It’s going to be a good morning!
Not safe or recommended but practical!
You’d never know that we are headed out the door.
Papa on duty!
Here is how I found them when I arrived back home:
Discovery of the car at the grocery store.
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Just some fun moments captured by my phone camera recently.
Oh my gosh. That one of them on the table- looks like sweetie is about to fall off!!! Was it also a last minute skype with Mamie? Also noticing the half drunk coffee… must haves before leaving the house- diaper changes and a coffee.
She is thankfully pretty much immobile still unlike her brother who is only still as he is glued to the last part of Peppa Pig. You really think mamie would let me leave the kids on the table if she were on skype? 😉 Yes, sometimes, I smell poopy dipes and instantly make myself a coffee. I have had a lot of coffee recently!
Peppa pig! Explains why he is clear in the picture and not a blur. 🙂 After flinks I regularly had 1-2 coffee’s a day, after lilybud it was 2-3, and with number 3, well, I worry that number might jump to 3-4!
It’s hard enough just being 13, wihtout adding repatriation to the mix. My oldest daughter was that age when we moved back to Canada, and I remember how awful it was. Time certainly helped, but I think the turning point comes when they make one good friend. My daughter hung out with immigrant kids, and they all figured out Canadian culture together. If your son is just finishing his first academic year back home, it’s not surprising things are still unsettled for him. It’s usually somewhere around the one-year mark, when the cycle of events starts to repeat, that people begin to feel more at home in their repatriate skin. Probably by the time the new school year rolls around, he’ll have more confidence that he’s doing things right (so important for teens!) and things will go easier. In the meantime, all you can do is be supportive, listen, empathize, and make sure you find the time to take care of your own re-entry needs as well.
Oh man, I hear you. My brother was that age when he arrived in France, unable to speak the language. It was so brutal. I love how your daughter found the immigrant population and eventually her footing. Foreigners, whether they be first or second generation immigrants, expats, or even traveled families, they all share so much in common with us and our past. I see how the cyclical nature of the year can help in adjusting, although I feel as if it takes me a good two to feel at home and make new friends. Younger kids, do tend to transition faster it seems..