Well I can’t believe that we’ve been home for 1 month now. It has gone very quickly. Ceinwen has settled in very well, and it feels like we’ve always had her! Life is much busier than I expected with 2 kids, especially now that Ceinwen has learnt to crawl since we’ve been home. She’s got a funny crawl. She sticks her right leg out to propel herself along, almost as if she is half trying to stand up! She’s always after Gwion’s toys, which he doesn’t usually like. To try and stop him from pushing her over whenever Ceinwen would go after his toys, we’ve put up the playpen. It also means I can get on and sort out the house, etc., and leave Gwion and Ceinwen in a room together for a few minutes. That is until Gwion moves the playpen (it’s a travel cot and has 2 wheels on) and climbs into the playpen with Ceinwen, using the sofa or chair! I didn’t realise that Gwion would be able to move the playpen. Oh well, at least Gwion wants to be with Ceinwen!

I took Ceinwen briefly into work when I had to drop in some paperwork to get my adoption leave pay. Everyone was pleased to see her. Not that she liked being held by anybody else! She’s met our health visitor, my midwife (who looked after me with Gwion. I spoke to her before we went to China at work, and asked if she would like to do a post-adoption visit!), the GP surgery and our GP. Everyone is so pleased for us, and Ceinwen has charmed everyone! We’ve even seen our Social Worker, Barbara, and then a couple of days after seeing her, I went to give a talk on overseas adoption at the Adoption Preparation course she was running! I met a couple who live a few miles away from us who already have a 9-year-old from China, and are just starting the process again to adopt another baby from China.

Ceinwen started teething once we got home, and her first tooth appeared at the end of October. She’s eating very well, and drinking lots of milk. She won’t touch juice, or try a sippy cup yet! She’s getting used to playing with toys, but they are still quite an alien thing to her. She loves music, and “dances” to it. Anything you put on and she just sways and jigs up and down to it! Our referral notes said that Ceinwen liked music, but when we asked Director Lu about what type of music was played at her foster mother's place, he just said it was background music to the TV. From how she is reacting to music we think it must have been much more than that. Playing CDs or someone singing to her must have happened because she responds to all kinds of music and nursery rhymes. She even likes bashing the piano, just like Gwion does!

Ceinwen is much better in the bath now. She hated it whilst we were in China, and for the first couple of times at home, but she loves going in the bath with Gwion and playing with the toys. We sit her in a little bath chair, which we had for Gwion as a baby. The only thing she doesn’t like is having her hair washed. Gwion loves having her in the bath. We’ve also taken her swimming once. Rhodri came with me and the kids, as I wasn’t sure how Ceinwen would react, and I wanted to see how she was in the pool before I had to take her with me and Gwion to his "Mother and Toddler" classes. Ceinwen really surprised us and loved it! The baby pool in Llandudno is nice and warm. She didn’t mind having her armbands on, and enjoyed sitting in the floating chair that we also have. I was really surprised. Unfortunately, no pics of this occasion, as you aren’t allowed to take cameras into the swimming pool anymore.

At the end of October we took Ceinwen to Abergavenny to meet Nain and Taid (Rhodri’s parents). On the way down we stopped to see Rhodri’s Aunt Rosie, who lives near Shrewsbury. Gwion was really excited to see his Nain and Taid again, and they really loved Ceinwen. They couldn’t believe how placid she was. Also, Ceinwen is much more relaxed around people she doesn’t know, and will let them pick her up now.

As we were down in South Wales, we went to see Gwen and Lia for a few hours. They are getting along really well. Lia has really attached to Gwen since they’ve been back from China (she would only go to her Dad most of the time in China). It’s amazing to see the change. Rhodri thought that my side of the family could talk for Wales, and seeing Gwen again made him comment that it must be West Walian thing! (Gwen is from Cardiganshire).

We also took the opportunity to introduce Ceinwen to my Aunty Erica in Cardiff, and Great-Aunt Edith in Abergavenny.

That weekend, Rhodri’s article in his paper came out about our Chinese adoption. It was the cover story in the TV magazine bit of the paper, and there was a full page picture of Ceinwen on the front cover! When we got home there were a few messages on the UK adoption site about his article, which I was surprised to see, as Rhodri writes for a newspaper in Wales, but people had found the article online, and were very pleased with it. Something positive about ICA for once!

Finally on the baby front, Nick and Kate had their baby, Thomas Ioan Clark, on 4th September, before we went to China, and all is well there. We’ve seen photos and he looks lovely. Don’t know when we are going to meet him yet, though.

Georgina and Iain had their baby, Harvey Morgan Howard, on 14th October, weighing 7lb 5oz. All went well and they are all fine. Again, we’ve seen photos and he looks lovely. We’re getting to meet him at Hollie’s christening in November.

Next....Our Third Update: Second Month Home