The One About Sleep... Updated!

Since my last post about sleep, we're doing so much better! We're feeling out of the "newborn" phase! BJ and I have a pretty steady routine with them now...

1. Bathtime
2. Line the kids up in the hallway to brush their teeth... Lainey's favorite part
3. Storytime 
4. Prayers (my to-do list now includes sneaking a photo of Lainey praying... it's the cutest! She folds her little hands and closes her eyes really tight... then proceeds to "peek" over and over to see if the prayer time is done).
5. The boys go into bed, and Lainey gives them each a hug, blows them kisses and says, "Nigh Nigh"
6. I then head with Lainey into her room and lay next to her on the air mattress until she falls asleep. Sometimes this can take a long 45 minutes (which includes getting poked in the face a lot by her little fingers, and lots of "no, it's time to sleep" and laying her back down)... but other nights like tonight she's out after about 10 min. 
7. Once she's passed out, I put her into her crib where she stays and sleeps pretty well every night until the morning. 

Sometimes I just have to remind myself that even though sometimes it feels like she's been with us forever, it's still only been a couple of months. We tried once just laying her in her crib and skipping the part where I stay with her until she falls asleep... total mess. She's just not ready for that, and it's not a big deal to lay with her, so that's what we'll do until she's ready.

I don't have any relevant photos... but I do have this pretty cute video (ignore "Tangled" in the background) of Ezra and Lainey hugging. :)

Baby's First Geocache

In this family... we geocache. BJ even proposed to me while geocaching. In case you're not familiar, check out geocaching.com. Today, we hit up Bob Evan's for breakfast (kids eat free all of July!), and then were off to Miami Whitewater Forest to hike and be together.



It was such a beautiful day with perfect weather, and we soaked it up. BJ started back to work this week (boo), so this was our first real chance this week (aside from Canaan's soccer practice, which doesn't count) to be together and have fun.

The Giraffe Room

Lainey spent her first time in the church nursery today! It made my heart breathe a little easier (since I'll be heading back to work part time in a month) to see her do so well, with no tears at all. I put her in the same classroom as her big brother Ezra, and she knows my friend Jess and her husband Dan who were working in the room (along with their adorable Audrey). My big girl!!

Thank you so much Jess for the photos!

Lainey & the Cake!

Celebrate!

We have so much to celebrate with our little Lainey coming home, and so this weekend we did just that. We were so thankful that so many of our friends and family were able to join us!

While Lainey was in China, she had her first birthday.

No fanfare,
no cake,
no Mommy and Daddy reflect on how far she'd come...
Just another day.

And so we made up for a little lost time and added in a little birthday party within her welcome home party!

And what would a first birthday be without a candle to blow out and a cake to smash? Her brothers were more than happy to show her how it's done.

We are so incredibly thankful for this sweet face and cannot even believe how blessed we are to get to be her family forever.

THE STATS:

Lainey turned 18 months on Wednesday
Two months ago today we met her for the first time
She's grown an entire INCH since we've been home
She now has 9 English words and 2 Mandarin words
She still loves her SHOES and all things girly
She's sleeping through the night! Hallelujah!
Her first word every. single. morning is "guh guh" (brother). She adores them!
She is so joyful and has adjusted so beautifully!
We can't imagine our lives without her!

Our Adoption Video

I posted this a while back when on Facebook, but wanted to share it here too! Our adoption journey! :)



Our amazing friends Kyle and Megan were part of a crew who were so sweet to help watch our boys while we were in China. They put together a little video of their time with the boys and the boy's perspective of us being gone and coming home. It's adorable! :)

Freedom

Just a short 35 days ago, our sweet girl became a U.S. citizen. It's amazing to consider all that life has to offer her because she can call herself an American. While there are some very heartbreaking parts to her not living her life in China (including the loss of immersion in her birth culture and the distance from her birth family), she has also gained so many freedoms that she wouldn't have had in China.

Freedom to worship, freedom of speech, freedom to access information, freedom to have as many children as she desires... so many doors will be open to her now.

She is now a part of the American story, along with the rest of us who immigrated or whose great great grandparents immigrated years ago.

And we are so thankful and blessed to have her here, in America, and part of our little American family.

Happy first 4th of July baby girl!

Living in A Boy's World

Darth Vader pants... And THREE pairs of little boy undies. She insisted. :)