Settling in, sorta

Steve here. Many of you have been inquiring as to our status since coming home. Go ahead, say it, you want to know if we are still alive. Well to be honest, it hasn’t been easy, and not just because we've got two new short people in our domicile. We decided to up the difficulty level when we got home just for fun.

Obviously, the travel was grueling on everyone involved. But Terri had to go and make sure she stood out above all of us. She developed a nasty case of bronchitis that still has her down and out. She sounds more like someone who has worked in a West Virginia coal mine all her life. On top of that, she has a pinched nerve in her neck from wrangling luggage and kids in the various airports. Additionally, two of our employees, Nicole and Brian got married on Saturday, so we basically had to come back home to get ready for a wedding. The ripple effect is that two of my most talented people are out of the office for the next two weeks. Seeing I have been out of the country for what has seemed like decades, it is hard to wade back in to the old job description. So with Terri sick and the fact that I had to return to work has made balancing everything a bit tricky. Grandma and Grandpa Golightly have stepped up and helped as much as possible.

But enough about our sob story, you want to know about the boys. They seem to have adjusted to the new time zone and are sleeping through the nights now. The first couple of days we were all up in the wee hours of the morning. They are eating well (Aidan, maybe a little too well, as he looks a little tubby now) and really enjoy a variety of foods. The other day I took them to experience Chick-fil-a. They definitely loved it—and why shouldn’t they? Liam can be a little bottomless pit too. They both have healthy appetites.

In the behavior department, Aidan has shown an increased whiney side and tends to be afraid of everything right now. The dogs licked him and you would have thought he was actually having his face eaten off. Don’t worry—his face is still there. He likes to throw the (more than) occasional tantrum and has learned about time outs—or the penalty box, as I like to call it. But he can be incredibly cute and loving the next minute. Remember, his caregivers told us he was used to being the boss—now he has to learn the new hierarchy of the Gaines family. Liam has been a very happy boy for the most part. He has been a bit more cranky the past couple of days and he is turning into a real daddy’s boy. He is not very happy about me leaving the room—don’t get me wrong, I feel honored, but sometimes you just gotta go. But he loves to play and still has his goofy smile and he drools a lot (like many of my friends after a couple of beers).

They love riding in the car—Aidan always motions like he has his hands on a steering wheel—something he picked up in Almaty. I was really surprised, as Aidan does not like being restrained (as we found out on the flights) but he handles the car seat just fine. They also seem to like their dual passenger stroller rides. And I must confess it is a pretty sweet ride and I probably would enjoy it myself if I could actually fit in it. We have been working with Aidan on a few words so he has expanded his vocabulary a bit: peez (please), coco (Coco, the cat), popper (Pepper, our dog), and tonight—pidza (pizza). So we are making a little headway in speech but you can tell he understands a lot of what we are saying. Actually getting him to listen to us is another matter.

So one week at home has been very challenging, mainly due to health and work. I am sure the monumental changes to our way of doing things have played into it as well. But we are hanging in there and it is a lot easier than when we were in Kaz—home field advantage really helps.

To all our friends from the trip; the Woods, the Keoghs, Steve and Candy from South Africa and anyone else we may have forgotten to mention we hope you are doing well and please stay in touch. As I celebrated a supposed milestone birthday in Kaz it gave me time to reflect on the things that are important in life, and being without family and friends really drove home their importance to me. So I hope all the new friends we met in Kaz will stay in touch.

Look for more posts as we return to a more (ab)normal life.

Time out for Aidan

Liam the bottomless pit

Aidan eating with Remy

Liam's goofy grin

Aidan and Pepper on the sofa