10/8/04-We had a good day…

From Bill:

Today was a good day. First, for everyone who has been concerned, Grace (or Gracie as some, including her father are calling her) is doing much better. She seems to be over whatever it was she had, though I think she is still teething. She just seemed to be more active today. She was crawling around, exploring the room, reacting to MJ & I, laughing, whining, etc. I won’t say she was more of herself because we are still learning what “herself” is, but we were happy with how she acted.

She apparently agrees with everyone’s assessment that she is adorable because she loves looking at herself in the mirror. MJ and she sat in front of the mirror for about a ½ hour just staring and touching herself in the mirror. We also worked on getting her to sit-up more. We’re seeing that she can sit-up, but she is a little lazy and would rather lounge back in your lap. We pushing her to stay seated. We also found today that, with all the fancy electronic noise toys we brought, she really just wants an old fashioned rattle. One of the other kids had one and she really brightened up to it. We’re going to go out and get her one tomorrow.

Jack is good old Jack. He is just a sweet quiet little kid. He is perfectly content on playing by himself. He reminds me a little of myself when I was a kid. He does have a great interest in tissues. All the kids have runny noses and tissues are lying all over the place. Jack will spy one and immediately GI Jack takes off. He is amazingly quick. (He and Bill the Dog will probably be fighting over used tissues in the trash can.) He does have a bit of an “everything is mine” mentality. If he sees something another child has, he will just reach out and grab it. When we had him together with Grace, she would pick up a toy and he would snatch it right out of her hands. His hands are far more developed and so he can just rip it out of her hands. She didn’t really like that and we try to correct him. He just stares at us and grabs another toy.

We don’t have a sense yet of how they will get along. These kids don’t seem to have a real grasp of the other kids. When we have them together, they don’t really interact, which is probably not odd for kids this age. I can’t tell who will be the dominant one yet. He is definitely stronger, but there is something in Grace’s personality that tells me she will overcome that and take control. (For those in the McGrath family, it reminds me of the Sophia and Thomas relationship.) Ultimately, they will probably be just like brother and sister. (Hopefully, it will not reach the level of Kevin and Mary Jo.)

Sorry, there are no pictures of the kids today. We just spent the day playing with them. I promise to have some tomorrow.

After the day, we went with two other couples to a nice restaurant. It was quite a fancy place, in spite of our attire, at a very reasonable price. (18 dollars, tip included, for two people with four beers at 4 star restaurant.) It was advertised to us as a Chinese/Japanese restaurant, but they offered other dishes as well. MJ had ravioli, which was very good, and I had Sweet and Sour Beef, which the waitress made sure I was ordering by putting her two fingers next to her head like bull horns. They did have an English menu, a rarity as many of the restaurants. Unfortunately, they only had one English menu, so I had to read it to everyone and they shouted out what they liked. Everyone was very happy with their meals. I am sure we will be going back to it. It also had quite the entertainment package – a guy belting out American tunes on a saxophone. I did get some pictures from dinner. (Also, a lovely one of our “laundry room” in the hotel – our bathroom.)

It was also nice again to spend some time with other people sharing our experiences and what we are going through. It was really tough going through the choosing part with other families here, but it is nice to have them here at this point.

Speaking of the four beers, is there anyone out there with a little capital that wants to start a business as a beer distributor? One of the local beers is called Efes and it is excellent. I’ve been thinking of becoming the U.S. distributor of Efes. It is lighter beer, like a U.S domestic, but with a better flavor. I think we have a gold mine here.

So, overall, it was a good day, maybe the best we’ve had yet. A lot of the emotional side is subsiding and we are settling into the routine. I’m sure we are going to have some tough days, especially since we are going to be here so long, but after today, it just felt good.

Keep the messages flowing. They really help. We miss you all and can’t wait for you to meet Jack and Gracie.