Big Sister Update

Riley spent the last three months being angry and hostile towards me. She was not having this whole little-sister thing, and I was the brunt of her anger. But the last several days she has been like a whole new person. She's been really affectionate with me, wanting to snuggle and hug all the time. She wants to hang out with me even! I think we're starting to see our little girl coming back and what a relief it is. I must admit I'm happy she is liking me again :)

However, both girls continue to generally dislike sisterhood. On rare occasions they will enjoy each other. Sometimes I see a glimmer of compassion from Riley. Sometimes Sunder thinks big sister is neat. But mostly...NOT. I have reconciled that at this time they prefer to be kept apart and I'm now ok with that. Riley eats breakfast in the dinning room. Sunder eats in the kitchen. They are both much happier at breakfast time now. At other times throughout the day one is sent off for "alone time" while the other gets mommy-time. I hope it's not like this forever, but we're meeting the girls where they're at and working with it.

On an unrelated note:
I'm starting Sunder's adoption video today! I'm am so excited. Here are the songs we've chosen-
Imogen Heap- "Hide and Seek"
U2- "Sometimes you can't make it on your own"
Rob Thomas- These Small Hours (Little Wonders)
This last song is the one which I named the blog after!

The Busyness Blues

I was walking my daughter to school and our little one, age two, wanted to look at every single autumn leaf on the ground. At first it was kinda cute but I quickly became impatient. I scooped her up and half-jokingly said, "Come on! We don't have time to enjoy ourselves!" Another walking family overheard me and nodded sadly in agreement. This has really been eating at me lately.

I wake up and before I can realize what's happening the day is over. At night my head hits the pillow and 30 seconds later it's time to wake up. Then the whole process repeats itself endlessly and forms this pattern I call "my life." And while I love it, I feel a bit miffed that it is passing me by without my permission. I like to have time to reflect on my day. Or time to just hang out with friends and family, yet... who has time for such activities? And every single person I know has the same predicament. Yes, EVERY SINGLE PERSON I KNOW IS TOO BUSY.

Last night I woke up at 3am. I couldn't go back to sleep. In my earlier days this would have annoyed me. But last night I was so happy to be awake. I spent a whole hour in my bed with my random thoughts. It feels like months since I've done that and it was heaven.

So here's my question, is this an American thing, this unrelenting busyness? Or is it a human condition? Do we really WANT to live like this or do we have no say in how we spend our days? I feel like I have to work so hard just to maintain the status quo. I've thought about "what can I cut out of my life" but really, to stop doing the dishes, laundry, or grocery shopping is just an unrealistic idea. What do you think? How can we get our lives back? Can we?

Recent Pics

Another ice cream lover in the family.

Fake but cute smile.
Helping hand.

At the pumpkin garden!

Washing the pumpkins

and it's only Thursday

I always construct the most elaborate blog posts in my head. But time is precious so they usually don't get beyond the walls of my brain. I had all planned a brilliant post about busyness and how we as a culture are much too busy. But alas, it's only Thursday and already we've had a few pints of chaos in our week.

Monday morning I'm at a store when I suddenly hear Sunder scream shrilly. I turn to see her fingers are stuck in the hinge side of the door. We had to leave the store immediately and it took the rest of the morning to calm her. You could see the imprint of the door on her little fingers and they were swollen. Ugh! Then yesterday our upstairs toilet flooded. It leaked through and flooded our basement. I don't want to think about how much water damage is done. Several hours later the ceiling in our basement caved and a ton more water that had been accumulating came bursting through. Hoping the remainder of the week is a bit calmer. But needless to say, my post on busyness and too much chaos in our lives will just have to wait.

By the way, Sunder's hand is still tender, but doing much better.

Circus Circus

When we got back from China, Corin and I started a new tradition with our oldest daughter, Riley. Once a week one of us takes her out for something special- some special one on one time. Then the next week it's the other parent's turn. This has been great fun for us and I always love planning our next mommy-daughter time and look forward to it with anticipation. Riley loves it too. When our younger daughter gets older the parent staying with her will do something special with her as well.

This week it was my turn to do something special with Riley so we went to the circus! I think I was more excited than she was! I have never been to a real circus.I know I have been so deprived! We both had a great time. Riley liked the music and I found the motorcycle cage to be one the most amazing and scary things I've ever witnessed. They had about 10 motorcycles in this tiny cage going around and in and out of each other.
Now what to do next time? I'm thinking of creating a treasure hunt. But for now I know she has a special night with daddy at Chuck E Cheese coming up and that's always a sure bet for lots of fun!

New Doo and Learning to Read

Sunder had her first hair cut this week. She was fascinated with the chunks of hair falling to the ground. Of course she wanted to play with it! She is no longer shaggy and looks so cute. She also looks more like a toddler now and less like a baby. Since the Giardia left she has gained over 2 pounds. She still has a big appetite, but not near as much as when we first got home. She is really picking up English now and she wants to at least try to mimic our words. We've been asking her to "use your words" and she will usually make an attempt instead of whining. Also this week she is starting to show an interest in books. When she first came home she didn't seem familiar with books and thought they were some sort of Frisbee and she would chuck them across the room. But this week she likes to sit in our laps and look at the pictures. Very exciting for a family full of avid book-lovers! It has been amazing to see the growth in her relationship with Corin. She adores him now. When he comes home from work she greets him with a hug and she loves to come down to his office with him and hang out while he checks email. I feel their relationship went to a deeper level this week.


Riley is doing great with kindergarten. She is really catching on with her reading now. It is so fun and amazing to witness her learning. Her writing is also improving so much. Last year at this time she could barely hold a pencil. And while her teacher and I still have some concern with her fine motor skills, she has gotten so much stronger in this area. She continues to struggle with the big change in our family. But we are getting the proper help that will enable us to help her through this transition. So I feel a lot of hope that things will get better for her soon. I will never forget when we met her in China. She was sick so we took her to a Chinese doctor. He said, "This child has a strong spirit." At the time I couldn't believe what he said as this limp unresponsive baby sat in my lap. Now I know he was right!