A Few More Notes

-There's still some food panic going on here. Our kids scream every time we take food away, even if they had stopped eating it during the feeding. We thought they had been getting solid food at the orphanage, but we realized that was false the first time we tried to feed them some. They had NO IDEA what this spoon thing was we were attempting to shove into their faces. But they quickly caught on. They're not yet feeding themselves really, but they have learned to chew on some Baby Mum Mums and hold sippy cups. (Note: I hate sippy cups, and my kids drink from regular cups just fine if we hold them for them, but DUDE! TWINS! Also, it means we don't have to feed them bottles three times a day anymore. So you folks who want to say, "It will ruin their teeth!" can bite me. I've decided my sanity is worth more than their teeth for now.)

-WTF?! with the WHIIIIIIINNNIIIING. Our son was really attached to a couple of his nannies, which we think is probably a good indicator that he's eventually going to have a healthy relationship with us. But all this stuff in the meantime is HARD. He's the most depressed child I've ever met. Sadness pouring out of this little boy all day. I feel guilty, and then I have to remember this is temporary. Time will heal. But for now, we keep him wrapped up in a sling and attached to one of us pretty much all day. It helps.

-Our daughter seems totally fine. This also worries me.

-I am a high-strung person. I thought this meant I would be a high-strung parent and that this was unavoidable. It turns out I'm a mostly chill parent. Weird.

-When you're a new adoptive parent, EVERY TIME your kid is upset about something you think, "Is this normal? Or is this because they were adopted?" It's ridiculous. And it makes it nearly impossible to figure out where your boundaries should be, what the "rules" should be, etc. Because you just want to do whatever it takes to get from here to normal as quickly and safely as possible. The trouble is that no one knows what that means.