The First Few Days...

Are the hardest, right? Because then it's going to get better, which would be good. :)
Really, I make it sound so bad, don't I?
I think if we could just get the kids to eat and sleep when appropriate we would be fine. However, right now, Cooper is just plain not sleeping at night and Sophie won't eat during the day.

Well, since she did sleep through the night last night (well, until 5am- but we'll take it!), she really just doesn't want to eat. It's not that the food is weird- things do taste a bit different but she's never been a really picky eatter. But, cheese pizza, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets- staples of an American child's diet (ugh)- we can't even get her to eat these. Toast works, maybe an occasional yogurt....yeah, that's about it right now. Hopefully she'll eventually get hungry enough that she decides food is worth it. :)

Cooper is really really struggling. It's ironic because we expected drama and issues with Sophia- she's old enough to know things are changed and different. But with Cooper, he's never struggled with transitions from one thing to another. I know this is a trait of autistic kids- trouble with change- but he had never shown these symptoms before. We always assumed he wasn't completely aware of his surroundings and just kinda went with the flow. Well, apparently we weren't giving him enough credit because he's not loving life right now.
It seems as though he is constantly taking things in, not really relaxed, realizing everything is new and he doesn't know what to expect from any of it. Sometimes he's ok, playing, swimming, eatting. But he's always on high alert, looking around and eventually just loses it. Then it's hard to get him to calm down. Usually these meltdowns have been happening at meal times. It's perfect bc we're struggling to get Sophie to eat, Cooper is freaking out, and we're always in a restaurant when it happens. We must look like the perfect little family to the Chinese- ha!

It's easy to keep a bit of humor about it right now bc they are both currently asleep so the house is quiet and we are able to just sit and relax.

Really, though, we're doing ok overall. We met a really great family yesterday after breakfast (where Soph wouldn't eat....). There's a playplace made out of a racquetball court and Soph and Coop were playing and a mom and her 3 kids came up and sat by us. The kids started playing together and we started talking with the mom. They're from Chicago, he works for Bosch, they were in HongKong for a year before moving here in August. Their son goes to BISS (the British International School of Shanghai) and could be in Soph's class. We ran into them again today and hung out for a few hours while the kids played. It's great to have met a friendly face!
Here's a pic of the playplace-

The nice thing about it is that there's a balcony where I took the pic where we can sit and watch the kids play while we chat. It looks really pink here but it's not in real life. :)

Here's a pic of the park area behind where we live. We walk through here to get to the clubhouse.

Here are also some pics of our place- we're definitely not totally unpacked and organized- not even close- but we're getting there.

We have a neat sleeping area set up for Cooper. We didn't want to have to buy a crib here, but he won't stay in a bed, so we did some research and found this bedtent specifically made for ASD kids that like to escape. Cooper struggles to wake up from naps- you can tell he's in a deep overnight type of sleep so it takes him a good hour to snap out of it. Today was no exception but I made the mistake of sending Ben to go wake him up. I didn't see or hear them for a bit so I went to investigate and this is what I found-

It was pretty cute. :)

We got the chance to talk with Jenn right after the US New Year and then we actually Skyped Christy and Peter Oosting for a bit after their night of fun and "had one more" with them. So great to see friends and talk with family. It's so easy! I can't imagine doing this without being able to see and speak with those we love.

Ok, prayer requests: obviously, the kids. Getting them to eat healthy (finding healthy and safe things to eat), getting into a good sleep routine. Also, that Ben and I be more patient with them when we ourselves don't feel great and are tired. Sophie's school orientation is Wednesday- she starts Thursday. Pray this new transition goes well and that she is able to make some friends and enjoy her time there.

Thanks for reading- I love reading your comments! If you ever have any questions- feel free to ask!