First Day Home

Today was Camille's first full day at home with her forever family. Reg and I were still very jet lagged and we had a very hard time keeping our eyes open for most of the day. Camille is still on Philippine time as well, as she slept from about 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. When all the kids were back from school, they bombarded Camille trying to get her attention (particularly 8 year old Lauren, 5 year old Daniel and Camille's 10 year old cousin, Rochelle). At times, she was a bit overwhelmed by the attention, but after everyone calmed down a bit, all was well. In fact, it was absolutely fantastic because as Reg and I unpacked, tidied up, and tried our best to re-energize, Camille was totally pre-occupied with exploring her new home with her new siblings. The only downer was that I wasn't able to capture all those precious moments on camera or video. Here are a couple of shots I was able to take. As you can see, Camille was constantly surrounded by the others (especially big sister Lauren) who watch over her like a fragile doll.

Check out this big smile:










Here, Daniel is putting tiny Lego men into his new toy Filipino tricycle.

Camille's hitting has almost completely stopped, but she still whines when she doesn't like something, such as a food or a toy. She also threw some toys (which is a total no-no at our house), but I suppose that's just her being a 18 month old. As for the whining ... well, she's learning the hard way that it simply will not get her anywhere in this house. At the kitchen table, Lauren tried to give Camille her sippy cup. Rather than just shake her head, Camille whined and whined. Mommy Reg told Camille "no whining!" and put her hand up, as if to say "stop". Camille's reaction was to cry, so I told the other kids not to soothe her. After about four or five minutes, she realized that her crying was getting her nowhere so she just stopped. Just like that. We went through that similar routine about two or three times today. I'm sure that in time, she'll adjust. She just needs to learn how to communicate her feelings in a non-whiny way. (Yikes! This is beginning to sound like an article from one of the ziliions of parenting magazines to which Reg has subscribed over the last ten years).

Before dinner, Camille was visited by her Auntie Sarah who came to pick up some gifts from the PI. And since Auntie Sarah is a regular blog reader, I just had to include her picture with Camille. Awww! How cute.









And here is the very first of a bazillion pictures featuring the three ladies of the house: Reg, Lauren and Camille.









As you can see from the next picture, Reg had a field day in the PI buying Filipino snacks for dirt cheap. I think she plans on opening her own sari-sari store (super tiny, "variety" stores throughout the streets of the PI).


And here's a picture of the calendar we made for the kids while we were gone. Each day, they'd check off a day, giving them a visual image of our return date. Every few days, whenever the kids seemed to really miss us, my parents would give them pre-wrapped gifts which we bought for them before we left.









Good night, Camille!