Monday,
October 1, 2007
Ahhh....back in Portland. Of course, we're not quite "home" yet.
Our contractor forgot to tell his Project Manager that we were
coming home so, sadly, our home was not ready for us to move
into. Thankfully, we have wonderful, generous neighbors that had
very recently renovated their basement into a guesthouse, so
we're just a short walk from the house to grab necessities, like
teddy bears and raincoats. Then, even when we do get to move in
(at the end of this next week), we'll be confined to the
downstairs, sharing the rest of the house with the crew, their
circular saws and paint sprayers. I'm thinking that's gonna be
more fun than changing a poopy diaper in a nasty public
restroom...for everyone! But there is a big, bright light at the
end of the tunnel. The house is beautiful and it's now just a
matter of time...
The flight home was pretty rough. Nola was understandably cranky
and she wailed quite a bit. I think it was the airplane food ;0)
We all finally got some sleep on the one hour flight from San
Francisco to Portland. When I woke up just before we landed, the
attendant said she even brought a friend back to look at the
three of us - all completely zonked out, necks bent with the
weight of our heavy heads (she didn't mention the matching
strings of drool). Our good friend Farrell gave us a lift from
the airport, in our car with the newly installed car
seat....which Nola just loves. She likes to be on the go and
that's now her new means of transportation. I'm glad she's not
offended by the pink flower cover, it was all they had left.
The combination of jetlag and getting used to a new space has
been a bit of a bear. Our first two nights home saw Nola finally
getting to sleep around 3-4 in the morning. This was, of course,
after some amazing bouts of screaming. Being six inches from the
source of that screaming...for hours...can change a person. I
think it changes you at the cellular level. We have felt
physically and emotionally broken. A couple of nights ago, at
the deepest point, it felt as if I, and everything else in the
room - the bed, the dresser, the chair, the lamp - were all
reduced to a mass of tensely vibrating molecules, and one more
scream at a slightly higher pitch, could send all of those
molecules crashing to the floor...or out into the sky. Disbanded
forever. Thank goodness that didn't happen!
But Sunday was a better day because Nola stayed in bed for
almost 12 hours last night. Hallelujah!! Hence, the bluebirds of
happiness chirping around our heads all day long. Nola is loving
her teddy bear (thank you Isabella!!), giant legos, putting
things in boxes, dumping things out of boxes, big puzzles,
walking in Mama and Papa's shoes, yogurt, bananas, toast, toast
and more toast, fresh, bite-sized tomatoes, looking in the
mirror or at pictures of herself, taking a bath, dogs, sappy
Chinese music, swinging, being thrown up in the air and waving
hello and goodbye. Everywhere we go, she makes friends by waving
hello and goodbye.
Nola doesn't like wearing stiff pants (basically anything other
than pajama pants or leggings), cheese, or going to bed.
Thankfully, it's a pretty short list so far!
She jabbers quite a bit when she's happy and comfortable. It
sounds a lot like what she was jabbering when we first met her.
There may be some Chinese words thrown in there, but no phrases
or sentences. She's begun to mimic us so that when I point to a
picture of us and say "Papa", she'll respond with "Papa". "Mama"
is a pretty easy one, but she hasn't gotten her mouth around
"Nola" yet. She surprised us both today when she started
learning to say "thank you".
So life is good. I'll post again once we're in the house and
life is tending towards normal. I tell ya'....we're really
looking forward to some boredom. Just some honest to goodness,
staring at each other and throwing stacking cups, boredom.
That's when life'll be really good.
“Real elation
is when you feel you could touch a star without standing on tiptoe.”
~Doug Larson |
At SFO where I became a US citizen
PDX . . . We made it!
A little worse for the wear
I love my new carseat
Kickin' it at the neighbors
I love my bunny slippers |
