Home

Well we have been home for 6 days and its day 2 by myself. I had intended to be much more consistent in my blog updates, especially in Ethiopia. I wanted to have record of every single detail for Isabel as it was fresh in my memory as well as our first few days at home but oh boy, I think I was a bit naive when it came to life with a toddler especially being a first time mom and also when your house is not totally baby proofed yet. You would think we would have had enough time to get all that done, well we did but we didn't think of alot, well most everything really :) we are figuring out this parent thing as we go.

So our plane ride home was actually not too bad, way better than I thought. The first flight from Addis was wonderful, it was her bed time anyways so she slept almost the entire way. The second flight from Frankfurt was a little more challenging but she still did awesome! She gets super goofy and hyper when she's tired, I think she was way to over stimulated and it took forever to settle her, it didn't help that she was just way too funny when I was trying to feed her her bottle on the plane to try to get her to fall asleep. She kept making these fish faces and giggling uncontrollably. Oh and I think I learned quickly how to pack for a long trip with a toddler, way more than 4 sleepers!!!! She went through 3 before we even left Frankfurt, way too many poop stories than I care to share. So her actual truck ride home outfit was a sweater and half a sleeper. The last sleeper i had was way too small so I could only put it on her legs and cover the rest of her with a sleeper, oh she was a sight but she didn't care  ha ha. Oh and we saw Seal in the Frankfurt airport, we wanted to ask to get a pic of him with Isabel, it would have been kind of a cool story but I didn't want to be one of those weird people. He did smile and wink at her though.

We were SO ready to land in Calgary to go home but we were delayed for what seemed like forever. First of all we were on the plane for over an hour before it even took off because of some mechanical thing then when we landed we still couldn't get off for another half an hour because of a lightening storm, we were in that plane for 12 hours, ugh, but like i said, she did pretty darn good. When we went through customs they said we had to go through Immigration, oh great, we were SO tried and just wanted to get home plus she had a poopy diaper, surprise :) we waited in line for almost an hour for the guy to tell us that we didn't need to see him. Anyways, we were welcomed by my best friend of 31 years, Vanessa, it was so awesome she was there, especially that she waited over 3 hours because of the delay.

We then ventured home, she was absolutely hilarious. Like I said, she gets crazy silly when shes tired so for the first 2 hours she sang, babbled like crazy, waved, blew kisses and wiggled around like Stevy Wonder. We dropped my dad off and was met by my mom, brother, sister in law and my niece and nephew, I think Isabel missed kids, she sure did like them. Then home....awww....home. By the time we arrived home she was wide awake again, it was 8 pm, so we thought we would give her a bath, after traveling for 2 days and pretty much covered in poop head to toe with only wipes kinda says it all. She LOVED her bath, screamed like crazy and soaked me head to toe, it was awesome. Then bed time, she went right to bed after her bottle, we followed shortly after. She woke up at 2:30 am, I thought oh no, here goes the time change thing but nope, she took her bottle and went straight back to bed and didn't wake up till 8:30. She has been sleeping no problem since then, to bed around 730 and up between 6-7 am. I dreaded the time change thing but it hasn't seemed to faze her, us on the other hand, a little harder, I still find I am up off and on after 1 am.

We are learning more and more about her everyday and her little personality, she soaks everything up like a sponge. She makes the muuhh sound now when she blows kisses and babbles when she waves hi and by and still makes her fishy faces and smacks her lips. She loves resting her head on your chest when she is tired which I LOVE but if she is over tired then its 10 seconds on the chest then bang, head up looking aro9und to see what shes missed, then head back on the chest and back and forth. She loves her toes being kissed. She loves being tickled by her dad but isn't too fond of being held upside down or over your head, she absolutely hates getting dressed and more recently hates getting her diaper changed. I think she is just getting more comfortable in her surroundings so it is becoming ok for her to show her true feelings, oh and that she does :) She is really honestly just a happy baby, she loves to laugh and her eyes just light up. Eating has been a bit of a challenge. I'm not sure what we're going to do when we run out of the noddles we bought in Addis. They ate a ton of starches in the orphanage, she doesn't like anything with texture and it has to have flavor, no plain baby food. She likes meat but hasn't figured out how to swallow it yet so she sucks on it and spits it out. She does love water though so that is awesome! Mommy loves to feed her her bottle, she just stares at me with such intensity while touching my face and fingers. Our most fun time is still playing in bed with her first thing in the morning, she is just so darn happy! And I love that our house looks lived in, yup...now a family home, clutter and all!

So as i said, I didn't realize how busy life is with a toddler even if you're just mostly staying at home. After she goes to bed I pretty much go right after her, so exhausted. Also, when the heck do you moms shower??? Oh too funny, when Lee came home for lunch today I told him to give me 5 min so I could shower. He also gave her her bottle and put her down for her nap, thanks babe! I was going to lay down a bit too but I thought I better post this while its somewhat in my sleep deprived head :) So that being said, I think I am going to try to sleep a bit, well after I stare at her for a few minutes.

Please over look my spelling a grammar, it has never been my strongest especially when I tired.

So I am living my dream, what I wanted for my whole life, loving it :) :) :)