This week was my return to work after a nice, long maternity leave (5 months). Our major concern was Gia's adjustment to 4 full days of daycare and I have to say, we were expecting the worse. But really, it went very smoothly. In fact, I think she likes daycare almost, well, almost better than me! Rob did the drop offs in the morning, and I did the pick ups at night, and when I went to pick her up, I watched her through the window before announcing my arrival. Gia was having a great time! Usually she was laughing, rolling on the ground, jumping around, playing with her friends, or hugging a little baby named Grace. After announcing my arrival, she'd give the obligatory cry, but then return to play. We were so happy! And even happier that we had practiced going to daycare. The only rough spot was in the evenings when she wanted to cling to me while I prepared food and ate it. I think it will take a few weeks to work through that, but otherwise, it went well.
Our other highlights for this week....Genna and Tots 3 Swimming Class.
Genna: We attended an Ethiopian celebration of Genna (same meaning as Christmas) and had a great time. There were several Ethiopian families, along with several Ethiopian adoptee families celebrating together. We actually ran into two toddlers who shared the same room as Gia while in Ethiopia. They were picked up by their forever families after Gia had been and we remembered their faces. It was surreal to say the least. Gia didn't seem to remember them, or really didn't care, but we're going to try to keep in touch with these families and maybe when the children are older it will mean something.
Rob, Gia, and I have joined the Winter Session of Ethiopians for Ethiopians. Basically the Ethiopian Evangelical church holds cultural classes for families who have adopted Ethiopians. We attend the class once a week with the idea that we will learn and incorporate Ethiopian traditions into our lives, along with meet other Ethiopians (I think the Ethiopian Evangelical Church has some other, possibly religious-based objectives, but we're pretending we don't know that). We did this last year but found it a little hard to get involved without actually having a child. This year seems more promising.
Today was Gia's first day of Tots 3 swimming lessons. If you'll remember in November we were sweating it out as to whether or not she'd pass her Tots 1 test (basically floating, assisted, on her back for 5 seconds--my Dad about choked from laughter when he heard this was the "test"). Turns out she passed the test and did so well the teacher said she could jump up to Tots 3. I was a little worried that it might be too challenging, but she had a stellar day and proved she earned her spot. (Never mind the curriculum in Tots 3 is exactly the same as Tots 1....small minor detail.)
As an aside, all the other parents in the Tots 3 class are Dads. I'm assuming this is because it's a Saturday class and all the moms are forcing their husbands to "bond" with their child so they can have some free time (I only went today instead of Rob because he had Reserves). You should have seen the Dads when Gia climbed out of the water on her own. Suddenly they became fiercely competitive. I noticed one Dad henceforth ceased assisting his child out of the pool. Let's just say it was a little silly.....it took the poor kid about 5 minutes to get out of the water and the instructor finally had to help. Whatever, Gia is so a Dolphin and those other kids are so tadpoles. They're just lucky she jumped up a level.
Tomorrow we will be celebrating Gia's birthday. She is turning 2! We'll be back to tell you all about it!
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