Meeting Maya

First you take a baby that has been taken away from her familiar environment ~ the words that people are saying are different, smells in the air are different, the formula tastes different (at least we are assuming it does, in China the Enfamil smelled like vanilla milkshake powder ~ here it stinks...), the new people in her face look different (blond hair, what's that?), and there are so many new textures to feel ~ she loved the puffy letters on the Welcome Home sign Katie made for her! I will add here though that Kylie is adjusting very well, just wanted to remind you how different life is for her here in NC. Please continue to be patient with us, we promise we won't "hibernate" forever...

Then you take a 72 1/2 pound, very affectionate, very wiggly Golden Retriever who has panty breath and big teeth and hasn't seen her mommy and daddy for just over two weeks. Here's a pic of our darling doggy minutes after she walked in the door. (She spent Friday night with Sam so that we could get inside and settled before Maya and Kylie met). After we all finally woke up on Saturday afternoon, we decided to try and get Kylie and Maya in close proximity. Kylie was really unsure of this new beast and held on tight! After Kylie relaxed a bit, we decided to lower her closer to her four-legged sister. At first all was going well, Maya was very calm and Kylie was just checking her out. We lowered Kylie to floor level and things continued to go well. Kylie was a bit nervous, but still not in distress. So then Ian decided to "gently assist" the touching to end the stare off going on between our two loves. At first all went well, (though Kylie seems to have an aversion to furry things, more on that in a minute...) Kylie touched Maya's side and there was no big reaction. Then Maya got a bit excited and couldn't help herself anymore and licked Kylie's cheek. The first blissful moment of sisterhood was shattered.

But we have high hopes that the bond between them is only temporarily on hold. Kylie has adjusted from screaming each time she sees Maya (after the licking incident) to just holding on tighter to whoever is holding her, to playing and acting like Maya isn't there (as seen in the photo taken at Mama's on Sunday afternoon) to standing comfortably ~ by holding on the coffee table ~ beside Maya when Maya is laying down. Maya on the other hand is seeming to be totally in love with her new sister. She has been on super vigilance mode and barks like crazy any time someone walks down the sidewalk in front of our house. She also has taken up residence on my side of the bed (for the first time) to guard Kylie in her co-sleeper (we're using until she feels secure that we will be there for her needs). In fact the other morning I was downstairs (Maya wouldn't come down with me, she chose to keep her post in front of Kylie) and Ian was in the bathroom brushing his teeth. Kylie woke up and began her normal cooing ~ which Ian couldn't hear over the running water ~ so Maya ran frantically between the bathroom and the co sleeper until Ian followed her to see that Kylie was looking for one of us to come get her up. Pretty cool if you ask me! And then Sunday at Mama's house Kylie was napping (in a beautiful hand-me-down crib from cousin Andrew) and Maya kept getting up from her nap in the living room and heading in to check on the baby.

Now I'm not saying that I see it going swimmingly immediately... We will have to get over some of the "this is my toy, that is your toy" issues ~ you see, Kylie really likes Maya's tennis balls (eww, gross!) and Maya has shown a bit too much interest in Kylie's favorite lamb named Douglas (thanks Uncle Alexander!) But we have high hopes...