Under the weather

We are all feeling a little under the weather. D & C both had dry hacking coughs at night time in Haiti & today we could tell D was feeling really rough. He was clingy & whiny most of the day & felt a little warm earlier.

Today I woke with a full scale migraine & even slept through the little kids waking up this morning. I felt tired & am feverish (I assume since I am freezing - but everyone else says they are warm). I slept till 9am, was asleep with the kids by 1, got up for a wee bit & crashed for another two hours & woke to find A had cooked dinner & it was ready & waiting to be eaten.

A develped a weird itchy rash night before last & we thought it might be the start of the chicken pox. But by yesterday it had not progressed. Today it has faded more so that was a bit of a mystery. She had felt tough the night we got home from Haiti & all the next day.

The kids are definetely testing us more to find out where our boundaries are. C is a little more defiant & will continue to do something after we ask her to stop & laugh about it. We give her two warnings & then remove her & then her temper really shines & I have seen the spitting episodes that others have spoken about. She is not a bad kid she is just trying to figure our what our rules are. I don't think she is feeling 100% either & had a couple of fits of frustration when when couldn't put on her shoe or her jacket zipped herself.

They are both very busy kids so they keep us all on our toes. The two big kids have been awesome & have pitched in & helped chase the little monsters. A is amazing with them & took over for me completely today while I slept. Tonight B took the littles to bed while I cleaned up the kitchen & supper mess & they did not even fuss & were asleep in about 10 minutes. We still go & sit on the floor next to their bed & remind them to lie down if they sit up but they are very easy to get to bed - it usually only takes 5 - 20 minutes till they are sleeping soundly. If they do fuss it is just a feeble attempt at a protest & not a full out fight. We have not had any sleep issues at all. The kids go to bed between 8:00 & 8:30 & wake between 6:30 - 7:30. They also lie down for a nap around 1:00 & sleep for about two hours.

Food issues are improving already & the kids are amazing eaters. They will eat just about anything we give to them. I have been making all very healthy meals & snacks through-out the day as I want to give them the best start here as they did not have veggies, meats or fruit before, except for mangos when in season & guava & bananas. Pretty much all their food previously was some kind of corn or oat mush, pasta or rice & beans so they were not really used to have to poke food or to chew anything much, they could always just scoop their food in a spoon. They will eat all vegetables - potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, asparagus, red & yellow peppers, mushrooms etc. D isn't too keen on strawberries or celery. We have taken the kids off of milk products as they too had that chronic runny nose. Yesterday was our first day so it has only been two days but there is an improvement already, but still to soon to know. The kids are drinking soy milk right now but we are going to try them on a rice milk too. We are still expermenting on what they will & won't eat but so far they are very easy to please. Since D is also not feeling well we will elimate all the milk products for a week or so & then reintoduce some to see if the runny nose returns just so we are not confusing cold issues with him being lactose intolerant.

Still not feeling well so I am going to sign off. I know I have not posted any of the photos for the adopting parents on the yahoo groups yet, but I just have not up to going through photos yet; but I will do it soon - I promise.

Hugs, Laurie