Summer flew by

Summer is quickly drawing to an end. The first few weeks were so rainy and crummy that I was looking forward to getting every minute of good weather out of the rest of the summer. It seems, however, that although school doesn't start until next week, school sports started last week. Devon's had 2 a day practices, a jamboree, and a scrimmage and Kennedy had tryouts today as well. It has sent me back into the school run around sooner than I anticipated. I was hoping for a quiet last week hanging with the kids and hitting the beach : (

Keeghan has taken to the running around ok so far. We have a few tough nights as far as sleep goes this week (one night we were up for a good 3 hours) and she's been a bit demanding on being held...alot. There have been a few bad car moments of late too where she SCREECHES at the top of her lungs until we all end up screaming back. It's tough for the kids (and me) to try and ignore her and I've certainly had some crappy Mommy moments over this. But really, I have those moments anyway.

I think we're moving forward on bonding. Keeghan runs to me when I come home from work or pick her up from the gym daycare. I bonded quicker with Keeghan than I did with at least one of the other kids which strikes me as odd, but it is what it is. There are certainly days where I'm willing to give her away but I feel that way about all of them sometimes! Keeghan will bury her face in my shoulder if a stranger says hi to her and we are getting more and more hugs and kisses. One of Keeghan's new fun tricks is to push Doug and I together to kiss when she says goodbye to him and kisses him. At first I had no clue what she was doing but then we figure out she wanted us to kiss and say goodbye. She also "fist bumps" and has to do it with ANYONE near her once she does it with one person. It's cute and a good way for her to learn it's ok to kiss some people but not everyone.

Her vocabulary is growing a bit but she is not putting words together at all and it is difficult to get her to try and repeat what we say. Many things that she says sound the same and are difficult to understand. She has learned "soccer" though LOL. We were working on "Go purple" today at Devon's game but that didn't work out so good. Keeghan can also identify shapes...triangle, square, circle and star but we're pretty much the only ones who can understand the words.

I am feeling a tiny bit less like a prisoner. I'm working about 16 hours a week and being out of the house and feeling useful helps. I certainly still miss being able to go where I want when I want. It takes an extra 20 minutes to get anywhere just to get Keeghan in shoes and the car and then out of the car and then in the car...you get the idea. The big kids are AMAZING with her and play with her a ton but I'm not comfortable leaving them to babysit for her unless she's in bed for the night. I'm taking advantage of that a bit now as I know in another few years they will all be off with their friends non-stop and I'll have to hire babysitters! It is nice, though, for Doug and I to be able to get out once in a while. I do still long for my organized, together, self that I seem to have left in China. I can't totally find the "new normal" for us which stresses me out. Maybe once we're settled back into a school routine I'll get there...then again I've been hoping for that since we got home and haven't done it yet.

This is what Doug and I did with one of our nights out...

It translates to "destined to meet" and anyone in the world of a China adoption will understand the meaning and the red thread. If you don't...read the quote at the top right hand corner of my blog.