We have been back home two and a half weeks now, and we are starting to settle in to a normal rhythm of life. We typically spend several days each week at my parents’ house, and we were concerned that the noise and commotion over there would be difficult for Jonathan. Once again, he surprised us by doing better than we had expected. His transition to our normal life has been both easier and harder than we expected. His behavior is very good, and he really does want to please us. His comprehension of English gets better each day, and he obeys us almost every time. I realize we could still be in a honeymoon phase, and more challenging behavior might be coming later, but I am going to enjoy it for now. He is very fond of both Greg and me, and becomes more and more affectionate with us all the time. He greets me with a huge smile when I come downstairs each morning, and he stops multiple times all through the day to give me little hugs or squeeze my hand. He seems to be more fond of the other children too. He seems like he enjoys having them around, and will occasionally initiate interaction with them. 

He still takes nearly constant focus and vigilance from at least one of us, though. He is still very fearful, and we have to be close to him all the time in case something spooks him. He is afraid of the tea kettle, and blender, and hair drier, and pretty much anything that makes an unexpected noise. As long as one of us is near him to pat his back and tell him it is okay, he usually does fine, but if we are not, terror takes over pretty quickly. He also gets frustrated with almost no warning. If he drops a toy and can’t reach it, or bangs his shins on a piece of furniture, or can’t find something he wants, he immediately starts into a rage. If we catch it very early, we can calm him back down. Every once in a while, he still gets upset, and we don’t have any idea what triggered it. Yesterday, he had his first full melt-down at my parents’ house, and neither of us have any idea what the trigger was. We finally put him in a quiet room in a pack’n play with his Weighted Blanket, and just let him work through it. I hate it when I can’t figure out what upset him and don’t have any idea how to fix it.

I think we are all through the jet lag now, but we still aren’t sleeping very deeply right now. I think that we both stay so focused and vigilant all day that we have a hard time shutting this off and relaxing all the way at night. I’m sure we will figure it out, but in the meantime, we would appreciate prayers for more refreshing sleep.

Victoria got a little flower-shaped sprinkler for her birthday, and the kids all tried that out for the first time today. Jonathan really enjoyed it, and I am glad that he has a way to play in the water with the other kids. He won’t be allowed to swim with the others until he is fully parasite-free.