Wesley meets his new family...

Oh my, my brain is like mush. It's on overload and though I have lots of things to say, I just don't know if my brain will be able to form my thoughts into comprehendable sentences! :) I am exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally and everything in between. Happy, but exhausted!

First of all, tomorrow we will TRY and complete Wesley's room. I painted letters for it...

Oh this face. :)

He is just too much. I honestly could hardly get a picture of this boy! He is ALWAYS moving...for reals, it's impressive. He is a HANDFUL and so full of personality! He doesn't have a lot of regard for authority though! Ha. It's hard to explain...he doesn't really get mad or act angry if we tell him not to do something, he doesn't yell or cry or hit...he just plain ignores us and goes about whatever he is doing. If we take something away, no biggie, he just moves onto something else! We think these are things we will definitely be able to work on once we have him full time, but it was tough this weekend because we only had him for a few hours at a time and we just weren't sure how strict to be. Wrong or right, we kinda weren't strict much at all. We redirected him when he was making bad choices and left it at that for now. He did great, Tate did AMAZING (though he is on major overload to say the least!) and Cason didn't know the difference! Ha. :)

Wesley may have been in the air more than he had his feet on the ground! Seriously, he is an acrobat and is constantly running, jumping, doing a headstand, etc.. It's hilarious...unless you have a pounding headache like I had on Friday night! I was so happy when my head hit the pillow at 8:30pm! I awoke feeling great at 6:45am and couldn't wait to go pick up Wesley for our whole day together!

Wesley was much more open to listening to our direction today. We all went out to lunch and he ate GREAT! He LOVES anything pasta...I mean, he eats and eats and eats it. He's like an opportunistic eater when it comes to pasta! He loves balls...throwing them, kicking them, running around while holding them...he loves them.

He napped with me for a bit today. I loved it. He snores, it's so cute.

I can't wait to clean his ears...for reals, they are so waxy! Ha. Also, his hair is like a magnet to fuzz, lint, pretty much anything! I want to wash it and lather it in oil...can't wait for that!

You should have seen the 5 of us at the hotel pool. Oh my...it was funny, but also not funny. I mean, Wesley has NO FEAR! He would have jumped right into the deep end...scary! He loved swimming! Also, this little pool time was only about an hour after we had him and remember when I said he has no regard for authority?! Oh, and he's FAST! Ya, running all over the place on the slippery floor, laughing as Sean chased him, I had a crying Cason in my arms (overtired baby!) and Tate was yelling, "Mommy! Daddy! Watch me!" Oh my...it was pretty comical in a 'I hope one of these kids doesn't drown' kinda way. We survived...and then opted to skip the pool the next morning. Ha.

Overall, things went amazing. My biggest prayer request is for Tate. He did such a great job...man, we are proud of him! However, he is struggling, we know this. We believe he is confused about everything. He and Wesley really didn't play together, though they didn't argue at all, they just kinda did their own things. They are just at such different maturity levels I think. Tate has recently been playing a lot with his new imaginary friend, Freddy. Ya, I think this is one sign that he's struggling. I could write a whole post about Freddy. I won't go there tonight. So when we dropped Wesley off tonight, we were walking back to the car and Tate starts SOBBING. I ask him what's wrong and his reply is, "I miss Wesley!!!" Hmmmm...I kinda don't believe that he really misses Wesley. I mean, they didn't even play together. In his eyes, all Wesley did was probably take his Mommy and Daddy's attention away. I don't know. I know that in the long run, Tate will be FINE and he will adjust just as we all will. It is just hard to see him struggle right now. We expected this, planned for it, felt as prepared as we could be for it. Now that we're LIVING it, it just makes me feel icky.

We will be making a point to spend LOTS of alone time with Tate...dates with Mommy and Daddy, more snuggles, paying him as much attention as we can, etc.

I will say though, both Sean and I agree that we will likely be hunkered down alone as a family of 5 for a few weeks after getting him...we feel that the best thing for our family will be to establish a strict, predictable routine, create some boundaries, work on some discipline methods, help Wesley to understand who his family is and how our house is run without the distraction of other stuff going on. This will be something new for us as we're pretty social and always on the go, but we feel in this situation, it is what will be the best step in making everyone adjust in the healthiest way.

All in all, we are still so excited for this new chapter. We are nervous about the struggles that will come along with it, but nothing this wonderful can come without some struggles. We appreciate your prayers as we establish our new normal and everyone adjusts to it. I am sorry I didn't take more pictures! Not going to lie, it was hard to find time to grab the camera while trying to take care of the 3 kiddos! :)