Second Day Home

Wynn actually seems to be settling in better than I had begun to expect.  :)  Having the kids here, as we hoped, has helped a lot.  Wynn is still mute except for the translator.  But we have seen far more smiles yesterday and today than we did the whole time in China.  She likes playing a hide-a-seek game with Gabrian and Ari.  At first, we weren't sure it was a game.  The kids would come thundering up the stairs with Wynn chasing them, but she would come no further than the landing before turning around and disappearing.  When we were deciding if we needed to intervene, we saw that Wynn was smiling and chasing them.  She held her finger to her lips to tell me "shhhh" and hid around the corner for the kids to "find" her.  I'm sure that Wynn will tire of it long before her siblings.  She did have to come ask me with the translator once to help her dislodge Ari from her bed, after which, Ari pouted herself into a short nap.  Wynn attacks Gabrian with a huge grin, and they wrestle over the remote control.  (Not over TV shows, just over the object.)

She has been very agreeable about following directions - coming and joining our crowded table for dinner, which has to be hard, taking a tour of the outbuilding with Wreck Room and library, allowing me to touch a tiny amount of her dirty laundry.  She is very nervous about the dogs and cats.  She jumps away when any of the cats comes near, but she is intrigued by Sterling - from a distance.  If Sterling approaches her, she grabs a pillow to use a shield (good idea!) with a big smile.  We are being careful to make sure Sterling is lying down or outside.  She's tiny for a Great Dane, but still a big dog.

When asked, Wynn did come upstairs to have ice cream cake and let us sing happy birthday to her (and smilingly refused to try blowing the candles - but Gabrian and Ari were on hand to help).  She would not open any gifts until she had privacy in her room.  I printed a page with little pictures of household members with names in English and relationship to Wynn in Chinese.  She has it propped up in view in the center of her desk - much better than her refusal to look at pictures (except Ari's) in China.  She was just laughing at Michael as he encouraged Conor to head for bed using a repeated foot to Conor's butt.  She instantly understood they were playing and seemed to think it was pretty funny.

Tomorrow, Ari has speech therapy, so I plan to take Wynn with me, and she can have a short introduction to my clinic.  I'm sure it will be scary, but I also think she'll grow to like it - a whole clinic filled with young children, toys, and friendly therapists.  Tomorrow will be a litmus test for timing my return to work.  I hope to take Wynn with me as a helper for a time.  She enjoys children, and it would be good exposure to very basic English skills.  She will have to learn the difficult rule that all the therapists' kids have had to learn - that if a therapist determines that one is interfering with therapy goals instead of motivating a child, one must leave the area immediately when therapist directs.  It's the hardest rule for all our young guests.

I personally am having a harder time adjusting back to this time than I did adjusting to China time.  Thus, I'm trying to get to bed soon and up early tomorrow (school day will help with that!).  Good night. . .

And thank you, Mom, more than words can say, for holding down the fort for this long time we were gone.  I bet it feels good to be in your own bed tonight!