Home SWEET Home!

When we got home after the airport, the girls had a blast checking everything out.  Lily was just SO excited to finally have her sister here on her turf!  She walked her around the house and showed her about everything she could think of.  Then she wanted Julia to watch everything she did.  "Hey, Julia, come make a chicken pot pie." (She just got a new toy kitchen set from her aunt.) "Hey, Julia, come look at my room." "Hey, Julia,....Hi!" The last one made me laugh the most.  She was so excited that she couldn't even think of any other reasons for Julia to pay attention to her other than she just wanted her to!  She was probably the happiest I can ever really remember seeing her be.  This definitely topped the zoo or any birthday, even Christmas.  This little girly was over-the-top blissful.

Julia seemed to get pretty comfortable right away.  She didn't have the unease that she had showed at both apartments, she was just taking it all in.  Or she could have just been too tired to get nervous.  Either way, it was time for this sweet girl to rest. 

We did have to get a bit creative for bedtime.  With no bed rail yet and having witnessed just how far that little one moves and grooves at night, we opted to lay out every blanket we could find and set up a little bed on the floor.  And since Lily was the only one that wasn't collapsing into bed at 9:00 pm the night before, my mom and Joanna had stayed up with her to let her get some energy out and then brought her to our bed so Julia wouldn't be woken up from her much needed rest. 

Well when we woke up on Sunday morning, we were so refreshed and excited to experience our first day at home with all four of us just spending time together that we woke the girls up.  No really, it was like we were toddlers at Christmas and just couldn't wait.  Lily had not slept so well since she was having a karate session in our bed last night and woke up pretty easily when we started moving around.  Julia had slept for about 11 hours when we decided we couldn't wait any more!  In our defense, Lily could hardly wait any more either. 

Julia woke up slowly, but that charming little smile didn't take long to appear.  We all headed to mom and dad's bed for some lounge time to start our morning.

You'll notice that Lily could hardly keep from full-body hugging her the entire time.  Julia was a great sport and let her maul her with love!  They loved showing each other the key ring and locks that had come off our luggage and the balloon from the airport.

We decided that everyone needed breakfast after that so we hung out in the living room while we cooked.  Julia ate two whole eggs all by herself along with some other little nibbles but it was great to see her down her food again.

Not long after, Lily had mentioned something about painting and we thought that would be a great thing for them to do together and bathtub art has always been one of our favorites--easy to do and easy to clean!  We laid down a towel so no one slipped, taped up our coloring book pages and squirted some paint into their plastic bowls.  It went over perfectly!  It started out slow and careful and soon got wonderfully...artsy--

At one point, Lily decided that she just couldn't wait any longer to show her the backyard so we wiped everyone down and got dressed.  Lil LOVES her backyard so she was thrilled to get out to her 'jumpoline', sand box and of course, the water.

The water started much like art did...easy and well behaved and turned into a bit wild, but happy!

After we were all significantly wet, we went inside to relax together for a bit. After lunch, grandma came over to let mom and dad take a nap--for four hours!  We still had some jet lag going on and we were way more exhausted than the girls.  That was awesome for more than a couple of reasons.

When my mom first got here, Julia followed Lily's cue and gave her a hug and kind of walked around with her.  Both girls were excited to paint again so we got everything set up in the tub again and grandma took over.  We fell asleep listening to little chitter chatters and giggles from the bathroom.

After we woke up, you could see how happy both girls were and how much Julia had bonded with my mom.  She said she came up to her and gave her three big, random hugs that reminded me of what she used to do to us at the orphanage.  Just that 'I'm happy you are here' full body greeting.  She said that Julia painted for about 45 minutes and was happy to just hang out while Lily went back to cooking in her kitchen.  They read books together on grandma's lap and ate a little bit of a late afternoon snack.  My mom said that she got up to get the girls some snacks and Julia stuck close to her leg the entire time.  You could definitely see the genuine affection when she hugged her goodbye.

This is the only relationship we are still working on...

She just still can't comprehend why we have this fuzzy little dog living in our house and that we tolerate, let alone love on him and play nicely with him.  It will come in time once they both interact without lunging at each other. :)  Besides, who can pass up that doggy grin?

We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out.  I ran to the store to get a bed rail so she could sleep on a real bed and we wrapped up the night with the girls helping me make a homemade pizza.  Julia ate 2 1/2 pieces!  I think she'll have some weight on her in no time!  We put Julia to bed in her actual bed and she was out in no time!  Once Lily was fed and changed, we brought her in also.  Even though Lily put up a bit of a fight and then later snored loud enough to hear from our room down the hall, Julia slept through it all and they were peaceful until the morning.  Can't wait to see what Tuesday holds for our family of four!