It's been over a week here in America

And I think he is adjusting fairly well. This morning when I had to hold him for hitting his sister, he only mildly had a fit and I was able to get him to say 'sorry' to Claire all within just a matter of minutes. This is a HUGE improvement, I think he is learning the rules in our house. I'm still not sure if he is really hyperactive or just an active boy. Some days he can be calmer and sit and focus on an activity, other days he is more hyper.

Yesterday, I took him to a park to play for a while and it was a nice time. He was very interested in the 2 commercial mowers mowing the grass nearby. It was getting hot early so we didn't get to stay too long.

As for our typical weekday, the kids get up around 6/6:30, I feed them a big breakfast, the girls get ready. Fortunately boys are easy to get ready...no braiding hair, no attending to accessories, etc.! We try to be out the door around 7:30-7:40 to get Olivia to school on time, lately we have been arriving as the first bell rings. I park in the parking lot and walk the kids to the side gate. We say goodbye to 'Sissy' (Olivia), then we walk Claire into the daycare building. Nicholas and I go home so he can play or watch tv. Sometimes I actually get to clean, do laundry, take a shower or blog...

I'll then give him a big lunch around 12, then I let him watch some Baby Einstein dvds and he will usually chill in front of the tv for a while. The girls get home between 2 and 2:40 when I have friends helping or we go to the school to get them. This is where I run into trouble, the time between 3 and 8pm. The girls want to watch the Disney shows like Hannah Montana and Nicholas runs a little wild getting into things. They have played outside together a couple of times and yesterday we went swimming. We have dinner between 5 and 5:30, then I make sure Nicholas is in the bath shortly after 6pm because he can spend hours in there, but of course, we get him out by 6:45pm.

So far, we have actually gotten him interested in a few books. Mainly a board book about planes and a Cars look and find book. He is starting to branch out. We look at books for a while, then I turn out the light and rock and sing to him for a while. He just doesn't seem to settle down easily so the last couple of nights, I sit on the edge of his bed and wait for him to fall asleep. Last night he kept trying to sit up and it took at least 40 minutes for him to fall asleep this way. I can't figure out what is comforting to him, if stroking his face helps, patting his back, rocking him, him chewing on his fingers, etc. About an hour later, I found him crying sitting up so I lowered him down while comforting him.

When we first got home I was sleeping in a twin in his room, but since he was sleeping well, I was back sleeping in our room the last few nights. Last night he woke up at 3am to go 'CM'(potty) and seemed pretty awake, so when I took him back to his bed, I tried to get in the twin, but he kept getting up, so I ended up laying by his bed while it took about 2 hours for him to go back to sleep (all the while yawning). I can't figure out if we are doing it wrong or if he is just fighting the sleep or maybe he is even overtired from not having a nap? Feel free to offer suggestions if you have had a similar experience.

Oh and yesterday, I was talking to a local friend who is Kazak about some words I needed translated and she ended up having a short conversation with him. We found out his favorite foods are apples and bananas (which we already knew) and she asked how he liked his family and he replied that Papa was sleeping (he was actually at work at the time) and Mama is cleaning (we were just cleaning up the toys he was playing with). When she asked if he had lots of toys, he asked that she bring his plane. I think he is talking about the matchbox plane we brought to him in July, it was left (or lost) at the Babyhouse. Guess we'll have to replace that one! She said he sounded good. I wonder if his sleep issue last night had to do with talking to someone in his language, maybe it reminded him of the Babyhouse.

This morning was a big morning as we went for an ultrasound on his kidneys to follow up on a kidney infection he had back in December. The place we went to had 2 aquariums and he could look at those fish all day, it may have been the first time he saw live fish. And get this, I actually took him to the grocery store. It was his first trip here to the store and he did very well while helping me. I made sure to tell him that we were just going for apples and strawberries and he did well helping me to hold the hand basket. I think it was successful because I let him help me and we went in to just get a few things and there weren't many people in the store.