our first days together as a family

NIGHT ONE: this is us the night we got back from china; simon isn’t looking at the camera because he’s too distracted by the scary, scary doggies; we’re so tired it’s all we can do to smile for the camera

 

DAY ONE: initial play is largely independent, not too much interaction; simon proves he enjoys squeezing into tight spaces; toby proves simon is not alone in that preference and ability

 

 

simon and toby start interacting more and more; here, they’re responding to toby’s remote controlled train; simon thinks it’s just hysterical the train seems to have a mind of its own; he squeals with delight as it comes after him

seeing toby and simon side-by-side at the train table really highlights the difference in their sizes; as shown in the growth chart above, toby (black line) is a full 6 inches taller than simon (red line) despite being only 8 months older (he’s also 12 pounds, or about 50%, heavier than simon right now); a visit to the pediatrician monday morning (DAY TWO) reveals that simon is small even by chinese standards (<1st percentile for ht/wt on the chinese boys normed growth curve); it is expected he’ll do a lot of growing this year (kids catch up when they’re well fed and well loved), though even his head circumference is small, which might suggest he’s just genetically a little guy

    

yeah, you can tell that with rick as his daddy, simon is pretty well covered in the well loved and well fed categories!

    

DAY TWO: perhaps remembering the chill in the air saturday night as we returned from the airport, simon clad only in a long-sleeved t-shirt, he did not fight rick this morning as he prepped him to go out in the winter cold; we’re lucky to have inherited lots of clothes for toby, which we’re now able to hand down to simon (renew, reuse, recycle!); in this photo, simon is wearing only one of his chinese squeaky shoes (yes, it really does squeak!) and is carrying his “pleasant goat” telephone (“pleasant goat” is the chinese equivalent of "mickey mouse” – it’s a disney character featured in the very popular children’s TV show, “pleasant goat and big bad wolf,” or alternately “happy sheep and grey wolf” – the kids are all over it)

 

the day concluded with the boys’ first bath together (which was actually toby’s first bath at home in the full tub, as we’d bathed him these past 3.5+ years in a much smaller plastic tub from IKEA which he had long outgrown); as you can tell, the boys had a blast together; simon didn’t even mind (actually seemed to enjoy?) toby squirting him in the face with water from his “dorothy the goldfish”; in the interest of full disclosure, the last few days have been very difficult vis a vis sleep; on NIGHTS ONE and TWO, we put simon down in a toddler bed in toby’s old nursery, and both nights, simon woke up screaming for several hours until finally we took him to our bed (much to our chagrin); for both his DAY TWO nap and NIGHT THREE sleep, we put him in the “james” bed we created to complement toby’s “thomas” bed, such that the boys are now officially sharing a room; that is, if simon sleeps through the night (fingers crossed), it’s a done deal; the nap went well (we actually had to wake both boys after 2.5 hrs), so we’re hopeful the nighttime sleep goes equally well; there’s one force that’s operating against us: jet lag