Getting settled

This week has been another week of adjustments for us all.  Emily is adjusting really well to being here in the US.  She’s taken to her new school like a champ and it seems as though she just fits in naturally with our family.  There’s nothing forced about our relationship with her at all and I love how open she is with us and how open we can be with her.  We are all really happy she’s here.

Abbie and Emily are gone most of the day Monday through Friday.  Emily rides the bus to school and on Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri she catches the bus around 6:40am and on Weds they usually have late starts so it’s an hour and a half later.  She gets home around 2:30pm every day.  Abbie has to be to school by 8am.  So instead of the kids and me getting up around 8:30am, like we used to, I am up at 6:45am now and the kids are up before 7:15am.  We eat breakfast and I either take Abbie to school by bike or car.  I love that her school is only about 5 mins away by car and less than 10 mins away by bike.  It’s a nice way to start the morning since it’s usually in the 90’s at 8am here, instead of the 115’s….  Ben loves to go for rides and I’m really pimping out my bike, if I do say so myself.  I have the seat on the back for Ben, and I pull the Burley with Abbie in it.  I just got a basket for the front of it, which I’m excited about, and I also have front and rear lights on it, and a bell!  Now I need to put my water bottle holder back on it, but I have no clue where that went.  And I also have one of those little odometer things on my bike, but I can’t get it to work for some reason.  Another thing for me to work on, I suppose. 

Abbie gets out of school at 3pm, and usually Emily will go with Ben and me to pick her up, and we usually drive since 3pm is about the hottest time of day out here.

I thought that it would be really hard to push Ben’s nap up an hour and a half, but it’s been VERY easy.  I’ve been pleasantly surprised.  He’s in bed no later than noon now, sometimes 11:30am and then I wake him up at 2:45pm, and we jump in the car to go get Abbie.  And the kids go to be around 7:30pm now instead of 8:30pm.  And I go to bed around 10:30pm instead of midnight.  Works better for all of us really.  I feel like we have a good routine going here now and we’re all getting used to it.  Our roughest time of day is from about 4-5pm when Abbie gets restless and Ben gets hungry and I try to hold them off until Mark gets home and cook dinner.  Emily has been very helpful during that time, so that’s been a huge blessing to us.

Overall, I think we’re all adjusting well and this week went a lot better than I was anticipating!  My parents get here tomorrow and then 3 days after they leave we head to San Diego for a few days!  August will be over before we know it, which is fine with me since this heat is NOT fun!