The Millilo Family Website: Ups and Downs our First Couple of Weeks Home

For Unto Us a Child is Born....Unto us a son is given...

Jesus is the reason for the season

The first couple of weeks home have been emotional, challenging, stressful and rewarding all at the same time. The main challenges when we first brought Andrew home (3 years ago) were eating and sleeping. He was too young for the terrible two stage as some might call it, therefore, the worst adjustments we faced with him since he was only 18 months old was eating and sleeping. Since Andrew has had us all to himself for 3 years he has been acting out either with the boys or with us in one way or another. We realize that it's typical behavior of a first child to act out since his brothers came home but we are open to any suggestions anyone is willing to offer.

It's been an adjustment for all of us these past couple of weeks, however, we are working through teaching our sons,(2 of which don't understand English) to be civil to one another(meaning No Fighting), share their toys, listen to their parents, and that the house is not a gymnasium. I feel like a referee trying to keep the boys from fighting, teasing and keeping them from getting hurt. At times I have found the boys in a headlock pulling each others hair, bitting each other, fists being thrown, and or kicking each other which usually is over a toy, hat or something that the other brother has that they want. It's not just one of them...all 3 of them have taken part in this behavior one way or another. Lord help!!! Please keep our family in prayer for wisdom, peace, unity and love to be expressed to each other.

I must say each day seems to get easier than the last so I praise God for that! I do my best to show as much love, attention and affection to Steven, Andrew and Evan each and every day. We have no favorites in our home and I think by now they all realize that. They are starting to play better with each other and are finding out that they are actually enjoying it. Here are a few pictures of the boys playing nicely together.

All aboard the Choo Choo Train!

Pull us faster, Steven!

I must say that I am proud of Andrew dealing with his new brothers picking through his toys in his room and taking ownership to their favorites. Andrew has on the most part been very easy going in sharing MOST (keyword) of his toys. The first few days the whole house had a stream of toys flowing from Andrew's room through the living room and down the hall to Steven and Evan's room. Steven and Evan kept going into Andrew's room to see what else they could drag through the house and hide and their room. Finally I told Steven and Evan that they had to clean up the toys and Andrew's room. They weren't too happy about that but they have to learn just like all of us that we have to clean up our own messes.

A couple of nights before the New Year we took the boys and Mom Mom and Aunt Alyssa to a local town that has a small community of homes decorated to the max with lights and many movable characters. The boys thoroughly enjoyed it and it was a nice family outing for the holidays. It was nice to get out of the house and for them to have an enjoyable evening out as a family. Here are some pictures of our outing.

Our 3 little soldiers

Andrew the reindeer

Evan the Reindeer

Steven the Reindeer

New Year's Eve me and the boys made cookies to give away to some friends for the holidays. I figured that I need to keep our sons focused on something productive and fun and fun did they have. It was also a good vocabulary building activity for Steven and Evan since I held up different ingredients and cooking utensils and ask for them to repeat what the item was that I was holding and saying. They all had a ball cutting out the cookies with cookie cutters, mixing the ingredients, decorating the cookies with sprinkles or (should I say eating as many sprinkles that didn't land on the cookies) and of course eating a few of their masterpieces after they were done cooking. Here are a few pictures of Steven and Evan making their first cookies.