Eight Weeks

It's been exactly eight weeks today that our three Filipina daughters landed in Canada with their bleary eyed brother, mother, and father.

 (I have no idea! We'll just call it sleep deprivation!)

The first hours, days, and weeks were nothing short of chaotic. We were happy to arrive to our home where the renovations were completed enough that we could settle in again without that busyness too. John, Jonathan, Mark, and all the other tradesmen that worked on our house, did a beautiful job! We are thrilled with our "new" place!!

As I began laundry, cooked lots of rice,  and tried to work through the jet lag, the girls promptly settled in to a wonderful sleep pattern that is our saving grace! It made for little girls who were excited to explore their new home and back yard. At night as they settled down for sleep they would chatter in Ilongo for about five minutes and then drift off to sleep. Now they like to challenge us a little more on bed time, but most nights they are still asleep within 15-20 minutes of hitting their beds. We continue to sit in their room until they are all asleep, but we appreciate that little bit of down time.

As far as eating, they have truly surprised us. Sometimes a bribe of ice cream for dessert helps, but most of the time, the girls will eat anything we put on their plate. Bright Eyes blows us away with how much she will eat. Some days she eats twice as much as her sisters and will even hum a little if she is really enjoying her supper. Cauliflower and broccoli are still their least favorite. I haven't introduced cabbage yet, but I have a suspicion that it won't be a real winner either. I was surprised that the two oldest will eat beets though.

Breakfast is promptly after waking up and is usually oatmeal or leftover rice from the night before. They have a snack at 10:00 am and LOVE cookies! I try to give them something healthier at that time, but as most moms know, that doesn't always work. Lunch is right around noon. Usually bread with peanut butter or pb and some combination. Bright Eyes discovered this week that bagels (she calls them magels) are really good. For fruit they love apples, bananas, watermelon, and Bella likes peaches too. Afternoon snack is at 3:00pm and is usually the sugary treat -- unless that was eaten in the morning. Then its fruit or crackers or sometimes both. Supper is eaten anywhere between 5:00 and 6:30. We have to be careful not to set the table too early, or Peanut will inform everyone that it's "Shuppertime!!" even if we have half an hour to go yet.

Bella learned to ride a two wheeler in three days. They all still love the scooters. Bella and Squirt love to climb trees which makes me a little nervous, but what's a mother to do. They have all become genuine water lovers. I put them in swimming lessons for two weeks and Bright Eyes our original water hater was the first of the three to jump off the diving board. We now can't get her out of the water.

They were at the doctor for check ups and are very healthy little girls. Growing and gaining. Although the two little ones still aren't in the growth curves yet for weight and height we're not worried because they are growing and gaining nicely and that's what really matters. We're still amazed at Bella's height. Long and lean -- especially by Filipina standards. She and Squirt are only a year apart and their height attests to that. Now if only the would get along well, but even that is slowly improving.

One thing we're still working on is inside voices -- even outside. They are so loud it sends me into mental spasms :o) sometimes. I have to grit my teeth for the noise of it all. 

So although we still fall into bed exhausted every night, we can see that things are coming along nicely.



P.S. I'd love to post more photos, but our computer is dying a swift death, so everything runs veeerrrrrry slow. Too slow for my patience to last while hunting through files for the photos that I can picture in my head that match the words.