See new Brookes-Weiss Family Blog

http://brookesweissfamily.blogspot.com/

Saturday and Sunday - March 6 & 7

We were really keen to get the kids outside - Isaac was so much better and the weather was clear, but there was still so much snow on the ground.  We tookhe children to the local playground and they had a great time - we even saw a deer in the woods!  

All of Isaac's warm pajamas were waiting to be washed so we had to dig out some of Indigo's pajamas for him - he was very happy in her pink pjs.  

It was sweet to see our two kids enjoying sitting on the chair together - it was actually sweeter before I was able to get the camera - missed the best moment as Indigo started to hug him a bit tightly for the picture :-) we're happy for all loving moments between the two of them!  On Sunday we took a walk down to our beach - snow covered beach, but David was so excited for Isaac to see the lake.  Once we negotiated the hill, which was a bit icy, down to the beach, we had a nice time.   I loved the two kids each having a fun turn on Daddy's shoulders!  It will be so fun to be playing on the beach and swimming in the lake in the summer. 

We have a new blog!

We first started blogging with the journey to our precious daughter Indigo.   We (mostly) maintained her blog the past few years as we experienced the joy of having her in our lives.   On February 1, 2010 we became the proud parents of a second child, our son Isaac, adopted from Jiangsu province, China.   We followed our journey to Isaac and our travels in China and our first week home with him on his blog.  However, now that we have two children we're switching to a single family blog where we can celebrate all our family life events and follow our two children as they grow.  Please join us on this journey as a family as we navigate the sometimes treacherous but very joyous path of parenthood.   We appreciate comments and they do keep us motivated to keep going.  Here is the link to the new blog:
http://brookesweissfamily.blogspot.com/

Receiving Visitors & Rough Nights

On Friday night, bedtime with Isaac was really rough.   He was starting to cry as soon as we even appeared to be getting him ready for bed.   In China, most nights, he might have a little protest cry for a minute or two and then would conk out - we almost kind of thought it was just a little bit of stress relief, it was so quick.   Now, he was crying for a long time when we laid him down, and staying with him did not seem to help all that much.   We kept going back in over and over and he would fall asleep, only to wake an hour later and then again.  David spent Friday night on the single bed in his room as Indigo was ready to reclaim her own room.  We toyed with the idea of bringing him into our bed, but historically that has not worked for our family.  The times Indigo did come into our bed she would never sleep, and as a result, we never slept, which seemed contrary to the objective.   Also, if Isaac did sleep that way, we were fearful of the precedent and what it might involve to get him out of our bed.   Additionally, we would now have Indigo telling us it was not fair if he slept in our bed.  To top it off, I am a terrible sleeper, struggling with falling asleep and then when I do, poor David claims that I sleep diagonally, and so the last thing he needs, is another being in the bed competing for his space.   We figured that Isaac was waking and upset in his new surroundings and as long as we went to him and comforted him, he would soon be comfortable in his own room, and for the beginning, we could take turns on the single bed in that room.  So, that first Friday night home was rough.   On Saturday we tried to get things a bit more sorted out and cleaned up at the house and just spend time together as a family - bear in mind that the snow from the blizzard was still on the ground, so outdoor activity was limited. 

Late Saturday afternoon, early evening, we had a visit from our friends and neighbors, Eugene & Julie, with their daughter Katie - they were very excited to meet Isaac.  They stayed with us for a while and the three kids had fun playing together and munching on an apple snack.  Our friend Patricia had asked if she could bring dinner and come over to visit and meet Isaac and so we had a lovely evening with her.   The kids had fun playing games with her and we did some dancing etc.  Also, Indigo and Isaac played together very well and were each taking a hand of the stuffed bear and running laps around the house with her - it was very sweet.

Settling into Life at Home in America, midnight door drilling and more...

I can't say that we were bright eyed and bushy tailed on our first day home (I think that was the day of Tuesday, after getting home around 2 in the morning).  However, it was wonderful to have my mom here and my sister and baby Sage.  Indigo loved playing with Sage and treating her like her little baby. 

Isaac seemed fairly happy in his new environment.  My ability to be able to do much of anything was pretty much non-existent.  Fortunately, Pam had left us with a big bowl of a hearty soup and it seems we existed on that for a few days.  It was exciting to distribute the family gifts we had bought and I think we looked at our video we had taken in China.  My memory of this time is very foggy and things got worse before they got better.  Indigo was sleeping in the single bed in Isaac's room and Isaac was in the crib.  This was both because Clare and Sage were in Indigo's room and also to make Isaac feel comfortable by having his sister with him.  So, Granny and Granddad head off to bed.  We got Isaac to bed and Indigo down as well (we thought) and were up with Clare and Sage a bit.  I can't remember exactly what happened but I think we were off to bed and Clare and Sage were in their room when Clare heard Indigo through the wall, either calling for us or trying to get out the door.   Clare gets us and Indigo is on the other side of the door telling us she can't get out!  Isaac is sleeping.   So, we figure that Indigo has locked the door on the other side and we get the little key to unlock from our side and it does not work!  We start to get tools out and are trying to get the plate off so that we can unscrew the door knob.  Well, our house is from 1959 with some old hardware and nothing was working.   Now, Isaac has woken and is screaming his head off and we can't get to him or Indigo  (she was staying pretty calm, but we wanted her to stay away from the door in case it suddenly flew open).  Things are not going well - nor is our very newly painted door doing very well...  We decide that we're going to have to saw the door knob out.  We wake up poor Granddad who comes up with Granny, both of them in their jammies and we have the reciprocal saw out and the hacksaw - we first wanted to try to hacksaw off the handle to save the door but that was not going to work.   So, ultimately, we sawed the whole door knob out! 

Last Day in China and Journey Home

Look at our beautiful babies sleeping peacefully - took this the last night we were in Shanghai. 

Unbelievably our last day in China arrived.   We had our final delicious buffet breakfast and then I scooched David with the kids out of the room so that I could do the final packing.    The only part we would not miss of our trip - the constant packing each time we moved on.   David took the children to a nearby park where they had a wonderful time. 

You can see how much Indigo was trying to help Isaac on the playground equipment - being a very sweet big sister.  It's hard when kids try to help - sometimes, it seems to actually make things more dangerous but you don't want to stifle that desire to help.   They also did a little shopping and Indigo got a fan and Isaac got a train.   They arrived back when I was mostly done and was racing to use up the last of my paid internet time to get the blog caught up.  We met Jimmy in the lobby with all of our luggage.  We made an impressive sight.  We took Grandma to her terminal and had to say farewell - that was tough after a wonderful and special and magical trip together.  We are scheduled to see her again in July for her 80th birthday!   We went to our terminal and had plenty of time - the kiosk for our flight was not even open yet.  Granddad and I chose some books at the bookstore.  We kept counting our cash and seeing how much we had left so that we could use it up.  We got checked in and no problems with any luggage.  We had some lunch and then browsed around the airport gift shops - much more expensive but we made a few last gift purchases and waited for our flight. 

Right before boarding, someone from the airline came up to me and asked if we were our family.  I was thinking "what's the problem".   However, she said that as a family of four she could move us up to a row of five where the fifth seat was not taken - awesome!  We were previously far back in the plane and we were being moved forward.  When we boarded it turns out that we had been put in Economy Plus!  We were so excited.  Those five or seven inches make so much difference.   We told Granddad that he could move forward and sit in the fifth seat with us but as it turns out he found an empty aisle seat one row back from us so that was fantastic too.  The flight from Shanghai left very late - as we waited on the run way we could just see the fog rolling in and it was obviously delaying flights arriving and taking off.  We did finally leave but we were going to land very late in Chicago.  The flight to Chicago was a hundred times better than I expected.   All along I had thought how are we possibly going to manage two toddlers on a flight back from China.  I was dreading it.  The kids were amazing.  They slept most of the time. 

Also, because of the direction, the tail winds take almost two hours off the flight making it closer to 12 hours vs. 14.  The kids were so good.  Indigo chose to sleep on the floor most of the time, probably not highly recommended for sanitary or safety reasons but great for peace and quiet.  Despite the children being great, David and I were not really able to sleep but just not also having to cope with the kids went a long way.   You can see we took a lot of photos of our location as we traveled and crossing the international date line.

   So, we arrived late in Chicago!   We had to go through Immigration and take the additional step of going to the officer with the all important "brown packet envelope" that we had carried all the way from the US consulate in Guangzhou and Isaac became a US Citizen.   We were not sure if we could make our connecting flight but we have it the best shot anybody could.  We had Isaac in the stroller and Indigo standing on the back and we were running.  We had to check our luggage back through after clearing customs and then catch the train to the terminal we needed.  We then had to clear domestic security again.   Thanks to Granddad we were able to get into the express line but were delayed as the security folks ran most of our bags again and made Granddad unpackage a whole bunch of things - things that had cleared security a bunch of times already.   We then ran for our gate, but our flight was not only closed, but had already left.  We later heard it had actually left early.  We then had to get to a United counter to find out about getting on another flight.  There was into the airport closer to our house that we could have made but they told us since we had checked our luggage through (even though there was no way it had made the flight) that we had to go to the same airport where our luggage was going.  The only good news was that they were able to get us on a flight that same night and we did not have to spend the night in the Chicago airport.   Granny had driven up that day with my sister Clare and my niece Sage and had planned to meet our earlier flight.  Our friend Pam was also coming with a second car to fit all of us and our luggage.   We called to say that we could just catch a cab but nobody was having any of that.  You can see that David was exhausted as he lay on waiting chairs with Isaac on top of him.