Some Normal

We are starting to see a level of normal set in. The boys and Mia are in school each day and Finley gets the tremendous pleasure of driving the kids from place to place-- poor thing. It amazes me how much I drive back and forth in a day. Today I had to pick Owen up from school at 2:45pm and then Mia from preschool at 3:30pm then back to the boys school to pick up Ethan at 3:45pm because he had detention (darn kid) then home. Then homework and dinner and then Ethan off to Bible Study then home then bed. It is crazy the sheer volume of driving I do-- crazy and I cant say it is my favorite thing at all-- and we don't have any sports going on right now-- wait till hockey starts in a couple weeks--yikes!!!


Ok, back to the normal. We are normalizing in our lives. The girls are getting along pretty good and Mia is being a very nice big sister without being too controlling which we know she likes to do. She runs around after Finley yelling "Finley, Boo" which means, "Finley, No". We have told Mia to stop saying no to her all the time but she still does and now Finley calls herself FINLEY BOO!! And sadly, we have also started to call her Finley Boo which essentially means Finley No but it just kind of fits. So sadly, we affectionately referrer to our lovely daughter as Finley No or Finley Boo-- cute right???


Finley continues to love her dad like crazy and is warming up to mom more and more each day. She lets me do most things for her and gives me lots of loves and smiles but when she wakes up from a nap or in the middle of the night (which she is currently doing about 3 times a night and we are both EXHAUSTED from it) or in the morning, she only wants baba and will cry if I try to take her-- so lucky daddy gets to not only comfort her but also wake up with her--yaaa!!! I would rate our bonding progress as typical but good. We are doing well and for 3 weeks of knowing each other, I think we are doing pretty darn good.


The kids love each other and Finley continues to love on her brothers like crazy. She loves to play boy things. I'm not sure if she is going to be more tomboyish or she has only been exposed to boy type things. Remember, she was the only girl in her age group in the orphanage so she pretty much only played with boys. I see her opening up to girl things so I think it might be an exposure thing but either way, the girls seem to have a lot of fun together-- they are currently building a fort with daddy :)


Finley is understanding amazing amounts of English. She knows many words but her favorite is MAXXI-- our dog. She loves Max and follows him around constantly and says his name a million times a day. She also says probably about 10 other words including NO and SIT DOWN and some others. She also says Ethan and Owen. I am amazed by her progress. She also understands a ton and if you say lets go take a bath, she will go to the bath and start taking her clothes off. She will set the table for dinner and does an amazing job with all the utensils and cups in the correct place. She clears the table very well and takes tremendous joy in doing so. If you say sit down, she will. If you say, Go get ..., she will. She has awesome comprehension-- already!!! She also mimics tons of things we say although she probably has no idea what she is saying but she is mimicking. She also still rambles away in Chinese. She loves to talk-- a lot!! She talks constantly and again, we don't know what she is saying but she talks a ton and I cant help but think she has a pretty darn good grasp of Chinese. We are so darn happy with her progress and adjustment!

Watching TV before Bed

We met my BFF's Laila and Laura (twins- been BFF's since 7th grade) and Ava (Laila's daughter) for lunch yesterday. It was great to see the girls together and I think we have some future BFF's here!!!

Playing on Ava's Ipad

Already BFF's :) I laugh when I hear myself say that because it is so lame but they are-- too cute!!

The girls love their baba!! They play constantly!

They crack me up!!!

They each want a turn with daddy

So sweet!!