Update on kids

School has started – what a relief! Yes, sometimes I feel like a horrible parent for feeling so happy that school is here. Ashley just thrives in social situations and it has been so tough on her being at home without any sort of schedule or consistency to her days. She was so excited yesterday when she went to school, barely giving me a second glance in her rush to go in her classroom. She is wearing a uniform and looks so cute! It helps that the shirt is light blue as it matches her eyes. She told me that she made 3 friends yesterday at school. Of course, when I took her to school this morning, she wasn’t so happy, she did start to cry a bit and I read a page of a book to her while she got comfortable sitting in “circle time” on the floor and then she seemed fine – gave me a hug and kiss goodbye. I was told that while all the kids were excited yesterday, today there have been many more tears as it sets in that they are going to school all day without mom around.

Liz is now in school everyday – ½ days – so she comes home after lunch. I have given up on her taking naps now – she’s been fighting them everyday, screaming and crying to not take one. It was taking too much energy to get her down for one – so she’s got an early bedtime and hopefully it will work. She’s learning Mandarin at her school and seems to be doing well.

We took the girls last night to the doctor for a checkup and to ask some questions about things. They are both caught up on shots (had to have rabies done last night – it was pretty awful as they cry from the fear of the shot – so as soon as the nurse appears). We are going to have to keep an eye on Liz and what she eats – she’s on the heavy side and although it’s not bad right now – if she keeps with the same pace, she’ll be overweight. So, we’ve got to watch what she eats and how much she eats. She also has flat feet and some possible turning in of one leg – so we’ll keep an eye on that also. May explain why we have trouble with her refusing to walk and saying her feet hurt. We have just been assuming it was a phase she was going through, but maybe there is some reason behind it. The doctor said for now, just to get some good shoes for her (not sure how to do that here in China!) and keep an eye on it.

Ashley’s doing good too – we talked with the doctor about bed wetting as Ashley has some issues with that but since it doesn’t bother her at all yet, there’s not really anything to be done with it. He said to wait it out and see what happens over the next 6 months or so. She also apparently has some flat feet issues – not as much as Liz – so same thing – good shoes with good arch support. If it continues or seems to worsen, then we’ll have to get some arch supports made for them both.

Ryken also went in yesterday for his 6 month checkup. He’s going GREAT. His stats: 71 cm long (28 inches), 9.2 kg weight (20.28 lbs), 45 cm head circumference (17.73 inches). All in all, that’s about in the 85%. He got one shot yesterday and didn’t even cry – he started to until the nurse starting talking to him in baby talk, then he smiled! He’s starting to be able to sit on his own, with some support and pushes up on his hands. He can roll over, back to front and front to back, although he doesn’t do that very often. He’s eating oatmeal cereal now – we think he’s allergic or sensitive to rice cereal since he got a rash and threw up after eating it. We’ll start trying some new foods soon also – starting with veggies. He doesn’t seem to like the oatmeal very much so far. When he sleeps good, he’ll sleep 8-9 hour stretches a night – but it’s pretty inconsistent as he does still wake up fairly often to nurse or just to fuss. He loves playing with his toys – more so than I remember the girls ever doing. He likes feeling new things on his toys and grabbing at toys hanging above him.