Aftan had his first thanksgiving with all the food, family and chaos.  We spent the holiday at my sister in laws and all of Sol's family and God parents came, which is our usual.  Sol's "God-sister" had a baby in October so we had two new additions at the table which is always fun.  Aftan seemed to like the Thanksgiving food, he enjoyed the mack-n-cheese, the turkey and the dressing.  We felt very blessed this year to have Aftan in our lives, he brings so much joy to all of us.

Wow, I can't believe I haven't written for nearly two months but life with two children has been a whirl wind. 

We have had to reconfigure some of the space in our house and convert a loft area we had been using as a family room into an office so the baby could have the office.  Now we have a family room/great room that is a little small for our lives and toys so we are considering finishing our basement so we can have some toy free space again.  both Sol and I are fairly minimalist in our decor so having too much clutter drives us both a little nutty.

Trying to figure out the logistics of two kids has been a challenge but not as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Going back to work was hard, more because I wasn't ready to leave Aftan with someone else, than anything.  I don't stay at home very well so working keeps me challenged, but I don't love my job, so staying with Aftan was nice because we needed the bonding time.  I am failry sure he knows I am his mother now and he prefers me to anyone else but I hate having him have so many care givers, I wish we had more one on one time.

Aftan is so funny and loves to laugh and tease his sister.  He has the most adorable gigle and whenever he does something he is proud of he gets this big grin on his face and giggles.

Stinky is Aftan's first word, which I think must be appropiate because of his GI issues.  Every time he says the word he smiles and giggles.  He is loving being able to communicate a little, he now does five or six signs and is starting to mimic all of our sounds.  We think he is going to be a talker like his sister.  Our house is noisy enough now, I am not sure we are ready for Aftan to talk yet. 

We have an appointment for Aftan at the GI clinic at Childrens as well as an appointment with the international adoption clinic to have some evaluations done and see where he is and where he needs to be.  From what I can tell he seems to be on target developmentally and physically but they will be able to do a more thurough evaluation. 

We made it home yesterday.  We spent one night in Seattle and that has helped us slowly adjust to US time.  Aftan and Sun slept a good chunk of the time on the flight home from China so the flight was fairly smooth.  We came home to my mom and a home cooked meal, then on night two my friend came over with dinner and a car full of toys and clothes from her Son.  Apparently my girlfriends have created a schedule of meals and visits for the next week.  I am very lucky to have such good friends to take care of us in the next few days.  Hopefully the the 2am parties will end tonight or tomorrow and we will all be able to sleep through the night.  Each night Sun and Aftan have been getting up wanting to play and eat, then we spend a few hours up having a little baby parth then we have all gone back to sleep from about four to eight or nine.  Sun has school tomorrow so we will see how she does, I wouldn't be surprised if we get a call from her school that she is passed out on her desk sometime around 2pm.