One week home

I didn’t realize so many of you were reading! Sorry, but things got hectic once we got home and I didn’t make time to write an update. How insensitive of me :) Brandy, Helen told me everything about you. Feel free to knock on our door when you’re in our area ;)

So, the trip back home went pretty well. They obviously wiggled, complained, cried, whined, figured out the seat-belt buckles, etc., but for having their first plane ride be a 9 1/2 hour flight, they did great. The stewards were very helpful and nice to the kids, and they pampered them with hugs, kisses, goodies and walks around the cabin. That really helped a lot since they only slept for maybe 30 minutes total!

Once we landed at JFK airport (2 1/2 hours late due to a delay), they became officially US citizens. The Immigration officers were very nice too, and a lady officer from Poland took care of us and helped with our luggage. She gave the twins some goodies too and was very sweet with them. We got to the security checkpoint, and the TSA workers were not as nice (I’ll refrain from using foul language but that’s all I can think of to describe their behavior). There were probably 7 or 8 of them and not a single one of them lifted a hand to help. They pretty much disrupted us and it took a while to get everything back together (Isaac in the stroller, shoes and jackets back on, etc). Isaac started banging on the metal shelves and when I saw that I was getting no help, I let him have at it. One TSA lady was getting very annoyed and was yelling but I totally ignored her. Finally, after putting Isaac in the stroller, they told me there was no way to climb up to the next level with that stroller as there was only an escalator. I told them we’d be fine and one lady rudely started telling me “Disclaimer: we told you what could happen”. I told her that we came along this far, a stupid escalator was not going to hold us back. Obviously they didn’t even offer to help (the foul language is coming back to me!). One TSA guy said he’d help. However that didn’t happen. We obviously made it up the escalator just fine. This Papa was unstoppable!

Anyway, we had a couple of hours to kill so we walked around. I started teaching Isabella how to say “nice” and kept repeating it whenever we saw something nice, like new flooring, an atrium, etc. She kept saying it over and over, even when we were passing through cruddy corridors! It was quite funny. The next flight was a small regional jet (2 rows of seats on either side) and both the twins and myself took a decent nap for the 3 1/2 hour flight.

We landed 40 minutes earlier than scheduled, which was great. So by 9:35pm, we were being driven in to the baggage claim on an electric car. There we saw Lori and Cynthia waiting, and the kids started waving and calling Mama. Our good friends O and Gary came by to greet us too and O took some photos of us.

Here’s Gary getting to know Isaac by letting him play with his keys.

 

 

Here we are exiting the airport with Cynthia and Gary offering a helping hand ,while O walked ahead of us all and snapped on like a true pro :)

 

 

Here are the kids waiting to take their first car ride in the US. I thought they would fuss about the seat belts but they didn’t complain a bit.

 

 

 

Once we got home, we showed them up to their bedrooms and gave them a couple of gifts from our friends. They seemed to like their rooms but I’m sure they were too overwhelmed to really digest it all. And they were obviously tired. We went to sleep soon after. For the first few nights, they slept in the same bed but now they’re not minding sleeping separately.

The rest of the week has been filled with doctor appointments, dentist visits, driving to the mall, Sams Club, Wal-Mart and a trip to the office I work at. They’ve been behaving really good (thanks Carol for your help breaking them in!!). They love riding in the car. Isabella keeps saying “Niiiice!” over and over at anything she sees. Isaac is also beginning to pick it up too. We also stopped to eat at Jack in the Box and Chili’s. These kids EAT!

We have been jumping for a swim in the pool almost daily. They can’t get enough of it! I won’t go into detail today but will post on that another time, perhaps with some video clips too. We can’t believe how they took to swimming, jumping and diving already! They’re like little fish and love to splash around a lot.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we have a second dentist appointment for Isabella to fix a cavity. Isaac has an overbite and this could be one of the causes of his speech delay. We’ll be visiting an orthodontist to see what can be done. Tomorrow we’ll also start looking into speech therapy. Next week on Thursday they have a visit with a pediatrician and we’re working on Isaac’s hospital referral for his other medical issues in the meantime. We also plan on signing them up for pre-K in the first week of August in a nearby Elementary School campus. Busy times!