T +3 Days... So Far, (Mostly) So Good

It's so weird to be home, like there was so much work, toil, tears, preparation, paperwork and more and then BAM WE'RE IN CHINA and now there's this little girl sleeping in my room and I can't get the little ABC theme song that her toy phone plays out of my head.

Home is a wonderful thing.  As Jen described, I would be more than happy living in a cardboard box full of eels after that plane ride from Hong Kong.  Nobody should be in a plane for that long, much less the tired and emotionally frayed parents of a toddler who has only just decided to like them.  I spent most of the flight holding her and standing back in the galley where the flight attendants prepare your drink carts and the line forms for the bathrooms.

But we're home!  Bags are mostly unpacked, life is mostly normal, though I have a creeping suspicion that the definition of normal has changed somewhat.

I like to think that the violent roller coaster that was getting Nora, adjusting, bonding, then travel kind of made me skip my "holy crap I'm becoming a Dad" mindset and go straight to this morning where I got her out of bed, gave her her favorite breakfast (sweet corn meal and bananas) and played with blocks before realizing what just happened.  I feel like I'm slipping into the Daddy role pretty well, due to the fact that Jen has been extremely sick and can't do much for Nora as she is, and the fact that Nora is actually pretty independent most of the time.

So yeah, Jen brought home what the doctor thinks is either bronchitis or some kind of walking pneumonia.  As of right now, this is the longest I've heard her sleep with out violent coughing fits.

We miss our travel group a lot, we miss China a lot, but it's nice to have family over to meet our fantastic little girl, though it breaks our hearts to have to tell everyone not to hold her just yet so we can continue to work on bonding and attachment, which seem to be going pretty well so far.  Some family has a harder time with it, but we try to explain about how a child who has lost a primary caregiver can have serious issues with bonding with a new one.  She needs to know that we are the mom and the dad.

I'm back to work on Thursday, and I hope Jen is feeling much better by then (we're both pretty well adjusted to the time difference now), but I'm going to miss being able to come hang out with the baobao all day.