Life sure has been busy, although I suppose that's normal with two kids. We've been back in our town
for a week now. It's been great to be back, but I feel like we've been
running non-stop cleaning, unpacking, and settling in. We're
especially grateful that my parents helped us through the transition and that all of our luggage made it safely. Besides two cans of baby oatmeal that exploded in two different duffles, everything made it relatively unscathed. While we were in a big city getting over jetlag and meeting up with Richard's family, we also went to IKEA to buy a bunch of furniture for Noah's room. Since we live in a pretty remote place, it was a challenge to get things shipped (at first they said we had to go pick it up in a city 4 hours away =P), but thankfully my resourceful husband figured out a way for everything to get all the way to our door. It was totally worth the extra $6.50 to have the shipping company bring it up the stairs to our 3rd floor apartment! So the past few days have been busy assembling IKEA furniture and giving Noah's room a makeover.
Since I haven't blogged in awhile, I've had all these random, jumbled thoughts going through my head that I should blog about...but I'll just briefly share a few thoughts:
- Jetlag: Getting over jetlag with two kids is no fun. I think it might
even be worse than the traveling itself. Noah gets over jetlag pretty
fast, but Caleb took much longer (it probably didn't help that he was
sleeping in the same room as us). For a few nights, Caleb was waking up
constantly throughout the night...it was worse than when he was a
newborn! At least now, he's only waking up once in the middle of the
night, but it's still once too many for me. This, combined with Noah
waking up and coming into our room in the middle of the night (from
noise or just because), makes for very tired parents. I hope we'll all
start sleeping through the night again soon!
- Noise & Other Changes: Our apartment and outside life is much
noisier here. I have to admit that I've been slightly amused watching
Noah scream, "You don't need to honk!" at the honking cars as we cross
the street. Or hearing him scream, "STOP! STOP!" when he's awoken from
his nap by somebody in a nearby building drilling/remodeling
(unfortunately with cement buildings, a neighbor remodeling sounds like
somebody with a jackhammer right next to you). Noah is also NOT a fan
of the firecrackers or thunder. I've been trying to convince him that
firecrackers and fireworks are fun...just so that he won't be scared of
them. Last night, during our first power outage since we've been back, I
also tried to convince him that a black-out was fun...I don't think he
bought it. =P
- Language: I've forgotten how to speak. After speaking English all the
time for half a year, it's been hard to jump back into foreign language
mode. This has been a big transition for both Noah and me.
- From Scratch: Making everything from scratch takes tons of time, but
tastes so much better. The other night, when I needed to make 4 pizzas
for a party, I felt rusty since it had been so long since I had made
pizza crust! But it's been fun making everything again. Even though it
takes a little while, it's nice when my husband kindly encourages me by
saying, "Your bagels are better than the ones we buy in the US!" It makes it worth it!
- Home Sweet Home: Despite all the challenges and transitions, it's been
REALLY nice to be back home. While we certainly miss people and
conveniences from the US (our other home), it's been sweet to be reunited with our lives and friends here.
Pictures to come soon...stay tuned! Gotta end this post for now since people are coming over for dinner soon! :)