We've spent one week at home together! It seems both shorter (it's very new to have a toddler in our family again!), and longer (seems like she's always been part of our family) than that.
I continue to be amazed by how brave Kavya is. She has such good humor and vitality when so many things have changed for her, in every part of her life. Familiar faces, sounds, smells, sights, and tastes have been replaced by new ones. She loves to look out the window into our backyard, and I wish she could tell us what she's thinking as she looks at our white, snow-covered world.
We've had some bumpy nights due to the time change -- on Tuesday, Kavya woke up at 2:00 a.m., ready for the day, and on Wednesday, she was up at 3:30 a.m. The rest of the week has been a mixture of 5:00, 6:00 and one glorious 7:00 a.m. wake-up . . . hopefully she will continue to do that!
Kavya is a quick learner, and is repeating many sounds. Sometimes she knows what she's saying, and sometimes she's just imitating us. She says "socks" (sock-ohs) and is very fond of them, for some reason. Anytime she plays with dolls, they need to wear socks. She also says "spoon," (spoon-oo), "uh-oh," "oh no," "again," and has her own versions of the boys' names. Nathan's name pronunciation varies, but she calls Aaron "noodle," for some reason -- too cute!
If she wants someone's attention, she will say (loudly and enthusiastically) "Yaay!!!" She did this on the flights home, trying to get Peter's and my sister Alicia's attention, and she does it here too, especially for the boys.
She knows the word "coffee" (she says 'coppee') a little too well . . . it's been a survival tool for me in the early mornings! When I made hot chocolate for Anya, Kavya said, "Anya coppee?"
While we stayed at the orphanage, we saw one funny thing in action -- thankfully, Sr. Lucy explained it to us, or we would be wondering what in the world Kavya was doing. When I change clothes, Kavya wags her finger at me and says "Say, say say!" with a grin. Sr. Lucy told us that she's saying "Shame, shame, shame!", and that they would say that to Kavya. Now I'm wondering if they said that when kids took off their clothes at the wrong time, or took of their diapers or something . . . since the only time she says it is if I'm disrobed!
We also hear some Kannada words from her -- "akka" for sister, "anna" for brother . . . and, though this isn't on our list of Kannada phrases, she says "kaka" every time she has a stinky diaper, so we can figure out what that means! She also calls her dolls "baboo." She continues to do the Indian head bobble, which is fun to see. And instead of nodding her head up and down for "yes," she does her own unique imperial nod -- just a single nod, like Jeannie in "I Dream of Jeannie," if anyone else remembers watching re-runs of that program.
One of the biggest joys this week has been watching the kids together. When they're away at school, Kavya points toward the door, or points at their pictures and says their names. She really likes having them around.
It's been fascinating to watch their personalities show up in how they interact with Kavya. Aaron, our conscientious eldest child, is most concerned about her safety. He is the one who tells us she's trying to stand up in her highchair, for example. He likes to carry her and explain things to her, too. Nathan, our social guy who loves small children, takes great delight in spinning her around while she laughs and laughs. When we were in India using Facetime with them, he laughed hysterically as she tore up the hotel room.
Anya has some little games she plays with Kavya. She draws circles in the air and says "Lolli-, lolli-, lolli-POP!", and snaps her fingers or claps. Kavya loves to join her doing this. She's also joined Kavya in a lot of play with dolls and other things. It's been fun to see how she's willing to jump in, and how she still exclaims over how cute Kavya is. Today, she woke up with some wild, curly bed-head, and Anya just loved it.
Anya has had some jealousy of so much of my time being occupied with Kavya . . . I think future weekend nap times will involve some craft/art project time with Anya, or some dates. She is missing time on my lap, and time with me reading chapter books aloud to her. On the nights when Kavya has gone to bed around 7:30, we've had time to read together . . . but the later nights haven't worked out as well. We will continue to iron out the glitches as time goes on.
The weekend was just us three girls. Back when we thought we'd be travelling in the fall, Peter committed to being the speaker for our church's middle school retreat this weekend. We never dreamed that he would be one week back from India at this time!! Crazy. So he and the boys spent the weekend in the far north, and the girls holed up here. I didn't leave the house except to shovel during Kavya's nap on Saturday! Anya was my lookout, in case she woke up unusually early.
Everything went pretty well, except that Kavya woke up once each night crying like her heart was breaking. She cried for about 10 minutes, and I held her and talked to her, and she fell back asleep. It seemed like either grieving, or night terrors -- she wasn't really awake either time. Or it could've been a nightmare . . . two dear friends of ours from college were in town, and stopped by for an hour on Saturday. They brought their 8-month-old white terrier with them, and she is adorable . . . but Kavya was afraid of her. Maybe she was stressed out? We will see how the next few nights go -- the rest of the night, she slept well. Who knows?
We are expecting some severe cold this week -- my kids are hoping for school to be cancelled Monday or Tuesday. It would be kind of nice to have them home after the boys have been gone this weekend -- and I think Kavya would love having her people home during the week too!
I continue to be amazed by how brave Kavya is. She has such good humor and vitality when so many things have changed for her, in every part of her life. Familiar faces, sounds, smells, sights, and tastes have been replaced by new ones. She loves to look out the window into our backyard, and I wish she could tell us what she's thinking as she looks at our white, snow-covered world.
We've had some bumpy nights due to the time change -- on Tuesday, Kavya woke up at 2:00 a.m., ready for the day, and on Wednesday, she was up at 3:30 a.m. The rest of the week has been a mixture of 5:00, 6:00 and one glorious 7:00 a.m. wake-up . . . hopefully she will continue to do that!
Kavya is a quick learner, and is repeating many sounds. Sometimes she knows what she's saying, and sometimes she's just imitating us. She says "socks" (sock-ohs) and is very fond of them, for some reason. Anytime she plays with dolls, they need to wear socks. She also says "spoon," (spoon-oo), "uh-oh," "oh no," "again," and has her own versions of the boys' names. Nathan's name pronunciation varies, but she calls Aaron "noodle," for some reason -- too cute!
If she wants someone's attention, she will say (loudly and enthusiastically) "Yaay!!!" She did this on the flights home, trying to get Peter's and my sister Alicia's attention, and she does it here too, especially for the boys.
She knows the word "coffee" (she says 'coppee') a little too well . . . it's been a survival tool for me in the early mornings! When I made hot chocolate for Anya, Kavya said, "Anya coppee?"
While we stayed at the orphanage, we saw one funny thing in action -- thankfully, Sr. Lucy explained it to us, or we would be wondering what in the world Kavya was doing. When I change clothes, Kavya wags her finger at me and says "Say, say say!" with a grin. Sr. Lucy told us that she's saying "Shame, shame, shame!", and that they would say that to Kavya. Now I'm wondering if they said that when kids took off their clothes at the wrong time, or took of their diapers or something . . . since the only time she says it is if I'm disrobed!
We also hear some Kannada words from her -- "akka" for sister, "anna" for brother . . . and, though this isn't on our list of Kannada phrases, she says "kaka" every time she has a stinky diaper, so we can figure out what that means! She also calls her dolls "baboo." She continues to do the Indian head bobble, which is fun to see. And instead of nodding her head up and down for "yes," she does her own unique imperial nod -- just a single nod, like Jeannie in "I Dream of Jeannie," if anyone else remembers watching re-runs of that program.
One of the biggest joys this week has been watching the kids together. When they're away at school, Kavya points toward the door, or points at their pictures and says their names. She really likes having them around.
It's been fascinating to watch their personalities show up in how they interact with Kavya. Aaron, our conscientious eldest child, is most concerned about her safety. He is the one who tells us she's trying to stand up in her highchair, for example. He likes to carry her and explain things to her, too. Nathan, our social guy who loves small children, takes great delight in spinning her around while she laughs and laughs. When we were in India using Facetime with them, he laughed hysterically as she tore up the hotel room.
Anya has some little games she plays with Kavya. She draws circles in the air and says "Lolli-, lolli-, lolli-POP!", and snaps her fingers or claps. Kavya loves to join her doing this. She's also joined Kavya in a lot of play with dolls and other things. It's been fun to see how she's willing to jump in, and how she still exclaims over how cute Kavya is. Today, she woke up with some wild, curly bed-head, and Anya just loved it.
Anya has had some jealousy of so much of my time being occupied with Kavya . . . I think future weekend nap times will involve some craft/art project time with Anya, or some dates. She is missing time on my lap, and time with me reading chapter books aloud to her. On the nights when Kavya has gone to bed around 7:30, we've had time to read together . . . but the later nights haven't worked out as well. We will continue to iron out the glitches as time goes on.
The weekend was just us three girls. Back when we thought we'd be travelling in the fall, Peter committed to being the speaker for our church's middle school retreat this weekend. We never dreamed that he would be one week back from India at this time!! Crazy. So he and the boys spent the weekend in the far north, and the girls holed up here. I didn't leave the house except to shovel during Kavya's nap on Saturday! Anya was my lookout, in case she woke up unusually early.
Everything went pretty well, except that Kavya woke up once each night crying like her heart was breaking. She cried for about 10 minutes, and I held her and talked to her, and she fell back asleep. It seemed like either grieving, or night terrors -- she wasn't really awake either time. Or it could've been a nightmare . . . two dear friends of ours from college were in town, and stopped by for an hour on Saturday. They brought their 8-month-old white terrier with them, and she is adorable . . . but Kavya was afraid of her. Maybe she was stressed out? We will see how the next few nights go -- the rest of the night, she slept well. Who knows?
We are expecting some severe cold this week -- my kids are hoping for school to be cancelled Monday or Tuesday. It would be kind of nice to have them home after the boys have been gone this weekend -- and I think Kavya would love having her people home during the week too!
10 comments:
Love this update! Thanks for letting us know how you're doing at home.
Thanks for the update. I am a teacher and I say give the boys a day at home with their new sister, snow or more snow. Parents take their kids out of school for all sorts of reasons (eg: holidays) so I think a new addition to the family and a hectic weekend away deserve a "Family Day". Here in British Columbia, Canada Feb 10 is our second year of having a new stat holiday in February. Enjoy a special day together and come away with more special and cherished memories.
Love to hear how things are going. Kavya is fitting right in. Brave, so brave.
Julie
Thank you for the sweet stories! It sounds like everyone is settling in. Hopefully the sleep will work itself out quickly.
She sounds so lovely! What a sweet blessing. :) Ryan says KaKa too when he has a poppy diaper but it's with so much emphasis and crazy sound effects. Boys!
Thanks for the update! Praying you all continue to adjust well!
Oh! These details are just marvelous. I can really picture your family in action. Keep 'em coming!
Awesome update! The 'shame, shame' part, you got it right. People say it to children to give them a sense of boundary, I guess - don't take your clothes off in public, have to be in the bathroom to take off your pants, etc.
It could be done differently without bringing shame into it (they even make a rhyme to go with it) but hey, them's the breaks!
Love the coppee and spoon-u. Common joke - to speak in Kannada, just add 'u' to every word! :-D
Wish you many fun times together at home, snow days are meant to be enjoyed - with sleep ins when the jet lag is done.
Awesome update! The 'shame, shame' part, you got it right. People say it to children to give them a sense of boundary, I guess - don't take your clothes off in public, have to be in the bathroom to take off your pants, etc.
It could be done differently without bringing shame into it (they even make a rhyme to go with it) but hey, them's the breaks!
Love the coppee and spoon-u. Common joke - to speak in Kannada, just add 'u' to every word! :-D
Wish you many fun times together at home, snow days are meant to be enjoyed - with sleep ins when the jet lag is done.
Oh, I missed this update. I just love it. So glad things are going well. I just can't believe you are all under one roof. So awesome!!!! Praise God. :)
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