Hallie's First Weekend Home

 We're home!  And so happy to be home.  Our cute sign making friends welcomed Hallie home in style.

Now I know why we had such a hard time getting a smiling picture of this girl.  This is the face she pulls whenever she's around someone new.  Don't worry, Hallie has warmed right up to Maddie and Mason and Jordan too.

 The kids showing off their "cheater" chopsticks.  I love these things and I'm already wishing I would have thought to buy a few backup pairs.

We unpacked in record time!  Really I think it took over a week last year.

The kids had fun trying on their gifts.

Jordan is looking so grown up.

Our first breakfast with all of us at the table... I keep looking at this full table in disbelief that I really have this many kids.   That's a lot of little humans and they're all so stinking cute.

 There was lots of giggling.

Like I said before, this girl has practically no muscle tone.  She fell down the stairs on her first day home.  I felt terrible!!!  Jordan, our 2 year old, is totally fine on the stairs, so it didn't even occur to me that she might not be.  We've now taught her how to turn around and crawl backwards down the stairs until she is stronger.

We had a lot of firsts over the weekend, including her first bath in a tub.  

Dumping water over her head.

She was initially afraid of the bath toys with faces, but didn't take long to get over it.

I didn't realize they both wiped the baby shampoo all over their faces before I took this picture.  Oops!

Hallie found Kaitlyn's play glasses.  She's looking good.

Again, look at all of those little people around our table.  They are officially more than a handful.  Six!

These two have quickly fallen right into their brother/sister roles:

They're silly together...

They bug each other...

They love each other...

 All within a matter of seconds.

 Walking barefoot in the grass was completely new and scary at first, she was truly terrified, but after watching Mama walk around, she decided it was safe enough to try.

We're pretty sure Hallie has never been on a swing before.  We had to take it very slow because stabilizing herself is very tiring, but she liked it.

Our baby bunnies got 100x cuter while we were away.

 Hallie can appreciate their cuteness... but only from a distance.

Speaking of bunnies... anyone want one?  No, Really.

Hallie is taking in so many new things at once and handling it like a champ.

We let her try the out trampoline with a "No Jumping" rule in force for all siblings.  She'll get the hang of it soon...

But this is the face she pulls when she is even slightly bounced.

It's great exercise, even just trying to stand up on the unstable surface was a chore.

Everything is more fun with Baba.

Hallie wants to please us so much, it's almost painful.  She puts a great deal of effort into making sure we see everything that she does right and also pointing out everything she thinks her siblings, especially Jordan, might be doing wrong.  I think that's how she got by in the orphanage.  Hopefully in time, she'll understand that we can love her and her siblings and that she doesn't need to compete.

Another first: backyard garden tomatoes.  She put it in her mouth and spat it right back out.  But after she saw me eat a few, she gave it another try. 

A new favorite food has been discovered.  She devours these things.

I missed this fun face!

 This is what the backdoor window looks like when you have six kids.  Okay, it probably looked like that when I had two.  Either way, I clearly need to wash that window!

Just before we left for China, Jordan started expanding his list of foods he found acceptable.  Chicken used to be most detested, and now he can't get enough.  Uh, yikes!

 This girl is digging chicken too.  She is all carnivore.  She'll appease us by trying other foods, but loves all things meaty.

Even though we've been having a lot of fun, we're all still fairly tired.  Enoch has struggled the most with jet lag, he woke me up the other night and said, "Mom, I'm so tired it hurts, but I can't sleep!"  I've done slightly better but I've still been tired enough to fall asleep in line at the car wash and to accidentally give Mason a dose of Jordan's meds.  Luckily it wasn't one that would hurt Mason, but I still couldn't believe I did that.  With all of us being so tired, we're working on being patient with each other and adjusting to our new normal.  Emotions have running wild and everyone is need of a little extra love.  It's tricky to balance bonding and Hallie's neediness with everyone else's needs.  Monday morning was brutal thanks to jet lag and jumping back into our school routine, plus it was picture day.  Luckily we have two weeks to get back into the swing of things before we start tackling Hallie's medical needs with a lot of doctors visits.  For now, we're taking things one step at a time and enjoying getting to know our Hallie.