Life a little less simple...

Wow - motherhood sure is a fulltime job, but I can't imagine my life any other way right now. I feel so lucky to be in a position to be able to enjoy our little beauty full time. We've been home almost a month now and the time is just flying by. Every day is full of discoveries and for us and for Olivia and it's so much fun watching her learn and grow. She intertains us with new sounds, facial expressions and smiles that make us want to smooch her to death. Even thought I'm not working at my regular full time job right now, I'm busier than I've ever been and it's hard to find time to do the chores like laundry, housekeeping and bottlewashing, etc. I don't know where the time goes, but by the end of the day, I'm exhausted and still haven't got everything done.

We had our first overnight trip on the boat this past weekend and I have to say that I think this little one travels better than we do! We went over to Pender Island and spent the night at Otter Bay where they have a nice marina and a pool. Olivia just loves being out in the fresh air with the wind in her face, watching all the new people and places she's never seen before - and boy, does she like swimming. We also bought a little kiddie blow up pool and put it in the cockpit of the boat and what a hit that was! It's where she had her bedtime bath on Saturday night and she splashed in it the whole way home.

We finally gave up on trying to get her to sleep in her crib in her room as she gets really worked up being alone and having her in our bed wasn't working either as she would spraw out and kick us all night. Also, Ron worries that he might roll on her in the night because she's so small. Sooo...we took her crib apart, set it up with only 3 sides on my side of the bed so that she's right beside me and made it level with our mattress. I don't know if it was all the fresh air from sailing or the new sleeping arrangement, but she slept from 9 pm until 4:00 am, then after a quick bottle and a change, went back to sleep until 7:30! That's the first time she's slept more than 3 hours at a time since we got her! I actually woke up twice to check her because I was worried that I hadn't heard from her. I think we might have found something that will work for all of us. I guess that's all part of getting to know each other and learning what works and what doesn't. Also, in the last week or so, she has started waking up with a smile and loves to cuddle and talk and play in bed in the morning - I think that's my favorite time of all so far. There's absolutely nothing like looking into that little face with the big beautiful eyes when she lays one of her smiles on you. So what if the laundry waits another day...

10 Days in the New World

Wow - I can't believe how fast the time has gone since we got home. We are starting to settle in and it's really taken all 10 days for Olivia's days and nights to get straightened out. She still doesn't sleep for more than 3 hours at a time - even at night, but everything is still so very new for her that we can't expect that to change very quickly. She is otherwise doing wonderfully and learns so much everyday. She is a very happy baby unless she has a good reason not to be and she entertains us constantly. Her and Emma get along just fine - they now have an agreement that Emma won't mind when Olivia runs over her tail with her walker as long as she keeps feeding Emma cheerios. Our first week was pretty low key - Olivia met some of the people who will be regulars in her day to day life and some of our friends have dropped in. She is very interested in new people and still holds her arms out to me if someone she doesn't know tries to pick her up - yay!! We are trying to limit the number of people that hold her right now until she is firmly grounded with who her parents are, and people have been really respectful of that.

We took her to the boat one day and she couldn't wait to play with the steering wheel and start pulling on the sail lines. Needless to say, Ron was tickled pink and can't wait to really start putting his new first mate through "Captain Ron's School of Sailing". I think my rank has just been reduced to "Galley Slave".

We are still in awe everyday that this little girl is now a part of our lives forever. We feel so very blessed to have her and to have experienced so many firsts with Olivia - her first bath, her first plane ride, the first time she played on the grass (still doesn't like it), the first time she went swimming, so many first foods that produce the funniest faces you can imagine - it's all amazing. God is good, and we are eternally greatful.

Home Sweet Home

We've made it home safe and sound and what a trip it was. It's not bad enough that the flight is 10.5 hours long, but we had the pleasure of an additional 2 hours of sitting on the airplane before it was even pushed back from the gate. We were so fortunate to have had a bulkhead seat with a bassinet attachment. Olivia slept for a very good portion of the flight which was so great. It would have been so much more difficult if we had to have her on one of us for the whole 12 hours. She travels alot better than we do! I don't sleep well on airplanes, but managed to get about 2 hours of sleep and ron got about the same, so by the time we got back to home, we were zombies. Olivia was great, but her time clock is pretty screwed up and she wants to sleep all day and party all night. We are working on that now and she seems to be starting to adjust. While home is comforting to us, it's yet another huge change for this little girl and we are trying to let her know that this is her last big stop for a while - no more busses, airplanes and hotels for us for some time. Emma was so happy to see us and her and Olivia get along just fine. Emma wants to know where she is all the time and sleeps on the floor in her room. The worse part about the trip home is that it appears that our video camera and several of the souveniers we bought in China were stolen either by the hotel bell hops, or the airline baggage handlers. I don't care about the camera, but I sure would like back the tape that's in it. We have 2 of the origional tapes we recorded and I'm sure one of them is the day we got Olivia, and that's the one that matters most. We won't know for sure until we borrow another camera to play them on.

We'll be spending the next while settling in and getting Olivia aquainted with her new home and surroundings. We want to thank all of you that joined our travels via our blog and want you to know how much we have appreciated all your comments and emails. While this has been the adventure of a lifetime, it's also had a few moments of doubt and anxiety. It's been so wonderful to have felt the care and encouragement of so many friends and even those of you we only know through cyber space. Thanks for coming along.... we hope to start sharing part 2 of the great Story of Olivia soon. Hugs to all.