Celebrating 9 Weeks of Esther

Today was the first time Tian did not cry during swimming lessons. For the past week, she has screamed since the moment she saw the swim teacher walk in the door, 'til the moment she got out of the pool. And if you asked her "Tian, do you like swimming?" She would say "Yes!" This morning, she started crying again when her swim teacher- Mr P- came in, and she kept on screaming as she sat and watched Emma swim. Finally, she calmed down and I told her she needs to be happy when she goes swimming.. and she went into the pool with a smile on her face!!

We've had Tian for nine weeks now! Since she's been home, these have been the craziest nine weeks of our lives. I'll be completely honest that they have been very tough and at times, I wonder just what have we done to our family by bringing home another kid!!? "Twinning" hasn't gone as easy as I thought it would.. in fact it's a whole lot more work than I think any of us were anticipating. But we have been blessed by the fact that Tian's a very easy kid and pretty laid back. The one who has had the hardest time has been Emma. She's the bully around the house who always takes a toy from Tian and makes her cry. And then when the toy is given back to Tian, she has a fit. Crying and temper tantrums have become a way of life for us now, whether it's just one of them doing it, or both! The hardest part is that both girls have to be watched EVERY single second, or they are getting into trouble.

But just when the girls do something bad like dumping their Cinderella cups all over the floor or getting into their brother's lego's.. they just surprise you with some of the funniest and sweetest things. Funny is when the girls decide to switch each other's clothing, or both of them ride on their bike and chase Ian around the house as he throws pillows at them. And sweet when the girls share their food and drinks with each other, or kiss one another before they go down for a nap.. like they did today. They really do care for each other and there's no doubt they are sisters!

The girls have lately become completely obsessed with Dora the Explorer and Cinderella. Everything has to be Cinderella, including Tian's underwear! For being such good swimmers this week, the girls got matching Dora the Explorer cups and place mats and Cinderella & Sleeping Beauty Cups.

Tian is doing great as far as bedtime goes. Before, it was a constant struggle trying to get her to bed and then having her wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Now, she goes to bed the same time as Emma and lays down in her bed and goes to sleep. She HAS to fall asleep listening to the "Mama Hao" song. Sometimes you can even hear her upstairs singing Mama Hao or the EI-EI-O song. We even have her sleeping in her own bed for naptime which was huge since she used to ONLY sleep on the couch!

Tian is very smart and picking up things very fast. She's able to communicate pretty well with all of us. She loves to sing and has picked up on the ABC song, all though she only gets past ABC and then it's a mixture of a bunch of words together, but it's cute to hear her sing. She also loves to sing the EI-EI-O song and loves horseys, doggies and flowers. She, however HATES buggies! I've noticed that she cannot pronounce "R's" so she uses "L's" instead. Instead of calling me Sera, she calls me "Sela".. but I don't mind! =)

It's been a LONG nine weeks and an adjustment for all of us to make, including myself. But we're getting through it and realizing that Tian was meant for our family. She definitely completes us. I was hoping we could get a little brother from China, but we are definitely DONE! Six kids, more-so, two 3 year olds, is enough to handle right now!