Mom's First Day Alone With Four Kids

Aaron went back to work today and left me to fend for myself. I obviously survived since I am writing this post. Four kids is more challenging than two kids but not as hard as I thought, at least not today. It helps that I don't have any infants and my 13 year old very much wants to please his mother.

The boys are adjusting amazingly well this first week home. Their transition seems much easier than Susu's transition home. It certainly helps that I am feeling well and that I wasn't in the hospital getting rehydrated on day 3 of being home like last time we adopted. I also think that it helps tremendously that the boys have each other while Susu had no one familiar.

Both Jacob and Levi have been learning the new routines quickly. I am big into routine and they seem to be embracing ours. Today we did some relaxed school time reading books, playing an alphabet game, working on some English, and listening to classical Chinese music. We also did watercolor painting which both boys loved. I guess I have three artist sons now which is great because I love art.

If you read my post about the Perfect Noodle Storm you will especially understand how thrilled I am to share that both boys are quickly learning good table manners. Here is a cute story. In China, it is not impolite to burp at the table and is actually a sign that you really enjoyed a meal. We have taught Levi to cover his mouth when he burps and to say excuse me. Isaiah told me this morning that Levi got the hiccups very early before the sun was even up. He kept hiccuping and after every hiccup he said excuse me. He got the hiccups again later in the day and I let Levi know that he did not need to say excuse me after every hiccup.

Just to let you know, I am not supermom and all is not perfect in the Smith household. I made a fancy dinner of scrambled eggs, tater tots, and applesauce. The boys both voluntarily told me how delicious the meal was which I thought was very funny. Scrambled eggs and tater tots are my easy go to gluten free meal that I make when I am tired so I am glad the boys think it is so wonderful. Jacob had a ten minute screaming temper tantrum right after his nap time. He gets both the pre and post nap crabbies as we like to call them in our house. He was demanding that I do something and I told him he needed to say please Mommy and he refused and had the melt down. I read a book while he worked out his lungs until he finally realized that the screaming was getting him no where. Then he very nicely said please Mommy and apologized for the screaming at my request. The kids spent a pleasant two hours in front of PBS and we are slowly weaning them (and Mom too) off the excessive children's television we let them watch in China. There were no limits on T.V. time in China which thrilled all the kids.

As a last random thing that I want to record for our family, Isaiah has a new name. Jacob just can not pronounce Isaiah correctly and calls him Izow which is a quite unique nickname I think.