to have a meal where all 5 of us are around the table. Soon, hopefully!
I told Chris that I am just experiencing so much emotion that it's honestly hard to put it into words. I think it's normal for anyone to be feeling the way that I feel, still a lot of nervousness but also a lot of love. A LOT. Chris was holding him today in the recliner when I was about to start cooking. I just had the most overwhelming urge to hold him... so I did. And just rocked him in my arms in place for about 5 minutes. I experience anger, too. Anger in that I couldn't get to him faster, that I didn't rescue him as a baby, even though I know that's not realistic... I'm angry that he has been locked in an orphanage. Angry that he feels that he has to scream for his food, compete for it. Not angry at him, angry at the 3 years of life that he was dealt. But for whatever reason, there IS a reason for it.
Last night, as I was tucking Big G into bed, around 10'ish, I heard him babbling in his bedroom. Then I heard him yell out. I walked to the hall and tried to see in his room but my eyes had not adjusted to the dark. I squinted hard and then just decided to go into his room. When my eyes adjusted, he was just sitting there with his little legs hanging out of the crib and holding on like he was peering through jailhouse rails. It honestly was adorable. I scooped him up and took him to my room to change his super soggy diaper. I laid him down and was just struck again by his tiny size. He is a good 3-4 inches shorter than Little G and a good 8lbs or so lighter, although it seems like much more than that. Yeah, no matter how hard this journey may get, he's worth it. Very worth it.
It's been a great day. We have a lot to figure out about our little guy. It's hard because he doesn't show much emotion unless it comes from within himself, if that makes sense. If he smiles, it's because he wants to smile, not because you have smiled at him. But we will figure him out! We have a lifetime to do it.
I love having my family back together again. There's no greater feeling.
Okay, well, we are so behind on our "date night" TV shows so Chris and I are going to watch some Swamp People tonight! Choot 'em!
Happy Father's Day, y'all!!!
Chris's View-
Man... the best Father's Day gift EVER! Reunited with all my kiddos under one roof! There is honestly no better feeling than that!
I think Maria's internal scale is off... I think Griffin is a good 10-12 lbs lighter than Dee! LOL! I love all my kids though!
Hope ya'll had a great Sunday!
See ya'll later!
Happy Father's Day!
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