Thoughts on the kids

As you are all eagerly awaiting part 2 of the past week, I thought I would take a moment to post some initial thoughts on Lydie & Samson. 

They are both doing amazingly well considering what they have experienced over the past several days. They were so good on all three plane rides. Samson ended up clinging to my mom most of the trip and Stephen and I took turns taking care of Lydie. I had the privilege of holding Lydie on the 35 minute flight into Cedar Rapids. The sweetest thing was that she really wanted to look out the window during that leg and as we were descending I told her it was Iowa she was seeing and she repeated "Iowa" several times to me. It was a sweet moment. 

They are both very chatty.  Samson says "Lydie" 100 times per day. She rarely acknowledges him but he just continues to chat away at her. They both have killer smiles and laughs and they do a lot more of that then cry or moan. I love listening to them talk in Kreyol. Although it is frustrating to not always understand what they are saying, we get the gist of what they want most of the time. Lydie repeats English words to us constantly so it's only a matter of time before we will be able to communicate with her better. 

They both love their bath time. Almost too much. It got a little wild the first 2 nights, but last night we dumped an enormous amount of toys in the bathtub to keep them from absolutely going ballistic. Obviously, we only put a couple of inches of water in the tub, but without the toys they were sliding all over the tub and making mom and dad very nervous. They have absolutely no fear of water. 

Eating time is going okay. Breakfast has been hard the last couple of mornings. They haven't really liked their oatmeal which is something they ate in Haiti. They are in love with bananas though. Our church family has brought over meals for us and that has been a huge blessing. They have been very mindful of what the kids would like, such as rice and beans and soft foods. They do not like meat. If they sense meat in their mouths they will spit it out on the table. I know texture is a huge thing to get past and hopefully they will grow to like it before too long. They love their milk and apple juice and are not huge fans of cheerios. They also love fruit snacks (who doesn't?) and granola. Today for lunch they ate a large portion of mac & cheese. They first night they were home we ordered a Casey's Pizza and they loved it!

Potty time has been very good for Lydie. She has told us when she needs to go potty and when she's done she loves to wash her hands. Sometimes she tells us she needs to go potty even when she doesn't just so she can wash her hands. Lydie sleeps in a pull-up for now and does wake up in the morning wet. Samson sometimes gets cranky with me when I have to change his diaper. 

They are both sleeping well. Last night was a little more difficult. They wake up disoriented and end up in bed with mom and dad. I don't mind this for right now, because it is important bonding time for the moment. It won't last forever, but we take all the snuggle time we can get.  They both nap for a couple of hours in the afternoon and usually crash at night around 8:00.  

They both love helping us clean up if they have spilled something. They share very well with each other for the most part and say "meci" (thank you) often. 

One thing we are working on is the removal of the word "die-oh" from their language. From what we have gathered from our friends, this word is a term used to describe a white lady. They both call us mama and papa most of the time, but sometimes "die-oh" will come out and we want to break them of that habit. We understand that this was toddler speak at the orphanage because they had so many mission teams through and the little ones would call out to the white women using this word. 

Lydie & Samson are both very smart kids. Samson is very mechanical in nature. He loves to carry around a bag of toys he's collected from around the room. He's definitely likes to be held and today he's rarely come off of my lap to play. He likes to observe everything going on around him. Lydie loves dressing and undressing her doll. She's super silly at times and has an infectious laugh. 

We love them both very much. We are so blessed at how well they are doing so far. We know we are still in "honeymoon" stage, but it's been better than we ever could have imagined.