Sweeter than ice tea

Go ahead, cue the AWWWWWWW. Tony sucking in all the Olivia he can in the 10 minutes I gave him out of a short 2 1/2 hours at the transition home. Mommy is a baby hog and likes to explain it with attachment theories. And since Daddy hasn't read those books yet...... Truth be told - we went in the morning today so we had her play on my lap until she got comfortable with us again, then an interview with the dr., then Addison fed her cereal, in which she fell asleep eating, and she slept in my sling until it was time to go. Not that I'M complaining or anything! I have come to the conclusion that once she comes home, we may need a laundry service to do our clothing because mommy wont be getting much accomplished besides baby holding!

This morning when I went in to get Olivia she whimpered a bit when the nanny handed her to me but had completely quit fussing by the time we made it to the front door. She immediately went back to the point we had gotten to yesterday (in our last 10 min before we had to leave) where she was finally comfortable to play with her toys, eat baby puffs, and play with our faces. However, little sister put big sister into a crying fit when she tried to hold her. Olivia was having none of me handing her off just yet that early in the morning and it really upset Addi - "She hates me!!!" she cried and pouted. The real tears quickly turned to attention tears - the first of many I am sure. Redemption came later when I let her feed the baby her cereal. Olivia even would open her mouth and imitate Addi saying 'aaaaa'. Those moments were enough to put Addison into hyper mode the rest of the day.

After lunch, we went to visit two orphanages in the city. We weren't able to see many kids at the first one as they were in school but did get to play a little in the baby room. My 3 loved talking to the little ones and making them kick their little legs. At the second orphanage, as the kids got out of school - my littles had a blast giving them little balls, McDonald's toys, and cars. Braeden said, "the orphanage was really fun because I got to blow up rocket balloons and let them go and the kids would laugh like poop. Hmm, but poop doesn't laugh! Whoops." Seth said, "I wanted to yell at you because you said they would be so sad. I didn't think they were sad!"

Speaking of attachment, the Dr. said Olivia looked like she was doing great and really settling in with us. She had no real issues and is really healthy. She did great in the sling, even when I first put her in it. I was holding her in the sling in the drs office and even when the nurses came in - she didn't reach for the dr or nurses - something that made me smile a little inside as when we have our outside time, I have no 'competition' of beautiful Ethiopian faces for her to crave instead of my lap. Yesterday, she would pull away when we went to kiss her but today she let me hug and kiss all over her without being frightened. All these baby steps are so important as we have the difficult task of teaching Olivia that we are HERS. That WE will feed her. WE will hold her when she is upset. And WE will love her - unconditionally. And most of all, that WE will not be (after we bring her home) passing her off to the next shift or next place to live. In her little life, her moving to America will be her fourth move. So we have alot of work to do in that area. So glad to see little hints of her accepting us beginning.