Home 7 weeks
Sorry for the long break in posts, I got sick on Christmas Eve and the boys have been been on Christmas break. I caught a bad cold or maybe it was the flu-I don’t know but it has been a week and I still don’t feel back to normal.
We had a nice Christmas-no major issues. Holidays tend to cause some emotional set backs for some adopted children but we got through without anything major. We went to church on Christmas Eve-Matthew was a handful. It was longer than usual and I imagine the excitement of Christmas was too much for him. After church we went to my Aunt and Uncles house, we had lots of nice food and each person got to open one present.
On Christmas day we slept until about 8:30. Jack was the first one up. We opened stockings and presents and had cinnamon rolls. We watched Home Alone 3 and 4-they aren’t near the quality of the first two. Around 4 we headed to my parents new house-they now live about three miles from us. We opened some presents and had lasagna. My entire family was there but most of us were under the weather. We watched the kids play the Wii.
We haven’t been doing much since then. Jack has had wrestling practice every morning this week and we are going to some friend’s for New Year’s Eve.
The last 7 weeks haven’t been easy, we are all adjusting. Our biggest issue has been fighting between the boys-especially between Jack and Alex. At first there was some between Alex and Matthew but they have gotten better. Another issue we have had is that Jack can’t be left alone, he is almost 15 but behaves more like 6. He starts fights when left in the room with just the other boys. He is getting better but it is frustrating for us to find someone to babysit a almost 15 year old just so I can go to work during Christmas break. We also think he is relying on Alex for his English-so we have asked Alex to speak English to Jack when he know the words. But Jack gets a bit hostile and hits Alex. It has been hard to adjust our thinking to deal with Jack, but this is a very common problem. Older adopted kids tend to be very immature. Any suggestions from other adoptive families on how to deal with this?
Jeff took Jack and Alex sledding, they had a lot of fun even though most of the snow had melted and was refrozen as ice. I stayed home with Matthew who had a fever.
I will post some pictures when I get to a different computer. (sorry I am to tired to proofread)