Adoption Adventures - Take 2

Overdue Update

2011-08-14T19:30:00.000-04:00

I am way overdue for an update on how Ivan and Nick are both doing which I will get to shortly.

I have been silent here in blogland lately due to some personal events. As some of you may remember, my dad died in late May, right before we travelled to Moscow to pick up Ivan. Then in mid-July, my brothers and sisters had just come to visit for my dad's memorial when my stepdad passed away. This timing also coincided with my return to work full-time (for the first 6 weeks I was working from home). I went to my hometown in Illinois for my stepdads funeral with my sister and her husband and left all the boys home. I knew that I would be a mess and that although my mom had not yet met Ivan, it probably wouldn't be the best circumstance for that. Needless to say, July was quite an emotionally challenging month. The two losses in close proximity were more than I could handle and I was having a hard time motivating myself to do much more than go to work and take care of the boys. I'm finally starting to feel like myself again and there is alot to post regarding both Ivan and Nick.

I'll start with Ivan. I think we have gotten control of the eczema (thanks Rachel for your great advice!). YAY! I am so happy it is gone on his face and around his eyes. What finally worked for us was the Aveeno Baby Eczema Therapy on his face and a mixture of the Aveeno Baby and 1% Cortisone on his body. He still has a bit of a rash on his chin so we will keep at it. His chin stays wet most of the time due to constant drooling (from teething) so when we get a break with the teething I'm hoping the chin will clear up too.

Speaking of teeth, Ivan now has 6 on top and bottom. He has been teething like crazy since we brought him home. Luckily he is really good natured and hasn't been too fussy. When he does get fussy and there is no identifiable root cause I will try giving him Hyland's teething tablets which worked with Nick and seem to work pretty well with him too.

Just this past week Ivan started using the "more" sign and has started walking! I missed his first unaided steps (while at work) but have been working with him on trying more and more. He is more confident in walking sideways than forwards. Seemed odd to me until Bill pointed out that when he cruises around he is usually walking sideways. He gets so excited when he takes a few steps without help from anyone. We missed this stage with Nick and its fun to see Ivan mastering these new skills.

We have been spending a fair amount of time at the pool lately. Nick took swim lessons in early July and did very well. He went off the diving board for the first time and has started to figure out how to do the crawl. It's amazing how much faster he gets to his destination when he uses his arms.

Ivan has been enjoying the pool as well. At first I was hanging out in the baby pool with Ivan while Nick was in his swim lessons and afterwards, but thanks to one of my sweet neighbors who assured me I could handle Nick and Ivan in the big pool, I tried it and found that Nick is pretty self sufficient and just needs an arm to grab onto now and then. The big pool is where Nick likes to be and it is so much more pleasant than the warm water in the baby pool. I was really happy to be able to make the transition.

Nick has been enjoying his new role as big brother and is often very helpful with Ivan. Especially in the morning and at meal times. Nick has taken to climbing into Ivan's crib in the morning and we will often find the two of them there together laughing and having fun playing. The one area that I would say Nick needs more time with is being gentle. He seems to have a hard time understanding that he can't play rough with Ivan. We will continue to work on this with him.

In the interest of getting this posted I will close with some pictures of the boys!

4th of July Parade

Brothers Hanging Out

Hugs!

Ivan with Aunt Linda

A weekend of Firsts over the 4th of July!

2011-07-05T07:43:00.000-04:00

Happy Independence Day!

We are enjoying a quiet weekend at home this 4th. We started the weekend off a bit early on Friday with Bill taking the boys into work early on Friday afternoon before they went home around 2. Nick had a fun time meeting everyone and according to Bill, Ivan held up pretty well but by the time they got home Ivan was exhausted so immediately went down for his afternoon nap. After nap time we made a late afternoon trip to the neighborhood pool. This was our first trip to the pool this year! Last year we went several times a week but with all the changes we hadn't made it over yet. Nick took two sessions of swim lessons at the Y over the winter and unfortunately forgot much of what he learned but will hopefully catch up quickly. He really wants to go off the diving board this summer so that is the goal. Ivan spent his time in the baby pool and seemed to enjoy it. He loved splashing around and also liked to try to pick up the various leaves and blades of grass that were floating around. He is not quite tall enough to sit in the baby pool without his face being partially submerged so thus did alot of standing.

On Saturday morning Bill took Nick to see Cars 2, which they both seemed to enjoy. Apparently there is a 3D version and a regular version. They went to the 3D and Bill noted that although he enjoyed it he thought Nick probably would have liked the regular version more (something about the glasses not fitting right). It was the first movie in a theater that Nick has ever been to and it was a definite hit.

Saturday night we went out for dinner for the first time as a family of 4. We went for Mexican and everyone did really well. I really couldn't believe it. Nick is usually pretty good in restarants but we weren't sure how patient Ivan would be. It turns out Ivan is quite easy going and took the experience in stride.

On Sunday we went to a party at some friends from our old neighborhood. It was so great to see so many families that we've known for years and I just can't believe how grown up all the kids are. Of course, we were thrilled to introduce Ivan to everyone. He did great! We are definitely getting out more with Ivan than we did with Nick at first. I think its good for him and for us, even if it gets away from the "keep the world small" creed of adoption.

Ivan is really adapting quite well. The main problem we're battling right now is his eczema. The first time we met him the eczema on one of his cheeks was so bad it looked like it was disfiguring his face. When we finally took custody of him it had cleared up quite a bit so I was relieved but since we've had him patches have come back on his face and arms. The worst is the redness on his upper and lower eyelids. I didn't get much support from our pediatrician regarding treatment so I am working through various remedies that friends have suggested including working on the diet and the environment. We already have scentless cleaning products due to Bill's sensitive skin and we have tried to keep Ivan's clothing to all natural fibers. We have eliminated cows milk and are gearing up to eliminate wheat. I also tried one of the many Aveeno products yesterday and it seems to be helping. They have some specific products for babies and eczema, which aren't the one that we've got but we will try those next if the current one doesn't work.

Adding to his discomfort would be the heat rash he has developed under his chin and on his neck. This is exacerbated by his constant drooling (from the 4-5 teeth that are coming in) and crazy heat we've had around here lately.

Picture post coming soon.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Happy Father's Day! And an update on brotherly love

2011-06-19T14:17:00.000-04:00

Happy Father's Day to all the dads and future dads out there!

Today is a happy and sad day for me. It's happy because its Bill's first Father's Day with two sons! It's sad because it is the first Father's Day since my dad passed away. My dad passed away this May, between our Court and Pickup trips for Ivan. It was very sad to lose him but I know he is in a better place now (sorry for the cliche). My dad was diagnosed with alzheimers several years ago and was advanced in his decline. I'd estimate he stopped knowing me between 3 and 4 years ago. I had a long time to greive for the loss of my Dad as I knew him, the loss of him knowing my children, the loss of him knowing me, my siblings and my stepmom. I thought I had greived all that I could for my Dad already, but have found myself getting teary eyed now and then over the past few days, knowing that Father's Day was approaching. Given how events played out over the past few months I am so happy that we chose to keep Ivan's given name, which is the Russion version of John. John was my Dad's name and I am glad we were able to honor him in this way!

We have now been home for two weeks and things are going well although we've had some rough spots. Ivan's adjustment has been good for the most part. He is crawling more on his knees than on his stomach and he loves cruising on the furniture. He is feeding himself finger foods and is starting to enjoy eating food with more texture. We are still mainly on baby food, stage 2 and 3 and I hope to introduce more "real" food such as pasta, soft fruits and veggies in the upcoming weeks.

Ivan is a good sleeper and sleeps 11 hours per night almost like clockwork. He then takes two naps that total 3 - 4 hours. He doesn't cry when he wakes up, which can be challenging if you're sleeping, or not checking on him every 15 minutes.

He doesn't like having his diaper changed and also doesn't like getting dressed, which makes for some challenges throughout the day. He is definitely getting more comfortable with the routine and surroundings and his true personality is showing through.

Now onto Nick, I would say the adjustment for him has been much harder to manage than the adjustment for Ivan. Ever since bringing Nick home he has had difficulties with transitions. The transitions of teachers and classrooms at his pre-school/daycare have been the hardest for him to handle up to this point. After moving classes or getting a new teacher it takes Nick between 2 and 3 weeks to settle in to the change. The addition of a brother has proven to be difficult as well but he is coming around.

Nick is extremely interested in Ivan's sleeping, eating, pooping, etc. Every night at bedtime he wants to check on Ivan before reading stories and every morning he wants to check on Ivan. He likes to give him kisses and recently has shown interest in picking him up/holding him. He is getting better about sharing his toys and is pretty adept at redirecting Ivan away from things he doesn't want him playing with.

Nick has regressed in some ways as he now wants help every morning when getting dressed and he also often wants help eating. Another recent development is the over-dramatization when he hurts himself. For example, if Nick trips and falls down, in the past he would get up and brush it off. Lately, if he falls or whatever, he makes a big deal about it, cries, needs to be picked up and generally over reacts. I don't think this is unusual in any way. Its just how things are these days.

I hope everyone has a great Sunday and Father's Day!

Happy 1st Birthday Ivan!

2011-06-14T22:13:00.000-04:00

Today was Ivan's 1st birthday! We had a low-key celebration with just the family. I had decided that I would make cupcakes for the occasion, which is almost unheard of around here (me baking that is). Ivan and I had to go out around lunchtime to meet Bill to have some documents notarized (yeah, the paperwork continues!) and we stopped at the grocery store to pick up the cupcake makings. On the way there I reminded myself, remember the eggs, remember the eggs, and what did I forget, the eggs. I did finally make cupcakes, but not until later this afternoon after Bill got home from work.

Here are some pictures from today. Also, I promise I will post on Ivan's progress and adjustment so far and also on how Nick is doing with his new brother as soon as I can. Happy Flag Day!

Cruising with the truck

Learning to pucker up!

Crazy Hair

Help with the candle!

Not sure about the icing...

Our Trip Home

2011-06-12T16:17:00.000-04:00

I have so much to catch up on! I'll start with our trip home and see how far I can get.

We flew out of Moscow last Saturday morning. Ivan woke up Saturday morning with the sniffles and though he felt warm he didn't have a fever (more on this later), which was good news. We had packed fairly lightly for the trip so we only had one large suitcase, two small suitcases, an umbrella stroller, a backpack and my carry on bag. Check in and security went very well and we made it to our gate at 11am for our 1pm flight. While we were waiting we met a gentleman who had just completed court in one of the regions and was flying back to the states while his wife stayed in country for the 10 day waiting period. We had a nice chat with him about adoptions, Ivan, the process, etc. The time passed fairly quickly and I was definitely relieved by this.

We purchased a seat for Ivan so that we could have a row of 3 seats for the trip to New York. Once we settled in we decided to feed Ivan lunch and were hopeful that he would sleep after that. Ivan had been a pretty good sleeper so we had high hopes. He did sleep a bit after his lunch, but with all the activity of the carts and Bill and I receiving our meals, Ivan woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. I think he had been sleeping for about an hour at that point. Unfortunately, he didn't sleep again during the 10 hour flight until we landed. It was quite challenging to say the least and I think the fact that he was feeling bad did not help the situation. I'm really not sure what we did the whole time to keep him entertained but somehow we made it through. He literally crashed as we touched down in New York. I was happy because the poor guy was exhausted at that point (~20 hours into the trip). But moving him through Immigration, rechecking bags and going back through security, while trying to keep him asleep proved to be very difficult.

While we were going through security a couple that we had been sitting close to on the plane asked if Ivan was adopted, I think they probably saw the passport or the envelope when we went through Immigration. Anyway, I said yes and they told me they were in the process. So, I asked which region and then it hit me that they would have been meeting their referral so I asked if they had met their child and they told me that they had had to turn down their referral and apparently did not receive a second referral. I started to tear up as I told them how sorry I was. Having turned down our first referral during our adoption of Nick, I felt so bad for them and to go home without meeting a second child would be a very very difficult outcome. They told me it had been a very tough few days but that seeing all the people with their adopted children on the flight (I think there were 3 or 4 families) helped remind them that it can and does work out. They seemed like the sweetest people, I wish them the best as they go forward with the process.

Ivan slept during the bulk of our layover in New York and aside from moving gates twice, our flight left on time and we made it back home around 11pm.

The trip was pretty hard because of Ivan's lack of sleep, and our lack of sleep. But, the good news is that he acclimated to the new time zone very quickly. Aside from waking up between 4 and 5 am on the first two or three mornings Ivan has been sleeping about 11 hours per night and is taking two naps per day for another 3 hours of sleep.

I have so much more to post about our first week but want to get this out there so I'll write more as soon as I can and will close with some pictures!

New pics

2011-06-03T01:09:00.000-04:00

Ivan Update

2011-06-01T23:46:00.000-04:00

My plans to blog daily have been foiled by the technical issues we've had. They are due to a combination of poor Internet service in the apartment and the lack of an adapter that will allow transfer of pictures from my Canon camera to our iPad. We didn't bring the laptop on this trip and thought it would be fine but now to get pictures to the iPad is a major undertaking. We have take pics with the iPhone and then can email them to the blog for posting because the iPad and blogger don't seem to cooperate when it comes to pictures. So these are the troubles. Doesn't sound too bad but. Throw in the poor Internet connection and it can be pretty frustrating.

Aside from our tech difficulties our time with Ivan so far has been wonderful. I didn't mention it before but in our time with Ivan before this trip we had never seen him smile. I would say I was somewhat concerned about that but tried not to dwell on it. We also hadn't seen him crawl or even attempt to crawl. What we've experienced since bringing him home is an easy going, smiley, cuddly little guy who shimmies around on his tummy to get where he wants to be.

I haven't mentioned it yet but Ivan is almost one year old. We are thrilled that we'll be home for his first birthday and will celebrate with friends and family. So the reason I say this is that he is definitely delayed a bit. He doesn't know how to feed himself finger foods yet. We will hold out yogurt melts, puffs or cheerios and he just looks at them. I am making it my mission to teach him that he has the power to put the snack in his mouth but he seems perfectly content to be fed.

He is quite verbal and chatters away at times. He gets very excited at meal times and kicks his legs around until we start feeding him. He seems to like everything we've fed him so far. We're sticking with the canned baby food, yogurt, apple-pear sauce and have moved him onto Milk. So far so good with that!

He is a pretty good sleeper too. Yesterday the embassy doc, Dr. Boris, came to the apartment to do the embassy physical at 7:30am. After he left we walked down to Red Square to take some pictures and to enjoy the gorgeous morning. The weather has been just beautiful. Ivan fell asleep on the walk home and during our stop for coffee. We went out around 1pm to get lunch and again, Ivan fells asleep on the way to lunch and slept right up until we left the restaurant. He finished his nap with me on our bed, too sweet!

Today we go to the Embassy to complete the process for Ivan's Visa. We found out earlier in the week that we would be done with everything by today and that we could leave Friday if we could change our flights. When Bill called yesterday we found out it would cost about $2000 to change the flights to Friday. Needless to say, we're staying till Saturday.

With that I'll say bye for now and will try to post more pictures soon!

Introducing Ivan Alexander Gemmill

2011-05-31T23:25:00.000-04:00

We promised a picture! Hopefully we will get more posted later today.

Gotcha Day - Ivan Alexander Gemmill

2011-05-31T13:51:00.000-04:00

Today was the day! At 1PM we picked up Ivan from Babyhouse 15. After a long drive back to the apartment we spent the afternoon with our new little boy. Unfortunately, I had to leave Meghan and Ivan for a couple of hours to pick up Ivan's passport. But, by all accounts they had a good afternoon, including some smiling and laughing. His personality is already starting to come out, he is starting to smile and interact much more than we had previously seen. The evening went really well also. Dinner was pretty easy with only a few tears during bath time. He stopped crying when I poured water on him to rinse him off, he must of liked that. Next we got ready for bed and listened to the Baby Einstein lulllabies which he seemed to enjoy. When we put him down in the crib, he cried for 30 seconds, and was asleep within 15 minutes, so far it has been pretty good. After Ivan was asleep, we enjoyed a traditional Russian dinner of Pelmini. Embassy Doc is coming to visit at 7AM tomorrow and then we need to visit the Embassy to get Ivan's visa (we think Thursday). After that, we are cleared to go home. And now what everyone is waiting for, pictures! But wait, we are having technical difficulties and after an hour of trying, we have decided that it's not going to happen tonight. For those of you with Facebook connection to Meghan or myself, we will post them there for now. We will be adding pictures to the blog as soon as we can.

On Our Way

2011-05-29T13:37:00.000-04:00

I have been a terrible blogger this week! It's been very busy between preparing for our little one at home and getting ready for the trip and trying to wrap things up at work for a while.

I can't believe we are actually leaving for Moscow today! As far as I know our schedule will be arriving Monday, check in at the apartment and then relax until Tuesday when we pick our little guy up for good!

We have had a few set backs in terms of the exchange of beds and furniture. We are going to use Nick's crib (which is now a double bed) and then have a bunk bed coming for Nick. The problem is that late this week we learned that the new bed wasn't going to be delivered before our trip. So we've done some improvising and hopefully the bed will arrive shortly after we get home next weekend.

Nick is super excited for his brother to come home! He doesn't really like the fact that we're leaving again! We considered bringing him with ius either on the court trip or even this one but In the end we thought it would be too hard for him.

Well I am blogging on my iPhone and we're getting ready to board our flight so I'll say bye for now.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Paparrazzi at Court...but not for us

2011-05-17T11:49:00.000-04:00

Today we had a busy day that started with court in the morning and a visit with our little one in the afternoon.

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that the family we met on our first trip was back for court with us, so we all traveled there together is morning. It is so nice to have another family to share the experience with.

When we arrived at the courthouse there were many photographers and reporters surrounding the entrance to one of the courtrooms. It turns out that in the courtroom right next to ours was the appeal hearing (for money laundering and embezzlement) for the former richest man in Russia, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. It was quite the spectacle!

Before court we had a quick briefing on what to expect. We didn't have the same judge as our first hearing and I was a bit disappointed by this but it was fine. Our judge was a fairly young man who spoke very softly and didn't smile. Bill took the first set of questions, which are generally longer and more involved than the second, and he did very well. My questions mainly consisted of being sure I agreed with Bill's responses. We were done in about 30
minutes with the final decision being approval of our petition to adopt our son.

After court we headed to the baby home to visit our son. We were able to spend almost 2 hours with him and we had a really nice visit. The eczema on his face had almost completely cleared up and he seemed in good spirits...until we put him on his hands and knees to see if he wanted to crawl. He immediately broke down in big tears. For the rest of the visit, every time we tried to sit him on the floor to play, he would cry. He would stop as soon as one of us picked him up. He must have been tired because shortly before the end of the visit he fell asleep in Bill's arms, so sweet!

It's always hard to say goodbye, but this time it's only for a few days!

Tomorrow we fly back home and before we know it we'll be on our way back.

Have a great week!

Safely in Moscow

2011-05-16T12:57:00.000-04:00

This is a quick post to say we made it to Moscow. We almost missed our connection in New York due to our first flight being delayed by 2 hours! We had to run through JFK and they had already closed the door to the jetway when we arrived. Thankfully, the nice agent let us through and we were able to board.

Unfortunately, Bill and I were not able to sit together. I got the short straw and sat next to one of the most obnoxious people I've ever had to sit next to. To sum it up there was cursing, snorting, nose blowing, snot flying (yup, I felt the spray), and random used tissues being tossed my way for about 9 hours straight.

We couldn't believe it when our bags actually showed up in Moscow. We have court in the morning and will visit our little one in the afternoon! Can't wait.

I'll try to follow up tomorrow with an update!

Almost Ready

2011-05-13T18:29:00.000-04:00

Ok, blogger lost this post that was originally posted on Wednesday and now the end is gone, Boo!

I can hardly believe we leave in just 5 days for Moscow. Wow, time has gone so quickly since we received our court date.

We had just a few documents left when we returned from Moscow. We needed our I-171H, FBI Clearances and updated medicals. In the Moscow region medicals expire after 3 months so we had to go back to the doctors for updated physicals. I don't know which is worse, the physicals or the fingerprints with their various expirations.

Anyway, we cut it a bit close on the updated medicals and didn't realize all our updated docs were expected at our agency last Friday. We found this out on Wednesday and luckily we were on track to complete but it was still a bit stressful.

Other than the paperwork I have been spending a fair amount of time on the weekends shopping for the various gifts for those that have helped us in Russia. We have the baby home director, doctor and caregivers, plus a donation to the baby home and then gifts for our agency staff in Russia.

I am a terrible shopper and not the best gift giver. We were given some hints about what to buy which was helpful. I ended up getting jewelry for the ladies. I decided to go with pieces I might give to a friend and hopefully they will like them. I bought one cute clutch handbag that is kind of dressy and very "in" right now, at least in the states. Then for the caregivers I bought small travel sets with lotion, shampoo, body wash soap, loofah (or something like that). For the baby home we were instructed to bring clothing. I am happy to say we've got a duffle loaded up with new and gently used baby clothing so we're in good shape there.

Aside from preparing for court we have had Nick's 4th birthday and checkup. Nick had a great doctors visit and was at about the 50th percentile for height and weight. He was very good with the doctor, didn't call him any inappropriate names (like Yucky or Poopy) and he was able to do the eye chart with letters. Yay.

If there is time I will post one more time before we leave. Have a great weekend all!

A Great Day!

2011-04-25T23:13:00.000-04:00

This is going to be really quick but we had two pieces of really great news today.

The first is that we have a court date. In about 3 weeks we'll be back in Moscow! We are totally excited and have spent tonight finding flights, ordering Visas and booking our hotel.

The second thing that happened today is that we received our I-171H. Let me tell you that this has been a big source of stress for us. We actually had to miss our fingerprint appointment due to our first trip to Moscow so the Tuesday after we returned from our first trip we walked in for an unscheduled fingerprint appointment. They let us right through and we were out of there in 20 minutes. It was amazing. So anyone who may be reading this, know that this is an option for you. If we had waited until our appointment reschedule, we wouldn't have had the approval by our court date. The time elapsed to receive the I-171H since the fingerprint appointment was 20 days. Not bad!

One of the reasons we are so happy about the timing of this is that we really wanted to bring our little guy home before his first birthday. It appears that we will be able to do that given the way things are working out.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter and will try to post more regularly now because we have quite a bit of work to do before the trip!

Random Observations

2011-04-09T08:22:00.000-04:00

Now that we're back home and mainly rested, I thought it would be fun to post some random observations from our trip.

1) The mullet is alive and well in Moscow. In case anyone thinks it died in the 80's, we saw many men sporting this hairdo proudly. Bill thinks its because Russia is a hockey country. If that is true, are mullets still prevalent in Canada?

2) When we met our son on the first day they brought him to us in a pink flowered outfit. For a moment I wondered if they had brought us the correct child because he looked very feminine. Even our doctor was thrown off at first from the pictures. During our visits on the 2nd day he was dressed more like a boy.

3) Nothing goes the way you think it will. So it is best to be flexible and "go with the flow".

4) There isn't much random smiling happening out on the streets of Moscow. We joked that you can pick out the Americans because we smile at strangers.

5) Eating out in Moscow has gotten even more expensive than last time. For example, a pot of coffee at our hotel was approximately $30. It made Starbucks look reasonable!

6) When someone sitting next to you on the plane talks for 9 of a 12 hour flight, the seat neighbors are not appreciative.

7) Conversations often sound like arguments, but are perfectly normal in the end. Our driver would take us to a place and I assume explain our purpose. It would sound like an argument, and then he would turn to us and say something like, "Yeah, we are old friends and go way back".

8) Sometimes its best to stop asking questions.

9) Wearing black is always appropriate in Moscow.

10) Next time we need to set up Skype to keep in touch with Nick. We forgot to do this and I regretted the whole time we were gone.

Have a great weekend!

Heading Home Soon

2011-04-01T15:28:00.000-04:00

It's funny how the mind (and memory) works. I had forgotten, or put out of my head, how stressful this process is. The past 48 hours have been incredibly stressful and wonderful all at the same time.

I don't think either Bill or I slept very well last night. We felt really good about the visit with our little guy yesterday but until we heard back from our IA doctor we were trying to not get too far ahead of ourselves. Thankfully we awoke to good feedback from our doctor and I felt like a weight was lifted off our shoulders.

Today we were able to visit our little guy twice at the hospital, once this morning and then again later this afternoon. Our morning visit was about 45 minutes and our afternoon visit was an hour and a half. I was very happy that when we arrived they took us to a play room that had a rug on the floor, a few chairs and lots of toys. This environment was much more conducive to a good visit.

Our sweetie pie was much more alert today than yesterday. We think he wasn't feeling well, he had a runny nose, sounded congested in the chest and felt warm. Despite his cold, he seemed to enjoy playing with us and warmed up to us especially during our second visit. We were able to get a much better assessment of his development today and didn't observe all of the milestones that his file said he had met. I'm not terribly surprised by this and we believe his delays are consistent with what you would expect from a child who has been institutionalized.

After our morning with our son, we met with our agency Coordinator and signed the official papers to declare our intent to adopt! Woohoo. It sounds like we could be back for court in a matter of 6 - 8 weeks! As far as we're concerned, the sooner the better.

We head home tomorrow and I am very sorry to have to leave our little guy for so long but I am very anxious to get home to Nick and his grandparents.

Have a great weekend everyone!

It's a Boy!

2011-03-31T15:46:00.000-04:00

Our meeting at the MOE went well and we received our referral. YAY. He is a boy and we are overjoyed! Finally our purpose for this trip was going to happen and we would meet our son.

We had a long drive from the MOE to the baby home. When we arrived we were able to get information on his health and life so far. After that, we travelled to a local Children's Hospital where we spent about 30 minutes with our little guy. We didn't have the best conditions for our visit. We were in a break room type of room with a big table, booth seating and a little bit of space. When they brought our little guy to us it was a bit unnerving because there were many people around; our interpretor, about 4 nurses and us.

Our little guy had been woken up from a nap so was a bit groggy at the beginning of our visit. He was very interested in what was happening and definitely liked the giggling bee we brought. His eye contact was ok and I thought once I almost saw a smile but not quite. I so wanted to put him on the floor to see how he could get around. He's not yet walking and I wanted to get a feel for his gross motor skills. I am going to push (gently) to see if we can play with him in an environment where he can be on the floor, at least for a few minutes. I suspect they will have none of this but I'll try tomorrow.

Our visit was very short so its hard to really assess much about his personality but all comments from the caregivers (and our observations) indicate he is fairly laid back and calm, as far as babies go. We'll see when we are able to spend more time with him.

We will visit him at least one time tomorrow in the late morning and hopefully again in the afternoon. We can't wait to spend more time with him!

I will post more tomorrow!

Here we go!

2011-03-31T02:03:00.000-04:00

Today we are going to the Ministry of Education to receive our referral and after our meeting we will head to the baby home to visit. We are very excited!

If possible I will post later today but we think we are going to be quite pressed for time given our late start.

Have a great day everyone!

Passing the Time

2011-03-29T02:14:00.000-04:00

Time seem to be crawling by. We're both having a bit of a struggle adjusting to the time change. I stayed up late last night watching The Champ. Anyone remember that movie? It is a real tear jerker, even 30 years later! It probably wasn't the best choice but there isn't a whole lot to choose from. Bill was up from about 3 - 6am last night and is now sleeping away.

We had one meeting yesterday that went well and now we wait for our referral. We are hoping that we will get to meet our little one on Wednesday but it may not be until Thursday.

In the mean time, the plan for today is to sightsee. Although, its currently snowing outside and looks really cold!

Hopefully I will get some good pictures today!

We're in Moscow

2011-03-27T13:12:00.001-04:00

This is a quick post to say we made it safely to Moscow and have settled into the hotel. It's so cold here and poor Bill didn't bring a hat! We hope to find one for him tomorrow but I have my doubts because Spring is coming, or so we're told.

I'm so happy to be back in this great city and wish we could fast forward to Wednesday (or Thursday) which is when we think we get to meet our referral.

I will post more when I am not so tired and after we really get out and about.

Have a great week!

Quick Update

2011-03-26T08:30:00.000-04:00

We're all ready to go, I think. We received our Visa's on Thursday which was really fast and everything looks good! We're packed and ready to meet our little one. We're taking a blanket, teddy bear and photo album to leave behind. We had so much more stuff last time. Hopefully we haven't forgotten anything too important.

Bill and I are both totally excited and very optimistic about what lies ahead for us in the coming days.

We think we probably won't meet our referral until Wednesday so aside from a few meetings at the MOE we'll probably spend our time seeing Moscow.

I'm a bit worried about Nick and how he will do with us being gone for so long. This is the longest we've ever been away from him and I hope he doesn't get too upset.

We've got Nick's first soccer game this morning right before we leave for the airport. It should be fun!

I will do my best to blog about what is happening while we're in Moscow.

Have a great weekend!

Someone Pinch Me!

2011-03-21T22:38:00.000-04:00

Today I received a very surprising phone call from our agency asking whether we could get ourselves prepared to travel next Saturday! Yes, less than one week away. I didn't even know we could get Visas that fast. But as I'm sure many of you know, it is possible.

So, after tearing up just a little bit, I pulled myself together and called Bill to tell him the news. I couldn't get in touch with him immediately so I tried to concentrate on work. After what seemed like an eternity I finally had a chance to talk to Bill. The most important piece of this puzzle was to ensure that we had a good plan for Nick's care while we're gone. Bill's mom and dad graciously offered to come stay with Nick, so with the main concern under control we were good to go.

I called our agency to let them know we would be able to make it happen. Our director told us to hold off on making any arrangements until she sent the official dates. An hour or so later we received the dates and then the Visa Application process began. Those forms are soooo tedious. It took at least 2 hours to fill them out and get everything ready to go. But, we were able to pull everything together and get it all fed ex'd to the Visa expeditors. I'm glad to have that done, hopefully we didn't make and mistakes in the paperwork.

For the past few hours we have been researching flights and accomodation options. I think we finally have it all straight! I am so excited but there is still so much to do before we go.

Nick starts soccer this Saturday and we still need to get some of the gear for that. In addition, his birthday party is the weekend after we come home which means I need to get the cake ordered before we go. We also need to purchase some things for the trip, get doctors lined up, special money, and I'm sure a million other things I haven't thought of.

I will try to post again later on this week with an update but wanted to quickly share this great news!

Happy Monday All!

What's been on my mind...

2011-03-03T18:58:00.000-05:00

I'll start with an update and then move on to some things I've been thinking about lately.

We finished our dossier a little over 2 weeks ago and it should be on its way to Russia soon if it isn't already. We didn't quite finish up as quickly as we had hoped. Because of the volume of documents, we needed to leave them at the Sec of States office and then picked them up the next week. All was well and our adoption coordinator had no changes after her review. This was really great news and if all goes well it sounds like we could get our travel dates some time in March with a trip in April???. I am over the moon happy about this and hope the timing works out because April is shaping up to be really busy. So far we have a 10K the first weekend, Nick's birthday party the second weekend and his actual birthday the third weekend. It should be interesting to see what happens!

In other news, there are two things that have been consuming my thoughts lately. The first is that I am having a really hard time figuring out how to talk about the pending addition of a brother or sister with Nick. I think the main reason I'm having a hard time with it is that there is so much uncertainty about timing that I'm worried about setting up expectations with him that could end up taking longer than we think. I feel like until we meet our future son or daughter, it is less "real" and still a dream. Nick can get really focused on upcoming events and I suppose my reluctance is for both ours and his sanity. If anyone has any thoughts or advice on this I would love to hear it.

On the second topic, let me open by saying I really hope this doesn't offend anyone. I'm just venting and getting things off my chest. The second thing that I have been thinking about (too much) is my age. A little background may help give context to my issue. My mom was 39 when she had me, which at the time (back in the day), was fairly unusual. But, I was the last of 5 kids with a spread of 18 years between myself and my oldest sibling. For whatever reason I was very aware that my parents were not really friends with my friends parents and it bothered me (I don't know why, small town...). In retrospect this was not too surprising, they were 10 - 15 years older than many of them and were in a different place in their lives I suppose. I chalked up the fact that my parents weren't in the "cool" parents group, to their ages. Growing up I always thought to myself that I would never be the "old" mom.

Fast forward to my early 30's and beyond and I realized those things you tell yourself when your a kid are not so easy to control. Marriage in my 30's, unexplained infertility, and decisions about adoption ate up those precious years and here I am, in my (almost mid) 40's adopting a young child. So, aside from the normal adoption worries and concerns, I'm worried about fitting in with the other parents. I know this probably seems silly and superficial to many of you. I can appreciate that at some level it is superficial, that I should concentrate on what really matters and be happy that I even have this opportunity. Being a parent and growing our family far outweigh whether I am in the "in crowd" with the moms. But, this doesn't stop me from thinking about it.

On that note, I will say bye for now.

Making Progress!

2011-02-06T21:24:00.000-05:00

During and after our first adoption I was very involved in keeping in touch and following the progress of all my blogger friends. By Fall of 2009, it had became harder to find the time to blog and the changes in our lives with Bill working/living out of town during the week, coupled with Nick's age and his reaction to the situation made it really hard to keep up so I stopped. I stopped blogging, I stopped reading blogs (regularly) and I pretty much withdrew from the community. Granted, I would check in here and there but rarely commented. I feel guilty about disappearing for 1.5 years and then coming back on the scene. The good part about it is that I am slowly getting caught up on all the wonderful events that have gone on since I checked out. So many families have gone back to Russia to build their families and it is just wonderful. Late last summer, as Bill and I began talking about going back for a second adoption, I found inspriration in those of you that had started the process for a second (or third) time. Thank you all!

Now, with our homestudy complete in early January, it was time to work on our Dossier. We received the list of documents from our agency, 65 to be notarized and apostilled. On our first adoption it took us 2-3 months to pull everything together. We can't figure out why it took us so long! This time we set a goal of 2 weeks and almost made it. We have all the docs in hand and by tomorrow evening everything with be notarized. Hopefully by Tuesday or Wednesday we'll have everything apostilled. It feels really good to have this part of the process almost done!

I'm closing with a picture of Nick from Christmas as he anxiously awaited Santa's arrival at brunch.

Here We Go!

2011-01-22T08:14:00.000-05:00

I am so excited to begin our second adoption. If you had asked me 2 years ago whether I could do it again I'm pretty sure I would have said no way. The emotional toll of our first adoption was pretty hard for me but the good news is that I have forgotten. And, I'm not going to reread the blog. At least not now.

We have made several decisions and are pretty deep into the process. We are going back to Moscow, we have a new Agency (Woo Hoo) and we are done with our Home Study. The paper chase begins now with Notaries and Apostilles and many trips to the Secretary of States office. I wonder if they will remember me?

I will write more soon but decided this morning at 5am, when I woke up and couldn't sleep, that today was the day to start the blog up again. It should be a fun ride!

Happy Gotcha Day and Blog Bye Bye!

2009-08-12T07:28:00.000-04:00

Today marks the one year anniversary of Nick being part of our family! YAY! It has been quite a year and we feel so blessed. Because Bill isn't home during the week days, we will have our family celebration when he comes home later this week. I am hoping to leave work early this afternoon so Nick and I can go for a special after school swim. Then we'll have a quiet dinner together, complete with chicken nuggets and cupcakes (two of his favorites!).

I thought I should post a picture from Gotcha Day last year and then one from this year to see how much Nick has changed.

Gotcha Day 2008 and 2009

I have been really bad about posting lately. I don't want to go into details but suffice it to say that it is the culmination of several stressful personal events that have taken my focus away this summer. The most obvious of which is our recent lifestyle change (Bill's job out of town). It's now been about two months since Bill started his new job (and he loves it) but we are still working through the transition with Nick.

Don't get me wrong, Nick is doing great and thriving, he just misses his Daddy. We talk on Skype almost every night and Nick gets to see Bill, which I think has helped alot. But he continues to cling to me in the mornings and act out when I pick him up. The other slightly upsetting side effect is that he has been really stingy with the hugs and kisses for me. I don't understand this but I'm sure a psychologist could tell me why.

I say all of this because I think its time that I close up the blog. It makes me sad because it has been so great, especially meeting all my bloggy friends out there, and I don't want to lose touch. I just don't think I can do it any more.

I don't know if anyone is even still reading this, but if you'd like to keep in touch, please email me and we can do the email thing, or FB (gasp!), although I've been pretty apathetic on FB too!

Its been fun and take care all!

Scattered...and Nick's Development

2009-06-24T21:25:00.008-04:00

My plan this morning was to blog about Nick's recent developmental evaluation, which I'll get to shortly. But I have to open with a little anecdote from this afternoon.

My drycleaning has been at the cleaners for almost 3 weeks. I forgot about it for about a week, and since then haven't been able to find a good time to go since stopping after picking Nick up at daycare isn't usually the best plan. Today I decided to stop before picking Nick up. I go in and while they are looking for my clothes I realize my credit card is in my purse in the car. I run out to the car to get my purse and proceed to search through looking for the loose card. (The night before Nick and I had attended a going away party for some friends and I left pretty quickly after paying because Nick was heading in a bad direction, thus dropping my card in the purse, not in my wallet). I basically unload my bag in the cleaners and my card isn't there. So, I give her my other card. She runs it through and to my shock and dismay she tells me, "It says its cancelled". I think about this for a minute and remember, oh yeah, when I was on my way to Chicago 2 weeks ago and tried to get cash it was denied. Did I do anything about this 2 weeks ago? No. Totally embarassed, I tell the teenager behind the counter that I'll have to leave the clothes because I have lost my card and the other one is no good. I felt so silly, for many reasons, but mainly because I should have followed up on the issue I had at the airport and also, I really had no idea what I did with the card the night before. This type of thing has been happening to me alot lately. This is just one little example. I have about 5 from my Chicago trip, and many more from recent weeks. I'm just wondering when did I become a scatter brain?

OK, back to the subject at hand which is Nick's recent developmental evaluation.

I worry. And after a very concerning language "screen" (I think the screener spent 10-15 mins with Nick), we decided it was time to have a full evaluation of Nick's development. Prior to the screen I thought he was doing great and making alot of strides, but the screen cast doubt on that.

The evaluation took 2 hours and included observation in the following areas: Cognitive, Expressive Communication, Receptive Communication, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Social/Emotional and Adaptive. There were 3 specialists observing Nick and a student. Basically, Nick played for 2 hours straight with the various toys they provided and he was observed by the professionals. It was slightly nerve wracking for me. I don't think any one is surprised that a two year old will not perform on command. So, of course I worried when Nick wouldn't do the chunky shapes puzzle and when he wouldn't make the sound a cow makes. There are countless other things that he wouldn't do that I knew he could do. It was frustruating. But then he surprised me a few times too. He responded to the 1 - 2 - 3 consequences every time he was on the verge of a conniption and he threaded beads on a shoe string, an activity we have never tried at home.

I had no idea what the outcome would be. My main reason for wanting the evaluation was to make sure that we weren't missing a big red flag and to be sure that he is on track. In order to qualify for services in our county (and I think Virginia) a child has to have a greater than 25% delay in one or more areas, or an atypical development in one of the areas, or is diagnosed with a condition likely to result in a developmental delay.

In the end they "score" the children with the present level of development in terms of age for each area. Relatively, I wasn't surprised by the results of each area vs. the others. Nick had his most positive results in Social/Emotional, Adaptive, Cognitive and Gross Motor, where he was either at or close to 26 months (his current age). The areas where he needs more focus are Expressive Communication where he is at about 22 months and Fine Motor where he has scattered results ranging from 18 - 24 months.

One interesting factoid I picked up from the evaluation team is that it isn't unusual for a child that drools to also be behind in Fine Motor skills. Apparently it has to do with being placed on the back as opposed to the stomach and when a child is on the back they don't develop the strength through the upper body and face that is developed through play and placement on the belly. I hope I haven't butchered the explaination they gave me! Nick's drooling was identified as a potential issue in the original "screen" and it has improved considerably over the past month. But, it is still evident especially when he is really concentrating or if he is stressed out or uncomfortable. They referred to him as having a static face which they explained to me as child that isn't using his facial muscles as much as they would like. We have recently switched to cups with straws which I think are helping his strength. Some other ideas they gave me to improve his facial muscles are to have cotton ball wars on tables (blowing the balls around) and also work with bubbles and pinwheels. We have been working on these things more diligently since the eval.

The result of the day was that Nick does not qualify for services. I was so relieved and really thankful that he is on track. The women who evaluated Nick were so good with him and it was a very positive experience. They also put me at ease by telling me how impressed they were with how well he is doing after such a short time with us. I was actually shocked by this praise but ate it up, of course :-)

Finally, they armed me with many ideas for different activities to stimulate the Fine Motor development and also to increase vocabulary and language. I have to say it was a very well spent 2 hours and I was so proud of how well Nick handled it.

Aside from the developmental news, we are in week 4 of our lives without daddy being home during the week. The best thing we have done to help with the transition is to set up a camera for using Skype for video chats with daddy on most nights. Nick is starting to really enjoy and look forward to talking to daddy on the computer and it is a fun way to feel like we're not so far away from each other.

Have a great 4th of July all!

Outer Banks Trip and More

2009-05-31T13:44:00.007-04:00

This post is going to cover a hodge podge of topics because I'm getting stressed about being behind and this is my attempt to catch up!

The most fun thing we have done since Nick's birthday is to spend a week in the Outer Banks. We loaded up Nick, Abby and all the beach toys and headed south packed to the gills. We had a wonderful house that was just a short walk to the beach. The best thing about the walk to the beach was all of the earth moving equipment working on the road near our house. Nick could have spent hours observing the workers. Luckily, we were able to coax him away with promises of the ocean and sand.

The ocean was foot numbing cold most of the week but Nick didn't seem to mind. The morning of Mothers Day was the first day we went down to the beach and Bill and I had to tag team to play with him in the water because of how frigid it was. It turns out that Carey and her family were staying very close by during the same week, and we saw them briefly down at the beach on Mothers Day. We also had the pleasure of spending a few hours together later in the week. We had a great time, Nick loved playing with Carey's children (who were sooooo sweet with him) and Carey and her family are awesome!

The week went by way too fast, the weather was great, and we were all sorry to leave. Here are some random pictures from the week.

Bill and Nick splashing at the pool

Mommy and Nick at the oceans edge

Good Times at the Beach!

Nick enjoying himself poolside

Fun with Carey and Family

Abby watching over Nick

The week after our trip, Nick had a speech assessment. Unfortunately, neither Bill nor I was present for this so we don't know exactly what went down. I will say I am quite concerned about the results and have contacted the early intervention people to have a complete language evaluation done. We hope to have this scheduled as soon as possible.

We have recently started back to our church. We took an extended break to transition Nick to being with us and felt like it was time that we return. We have been welcomed back with open arms but are still very new to the congregation and don't know many of the members. Despite being new, this morning was a special day for us because an Adoption Blessing was said for Nick after the baptisms. It was very nice, somehow I didn't cry, and we are thrilled that we did this. So many people congratulated us and made us feel welcome. One elderly couple told me that in all their years of attending this church they had never seen this blessing in person and how incredible they think it is. How sweet is that?

Have a great week everyone!

Nick's 2nd Birthday!

2009-05-23T21:55:00.007-04:00

When I last blogged, over one month ago, I had every intention of blogging about Nick's birthday in a matter of days. Now, more than 30 days have passed and I'm finally getting back to business.

We had a really fun day celebrating Nick's birthday with family and friends. Everyone came over to the house for a cookout and party. In the end we had more than 40 guests, which in the past would have been no problem. But now, with one of us taking care of Nick the whole time, this was quite the undertaking. One thing I wasn't expecting was that Nick would want me to hold him continuously for the first hour (at least, it may have gone on for 90 minutes). I should have realized he would have this reaction to all the hubbub, but I didn't.

The good news is that my friend Anne brought a Nascar Bubble Car that Nick adored and that provided endless entertainment. We also broke out the bubble mower, singing mower and various other toys with bubbles!

Nick also got to spend time with his new friend Harper, who was not only adorable, but did her fair share of mowing the yard!

We had a Thomas cake because he is Nick's favorite, and Nick enjoyed the sugar high!

Above Nick is enjoying the icing on his "2".

Happy Birthday Nick!

Happy Spring!

2009-04-20T20:30:00.008-04:00

Happy Spring All! I've always been a fan of spring, but this spring has been extra special because of all the things we have to celebrate!

We had a fun Easter weekend. We colored Easter Eggs on Saturday afternoon, well...Bill did. Nick wasn't really that into it, but Bill did a fabulous job! On Easter morning Nick had a fun time finding his Easter basket and all the goodies inside. He was very distracted by both the chocolate and the bubbles. Which to pursue? More bubbles or more chocolate. This is one of the really hard decisions Nick has had to make recently! We spent the afternoon of Easter at my sister Jill's house with my nephews, Jill's mother in law, and my Dad and Gretel. We had a really nice time eating great food, relaxing and watching the Masters. Here are a few shots of our spiffy little guy on Easter!

Nick's birthday was later in the week and we began the day with a special waffle breakfast. Nick spent all day with Bill and then we went out to Red Robin for dinner with a small group of friends. Have y'all ever been to a Red Robin? I had only been there for lunch before and didn't realize they would have a big lifesize Red Robin there to greet the kids. Not a big deal, right? Oh, no, no, no. Poor little Max who was with us was quite traumatized by the big red bird. I wasn't sure he was going to make it to the table but he eventually did. He did spend most of dinner under the table, but he ended up having an OK time, poor guy. I was just thankful that Nick wasn't afraid of the bird as well! The servers serenaded Nick with their Birthday song and of course I didn't have the camera ready (bad mom!) and they brought him a sundae which he absolutely loved. Every time he took a bite of the ice cream his eyes would get really big and he would kind of shake his head, it was pretty funny.

On Saturday we attended our neighborhood Spring Festival which included an Egg Hunt, Moon Walks, Face Painting and a Petting Zoo. The Egg Hunt was hilarious. Nick was way more interested in watching all the other kids pick up eggs than to pick up eggs of his own. I was finally able to convince him to put some eggs in his basket and he kind of got the hang of it but then he was more interested in opening the eggs than finding more eggs. I think it was really overwhelming for him. We keep telling ourselves that next year at the ripe age of 3, he will really be into all this stuff, we shall see!

After the egg hunt we stood in line for the Moon Walk because at the Irish festival Nick had gone in so we thought for sure he would want to do it here. Not so much. We waited in line for about 10 minutes and by the time it came to actually go in, he would have nothing to do with it! We knew he wouldn't do the face painting so we headed for the petting zoo. In the end, he really just wanted to run around the amphitheater.

After the Spring Festival Bill's family came in from Northern Virginia and we started the 2nd celebration of Nick's birthday. I think I'll save that for my next post because this one is getting really long!

Have a great week everyone!

This Should Have Been Written 2 Weeks Ago!

2009-04-08T21:23:00.005-04:00

It has been almost a month since I last blogged. I can't really explain the absence, except I just haven't felt like doing it. Similar to why I haven't been running on the recent cold, rainy mornings we've had lately. Enough excuses, I'll try to hit the highlights of the past few weeks.

I suppose the most exciting news is that Bill has a new job lined up! YAY Billy. This is really great news and we are both very thankful because its such a tough economy and its a job Bill is really excited about. There is just one catch, the job is in Maryland. So, the plan is that Bill will live in Maryland during the week and come home on the weekends. He has two friends from his former employer that are also going to be working at the same place so they will hopefully be able to get an apartment together. He is probably going to start in early June but they are still working out the details. We know that this will be tough on Nick. We're planning to contact our Social Worker to see if she has any advice on how to ease this upcoming transition.

Nick has been sick on and off for the past 2-3 weeks. Nothing too major, although early this week he had a 103 fever that didn't respond that well to Tylenol. He is on antibiotics now and doing much better. He is definitely sleeping more soundly and for this we are very happy!

Nick continues to grow like crazy and he is talking alot...we just don't know what he is saying. His appetite comes and goes, its frustrating but I have learned not to try to force it. If he doesn't want to eat, he isn't going to eat, it's very simple. The worst habit he has picked up and seems to be taking a long time to shake, is spitting. He is still spitting and he still thinks it is hilarious. We have tried many ways to try to break him of this habit, and they are working on it at school too. So far, nothing seems to be working. We'll keep plugging away.

We are preparing for Nick's second birthday, next Thursday, and then the following Wednesday is one year from the day we first met him. We have alot to celebrate in the upcoming weeks!

I'm going to close with some pictures from the Irish Festival we attended a few weeks ago. Nick got to experience a bounce house for the first time. He didn't bounce though, he just sat there, mesmerized. I'm hoping he'll be able to bounce at our neighborhood Spring festival in a few weeks. He also almost had his face painted, but didn't really like it so he had his hands painted instead. Bill got his face painted as well as a special bonus! The best part were the firetrucks. We spent a long time at the fire station, looking at the trucks and running around. Enjoy.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2009-03-14T08:10:00.004-04:00

The first week of Bill as a stay at home dad is over and I think it was a good week. As I mentioned in a previous post, Bill's company is shutting down and his last day of work was a week ago. Because Nick has done so well in daycare ("school" as we call it with Nick), and really seems to be loving it, we didn't want to pull him out completely. We decided to have him go to school 3 days a week and stay at home with Daddy for the other 2 days.

It turns out that the transition has been a bit tough on Nick. He loves his days at home with dad, and the next day back at school he is shy when I drop him off and hesitant to leave my side. This isn't how he had been in the mornings when in the past he would go join the group in whatever they were doing. I think it will just take some time to get used to the new routine.

Nick has been talking so much lately. One of his favorite pastimes is to point to everything he sees, wanting to know what its called, and then repeating it back to us. Amazing. His repetition doesn't always sound like the word, but he is trying. He has started calling his classmates by name, and also his teachers. He is also saying thankyou at the appropriate time, which is really sweet. He is still announcing his bodily functions, although not at the appropriate time. It seems any activity at all, farting, peeing and pooping, all amounts to "poopy" in his mind, which he tells us whenever anything happens. His teachers tell me he does the same thing at school. I find it pretty amusing, not sure why. It's going to be so unfortunate when he is in the potty humor phase and I can't keep a straight face because I'm laughing. I'll have to work on that!

He continues to love music. His favorite being the CD from our Music Together class. He asks for it almost every night and will sing (he tries) and dance and also likes to dance with Mommy and Daddy. He also loves the CD of love songs his Uncle Carl put together.

Last weekend we had gorgeous warm weather here in Virginia and headed to our local playground with Nick. He had a blast and we were totally taken aback when he was able to climb up this metal structure/wall (see below). We had no idea he would be able to do it. I was so proud of him! Here are some pics from the day.

Finally, I think I kind of messed up. His school had picture day on Friday. I made an effort to dress Nick in the sweater that I think he looks best in, and put him in jeans. A cute casual look. Well, I was totally surprised when I dropped him off, the little girls all had dresses on, not the normal casual dresses one might wear for a day at school, but church type dresses. The little boys were dressed similarly. I thought, oh boy, I missed the boat on this one! But when I thought about it, we really don't have many dress up clothes for Nick, is that bad? I'm going to have to work on that one. I think the pictures will still be cute, even if Nick is a bit on the casual side!

Have a great weekend all!

Blog Break

2009-03-02T14:16:00.006-05:00

In the spirit of Spring Break I have been taking an extended Blog Break. Not that I've been the most dedicated blogger lately, but I also usually don't let 3 weeks go by.

Part of the problem is that I finally got onto Facebook and it is totally addicting. I knew it would be which is why I resisted for so long, but the pull of finding long lost friends and acquaintances was too strong.

Nick has been doing great and we are currently enjoying a visit from all of my brothers and sisters. It is the first time we've all been together since my wedding and it has been alot of fun.

Nick has decided that he is an Abba fan and loves the song Dancing Queen (one of my favorites as well). Here is a shot of Nick with Uncle Pat, watching the Dancing Queen video on the computer and trying out some new dance moves!

Last night we got about 7 inches of snow, which is beautiful but really cold. Here is a picture of our street.

Well, its time to go try to dig ourselves out of this so we can get together with the rest of our visitors!

Happy Snow Day!

6 Months Together

2009-02-12T22:19:00.007-05:00

Today we celebrated our 6 month anniversary together as a family! YAY!

We had cupcakes which went over very well with a certain someone who doesn't get sweets like this very often.

Nick has been doing really well at daycare recently and has gotten better than normal reports for the past two weeks or so. He even received a "happy gram" early this week for having such a good day. Its the first time he's gotten one of those! Bill and I are both thrilled by this and think maybe he has had some sort of breakthrough. The teachers have told us that recently he has wanted to be held more and is more cuddly with them. Apparently, up to this point he had been very independent. I think it is a good thing that he is forming attachments to his teachers.

He has also been talking up a storm, a storm of words that we don't understand, but a storm no less.

One of the funnier things he has started doing is telling us when he has a "poopy" diaper. He says "poopy" and points to his rear end. The other day he said "poopy" pointed to his rear end, and then proceeded to poop. I think this is a good sign for potty training, although we are far, far from going there.

He has also been practicing walking down the stairs standing up (as opposed to going down backwards). He is so proud when he finally makes it down to the bottom like a big boy. Although, he often gets so excited on the last 2 or 3 stairs that he almost misses them and falls. Don't worry, we are always there to catch him.

The weather has been so nice here over the past few days that I am itching to get out and try the new jogging stroller that Grandma Francine gave us, thank you Grandma Francine! Speaking of Grandma Francine, we visited she, Grandpa Bill, Aunt Mary, Uncle Dan and Aunt Susan last Sunday. Grandma Francine just had hip replacement surgery and is home and recovering well! Aunt Mary made a fabulous brunch and we had a great time on our short visit in Virginia. While up north, we visited Bill's high school buddy Augie and family. Augie and Kathy have 3 wonderful children who were so sweet with Nick all weekend. Nick did not want to leave! Thanks Augie, Kathy and kids for a wonderful time.

Finally, last week we found out that Bill's company is closing down the Richmond site and Bill's job will be over in early March. We weren't necessarily surprised by this announcement but in the end were surprised by the suddenness of the closure and the fact that there was no severance (not that surprising due to bankruptcy) and no coverage by the WARN act (60 days pay for massive layoffs, etc.). I don't understand how they avoided paying the 60 days, but that is the way it goes. In the end, we feel lucky that Bill is able to work the extra month because many folks were cutoff from pay and benefits immediately, with no warning.

I hope everyone has a great Valentines Weekend!

Tagged and More

2009-02-01T21:22:00.002-05:00

We were tagged today by Joel and Clarion (who have been home for about 4 months with their darling boys) for Book Tag.

The rules:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!
6. Tag five (or more) other people to do the same!

I fear this is going to be really dry since the computer is in the kitchen and the closest book is Toddler 411. On a side note, I really have used this book alot to answer toddler related questions and I think it is pretty good! So here goes...

"The good news - 75% of kids who stutter will outgrow it on their own. Although it happens equally among boys and girls, boys are more likely to need help to overcome it. The term "speech fluency" describes the ability to put sounds together correctly and flow words together into sentences. Stuttering is considered a "disfluency"."

I'm going to tag:

1) April and Dan
2) Jenny and Randy
3) Lori
4) Jodi and John
5) Tiger and Kar

Some other interesting tidbits from the past week are:

1) Nick has recently started saying "NO" and appears to like the sound of it. He isn't always using it in the right context such as in response to "Hi Nick".
2) We had our first non-family baby sitters (sisters) on Saturday night. It was our first night out alone together since September and was really nice. And, at dinner, Bill pronounced Steak au Poivre so well, our waiter asked him if he's fluent in French, too funny. Those of you that know Bill and his "love" of French can appreciate the humor in this!
3) Bill's company declared bankruptcy in Germany last week and long term viability of the company isn't looking good.
4) I signed up for a 10K in late March and was supposed to start running again this weekend, I didn't!
5) Some friends of ours gave us Amish Friendship Bread starter and I can't wait for the week or so until we can make it! I used to make this in high school and loved it.

Have a great week!

Random Thoughts

2009-01-25T14:16:00.007-05:00

I'm going to begin with a Daycare update. Things went much better last week with no biting incidents involving Nick. I am so happy about this and hope his good behavior continues. He did have a fall on Friday and got a nasty gash on the inside of his upper lip, but you can't even really see it and I think its healing fast. The teachers in Nick's class tell us that they think he is starting to understand how to play more gently with his friends. Apparently he is using his "gentle touches" most of the time.

Nick had his second hair cut last weekend. He was beyond looking a bit shaggy and past due. We took him to Sports Clips and first he watched Bill get his hair cut and then he sat on Bill's lap for his hair cut. He did really well, although you can't tell from the pictures! And, he looked really cute when all was said and done.

While we were out getting haircuts we made a quick stop at the mall to buy some new and bigger pajamas and pants. There was a great sale at The Childrens Place, and we really like the pj's there so we stocked up. Bill picked out the pajamas, which were the warm fleecy kind, and apparently they didn't have many left in Nick's size so we ended up with one set of PURPLE girlie pjs for him. The first morning when I went in to get Nick in the morning he was standing up, in his purple pj's with the biggest smile on his face, it was hilarious. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so we took a few this morning because he had them on again. I love a guy who can wear purple with confidence!

I was thrilled this week because Nick has finally started calling me Mommy. It doesn't happen often, but he will use Mommy to refer to me, which makes me so happy! The other day we were in the car and I said, "Hey Nick, who am I?" and he said "Mommy". I couldn't believe it. He has been calling Bill "Daddy" for a while now. He is also trying to say his own name, which he has some trouble with but its coming along. One of his favorite things to do recently is look at pictures and pick out Mommy, Daddy and Nick.

I've decided to start running again. I stopped last summer right before our second trip to Russia and haven't started back up again (isn't that terrible!). Anyway, I signed up to do a 10K at the end of March so I've got to get back out there to pound the pavement. I need some inspiration for sure! I want to get a jogging stroller and have my heart set on a BOB Revolution but they are pretty pricey and this isn't the best time to spend a bunch of money. If anyone out there is still reading this and has advice on a jogging stroller that you like, please let me know the model and brand!

That is it for now. I'll leave you with a picture of cutie pie from the past week!

Doctors, Post Placement, Daycare and a Sad Day

2009-01-17T13:56:00.003-05:00

We have been really busy since the holidays, hence the lack of posts. Although I hadn't been exactly cranking them out before the holidays either.

Nick has been sick, on and off, since January 2nd. It started with Pink Eye and a really bad cold. Right now he's got an ear infection but he seems to be doing much better since he went back on antibiotics. Somehow, I have been spared of the sickness but Bill has been almost as sick as Nick.

Earlier this week Nick had his 21 month checkup. Apparently this isn't a normal check but our pediatrician wanted to see him, plus we need to finish up the immunizations. Anyway, Nick really has a thing against the stethoscope. The minute it comes out he starts screaming bloody murder. I don't know why this upsets him so much, but it does and it makes checkups really fun (NOT). Other than the freakout with the stethoscope he did pretty well. He is now up to 24.5 pounds and is a little over 34 inches tall. This means that in 5 months he has gained almost 3 pounds and grown 2 1/4 inches. We had been noticing recently that his pants and pjs were starting to get a little short so this weekend we'll be stocking up on some longer/larger clothing.

This past Thursday we had Nick's first post placement visit. I have to say, we have the best Social Worker, whom I would highly recommend to anyone in the area. She is so nice and Nick took an immediate liking to her. I was a bit worried about how things were going to go with him during the visit because it was late in the day and Nick had what was probably his worst day ever at day care that day (more on that later).

I thought the post placement visit went really well. Our Social Worker seemed very happy with Nick's adjustment to his surroundings and attachment to us. She had some good advice for us to help with addressing some of the regular toddler behaviors and also offered to help us find resources if we need them in the future.

Our agency has given us two different dates for having the report to them, one of the dates is today, as communicated to us through email on Thursday (yes 2 days before it is supposedly due). The other date they gave us in a friendly reminder call on Wednesday is January 31st. This is also the date they communicated to us in writing back in August when we returned from Russia. I really had hoped they would get their act together but through this recent interaction I see that they haven't. It's a shame. We are hoping to get the report to them by the end of next week, which will be a week ahead of the date they gave us in writing. I think thats pretty good!

Back to the bad day at daycare. Normally, I drop off in the morning and Bill picks up at night. But on this day Bill was home sick, so I did both. When I went to pick up I noticed a bunch of sheets behind Nick's daily report but didn't think anything of it and just grabbed his daily report, artwork, and coat, and went into the other room to get him. His daily report noted that he had an OK day (this translates to bad) and had to have several reminders to use his gentle touches with his friends. So, I go in the room to get him and the discussion goes like this:

Me: "Nick, it sounds like you had a rough day buddy."
Teacher: "Well, the first bite was because his friend took his book away."
Me (totally flustered and thankful no other parents are in the room): "The FIRST bite, how many biting incidents were there?"
Teacher gingerly: "Three."
Me horrified: "Three, where are the incident reports?"
Teacher: "On the clipboard, we turn them over so no other parents can see them. We'll need you to sign them before you leave today."
Me: "Of course, I didn't realize, I'm going to get them now."

Oh my god! Three biting incidents in one day! Two of them were not even provoked. Not that it would be any better if they were provoked, its just at least then it would be slightly more explainable. But apparently, during morning snack Nick just leaned over and bit his friends back. Who does that? I was beside myself and so upset. The teacher said they were all really surprised because the little one whom Nick decided to bite not once but twice, is his buddy! So glad that we had to rush home for our post placement visit. Needless to say, getting a report like this was very stressful and upsetting. Not to mention that if I were the parent of a child who had been bitten I would be really upset too. I asked about the kids who had been bitten and the teacher thought the bite marks were all mainly gone by the end of the day. I hope so.

On Friday, I was so worried that Nick would start up the biting frenzy again. When I dropped him off the teacher said that they would keep a close eye on him. And I guess they did because they told Bill that he had made some (not sure how many) attempts to bite again Friday but did not succeed because they got to him before he was able to bite. They do some sort of discipline for trying to bite, not sure what exactly, we'll have to find out. Anyway, I really hope he will stop this behavior now, because I don't want anyone else to get hurt.

Finally, something else happened yesterday that makes me very sad. I don't think I ever mentioned it, but prior to this November I worked for Circuit City at their corporate headquarters. I was planning on returning to work at CC after my adoption leave in mid-November but thankfully found a new job and gave my notice 3 days prior to a massive layoff of 800 people at the Corporate Headquarters, including the team I had managed. This was very upsetting, to have so many friends lose their jobs right before the holidays. But some friends remained employed there and hopefully they would be able to turn it around. Shortly thereafter the company declared bankruptcy and filed for Chapter 11. I had high hopes for the company to fight its way back. Circuit is an institution here in Richmond and I really wanted them to succeed, for the 34000 employees, their customers and the Richmond community.

Unfortunately, yesterday, after failing to attract a buyer able to get financing to buy the company, Circuit City announced that it will have to liquidate its inventory and close all stores.

Say what you will about Circuit City, everyone has a story. I know there were issues, colossal missteps, etc. But, I can honestly say that the people I worked with there were some of the smartest, hardworking, fun and amazing people I have ever had the pleasure to spend my days with. I developed some wonderful friendships that I'm sure will last a lifetime. Not all companies are like that, fostering real teamwork and comraderie amongst their workforce, while still getting the work done.

It is a sad, sad day for the Richmond community and for many communities across the nation that had stores where 34000 people in total were employed.

With that said, I'm going to say bye for now.

Have a great weekend all!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T20:44:00.011-05:00

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year, we certainly did!

This was such a special holiday season for us. Everything seemed to go so quickly that I really had to make myself stop, slow down, and enjoy it in the moment. Nick didn't really understand what was going on with all the decorations, Christmas music, Santa Claus and presents. I think next year he will understand much more which will make it more fun for him. Its been a while since I've posted, but I'll try to give a rundown of the highlights of the past two weeks.

For us, I think the season really kicked in the weekend before Christmas. That Friday, I left work early to attend the Christmas Party at Nick's daycare. I'm glad I went as it was nice to see Nick interact with the other kids. I was hoping to meet some of the other parents but that didn't really happen, mainly because there weren't many parents there. The minute I got there Nick started showing off, for my benefit I think. It was slightly strange and I was glad to leave and go home to enjoy the last weekend before Christmas.

On Saturday morning Bill, Nick and I went out Christmas shopping. It was fun and festive and we were very efficient (we bought in every store we went it, Bills words BTW!). We were able to get most of the Christmas gifts for Bill's family and some for mine. Nick is good for shopping for about 2 hours, so I went back out Saturday afternoon alone. This time the shopping was frustrating and the traffic was crazy. I was completely unsuccessful which meant that I would be out shopping Christmas Eve. Oh well, whats a girl to do?

I spent most of Sunday finishing decorating the house and cleaning in preparation for lots of company. Bill spent the day making 2 lasagnes for a dinner party and cooking a special Georgian (Russian) dinner of Khatchapuri (a bread stuffed with salty cheese) and a Spicy Georgian Pork Stew. While in Moscow we really enjoyed the Georgian restaurants we visited and the dinner Bill made was fantastic. It brought back so many memories from our trip. Nick loved the Khatchapuri so that will definitely be on his rotation for meals. We are going to make the Georgian meal a pre-Christmas tradition!

On the Tuesday before Christmas we participated in a progressive dinner with our neighborhood friends and had about 20 people at our house for the dinner portion of the evening. It was fun to have everyone at the house and the dinner was a great success. In retrospect, hosting a large dinner party two days before Christmas, on a day that both Bill and I were working, on the night before another workday, probably wasn't the best call. Oh well, live and learn.

The net result of all the pre-Christmas activity was that I ended up having to leave work on Christmas Eve at 11am to do my Christmas shopping for Bill and Nick. I usually do my Christmas shopping late in the season, but I can't remember being so far behind, so late in the game. Somehow, it all came together and I wasn't even the last parent to pick up their child at daycare, thank goodness!

We had Christmas Eve dinner at my sister's house with my nephews, dad and stepmom. It was a nice evening although by the time we got around to exchanging gifts, Nick was on his last leg. So we opened gifts in record time and made a quick getaway. I spent most of the rest of the night wrapping gifts and watching Christmas movies, which is a Christmas Eve tradition for me. It was fun and I was up late!

We had a low key Christmas morning with just the three of us at home celebrating. Bill's Mom, Dad, Sister and Brother-in-Law came around lunch time. Nick took an extra-long nap and didn't wake up until 4pm. By that time, my dad and stepmom came and joined us for dinner and it was really great! Bill made garlic and herb rubbed filet mignon, roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary, sautee'd green beans and homemade parmesan and roasted red pepper bread. I think we were all exhausted by the end of the day.

I worked in the morning the day after Christmas, but was able to leave early and spend the afternoon with everyone at home. We had a nice afternoon opening gifts with Nick, eating and playing games. Nick received so many wonderful gifts. We had put musical gifts on his Christmas list, so there was no shortage of musical gifts. I think his favorite was the Little Tikes Guitar, it plays Message in the Bottle and Rockstar, too cute!

On Saturday Bill's family left and it was time to spend a little more time with my family. My brother -Pat, sister in law-Linda, and nephew-Jack, had flown in on Friday and were staying with my sister Jill. On Saturday afternoon I (it was during Nick's nap time, so I went alone without Bill and Nick) went to lunch at TJ's at The Jefferson Hotel with my family. The hotel looked spectacular and it was nice spending time with my family. Sunday afternoon, my brother's family came to our house to open more gifts, watch football, make cookies, play WII, and eat!

Nick handled all the company, attention and gifts really well. We definitely tried to space out the gifts in order to not overwhelm him. By the end of the weekend, we had gotten through most of the gifts from other people, but Nick hadn't opened one gift from Bill and I (long boring explanation that will go unexplained). We thought it was more important for him to open the gifts from our visitors. So now it is one week later and Nick has almost opened all of his gifts :-)

We had a great first Christmas together, the Christmas cards aren't yet mailed, but the Holiday letter is written, and hopefully I'll get everything in the mail on Monday! I truly hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and wish you all the very best in 2009!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Tis the Season!

2008-12-15T22:21:00.011-05:00

I love the holidays but boy am I behind this year. I usually start my shopping late, but this year, who knows when I'll even start. Plus, I am a notoriously bad shopper. I don't really have the patience for it and unless I know exactly what I want, I have a really hard time. So, I have been putting off starting the Christmas shopping. Yes, its true, I haven't bought gift number one. I am not especially proud of this, but I am not completing freaking out...yet. My main worry at the moment is my little neice in Seattle. I need to put her gift in the mail, like tomorrow. Wish me luck and if anyone has any ideas for a 6 year old girl, let me know!

I finally finished decorating the house, mainly. There are still a few finishing touches needed, but the tree is up and decorated, the stairs are done (last year I spent hours decorating the stairs ;-) and the village is lit. I wasn't allowing myself to blog until everything (decoration-wise) was taken care of, although it didn't stop me from reading everyone elses blogs.

Nick seems to be enjoying the season, although I don't think he really understands what is going on. He had a fun time going to get the Christmas tree and he likes looking at the lights. I am trying to get him in the spirit by playing Christmas carols and singing every morning while we get ready for the day and also on the way to school. He likes them, but I think to him they are just another bunch of songs.

We have taken Nick to a couple of Christmas parties with us. We made what I think is a rookie parent mistake of taking him to a very large open house at a friends home. This is an annual party that we have been to for a few years, and is very family friendly so we thought, lets take him. Bad idea. We stayed at this party for about 45 minutes tops. It was pretty much standing room only, so we couldn't really put Nick down. All the kids were upstairs, but there weren't any quite as young as Nick. So, between us Bill and I held him the whole time except for about 5 minutes. We had squirming, flying sippy cups and mini-tantrums before we threw in the towel. Next year, baby sitter.

Happy Holidays!

Mainly Pictures

2008-12-07T15:11:00.008-05:00

I am going to try to keep the words to a minimum on this post and concentrate mainly on some pictures from some of our recent events.

I'll start with some pictures from our Illinois trip.

Nick with Aunt Peg

Uncle Bruce got a workout once he started playing with Nick!

Nick loved playing with his cousin Ellie

...And cousin Jack, who even got a hug

He taught Granny Jane, Aunt Linda and Aunt Jill the sign for More

Nick got his first hair cut (since being with us) a few weeks ago. I wasn't there, unfortunately, because I had a shower to attend. So I missed the excitement. Bill was going to take him to one of the places with the airplanes that the kids sit in while they get cut, but the wait was too long so it was back to Great Clips. As you can see from the pictures, Nick was leery of the stylist and didn't like the experience one bit! He did look cute when all was said and done.

Here are a few shot of Nick with Aunt Mary and Uncle Dan at Wintergreen. Nick had a great time taking Mary from place to place in the house, and Uncle Dan kept getting hit in the head with the chair, which was really funny to a 19 month old!

Here we are on Thanksgiving Day. We were trying to get a good shot for a Christmas card, or just to have. Alas, we'll have to try again because this is the best of the bunch and Nick isn't really smiling. I suppose its good that we're all looking at the camera.

Thats it for now. I am already way behind on getting ready for Christmas. We got our tree yesterday and hopefully by mid-week it will be in the house and decorated!

Happy Holidays!

OK, where were we?

2008-11-25T20:20:00.005-05:00

The last two weeks have pretty much been a blur. I expected this would happen once I returned to work. Its like starting back over with a new routine. And now, we've done it for enough days that Nick realizes it isn't just a temporary thing.

I think the last time I posted, I was kind of upset that Nick wasn't getting upset when I dropped him off in the morning. I know that sounds messed up, its just that he seemed to care less that I was leaving him for 8 hours. That all changed last Thursday morning when Nick was slightly clingy and didn't want me to leave. Friday he cried when I left, and this week on both Monday and Tuesday he became very upset as soon as I took his coat off. His teachers tell me that he calms down after about 5 minutes, but it still breaks my heart. Hopefully, he will quickly move past this stage and come to grips with the reality that I'm going to leave, he will have fun with his teachers and friends for several hours, and then I'll come back to get him and we'll go home and have fun.

That just tells you about drop offs in the morning, we have had equally trying times at pick up. The minute I walk in, Nick starts signing for a snack/drink (I can barely tell the difference between his signs). I asked the teachers about the afternoon snack and they say they get it around 4:30. Maybe he isn't eating it, or it isn't enough, I don't know. I do know that it seems that Nick is starving by the time I get there, usually between 5:30 and 5:45. It took me 3 days to figure out that I need to have a snack to give him in the car because if I don't he is going to fight getting into his carseat. It took me 15 minutes one day last week to get him into his car seat. He is really strong and was really fighting it.

Today, we had our first "sick" call. I got a call from Daycare telling me that Nick had thrown up while playing outside and we needed to pick him up within the hour. I was surprised because Nick had a great morning before Daycare, and didn't seem to be feeling bad at all. In addition, he had never full out thrown up since we've had him. He has spit up, but hasn't thrown up, at least not by my definition. Anyway, I called Bill because I had an afternoon of meetings and a project deadline. Luckily Bill was able to leave work for the afternoon and pick Nick up. Nick seems fine now, and we think something just didn't agree with him, or he may have overdone it on the snack. Hopefully he will be fine tomorrow and for the holiday weekend.

We are really looking forward to our first Thanksgiving with Nick. We have so much to be thankful for this year, and are excited to spend it with both our families. Thanksgiving day we'll go to my sister Jill's house with Carl and our nephews Josh and Sam, and my dad and stepmom, Oma Gretel. On Friday we'll head to Wintergreen where Bill's family and close friends are celebrating, maybe we'll have snow!

Happy Thanksgiving All!

New Routines and Strange Dreams

2008-11-14T10:48:00.003-05:00

We are home from our trip and doing well. The trip was really fun, although quite tiring for all of us (Nick, myself and Jill--thanks Jill for all your help!). Now we're back to our day to day lives which changed drastically yesterday when Nick spent his first full day at daycare.

By all accounts, Nick did really well at daycare yesterday. He did not cry when I left him. I struggle with whether I should be concerned about this or not. Do I want him to cry, to demonstrate his attachment to me, or do I want him to wave bye and continue eating his snack? I don't know. I do know that I lost it while I was walking to my car, and called Bill sobbing that I had just dropped him off. It was really hard to leave him. I could see him on the playground and he just looked so little.

The teachers tell me that he was extremely well behaved, he didn't eat much at lunch or snack time, and during nap time he sat on his cot, chatted to himself and signed for More. I hope that soon he will start sleeping during nap time so that we can maybe avoid the meltdown that occurred once I picked him up.

When I picked Nick up he was happy to see me and came to me and gave me a hug. As I was getting his things together he started to get upset, he was signing that he wanted a drink. I told him we would get one at home. He whimpered most of the short drive home and once in the door I immediately gave him apple juice-water. He took a few gulps and chucked the sippy cup. I apparently didn't get it right. So then I thought maybe he had been asking for cheerios (drink and cheerios sign are very similar). He tossed the cheerios and continued to sign urgently. I finally realized that he might want Milk. That seemed to settle him down somewhat, but he still managed to fuss and cry for the next 30 minutes. I guess he was saving up all his unhappiness for home.

We decided that with the lack of a nap, we should put him down for bed earlier than normal. He was fussy and difficult through dinner, which is not normal. He did pretty well during bathtime and went to sleep with no issues. I hope today will go better.

I think I am definitely experiencing some anxiety about all the changes that are in process (daycare, new job). Its not surprising but the way it is manifesting itself is slightly odd. I have been waking up for the past few nights in a row, and even a few times before the trip, looking for Nick in our bed. Two nights ago I woke up and was patting the bed sheets around me, trying to move the dog (yes, all 70 pounds of Abby sleeps with us!), looking for Nick. Bill woke up and asked me what I was doing and I told him that I'm looking for the baby. Bill calmly explains to me that Nick is in his room sleeping in his crib. I say ok and go back to sleep. Then I wake up a second time about 3 hours later and do the same thing. Bill tells me Nick is in his bed and I say he's supposed to be in bed with us. I go back to sleep once I'm sure Nick isn't in bed. Then last night I wake up again expecting Nick to be in bed with us. I can't find him, and I know that I haven't brought him to bed with us, but that doesn't stop me from getting up to check on him. Very strange!

Hopefully later this weekend I'll be able to post some pictures from the trip and also update on how the second day of daycare went.

Have a great Friday everyone!

Visiting Daycare and Developmental Update

2008-11-03T19:42:00.004-05:00

Today Nick and I spent a couple of hours at daycare together so that he could begin to acclimate to the new environment. The plan is that he is going to attend a few hours today and tomorrow this week, then he and I go to Illinois to visit relatives with my sister, then next week he will go half a day Wednesday and will start full time next week Thursday.

I thought today went really well, of course I didn't have to leave him, ask me how I feel about this next week. Anyway, when we entered the room and I put Nick on the ground, several of the children swarmed him. Those toddlers have no sense of personal space! They were so excited about having a new friend in class. It was very sweet and borderline creepy. Once the teachers convinced the children to give Nick some room, he checked out the room and took it all in. It was Circle Time so most of the children were listening to the story. Nick was more interested in figuring out the lay of the land. I left the room at one point for a few minutes but Nick didn't cry or have any issues, I think it may have been during snack time, now I can't remember.

The day went really well and the teachers were great with Nick. One of the teachers grew up in Russia and was very excited to hear that Nick had recently come home from there. So far I think this will be easier than I originally thought but I may change my tune next week.

After daycare Nick and I made a stop at my current employer so I could turn in my resignation. Yes, I have found another job and will start the new gig in two weeks. I was due to return to work at my current employer next week on Friday. I think it could be slightly stressful to be experiencing all this change at once, but I really think its for the best and I am very excited about the new job!

I think I am way overdue on an update on Nick's development so here goes.

Sleeping: Nick is still sleeping like a champ. He goes to bed at 8pm, or close to it, and usually wakes up between 7 - 7:30. He generally doesn't wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes we hear him around 5:30 or 6:00, he may sing or babble, but then goes right back to sleep. He is taking one nap in the afternoon, for 2 - 3 hours. He will wake up occasionally after about 45 minutes of napping. I can usually get him back to sleep, but we have had a few days where he wouldn't go back to sleep.

Eating: Nick has started to reject some foods that he used to devour, specifically peas and green beans. We have tried brocolli and he spit it out. He did like spinach quiche when I made it a few weeks ago so I may have to start making that a daily meal in order to get some green veggies into him. He will now stop eating when he's full, and unless I specifically ask if he is done, he will either spit the food out or throw his spoon, or both, when he is done eating. He still chugs his juice water. He doesn't chug milk and will actually put the cup down before its gone. For a while we were able to get him to drink milk with no Ovaltine, but then he started throwing the cup and wouldn't drink the straight milk so now we're back to chocolate milk, with barely any chocolate. He also won't drink straight water, it has to have a shot of juice before he'll consider it. He can feed himself with a spoon or fork, and does pretty well, but midway through whatever meal it is he will usually throw his spoon. If anyone has any ideas on how to work with him on this I'd love some advice. I try not to make a big deal about it but it is frustrating.

Diapering: Still Hates it, hates it, hates it. The one thing that works sometimes is singing. His favorite is my made up version of "If You're Happy and You Know It". I don't know all the words so I have made my own up where we touch different parts of our faces and feet, etc.

Music: Still LOVES music, loves dancing, now with swaying and little pumping fists have replaced the jazz hands. We often listen to our Music Together CD, and I have gotten him some instruments that he likes to play. We haven't watched the Wiggles much lately at all.

Communication: Nick hasn't really learned any new signs. But, over the past two weeks has started mimicking our words more and more. I have to say, I love this because I feel that it is a breakthrough in his ability to communicate with us and its so cute when he says a new word. So, at this point the words we think he can say are: Mama (not specific to me), Dada (mainly specific to Bill), Da (dog), Abba (we both thought we heard this yesterday when Abby (the dog) came into the room, he pointed to her as he said it, but this was the only time), Tee (teeth), Mou (mouth), Eye and Hi. He can also point to his eyes, ears, mouth, teeth and belly button.

Raspberries: Bill taught Nick how to give raspberries and now I am the primary recipient. At totally random times Nick will tug at my shirt or pant leg to move it so he can give me a raspberry. It is hilarious and if we ever get the video recorder recharged we'll get it on video and post. Nick is very proud of himself after giving an especially good one and gets giddy.

I guess that is about it for now. I probably won't post for a week or so because we'll be out of town. Have a great week all!

First Sniffles and Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T22:12:00.013-04:00

Early last week Nick came down with his first case of sniffles since we've been together as a family. All in all I think it wasn't too bad, a mild fever (just one day), runny nose, coughing and sneezing. It didn't slow him down at all. The main impact we saw was at nap time when his cough would wake him up prematurely.

I was really worried that this would impact his being able to go to Music Together on Friday where it was costume and picture day, and also that he would have to miss the neighbor's Halloween Party. Luckily his fever only lasted a day and by Friday he was pretty much back to normal.

I have to say that I am the worst photographer. I still haven't completely gotten the hang of my camera and I've had it for a long time. The problem is that Nick moves so fast and in the time between hitting the button and the picture actually being taken, Nick is usually in my face by that time, or out of the picture. Its funny but frustrating. I managed to get one good picture of Nick in his costume. He was a dragon and was ok with the body part of the costume but he hated the hood. So, it didn't stay on his head long and if it was on his head, there were often tears. We didn't push it too much, therefore one picture and he's not even smiling in it...oh well.

We didn't take Nick out trick or treating because he's so young and our neighbors were having a party for the kids and adults after trick or treating, so we thought we would just take him to the party and everyone could see him there. I was also worried about all that time in the costume for him. I'm kind of glad we didn't take him out because he loved watching all the kids that came to our house. He is fascinated with the big kids (anyone older than him)! At the party one of my neighbors gave me a hard time for not bringing him around so they could ooh and aah and say how cute he looked. I didn't know :-)

He did look adorable and we had a fun time at the party. The neighborhood kids are all so sweet to Nick, especially the little girls. There are a bunch of them and they just fawn over Nick. They all want to lead him around and play with him. It is too cute!

Now for a few pictures from the past week!

Nick and Oma Gretel playing the piano

New Monkey PJ's

The Rear View of Nick the Dragon, with Tamborine

Fun Times with New Friends

2008-10-26T20:50:00.005-04:00

This Saturday we had plans to meet blogger friends Troy, Rachel and Daniel and Norm, Karyn and Ilya at Round Hill Farm, a local pumpkin farm, for the standard pumpkin farm activities including a petting zoo, hayride, pumpkin patch, and probably many other activities I don't even know about. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and due to large amounts of rain we regrouped and went to the Virginia Discovery Museum in Charlottesville.

I was really looking forward to getting the little guys together and spending time with the parents. We had met Troy, Rachel and Daniel while we were in Moscow on our first trip, right before they returned to the states. And, Karyn's blog has long been one of my favorites. It was really nice to get everyone together, see the boys interact, and swap stories with other families who have been through many of the same or similar experiences. I felt extra lucky because both families have been back longer than us so I was able to get alot of advice, particularly about day care and the transition to day care, which is very much on my mind these days.

The Virginia Discovery Museum was really great. There were many activities for the little guys and they all really loved it. Nick was a bit overwhelmed at first, but it didn't take long for him to get comfortable and start exploring. It was hard to get him to leave a few of the stations! I think Nick's favorite part of the museum was the room with the Pirate Ship and slide.

After the museum we stopped for a quick lunch and then everyone headed home. We had a wonderful day with new friends and look forward to future outings!

I am including some pictures from the museum. It was hard to get a good one of all 3 boys together, they are soooo fast, I think I have one.

Have a great week everyone!

I Love Fall in Virginia

2008-10-20T21:23:00.022-04:00

Fall in Virginia is so beautiful, I love it! This is the best time of year (in my opinion) and I feel so lucky to be able to enjoy it at home with Nick! I think Nick loves it too. It has taken a turn toward the chilly lately (finally) and Nick loves being outside. Its so cute, he will want to go outside first thing in the morning when we let Abby out and he doesn't understand why he can't go out and play at 7am in the 40-50 degree weather.

Two weekends ago we attended a birthday party for Nick's friend Emma. This party was at the Little Gym. The party format was very similar to the Romp and Roll party with high school kids leading the festivities and music, jumping, climbing, balls and balloons. I think Nick loosened up earlier at this party (than the first one) and he really loved the jumpy bouncy thing when they turned on the bubble machine and played music. He hasn't really figured out jumping yet, but he's trying. He also had pizza, again, and also ice cream cake. It was his first encounter with ice cream, and he loved it. Good thing because I love ice cream too.

Bill's parents visited that weekend as well, and this time Nick warmed up to both Bill and Francine much more quickly which I was very happy about. Nick is still slightly standoffish at first but after 10 or 15 minutes he relaxes and starts interacting more and more.

Nick had his 18 month check up one week ago Monday and he did great. He gained a pound and grew almost an inch since our last appointment. He freaked out again when the stethoscope came out. I don't know what it is, he cried harder when the doc listened to his heart than when he got his immunizations. There was an intern with the doctor during the checkup and even though Nick wouldn't smile at our doctor, he kept catching the eye of the intern and smiling, it was pretty funny. And, no surprise but Nick is cutting at least 4 new teeth right now, which is why there are wet spots in all the pictures of him! I can't wait until this round of teething is over!

We got some great news last week regarding day care, we were able to secure a spot at my first choice spot! I am so happy and relieved. In the end, I realized I wasn't sure about my second choice, and although I really like the place where the little boy tried to take Nicks Lightning McQueen shoe off, it wasn't very convenient for us. One more thing I can mark off the list. I go back to work in about 4 weeks and didn't want to be up in the air too much longer.

On Thursday last week Nick met my Dad and Gretel (my stepmom). They live in Richmond for half the year and just returned. It was wonderful to see them and Nick interact. True to form, Nick was a bit shy at first but by the end of the visit was trying to give Gretel Ritz cheese sandwiches. He also dressed up in his extra special pirate outfit that Grandma Francine gave him. Very cute!

This past weekend we had our neighborhood Fall Festival. They do a fabulous job with this and I think as Nick gets older it will only become better and better for him. The petting zoo was the highlight, for sure. Nick actually touched the baby goats, bunny rabbits and horse! YAY! He also picked out a pumpkin to take home. But, of course, the camera battery died after about 5 pictures in the petting zoo so we have none of the pumpkin. Whoops!

And, now for a few random pictures!

Life Got Away from Me

2008-10-11T06:25:00.010-04:00

So I've taken a little break from blogging. I had to because I was so far behind on the regular, day to day things that need to be done. Between the week at the beach and the stomach virus (I'm almost recovered :-) I had let things "slide" a bit. I feel much better now as I have spent this week focusing on catching up.

We have been staying pretty busy lately. Nick and I have started a class called Music Together, which is basically a time when we get together with other parents and children and we sing, play instruments and dance around. I think I've mentioned before that Nick loves music, so I thought this would be the perfect activity for us. Not to mention, every other toddler parent I know had suggested it, so it was very highly recommended. We have now been to 3 sessions and Nick seems to relax more and more each time. It has been interesting to see how he reacts to the class. I will say it hasn't been the "hit" that I hoped for, but I also think he is still adjusting. He does like the music, but seems more interested in the other children and watches them intently. Yesterday he participated more than he had in the previous weeks, he actually played the instruments while the music was going on (as opposed to simply holding an instrument and watching the other kids). One nice thing about the program is that they gave us 2 CDs with the music, and a book with all the words and suggestions for playing along with the songs at home. We listen to them at least once a day, which I think is helping him.

Last weekend Nick went to his first birthday party for his friend Brayden. We were a little apprehensive about how it might go for him. The party was held at a place called Romp and Roll, which is like a kids gym with soft structures to climb on, a trampoline and a moon walk kind of thing (I don't know all the names of the stuff). Anyway, the party was led by the workers who appeared to be high school girls. They were very good with the kids and kept things moving along. There was random play time with lots of balloons, balls, the climbing stuff, and music in the background, then there would be a break where they would bring the kids together for some singing, then more play, then they took a break for pizza and cake. It was Nicks first pizza and he really enjoyed it. Its so cute when he eats something he likes he makes an "MMMM" noise that is adorable. After the break there was more play time then at the end they turned down the lights, put on the music and cranked up the bubble machine. This was Nicks favorite part of the party and I could kick myself for being too slow about getting my camera to capture the look on his face when he saw all the bubbles. It was priceless. I think we should get one of those machines and do this at home, he loved it. He just kind of walked around in circles looking up and trying to catch the bubbles, too cute. Nick had a great time at the party and we enjoyed it as well!

Last week Nick and I visited a place called Meadow Farm with our friend Arlett. I had no idea this place existed and it was very cool and free! It has a farm with lots of farm animals, a playground and a duck pond. We spent most of the time checking out the farm animals, some of which we were able to get really close to! We saw chickens, a turkey, sheep, horses and cows. The sheep were just grazing out in the middle of the grass in front of the farm house and Nick wanted to touch one really bad. He would walk toward them, they would all take off, trying to get away from him, and this just made him more intent on "catching" them. Finally, one of the sheep stood its ground and didn't flee when he walked toward it. At the last moment when Nick reached out to touch it, it moved away from him. Needless to say, Nick wasn't happy when I directed him away from chasing the sheep around. He probably would have done it all day had I let him.

I'm going to close with a few pictures of Nick enjoying some of his newest skills such as feeding himself and going up and down the stairs. Have a great weekend all!

Mastering the Spoon

Working on Going Up and Down the Stairs

On the Move

Getting ready for a big Construction Project

Tagged!

2008-10-02T12:45:00.002-04:00

There is a game of tag going around bloggerland and I've just been tagged by my buddy April! So here goes with 6 random facts about me.

1. I grew up in Champaign, Illinois; located in Central Illinois, smack in the middle of farm country. I was ready to get out of dodge by the time I went to college in Virginia, but now I can appreciate what a great place it was to grow up.

2. I had really bad hair in highschool, culminating in a breathtaking mullet my senior year. The hair lives in infamy in both my parents homes, displayed with all the family photos. I cringe every time I see it.

3. I really despise shopping. I am more of a figure out what you want, find out where you can buy it, go buy it, kind of gal.

4. My favorite food is Pizza. I could eat it every day of my life if I had to.

5. My birthday is this Sunday and yesterday Bill asked me how I wanted to spend it and I couldn't answer him.

6. While living in Seattle I climbed Mount St. Helens with 4 of my male co-workers. They totally suckered me into this telling me that it was a regular day hike. 5 hours later, of what felt like walking up steep stairs on snow and ice, I reached the summit. I view that climb as the most challenging physical activity I have ever done.

Now I've got to tag 6 people, so here are the rules!

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random facts about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged.
6. Let the taggers know when your entry is up.

I am tagging:

1) Krista
2) Carey
3) Becky
4) Brandy
5) Sarah
6) Jane

Have fun!

Busy Days!

2008-09-30T14:34:00.019-04:00

We're back from the beach and had a really fun time! The only unfortunate thing was that the weather didn't cooperate for us. A big storm blew in Tuesday and hung around until Thursday. There was alot of rain and really strong winds (gusts up to 50 mph at times). Friday was beautiful and we were happy to have one really nice beach day.

Our View showing the dark clouds and big waves, plus how windy it was!

On Tuesday, despite the wind and cool temps, Nick and I actually took a little swim. All I can say is that I would have never gone into that water if Nick hadn't wanted to (really cold but not dangerously cold). Nick loved the pool, although I think he too found it to be a little chilly. He had a little floatee that he could sit in and liked being pulled around. Nick wasn't too happy to get out of the pool and also cried when we left the pool area to warm up. I can't wait to get him in a warmer pool!

On Friday we went down to the beach and Nick seemed to really enjoy it. He played in the sand for quite a while, then we all went down to the ocean where we played in the shallow water when the waves came up. Because of the storm that had just passed we didn't go into the ocean or take Nick in. When we were down by the water Nick would squeal in delight every time the waves came up and got him wet, so cute.

During our week at the beach we transitioned Nick to one nap. I think it went pretty well, all in all. He would get pretty cranky right before lunch and right before dinner but I attribute this to the change. It also seems that he is now sleeping longer at night, almost 12 hours on several nights. I'll take that!

Sleeping Beauty

Since we've been home I've been slightly under the weather, which is part of the reason it has taken me so long to post. I finally went to the doctor today and found that I have a virus that is going around and it lasts 2 weeks! I'm hopeful that mine doesn't last the whole two weeks, it has zapped my energy which is hard when you've got a toddler around. Hopefully Bill and Nick are safe and won't get it, no fun. I am happy to know that its probably just a virus. I had convinced myself that I had picked up a parasite (in Russia) that was just now starting to take its toll on me.

This morning, before we went to the doctor we visited a Day Care. I am starting to get worried about our wait list prospects (we are on three wait lists) of the places we had already decided on. Anyway, we had a funny experience while we were there. We were in the older toddler room and I was holding Nick. A little boy ran up to us and started talking about Nicks shoes, which have Lightning McQueen on them. This little guy was so excited and was going on and on about the shoes, touching them, etc. One of the caregivers called to him and asked him to come to her, which he did briefly, then he came back and started trying to get the shoe off Nicks foot, literally pulling it off and trying to undo the velcro (I'm still holding Nick). It was hilarious. I guess they are pretty cool shoes for a kid. Daddy did good, I would have never picked them out.

We have started working on self feeding with a spoon. Nick is pretty good with acurately placing the food in his mouth. The hard part seems to be picking up the food. He does well with Yogurt and Oatmeal, but things like pasta and peas are harder for him.

With that I've got to go, have a great week all!

To the Beach!

2008-09-23T12:08:00.002-04:00

I thought I should post a quick comment for anyone out there still reading!

Nick and I are in the Outer Banks this week and I'm going to try to post later in the week but I can't promise anything. Bill will come down later in the week and then I will have more time.

I will say that trying to pack for a week long trip, for a toddler and adult, with all the toddler stuff required, while said toddler is awake is not easy! We had about a 3.5 hour drive and Nick did great. It was the first time he fell asleep in his car seat and he didn't get fussy until the very end of the drive! YAY. He's such a great boy.

We are having a great time! We have a gorgeous ocean view from the deck of the house and Nick loves being out there, watching the ocean (huge waves), and feeling the wind (its very windy this week). I don't think there will be any ocean swimming this week, but maybe a dip in the pool, which I think Nick views as one big bathtub. Hopefully it won't be too cold to take him in. I think he's going to love it, despite his feelings about his wading pool (not that excited about it).

Have a great week all!

First Night Out and Happy Anniversary

2008-09-17T09:24:00.011-04:00

First off, thanks to everyone for your advice on the pee and the ride on toys. Things have actually been better with the leakage for sure, I'm still using the Pampers Cruisers but plan on trying the Snug and Dry (I think thats what they are). I continue to get the random pee but it has gone from at least once daily to once every few days. I'm trying to make up my mind about the ride on toy. You would think I was buying a house with the amount of research I have done!

This weekend on Saturday I had to go have my hair taken care of (the works, cut, color, etc.). It had been an extra long time since I had it done due to the uncertainty in timing of our trip to Russia and the difficulty in getting an appointment with Kristy. So, I was gone for about 3 hours Saturday afternoon while Bill and Nick hung out. I think they had a fun time together and its good for Bill to get time alone with Nick since he only gets a few hours each night after work.

On top of being gone most of the day, Bill and I also had our first night out alone since we've had Nick. I know that attachment-wise they say not to go out and leave your child with someone else so soon. However, I'm not sure I'm completely on board with that (for sanity sake). I'm still trying to figure out all the attachment parenting stuff. I might do a separate post on attachment, mainly with my questions and skepticism of some of the suggested parenting techniques.

Back to Saturday, Bill and I attended the wedding of our friends Cathy and David on Saturday evening. I used to work with Cathy and Bill still works at that company as well. There were many dear friends and previous co-workers at the wedding. The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time at the reception seeing friends we hadn't seen in a while and sharing pictures of Nick and tales of our time in Russia. What also made this particular night special is that our 6th anniversary was Sunday, so we secretly celebrated one night early!

We were able to attend because Jill and Carl (sister and brother in law) agreed to stay with Nick. We are so lucky to have family close by, and thankful that Jill and Carl were available to watch Nick. By all accounts Nick did great with Jill and Carl and after the initial tears he settled in with them and had a great time.

We took it easy Sunday with an early trip to Whole Foods which has just opened near by. Bill tried to go there last week and it was a mad house so we thought Sunday morning (early) would be a good time and it was. It is a beautiful store, with great produce, cheeses, meats, prepared foods and bakery! The main drawbacks I see are the prices and the fact that I can't get everything there in one stop, I generally hate grocery shopping and like to do one stop shopping. I will always have to go to another store to fill in the things they don't carry at Whole Foods. I guess the long and short of it is that it isn't going to be our primary shopping place, its more of a place to go for special items. I think we'll go once every few weeks or so.

Sunday afternoon was spent with Bill and Nick watching the Redskins and playing. I am including some really cute (and maybe blurry!) pictures of the two of them in their matching Redskins gear!

Nick also had a visit from Elisa and Doug. Nick is probably starting to think that weekend afternoons are for people to visit him, dote on him, and bring him gifts. Elisa and Doug have recently had the last of their children move out and have been empty-nesters for about the same amount of time that we have been home with Nick. So they are now enjoying going out, spending time together, etc. We've switched lifestyles!

On a more somber note, I need to ask for some prayers, thoughts and good vibes to be sent to my mom who had a very bad fall on Monday night and fractured two bones in her spine. She is going to have to wear a collar for a while, but will not have surgery and has no concussion. She is still in the hospital and we hope she will be able to go home either today or tomorrow.

I hope everyone is having a good week. More later!

Nick helping water plants

Putting the gnome in the pot

I am including a video (please excuse the wandering lens, I'm still learning) of Nick trying to get onto the chair by himself. The range of emotions is quite wide!

Why do I get pee'd on so much?

2008-09-12T10:36:00.005-04:00

I get pee'd on daily, pretty much. As hard as I try, as many precautions as I take, I either get pee'd on directly or leaked on. Its like Nick has a second sense about when I am "unprotected" from the pee. So far I have tried Huggies Natural Fit (I think thats what they are) and Pampers Cruisers. The Huggies leaked constantly so I switched to Pampers. They seem better but we still have leaks. When the Pampers leak it is on the front rather than on the legs, odd. I change him all the time as well. Any advice, or is this just part of the drill?

This week has been quiet. We've had two outings. The first was a trip to Stranges, our local Garden Nursery, to buy some flowers for the deck. Due to expecting to travel all summer, I didn't buy any new flowers for the deck because I thought they would die from neglect (even though the plants that we did have out there thrived while my nephew Sam stayed at the house). Now that we're home and spending more time outside I decided it was time to beautify the deck.

So, earlier this week I packed Nick up and we drove over to Stranges. I went to the back of the car to get the stroller and it wasn't there. OOPs! We had gone for a walk the day before and I forgot that the stroller wasn't in the car. We drove back home to get the stroller and then back to the store, I was determined to get the flowers. I thought this additional trip back and forth might not have been the smartest move on my part because I wasn't sure whether Nick would be able to last, turned out that he was fine.

Pushing a stroller around along with one of those large plant carts is not easy. I'm glad they weren't crowded because I would have been running into everyone, not to mention I think it was quite the spectacle (I kept losing control of the cart). I probably should have ditched the stroller for the Ergo carrier, except there is the small issue that I usually get leaked on when Nick is in the carrier, so I have only used it at home!

We picked up a few mums, a bunch of winter-hardy pansies, and a couple decorative cabbages. I had a small issue fitting all the plants in the car with the stroller, I forgot how much room it takes up. After a bit of rearranging I fit everything the car and made it home safe and sound. It only took me the next three days to get everything potted and arranged outside. I am glad though, it is much more pleasant out there with some color!

Our second outing was a trip to my office, to see my coworkers and introduce Nick to everyone, plus I had a bit of business to tend to. My original intent was to try to get in and out in an hour or so. I thought meeting so many people might be hard on Nick and didn't want to overdo it.

We had a great visit and it was so sweet that everyone I contacted (on short notice too) came to meet Nick and say hi! My coworkers were so supportive of me through the process, thanks everyone.

Nick is a bit slow to warm up to new people, but before I knew it he was playing peek-a-boo with Will and James and football with Rick and Disha. I have to thank Disha for keeping an eye on Nick for a while so that I could chat with everyone. Nick was on the move the whole time and I couldn't finish a sentence without him running around a corner or down the opposite hallway.

Our visit ended up lasting 2 hours, much longer than I had planned. By the last 10 minutes I was just trying to get us out of there before Nick went completely ballistic. I definitely overstayed and need to remember that he has his limits.

Other than our little adventures, I have a couple of updates and need some more advice.

Eating: Nick has started showing signs of self-regulation. What I mean by this is that he has started indicating that he is done at meal time. I have tried showing him the sign for All Done. He does this sometimes. The other indicators that he is finished are that he spits out his food (after chewing it up; but sometimes he chews the food, spits it out, and then puts it back in and eats it...nice) or he reaches for the back of the bib where it attaches.

Signing: We are still working on signing with Nick. His signing repetoire consists of More, Drink, Cheerios, GoldFish, All Done (sometimes), Yummy (not really a sign but thats ok) and Hat. He sometime mixes up the sign for Drink and Cheerios. I am going to work on Please next, I don't quite know how I'll get this across.

Advice: I'd like to get Nick a ride on toy and I'm looking for suggestions. I have a couple of ideas but can't seem to narrow it down. Plus there are so many options. I'm looking for something that he will ride and that will keep him occupied for more than one minute.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Sharing lunch with Abby

Preparing to kiss Spike

Hugging Spike Gently

Where's Dinner?

Where Did the Week Go?

2008-09-07T15:45:00.021-04:00

I can't believe its already Sunday! I have waited so long to blog that I'm not sure I can remember what we did last week.

Tuesday afternoon we broke out the wading pool for Nick to try. He loves his bath so I thought he would really dig the pool...not so much. He didn't mind standing in the water but did not like sitting in it at all. Maybe it was too chilly for him? We tried it several times since Tuesday and each time Nick seems to like it more and more. He loves splashing the water and throwing the toys out of the pool. He also likes to put his foot on the edge of the pool so that the water runs over the edge of the pool. We'll keep working on this. It stays hot here in Virginia through September so we should have plenty of other opportunities. Unfortunately, our neighborhood pool has closed for the season so we'll have to wait till next spring for that.

On Wednesday afternoon Nick and I went to have his blood drawn for the myriad of tests our doctor ordered. I was very concerned about how this might go. If Nick wiggled and squirmed like he does sometimes when I'm changing his diaper, then this was going to be a very difficult appointment. I was not put any more at ease when the technician said to me upon seeing the test sheet, "Why do these doctors order so many tests on these little babies?".

We waited a few minutes, not long at all really, and then were called back. Nick sat on my lap as the phlebotomist looked at his arm for a good vein. She said she found one so immediately proceeded to put the rubber thing on his arm, tie it up, etc. At this point the crying began, but no struggling, just crying. I thought it might escalate and I was really wishing I had brought the cheerios out before we sat down so that I could distract Nick. To my surprise, he cried steadily but didn't thrash around at all and stayed very still. I was so proud of Nick, what a trooper he was. It went so much better than I imagined it could. We should get our test results back in the next few days.

Thursday we met my friend Heather and her daughter Emmaline at Maymont Park. We visited the Children's Farm and the Nature Center. It was a great way to spend a few hours and I think Nick enjoyed it, but I think he'll enjoy it more when he's a little bit older. The Children's Farm is set up so that the kids can touch/pet some of the animals. The closest Nick came to petting any of the animals was to touch the horn of one of the goats. We did see the two bears playing together, that was probably the highlight, at least for me.

Nick loved the aquariums in the nature center, and even more, loved walking up and down and around the ramps through the exhibits. He had a blast and I can't wait to take him to some of the other aquariums around the area.

On Friday we did a little shopping at Target. So far, the extent of Nick's retail therapy has been in Target and thankfully he seems to love it. We had to go Friday for a shower gift for a friend and we were probably in the store for at least an hour. I think Nick likes Target because it is colorful and there is a lot to look at, there are lots of people and kids to stare at (he loves to check folks out), and lots of people that smile and talk to him.

Saturday morning I had a bridal shower to attend so Bill and Nick hung out together and watched Georgia Tech play Boston College in football. They looked so cute together, both in their Georgia Tech gear. Good thing Georgia Tech won! I don't think Nick was paying much attention to the game, but I'm sure there will be more than enough opportunity to enjoy football with his dad.

Nick met lots of new people Saturday, beginning with our friend Eli, who stopped by to meet him and brought him his new favorite toy. Its a pull toy that looks like a big bug that plays music and also has shape sorting, colors and numbers. Its really cool and Nick loves it!

We had some friends over for dinner Saturday and Nick met a new kid friend, Colby. Colby is 2.5 and was so good and sweet with Nick. It was really cute to see them playing together. Dinner was kind of crazy since Nick's dinner/bedtime routine goes from about 7 - 8 and one of us needed to take care of him, leaving the other to finish dinner. Since Bill is the main cook in the house (yes, I totally lucked out here; I would rather bake!), he did the cooking and I did the bathing and bedtime routine. Our guests pitched in too, setting the table, etc.! After dinner we dusted off the Wii Guitar Hero which hasn't been played since right before we got the call to travel in April.

Today we took it easy. My sister Jill had us over for lunch. Nick loves flirting with his Aunt Jill, and playing peek-a-boo with Uncle Carl and cousin Sam. But, after about 2 hours he was starting to melt down so we hit the road and came home.

That pretty much wraps it up. I'm including some more pictures and hopefully I'll have a slide show one of these days...promises, promises.

Have a great week all!

Nick and Abby Hanging Out

Nick Keeping Tabs on Abby While She Eats

We're working on wearing hats!

Nick on his slide

First Doctors Appointment and Meeting Relatives

2008-09-02T11:21:00.004-04:00

Once again, more time has passed than I would like between blogs. My goal is to blog every 2 or 3 days, I'm going to try to be better!

Thank you everyone for your kind and helpful comments on the last blog. I really appreciate everything that you all said and I am trying to not put too much pressure on myself, Bill or Nick. Also, after the first two days last week, things definitely improved through the end of the week.

The first thing is that Nick is not waking up at 4am any more, YAY! We are very happy about that. He is also settling into his schedule and has been averaging 11 hours of sleep each night and a total of about 3 hours of naps, twice a day. We are going to try to move him to one nap a day, probably in a few weeks.

We had Nick's first doctors appointment last Thursday. I was originally going to go alone, but after reading a few other blogs decided that going alone would be a big mistake (at least for the first visit), so thankfully Bill was able to go with us.

I was apprehensive about the visit because we had not interviewed the doctor prior to choosing him. We chose him based on recommendations from other families. Based on this first visit, I couldn't be happier with the Doctor and the practice. Our wait was minimal and the doctor didn't skimp at all on the time with us.

Nick wasn't too thrilled with the checkup. Its interesting because we had seen him examined twice in Russia and he didn't get upset at all. This time, he lost it when the stethescope came out and basically fought the whole process. I think the difference is that the doctors in Russia could talk to him and comfort him about what they were doing, whereas now he didn't really understand. The good news is that it was over fairly quickly.

After the checkup and all our questions, we waited a few minutes prior to having Nick vaccinated. The doctor suggested that we start over on the vaccinations because of not having 100% knowledge of the quality of the vaccinations already administered, etc. Nick did really well during the shots, much better than he did during the checkup. It helped that the nurse was very skilled and quick as lightening with the shots. This week I'll be taking him to have blood drawn for all the tests that we're having done. I am not looking forward to this at all! The nurse told me it would be about 5 vials of blood, YIKES!.

Bill's family visited over the holiday weekend. Everyone came Saturday afternoon so we had a full house with his Francine (mom), Bill (dad), Mary (sister) and Dan (brother in law). Nick was a little standoffish at first but did warm up to everyone throughout the weekend. Aunt Mary and Uncle Dan both spent alot of time playing with Nick and I know he loved it! Bill's mom brought Nick tons of gifts from family friends, co-workers, and relatives. Thanks everyone, cards are coming, I promise!

We had a fun time with everyone spending time with Nick and also catching up with the family. Mary brought the most awesome lasagne and Francine brought a yummy seafood casserole so that Bill and I wouldn't have to worry about cooking, this was really great! We also had a chance to teach everyone how to play Killer Bunnies, which was alot of fun and will hopefully make an appearance during future beach trips.

My one regret from the weekend is that I did not take any pictures, I don't know what I was thinking! Clearly I wasn't thinking. I'll have to take double next time we all get together.

On Sunday we also had a visit from my dear friend Christine and her daughters Nicole and Kelly. It has been at least a year since I've seen Christine and a few years since seeing the girls. It was great to catch up with them and see what lovely young women Nicole and Kelly have become. Nick flirted with all 3 of our visitors and I was really glad Nicole and Kelly were here to help set up the pet clinic they brought for Nick.

After our busy weekend we're settling back into our quiet days. I hope everyone out there had a great weekend. I can't believe that summer is basically over! Wow.

Imposter Mom

2008-08-27T12:14:00.007-04:00

This is hard, period. I knew it would be. But, all in all, its harder than I thought it would be, on many different levels. My hat is off to all those moms out there who make motherhood seem so easy and effortless.

We have had a tough 2 days to begin the week. Nick is generally pretty happy in the mornings and his most unhappy time is after nap two, prior to dinner. Yesterday, he was fussy most of the day. I have come up with five things I think could be contributing to the fussiness (1) he is teething (2) his diet has changed tremendously and he's still getting used to it (3) he doesn't understand why dad comes and goes (4) he's still adjusting to the time change, and (5) this is regular toddler behavior. If I ever figure out what is going on, I'll definitely post it.

Now that we're home and getting to know each other better, there are some interesting things we've noticed about Nick.

Sleeping: No matter what time he goes to bed, he wakes up at 4am. Actual bedtime doesn't seem to have any impact on the 4am wakeup. Sometimes he'll fall back asleep on his own and wake later around 6am, other times he will cry and that usually leads to an hour of rocking before he'll go back to sleep. We have no idea why 4am, this doesn't coincide with a significant time in Russia in terms of his sleep. Hopefully this won't continue for much longer.

Eating: So far Nick will eat anything we put in front of him. We are very happy about this and hope the good apetite sticks around. I sometimes worry that we are feeding him too much. He almost always wants more of whatever he's eating, even after having a nice big portion. For now I'm going on the assumption that we can't over feed him and he'll stop when he's full, and I'm thankful that we don't have a non-eater.

Drinking: I'm not sure what to do about this one. Nick will chug the entire contents of his sippy cup whenever he gets it. So, if its snack time and I give him his water/juice he'll chug it till its gone, then he'll want more. The only time he won't chug it is if the water/juice ratio isn't to his liking, then he'll throw the sippy cup. I have tried to keep it out (and filled) to show him he can have it at any time, the problem is that he chugs it every time. Its like he's got a hole in his leg. If anyone has advice on this one I would greatly appreciate it.

Pooping: Hates it, hates it, hates it. For whatever reason, he often poops during meals. Maybe there is a biological reason for this, not sure. Anyway, he gets so upset, thrashes around and throws a fit. We try to be supportive to let him know its ok. Its so traumatic for him. It really makes me wonder what they did to him at the baby home. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but the highest respect for the caregivers, but between the pooping and the diaper changing I am at a loss.

Diapering: Hates it, hates it, hates it. As I have found through some rudimentary research, the diaper hatred is very common among PI (Post Institutionalized) children. Its such a struggle sometimes, and even harder if poop is involved. I am not skilled enough to change him standing up, which apparently has worked for some. Special toys work about 50% of the time. My latest thing is to sing to him when I'm changing his diaper or clothing. This has shown some promising results.

Music: Loves music, loves dancing, especially his jazz hands, which come out when the spirit (or the Wiggles) moves him. He is so funny to watch. He is getting more bold with swaying, turning circles, and even clapping sometimes.

Aside from learning about Nick, I'm also learning some things about myself. For one thing what its like to go from one day being a career oriented woman to the next day being a mom. I feel like an imposter mom, totally clueless and inadequate. Its really strange. I didn't feel like this in Russia at all, but these feelings have cropped up since we've been home.

For example, when strolling Nick through the neighborhood the other day, I felt so self-conscious. Like, it must be obvious that I don't know what I'm doing (should the sunshade be down, is my child strapped in tight enough, etc.) and that I might as well have a label on my forehead that says "adoptive mom". Isn't that messed up? Its very similar to the way I felt back when I got divorced (in the early 90's). I felt like it must be obvious that I was divorced and damaged in some way.

I find myself worrying about the most ridiculous things like, do I need one of those shopping cart covers, will people think I'm a bad mom if I just plop him in the cart, do I have the right stroller for the right purpose, is it adjusted properly, is my child dressed appropriately for the weather, and the list goes on and on.

So, I'm worried that I'm going to be compelled to start every new introduction with declaring that Nick has just come home with us from Russia. I don't, don't, don't want this to be the case. I don't want him to be the "adopted" kid with the neurotic mom. I hope I can get past these feelings and onto more productive thoughts. I just wondered if anyone else out there has felt like this?

I'm going to wrap it up for today because Nick should be waking up soon from his nap. I'll close with some recent pictures!

Settling In

2008-08-24T12:15:00.004-04:00

I haven't blogged in three days and don't have pictures of Nick and Abby yet. And, I have a really lame excuse for the lack of pictures, the camera battery went dead. Its still dead, so once its back up and running we'll hopefully get some pictures that we can post. Although, the sweet relationship between Abby and Nick has suffered slightly. We think Abby has finally realized that Nick isn't going anywhere and she's not that happy about it. We are trying to show Nick how to be gentle with her, but it has been difficult because he gets so excited whenever Abby gets near him. Abby still wants to be wherever Nick is, which is pretty funny, and she is constantly trying to get close to smell him.

We have been taking it pretty easy since coming home. On Thursday my sister Jill came over to meet Nick. He really enjoyed flirting with her. He is a real charmer. Arlett came over also to bring back the car seat. It was nice to have some company. We went for a stroll around the neighborhood in the afternoon and Nick met our next door neighbors and their two little boys.

Friday we didn't do much of anything but hang around the house. Nick met our other next door neighbors and warmed up to them quickly.

Saturday we had a little outing to meet Jill, Carl and Sam for lunch at our favorite Saturday lunch place. Nick had a good time as the center of attention and impressed everyone with his eating abilities which included, peas, apple sauce, grilled cheese, french fries (not many) and cheerios. We're lucky that so far Nick seems to do well going out to eat (since this is something I like doing!). I'm hoping that he and I will be able to get out for lunch once a week or so.

We have been getting outside in the mornings or later in the afternoons to try to beat the heat. We haven't tried the inflatable pool yet. We'll probably do that some time this week. Yesterday Bill put up the play structure that Nick received from Maria and family. So far Nick hasn't had a lot of time on it but he definitely loves the slide.

This afternoon Glen and Sara, friends who recently moved to Minneapolis, stopped in to meet Nick and visit with us. It was really great to see them and catch up before they headed home. They brought us a bag of fun goodies for everyone, thanks guys!

Tomorrow Bill goes back to work and it will be my first day alone with Nick. Hopefully I'll be able to handle it!

I am really going to try to post some pics soon, maybe tomorrow, but no promises.

Home Sweet Home

2008-08-21T21:16:00.002-04:00

We're home, and Nick is a US Citizen, WooHoo! We are so happy to be back in Richmond.

Before I forget, we have a few people to thank for helping us over the last 3 weeks. First off,
our nephew Sam stayed at our house, taking care of Abby and Chloe, the yard, plants, etc. We cannot thank Sam enough for taking 3 weeks out of his life to live out in the suburbs to help us out. Not to mention, when we got home the house was spotless. It was really great, Thanks Sam!

Thanks also to Jill and Carl for bringing us the delicious meatballs, Bill wants the recipe. Then our friends Arlett and Mike picked us up from the airport, stocked the fridge with baby food and adult food, and brought Nick a cute puppy and balloon for his homecoming. We are so lucky to have a great support network both here in Richmond and around the US, thanks all for your support to us through this journey.

The trip home went better than I thought it would. We were picked up at around 9am after scrambling to get everything packed and fit everything in our suitcases. At one point earlier in the week we thought we were going to have to buy another suitcase but in the end we didn't. The checkin at the airport was quite extensive. I think we went through 4 securities, I lost count. Anyway, we arrived at our gate around 11:30 for a 12:55 flight.

Unfortunately, our flight didn't start boarding until 2:15 or so. I'm not 1oo% sure because there was alot going on with trying to keep Nick occupied.

Nick fell asleep fairly early in the flight and slept for 2 hours. It was a good start for sure. After naptime it was dinner time. Nick had his first Chicken Nuggets, which he really seemed to enjoy and he also ate a big serving of Mashed Potatoes. After dinner Bill went walking with Nick for quite a while. After that things become somewhat blurry, between being tired and trying to entertain Nick, I couldn't tell you what went on. Nick did sleep for another 2 hours or so near the end of the flight. He also never really had what I would call a full on meltdown. We were both thankful for that. Nick slept for the entire flight to Richmond which was really good. Mike and Arlett met us in Richmond and I was really happy to see them!

We got home around 9:30 and after showing Nick around a bit, and introducing him to Abby, we put Nick to sleep. Thankfully he went down fairly easily. I went to bed immediately after Nick due to exhaustion.

Today we had a good day that was a mix of trying to get organized and helping Nick be comfortable in this new environment. One thing that definitely sticks out since we've been home is how good Abby has been with Nick. She has been so gentle with him. And, we're very happy because Nick isn't terrified of Abby. He just really wants to pet her. Its so cute. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get some pictures of the two of them together.

I was going to write more but I'm about to fall asleep. So I'll say goodnight and will try to post tomorrow.

Happy Thursday!

Last Day

2008-08-19T13:57:00.002-04:00

We're so excited that today concludes our last full day in Moscow. Bill is asleep on the couch next to me, and Nick is asleep in the bedroom, and I think they would both agree they are ready to hit the road and start our lives back in the states. WooHoo!

We had a nice "last" day in Moscow. We started the day early, as always, with Nick rustling around 5:30. He is so cute in the mornings, and so wide awake. I think, please go back to sleep, but then he smiles the big smile and I forget about the time.

We did the normal morning stuff and Nick has settled into the morning nap at around 9:00am, usually for about 1.5 hours. After naptime he had a snack and then we set out to walk to Red Square where we were going to meet Brandy and Coby for some better pictures of the three of us.

The weather was not the greatest today and as we set out to walk down it looked very overcast and we thought it would probably rain, the question was when. Our walk to Red Square is about 30 minutes. By the time we were 10 minutes away the rain began and by the time we got to St. Basils it was raining fairly hard. We had forgotten the phone and the canopy for the stroller. We rigged the umbrella so that Nick stayed dry, waited around for a few minutes but decided that Brandy and Coby were probably some place near by, calling us to tell us where they were. We took a few (maybe three) pictures of Nick in the stroller with the umbrella and then headed home. By the time we were out of the Red Square area the rain began to subside and it had completely stopped about half way home.

We were being picked up for our US Embassy Interview at 1:15, so when we got home we gave Nick lunch and dried off before heading back out. The Embassy trip went well. There were about 7 families, all very excited to be at this point in the process. When we departed we had all the information and paperwork for the adoption, Nick's passport and Visa, "the envelope".

The rest of the day was spent playing with Nick, eating, packing, checking emails and blogs (yes, I am officially addicted!), and watching an update on today in the Olympics world.

With that, I'll say bye from Moscow now. I might miss it, in some strange way, but will be very happy to get off the airplane in beautiful, hot, Richmond!

Paka, Paka, Paka

3 Weeks on the Road

2008-08-18T13:51:00.002-04:00

Today marks the completion of our third week on the road and we feel it. For the hundredth time I will say that I can't wait to go home. I am dreading the plane flight, but we'll be ok.

Because Nick was up a bit late last night we were hoping he would sleep till 7am. No way, 5:45 rolls around and he's tossing and flopping around, babbling and not sleeping. This was a short night for him so I thought I'd try something new, change his diaper and then try to get him back to sleep. It almost worked but he was not going to go to sleep in the crib so we brought him into bed. He's getting better about being in bed and this morning actually fell asleep for 10 - 15 minutes, progress I think.

We needed some more of the organic baby food for the remainder of the trip so after breakfast and a 2 hour morning nap we went out to the fancy grocery in the basement of Lotte Plaza. I love this store, its just really expensive. The checkout ladies were playing with Nick and trying to make him laugh, of course he loves the attention. Once we're home we'll try to avoid the store for a while.

Our afternoon was fairly standard, although Nick was a cranky little guy. We couldn't figure out what his issue was. Some how we kept him occupied and played until about 3 when he had a snack and then another 2 hour nap. Maybe he was just really tired today.

After his nap Nick seemed pretty cranky again. We debated whether we should actually leave for dinner or just stay in. We thought it would be better to take him out again, but stayed close to home and went to TGI Fridays. It went ok. Nick was craning his neck trying to see the people sitting behind us, which was kind of funny at first, but very annoying after a while. Bill let him taste his french fries and that kept his attention on us for a while even when Nicks own food couldn't. The wait staff was greatt they brought us a highchair, a balloon for Nick, a Russian version of a Kinder Egg (which of course Nick can't have yet), and were generally very accomodating and nice to us and Nick.

Nick seemed to have a better disposition after dinner and enjoyed playing with the balloon they gave us, and with the play cell phone, especially while Bill was on the phone with our translator.

So thats about it for today. Nothing too exciting. The most exciting thing to me is that we have one more day and then we fly out.

Hope everyone at home is doing great, see you soon!

Nihao: The Snappy Roundup

2008-08-17T14:26:00.000-04:00

Somehow I've managed to see way too much of the Olympics on Eurosport where they have "a snappy roundup" of the previous days highlights every morning called "Nihao". Todays blog will be "a snappy roundup" of today's activities in our little world.

To kick it off, today is my brother Tim's birthday so before I forget, Happy Birthday! I hope you had a great day.

The little cutie pie was up again at 5am, or maybe 5:15 this morning. That is just way too early but what are you gonna do. When the guy is awake, he's awake. We did the normal morning routine. Nick is such a good little eater so he had a really good breakfast and then we headed out around 8:15 to walk to Red Square for some photos. It was a great morning. We had a nice walk and its pretty quiet around this town (1) in the morning before 10am (2) on weekends in the summer.

Red Square was beautiful this morning, although St. Basils was backlit. So, the traditional adoption family photo didn't go quite as planned (and the backlighting had little to do with the pictures I took since you can't see it in the first place!). Plus, Nick was slightly fussy by the time we got there. We took a few of Bill and Nick, and myself with Nick and then called it a day, at least for picture taking. I'm hoping to get back down there on Tuesday to get some pictures of the three of us.

We were hungry and wanted a break so we stopped at McDonalds for breakfast on the way home. My goodness, it was a madhouse! Bill found a table outside and entertained Nick while I went in to order breakfast. It took a good 15 minutes for me to make my way to the front of the line. As I waited I tried to figure out what they call a sausage McMuffin with egg and cheese. I could read the translation of McMuffin, which is basically McMuffin, but I couldn't get the rest. I think I did ok, all in all. And, it really hit the spot.

Nick took 2 naps today which was great. I think he has an internal clock that won't let him sleep more than 1.5 hours during the day. Its quite amazing really. I'm just glad he's sleeping.

We have introduced Nick to the Wiggles. My work buddies gave him "Pop Go the Wiggles" and he really loves it. We have done it once a day for the past 4 days and he is really starting to get into it. He will do his signature "Jazz Hands" for the songs he really likes. Its very cute. They are growing on me too. They don't creep me out as much as they did the first time I saw them.

Tonight we went to dinner with Ron and Dinia, Brandy and Coby, and Michelle. We went back to Gogul Mogul (Yummy!). It was Ron and Dinia's last night in Moscow, and how special to be able to spend it with them. I can't really express how wonderful these folks are. We feel very lucky to have met them before they leave Moscow. I really hope Dinia will continue her blog so that all the families they have touched can keep up with how they are.

It was also Brandy and Coby's first night back in Russia. They are heading to court later on this week, Congratulations! Michelle is picking up her daughter later this week after waiting the 10 days! We had a great dinner of Chicken and Spinach (I'm pretty sure everyone at the table had the same entree) and strawberry blinis for dessert.

Nick was really good at dinner. We were not sure how he would do with all the people but he was great. He was engaging and flirting with all the ladies and he also was trying to give Coby his cheerios. He'd give them then take them back, but this is what he does! Nick had his dinner while we were there (which I'm glad we brought) and really kept it together amazingly well especially considering that we were out for about 3 hours total between dinner and the stop at the grocery afterwards.

Its about 11pm now and Nick is sleeping and his Dad is sleeping on the couch next to me as I blog. I suppose I should wrap this one up so we can get some sleep. Here are a few pictures from today. Very disappointed that in my St. Basils picture of Nick and Bill, you can't see St. Basils. I was having issues apparently. We'll try to get some better pictures later this week. Brandy might be able to help us with that!

Have a good week all!

First Trip to Starbucks!

2008-08-16T12:10:00.000-04:00

Today started very early, 5am to be exact. We were really hoping for at least 6. We did not want to start the day/breakfast soooo early so we relaxed and played with Nick in bed. He seemed quite content with the whole set up but wasn't about to go back to sleep.

At 6 we got up and actually started the day. Nick had oatmeal and pears for breakfast. I tried to give him the pears separately from the oatmeal but he would have none of that. The caretakers had told us that he would eat cut up fruit, apples and pears. So far, he had not eaten either fruit by itself. I was able to put the pear in the oatmeal and he loved it.

We had planned to go to Starbucks this morning. But by about 8:30 Nick was started to act very tired so we decided to try the morning nap again. Since he woke at 5 we thought he might actually go down...and he did, for 1.5 hours. After his nap we packed ourselves up and headed out to the Starbucks on Old Arbat St. Today was a sunny day with a high in the upper 80's. When we headed out it was cooler and breezy, really nice weather. We put Nick in his umbrella stroller for the first time. He wasn't too thrilled with the whole thing but after about 5 minutes he stopped trying to get out and sat back to enjoy the ride. We decided to get lunch at Starbucks since it was lunchtime. It was nice and almost relaxing. Nick was very good while we were there. After lunch we walked to the end of Old Arbat and then headed back to the apartment.

The afternoon was lowkey with lunch for Nick and then playtime. I tried to give him cottage cheese at lunchtime because the caregivers said that he would eat it. When I gave it to him he chewed for a second and then slowly spit everything out. I was so bummed. So I dipped the cottage cheese in the apple sauce concoction and he ate it then. I added some pears too, might as well sneak these foods in while I can.

Surprisingly we were able to get Nick to go down for an afternoon nap. He slept for another 1.5 hours. I am probably being obsessive about the sleep thing but I read somewhere that children his age should get ~13.5 hours of sleep a day so I'm just trying to help him get it.

After his afternoon nap we headed out to Pasta Mama's for dinner. This is a great place. I really wish we had visited it earlier in our trip because now its so late I don't know whether we'll make it back there. The hostess and wait staff were just great. This was our first trip to a "real" restaurant with Nick so we weren't sure what to expect. They brought us a high chair and then also brought over toys for Nick to play with which was really sweet. We were a bit worried that he might throw something, thankfully he didn't! The food was very good and the portions are huge. Bill and I really should have shared and entree. Nick enjoyed the bread and also had mashed potatoes (yes, he definitely got his starches).

We walked back to the apartment after dinner and played for a while before putting Nick to bed which is where Bill is right now. Hopefully he'll turn up soon. I haven't heard anything for a while so maybe Bill's gone to sleep as well.

Thats it for now. We hope everyone is having a great weekend and I'll try to post more pictures tomorrow!

Paka, Paka!

Five and a Half Hours of Errands

2008-08-15T13:52:00.000-04:00

I just told Bill that I didn't think I could blog tonight because I'm so tired and that I was just going to blog that I can't blog. He said he thought that was kind of weak, so here I am blogging. I'll do what I can and there is a distinct possibility that it will end abruptly.

It seems that now I'm judging my days by Nicks ability to sleep and poop, WOW. I can't believe it. He is sleeping well at night, naps are a different story, but last night he got 10 1/2 hours. It was still before 6am when he woke up, but we'll be attempting to adjust that back over the next few days. Then we'll get on a 12 hour flight and it will all be over.

Today was a nice, sunny day, about 85 degrees and we had a few errands to run. The plan was that we would start at the American Clinic (this may not be the official name, sorry) for Nick's physical. Then we would go to the bank. And finally, we were to pick up Nick's Russian passport.

Our translator and driver picked us up at 10am. Nick finished his physical by 11am, and passed with flying colors! Then we waited for almost an hour for a different translator who was with another family. Our new translator then went to the bank with us where I (Meghan) had to sign some paperwork, etc.

Let me just say a few things about the bank. It was very small, with about 6 windows. There were probably about 10 customers in there when we arrived. Because we have had "issues" with understanding protocol at banks, I asked our translator how she knew which line, whether there was a line, etc. She explained to me how it works, lets just say its slightly haphazard. We were about third in our line when we arrived, but each transaction was taking at least 10 minutes. Then we were "cut" on by a 90 year old, but what are you going to do? So, finally a window opened up and you wouldn't believe the goings on. Without going into too much detail (this is code for "I'm not comfortable giving too much detail"), I will say we got out of there about 1.5 hours later! Whew.

The good news is that on the way to the bank Nick fell asleep and actually slept for about 1.5 hours during the drive and most of the bank visit. That was good since he didn't get his morning nap.

After the bank we went to the passport office to pick up Nick's passport. The passport picture is totally adorable (I must say) and we are really glad to have that out of the way. In the passport office more paperwork was completed and then we headed back to our apartment. After such a long day, Nick finally started to melt down about 15 minutes from home. He was such a trooper and who could blame him, it was a long, hot day.

We got home at about 3:30, had a quick snack and then I tried to put Nick down for a nap for about 2 hours. Yikes, I know thats way too long but he seemed so tired and I was determined. We got really close, but NO, there was not a second nap in the cards today.

So, we spent the balance of the afternoon playing and the regular night time routine. We have no errands to run this weekend so tomorrow we're planning a trip to Starbucks in the morning and then an early dinner out tomorrow at Pasta Mama's. We have been wanting to go there so it will be our first foray into restaurant world as a family! Wish us luck.

Paka, Paka, Paka (frantic hand waving!)

Counting the Days

2008-08-14T12:24:00.000-04:00

Once again, we are both quite tired so this will probably be short...I will supplement with pictures, since I haven't posted any since Tuesday.

Last night went pretty well I think. Nick slept from 7:15 until 5:45, which we were very happy with. He does move around his bed quite a bit, flopping here and there. He woke up in pretty good spirits too.

We did the normal morning routine and by about 8:15 Nick started showing signs of needing to sleep. At the baby home he napped from 9:30 - 11:00 each day. We were being picked up for our daily tasks at 10:00, so we decided to try to get him to nap from 8:30 - 9:45 or so. To our surprise he actually fell asleep fairly quickly and got his morning ZZZZ's.

At 10 we were picked up by our translator and driver. We went to get more passport pictures of Nick (the first ones weren't right or something, who knows). Anyway, Nick did great for the picture and then we waited around to get copies of various documents. We headed back to the apartment around 11am.

If anyone out there needs an entrepreneurial idea, mine is to start a chain of copy shops (ala kinkos, but on a very small scale - size wise). From what we have seen it is difficult to find a place to make copies and when you do they are actually kind of expensive. We actually have access to a copier in our apartment. Alas, our agency didn't tell us what copies were needed for today, so we paid to have them made in the basement of some random building near the Embassy.

The afternoon was ok, but I failed to get Nick to go down for his afternoon nap. By 5pm he seemed to be headed for a major meltdown so we tried to draw out dinner, bath and bedtime as late as possible. He fell asleep around 7:00. So, its probably another early morning for us tomorrow.

On the eating front, so far so good. Nick has eaten everything we've put in front of him which is a blessing, I'm sure it will change. But its one less thing to worry about now.

Thats about it. Have I mentioned lately how much I want to go home. I do. We miss everyone and can't wait to be home! Now for some pictures.

Is Today Wednesday?

2008-08-13T13:06:00.000-04:00

I've lost track of time. The last 36 hours have been a blur, to say the least, but we're all doing well.

Today we had our first little outing as a family. We went to vital records to get our new Birth Certificates for Nick. Our translator and driver picked us up at about noon today to head to the office. As it turned out, what we thought was going to be a quick trip out took 3 hours. So now we have finally experienced the terrible Moscow traffic that we have seen from the sidewalks, and heard about, but hadn't quite lived it first person.

The office of vital records is about an hour away from our apartment. I couldn't begin to tell you what part of town we went to. Apparently, there are dozens of these offices and you go to the one that did the original paperwork for the child. Our driver and translator had never been to this particular office which explains why we stopped twice on our way there for directions, go figure.

Luckily Nick fell asleep on the drive there and had over an hour of good sleep. We were pretty happy about that since he had missed his afternoon nap on Tuesday and morning nap today. Anyway, we got there around 1:15 and found that they close the office from 1:30 - 3:00. Thank goodness one of the ladies was willing to stay past 1:30 to complete the new certificate for us so we wouldn't have to drive around Moscow for another 2 hours waiting for the office to re-open.

Nick was so good on the trip, which was very hot (80 degrees, concrete jungle, bumper to bumper traffic, no airconditioning) and not much fun for him. He only got fussy toward the end of our time in the car.

When we arrived home we had a snack and we weren't too far off his afternoon nap schedule so I tried to get him to go down. No luck, but almost. We played till about 6pm, then Bill fed Nick, bathed him and bedtime started around 7. The goal was to have him down by 8pm which is his normal bedtime and it took an hour last night. I am happy to report that after about 15 minutes of rocking and humming along to The Shins, Nick went down without a peep. We hope he'll get a good night of sleep tonight because he is lacking on his normal schedule.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments and emails the past few days. It means so much to us to hear from you all and we can't wait to see everyone!

Hugs!

One day with Nick down - 7200 to go

2008-08-12T23:54:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone,
Today Bill gets to post, because your normal correspondent is a little busy. I am too of course. So lets see, we picked Nick up at around 1PM, did the goodbyes at the orphanage and headed home. We got home at 2:30 and had a few minutes of playtime, before we had cherrios, cookies and juice for a snack. After this, things got a little dicey. We tried to get him to take a nap (at the orphanage he takes one at 3PM). We finally gave up at 6PM and played until 7PM. At 7PM we had a tasty meal of Chicken and then some Blueberries and Apples (The Hipp food seemed to hit the spot). After dinner was bath time. He loved bath time, but when it was over, he didn't seem too happy. At 8PM Meghan tried to put him down for the night. I stayed in the kitchen and listened to the crying. It took until about 9PM for him to fall asleep (Meghan thinks this wasn't too bad). While all of this was going on, I cooked some dinner for Meghan and myself and we finally sat down to eat our first meal of the day at 9PM. We need to do better today with our finding time to eat.

Well, the good news is Nick slept through the night until 6AM (Meghan and I didn't do as well). So up at 6AM for a big morning. He was great, he hardly cried when we woke up. I played with him while Meghan made oatmeal with fresh apple. He is such a happy baby when he is rested, just doesn't like to go to sleep. He does eat well, breakfast was tasty. It is 8:15 now, and it appears that he may already be ready for a nap. Meghan is strapping him in to the ergo carrier to see if he might settle down. We will see...

This is the Day...Gotcha

2008-08-12T09:59:00.000-04:00

Hi All, its been fairly crazy today so I'm going to post a little slideshow that we hope you'll enjoy and I will post more about Gotcha Day later! Turn up your volume while you watch the slide show.

We love and miss everyone!
Meg, Bill and Nicholas

Make a Smilebox slideshow

One More Day!

2008-08-11T13:40:00.000-04:00

We spent today visiting Nick, YAY! And also preparing the apartment for his arrival. Things were in a slight disarray around the place so now we're all cleaned up and organized for Nick to come to his new home in Moscow.

We had an OK visit with Nick today. He didn't really cry when he saw us and was very smiley and sweet to start. Things got a bit dicey when a Russian family came to see their child, also in Nick's groupa. There we were, 4 adults and 2 toddlers, in the "Locker Room", trying to play with the little ones, adults unable to communicate with each other. We have seen this family almost every day and they seem very nice. It was a hard situation for Nick, or maybe us, I'm not sure. I do know that he got slightly unruly with the addition of another baby (or other adults) in the room. He started throwing the stacking cups and his train. This was not good, and its so hard to communicate when you don't speak his language. To anyone out there, learn some Russian. This is one area that I know I did not put enough effort in, thinking that the baby would be young enough it wouldn't matter. Let me tell you, it would be really helpful to be able to tell him that "we don't throw things because it isn't nice" in Russian.

After our visit we shopped for baby food in preparation for Nick's homecoming. Patricia had given us info on the brands to buy for yogurt, cereal, baby food, etc. We got quite a variety of food so hopefully we'll have something the little guy will eat. He strikes me as a pretty good eater, I guess we'll find out tomorrow. This has been one of my stress points, all you seasoned moms probably think I'm crazy, but I'm really worried about how much and what to feed this guy.

Tonight we went to dinner at Il Patio for Pizza. This place was a nice surprise. The prices were really good, and not just by Moscow standards. The pizza was good too. The closest one to us is near The Pushkin Museum, which is kind of a hike, but definitely worth it. If we get ambitious maybe we'll go there one day in the upcoming week with Nick.

Now I'm sitting here, watching the Olympics and contemplating how our lives are going to change in the span of less than 24 hours. I know some of you out there are probably thinking, how dramatic, its just a child, everyone does it. The thing is, after years of trying to start a family, unsuccessful fertility treatments, disappointment after disappointment, you start to think that maybe it isn't your destiny to have children, maybe you aren't meant to be a parent, you can be the fun aunt. But you press on, desperately trying to make something happen, in hopes that your dream of having a family will finally come true. I can hardly believe that our dream is finally going to become a reality. I'm quite overwhelmed and very excited (and a little scared)!

Stay tuned tomorrow, we will be posting pictures of our sweet one and also an update of our first day together!

Paka!

Day 13 of 22

2008-08-11T01:02:00.000-04:00

We didn't do much today. Both of us woke up feeling pretty bad so the decision was to take it easy and try to nurse ourselves back to feeling good.

We watched the Olympics, read, blogged, read blogs and did laundry. We ventured out twice, once to the Hardrock Cafe for some American food and then later to the pharmacy.

I haven't been to enough Hardrocks to know, but I suppose the one here is pretty standard. We really wanted some standard fare American food so the Hardrock seemed like a good choice. We also thought they had a brunch, but if so we came too late and missed it. All in all, I thought it was a good choice and the cheeseburger and fries I had really hit the spot.

After lunch it was back to the apartment to lay around. We did do 3 loads of laundry and I managed to keep everything the appropriate color, so I was happy about that! On a side note, I also have almost turned the pink shirts back to white. Patricia gave me some Ace (Oxyclean) and it has almost done the job. I'm hoping with one more good soak everything will be good as new.

We had a successful trip to the pharmacy. We had the word for Bill's ailment and the pharmacist appeared to understand. When we returned to the apartment he looked up the medicine he had been given and sure enough, it appears to be the right stuff. Only time will tell.

Sorry for the mundane post, but this is life in Moscow with 2 sickly people trying to get better so we can pick up our son Tuesday. Woohoo! We are so excited. I can't believe in two days Nick will be with us. Its a bit surreal. More on that later!

Hugs!

Saturday at Izmaylovo Market

2008-08-10T02:46:00.000-04:00

What a great day we had today. This had to be the most beautiful day we've seen in Moscow. I know I've said that before, but we're having a string of good days and they keep getting better and better. I've probably jinxed it now. The sky was clear and the temperature was in the mid-70s.

Today we took a trip to the Izmaylovo Market with Ron, Dinia, Jeana and Vadim. On our first trip Bill and I were going to try to do the market but the day we had chosen ended up being cold and rainy, so we never made it on that trip. Subsequently, we have heard from many different families that we have to go to the market for our Russian souvenirs.

Neither Bill nor I are huge shoppers, but today we did pretty well I'd say. We had made a list with ideas of the things we wanted to purchase, we didn't always buy what we had listed, but we made great progress regardless. It was so nice to have Ron and Dinia there to recommend specific vendors. Plus, they were able to point out some really nice quality items that we wouldn't otherwise have found. We had so much stuff we decided we should drop it off at the car before lunch and Round 2, how funny!

While at the market we had some delicious barbeque, "shashleek". Bill and I both had the chicken which was served with tomatoes and onions and a spicy tomato based sauce. It was quite good and very filling. We took a few picture of everyone while we waited and then with the cooks.

The market was a blast and we're so glad we were able to go, thanks to Ron and Dinia again for showing us the ropes and taking us there! If you come here, definitely go to this market, you will save 25% - 30% off the prices you find within Moscow at the Arbat or other places, and its just a really fun day as well.

Bill and I were beat after a full day of shopping so we stayed in for dinner and had Beef and Pepper Pelmeni. Patricia had told us about the frozen pelmeni made by the supermarket under Lotte Plaza so when we were there earlier this week (checking out the baby food options) we got some frozen pelmeni. Pelmeni are kind of like tortellini but bigger. We boiled them up like pasta and served them with a bit of butter and I added parmesan cheese to mine, yummy!

We are both fighting off sicknesses so tomorrow we're going to take it easy and stay in most of the day (I think). Then Monday we visit Nick one last time before we bring him home Tuesday.

We hope everyone is having a great weekend and we are really missing you all!

Paka.

4 days to Gotcha!

2008-08-09T00:24:00.000-04:00

Wow, it seems like we've been here for a long time, but when I look at it in terms of the whole trip, we're only half way there. Its day 11 of the 23 day trip. The good news is that we've got just 4 days till Nick is coming home (well at least to our apartment) with us!

Today we spent the bulk of the day site-seeing at Novodevichiy with Ron and Dinia. The weather was really nice. It was right around 70 degrees and sunny all afternoon. Every day of no rain feels lucky around here. We started the day with lunch at a Georgian restaurant just off the lake at Novodevichiy. I think everyone really enjoyed their meals. Bill and I shared a cheese and spinach khachapuri which is like a sauceless pizza, sooooo good! And then Bill had Georgian cheese (a plate of sliced cheese) and we shared a meat and rice dolma wrapped in cabbage, also yummy. Ron and Dinia order a mushroom dish that they shared that was to die for and Ron also shared his Pork and potatoes. Everything was delicious!

After lunch we walked around the lake and saw so many brides. It was incredible. As I understand it, the tradition here is to get married in a civil ceremony and then the bride, groom and wedding party travel around the city having pictures made at all the famous landmarks. We had seen this before, here and there, especially when we were near the Kremlin. But today we must have seen 20 different brides coming and going for pictures around the lake. There were stretch limos with flowers all over the parking lot. It was really a spectacle.

We had a tour of the convent grounds and the cemetery. Learning the history of the convent, and about the various cast off wives that were sent there to become nuns was pretty interesting. The inside of the Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk was spectacular. We definitely saw our share of icons today. Bill took tons of pictures. I'm pretty sure he'll look back at some of them and wonder why, but I'm sure he'll have some good ones to share.

The cemetery was amazing. I couldn't believe the monuments that are in place for the people buried there. Our guide told us that to be buried in the cemetery there you have to be a celebrity. I asked whether being buried there is something you request, or something you get invited to do? I'm not sure she really understood what I was asking.

After our visit to Novodevichiy we drove to Sparrow Hills which I believe is the highest spot in Moscow. On one side is the Moscow University and on the other is a panorama view of the city (and some rickety looking ski jumps from the 1980 olympics). Once again, there were many brides having their pictures taken at this landmark.

We were worn out by the time we got home so we stayed in for dinner and watched the opening ceremony of the olympics. I think I'm coming down with something so hopefully I can resist whatever it is and shake it before we get Nick.

Have a great weekend all! We miss you!

Dancing on the Ceiling

2008-08-08T00:31:00.000-04:00

How many of you remember the video of the Lionel Richie song, "Dancing on the Ceiling"? I must say I had forgotten its existence but they haven't on VH1 Classics, where we've actually had the pleasure? of seeing this video twice in the past two days. Its in the regular rotation. We've seen many other very old videos that seriously take me back to the beginnnig of MTV, I'll stop now before I completely date myself!

Today we started the day having coffee with my college friend Patricia. Patricia is the friend that I ran into unexpectedly on our first trip here, in the Munich airport. To read about our meeting here. She moved to Moscow in January with her husband and adorable little boy, Teddy. Patricia and her family are leaving for vacation this weekend and this would be our only time to meet up. It was great to see them again and they were soooo helpful with advice on things like where to buy baby food with English writing. (I had been freaking out a bit because when we checked out the baby food in our regular grocery all the writing was in Russian of course, and with the food allergies of Nick I was concerned about contents). Anyway, we've got the skinny of where to go and we checked it out on our way home from visiting Nick today. We should be good to go. We're sorry we won't be able to spend time with Patricia and family after we get Nick, but maybe the next time they make it to the states!

On the walk from the metro to the baby home I had an unfortunate incident where I was just walking along, minding my own business and suddenly my right foot hit a step up that I didn't see and I went flying, literally. I landed on my left knee, right elbow and my bag of baby stuff. My left shoe flew off in the opposite direction. I daresay it was probably pretty funny to watch, thankfully Bill didn't laugh, although he said he wished he had gotten a picture of me. I'm amazed that I didn't break anything and didn't rip any of my clothing. I have a few lovely bruises but other than that, and feeling pretty clumsy, I'm fine.

We visited Nick today for what we thought would be the last time before Gotcha day. One of the Russian families was visiting their baby today and they were in the "Locker Room" so we were sent outside. This was great for Nick but Bill and I could have used some warmer clothes. This is kind of funny, to take Nick outside they had us put him in knit leggings over his courdoroy overalls, a heavy sweater over his long sleeved shirt, a big coat and a hat. He was so bundled up he could hardly stand from a sitting position, poor guy!

There wasn't really anything new today, except Nick was doing alot more imitations of sounds and faces. It was pretty funny seeing him imitating the funny faces Bill was making. We played more with the train and the stacking and sorting cups. We are having a hard time getting Nick to the baby sign language for "More" now. Go figure. I think that will be easier to teach, along with many of the other signs, when we have him with us full time.

We got a bit of disappointing news today. Apparently the court decree for the adoption goes into effect Tuesday which means we can't pick Nick up until Tuesday. We don't know why it doesn't say Monday, because Monday is the 11th day of the 10 day wait. When we try to ask questions and push the process we get extremely vague answers. Its pretty frustrating. So, we won't be visiting Nick tomorrow, but will visit one more time on Monday and then pick him up for Gotcha Day on Tuesday.

We ate dinner tonight at Shesh Besh. We didn't like it as much as Kish Mesh (the two are similar). Part of the problem is that our waiter came and wanted to take our order immediately, like about one minute after we were seated. Anyone who has eaten out with me knows I have a hard time making up my mind some times, and thats when I know what I'm reading. The waiter came to take our order and would not leave without our drink and food order. I felt very rushed and ended up ordering lamb kebabs. I don't even like lamb, what was I thinking. As it turns out, I missed the page with the chicken and port kebab options. How unfortunate! I'm sure the kebabs were just fine if you like lamb, but they were not sitting well with me. Luckily Bill offered to share, so I had half of his dinner, which we really don't know what it was.

More tomorrow, hugs!

Keeping it Short...maybe not

2008-08-06T15:13:00.000-04:00

OK, I'm going to try to keep it short today because its late and I'm pretty tired.

One of the many good things that happened today is that it didn't rain! It was fairly chilly, especially when the breeze picked up, but it didn't rain, at least not that I saw.

After an uneventful morning we headed to see Nick at our regularly scheduled time. Although he definitely warms up quickly, he cried once again when they brought him out to us. It makes me sad that he isn't happier to see us, but that will come over time. He's pretty easy to soothe, especially when we pull out the Cheerios.

Today we were in the room I affectionately call the Locker Room. It is the room with all the lockers with the childrens things, and it is the room between the play area and the outside. It is probably the absolute worst place to try to play with Nick because there are lots of distractions. I think I've said this before. Today was not any different.

We played with the Monkey/Elephant Train again and then we pulled out the stacking and sorting cups. Nick really liked these and they provided the entertainment for the bulk of our two hours. Nick really enjoyed putting the shapes in one container, moving them to another and then putting the top on. He also picked up the concept of putting the blocks through the holes in the top but had a bit of a hard time with which shapes go in which holes. It was fun and we'll be bringing that one back tomorrow.

Toward the end of our visit Nick seemed to get restless and I think he really wanted to go back to his groupa. I don't think he's used to this much one on one time and I think it might be stressing him out a bit. I do think his cold is improving, hopefully by the weekend it will be gone!

Tonight we had dinner with Ron and Dinia at their apartment. A young Russian friend of theirs also joined us. It was soooo wonderful. Their apartment is beautiful and they have quite a collection of Russian Artwork. What wonderful reminders of their time in Russia when they land in their next destination! Also, Dinia shared the book she has put together with pictures and notes from all the adoptive families they have met with over the past several months. This book is so special. Ron and Dinia have touched so many people at such an important time in their lives. We feel blessed to have met them.

We had Beef Stew which was really yummy and had a great kick to it, as well as Nachos for a starter and homemade Apple Pie with Ice Cream for dessert. Bill and I both had seconds!

After dinner we played a card game called, Wizard. It was pretty straightforward, you essentially have to predict how many tricks you think you are going to take and if you are exactly correct you get positive points, if you're off (either positive or negative) you lose points. The game is played in rounds and in the first round you get one card, second round two cards, etc. We played 11 rounds (I think). Anyway, the game was a hoot. It was really fun but I never quite got the hang of it and as a consequence, going into the last round I needed to have a positive round and be correct to get back to a score of 0, yes 0. Bill on the other hand couldn't make a mistake and won by a landslide with 340 points, which according to Ron and Dinia was a really high score. Congrats Bill on a game well played!

Thanks so much to Ron and Dinia for your hospitality and for a wonderful evening!

Bye for Now! Paka!

How Long Can it Rain?

2008-08-05T23:12:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday we woke up to rain, rain and more rain. Our commute to the baby home today was going to be very wet. I guess the good news is that at least half of it is underground!

We had a quiet morning with real coffee (YAY) and chocolate croissants for breakfast. We were due to visit Nick again today from 1 - 3. So we headed out around 11:45 for the hour trip to the baby home. We were doing it on our own for the first time.

The trip was very, very wet and by the time we arrived at the baby home both our pants were soaked from the knees down, our coats were drenched and we really looked like a mess. Luckily the security guard was not phased by our disheveled appearance and signed us in with no issues.

They brought Nick out to us and told us we were going to spend the day in the Music Room. I was very excited about this because the past few days (except for the time outside), when we have played in the room that is immediately outside of Nick's groupa, there are alot of distractions with people going in and out and bringing children in and out. By being able to take Nick to a separate room, we avoid these distractions, mainly.

We went to the Music Room which is a very large room with some comfy chairs and couches and then a very large open area. We had been playing in the open area for about 30 minutes when one of the workers came in the room and declared it was too cold for us to be playing there. The security woman speaks a bit of English, so she came back and told us we needed to move to a room down the hall. When the security woman saw Bill and Nick together she smiled and said they have "one face", meaning that they look alike. Its very interesting because Bill and I didn't really see it but several of our friends/family have said the same thing!

The new room was very comfortable, although I'm not sure it was really any warmer than the Music room. We had a fun day with Nick again. He seems to be getting more and more comfortable with us each day. We are getting many more smiles and giggles out of him. Bill found his tickle spot, so that is pretty funny because its about the only time we see him flat out giggle. He also did quite a bit of walking and seems to really enjoy toddling around.

We didn't have to pull out the cheerios much today at all. But when we did we tried to work on the sign for "more" again. He was more reluctant (or something) to use the sign today than he was yesterday. We'll keep trying. We also introduced the sign for "hat".

I'd say the bulk of our time was spent playing with the train that Julie gave us. Nick really has taken an interest in it. It has a front car with a place for a conductor, and then in the back car there are places for a monkey and an elephant. The figures fit on small pegs and if you press down on the pegs for the monkey and elephant they make the animal noises. If you press down on the conductor, the wheels move and there is a Choo-choo noise, whistle, etc. Nick spent alot of time pressing the pegs, listening to the noises and he also was trying to place the figures on the pegs. Placing the figures on the pegs proved to be a bit difficult for him but I think in no time he'll have it worked out.

Before we knew it our time was up and we had to take Nick back to his groupa. When we opened the door to take him back, Bill set him down and he toddled very quickly to one of his caregivers. He really loves the caregivers and his group. They all seemed very happy to see him again as well, with all the little ones converging around him when he came back into the area, too cute.

Of course when we left it was still raining. So we made the trek back to the apartment. We were both pretty beat so we stayed in for dinner and took it easy.

Tomorrow we have another visit with Nick, YAY! We also have dinner at Ron and Dinia's which we are looking forward to very much.

We miss everyone at home a ton and if you leave a comment or email, I promise we'll write back quickly!

One Week Down, Two to Go

2008-08-04T14:43:00.000-04:00

I can't believe we have already been here for a week. Time actually has gone pretty fast this past week and I think time will fly once we get custody of Nick.

On Monday we were able to visit Nick again, WooHoo! Our normal visiting time is from 1 - 3 which is right after lunch and right before a snack and nap time. The plan today was to meet our translater, A, at the metro stop closest to the baby home. We would then walk to the home, with Bill leading the way to make sure we know how to get there. It took us about 50 minutes between walking and metro, to get from our apartment to the other metro stop, then it was another 15 minute walk from the metro to the baby home.

Once we arrived at the baby home it was slightly chaotic in the little room we usually play in because Nick's groupa was getting ready to go play outside. They have covered pavillions outdoors, filled with toys where the little ones can play. Its quite a nice setup and gets the kiddos out doors. They gave us Nick, and he was a little fussy but this time we had Cheerios ready to go. So he was fine once he saw that.

We went out to the pavillion and had a fun time playing with Nick and the other children. Another family visiting their little one on Trip One was also outside with us. It was good to see Nick interact with the other children in the groupa. Additionally, we saw some skills that he hadn't shown us before, like the ability to stand up unaided in the middle of a room and then walk, fairly unsteadily I might add, but he was still walking!

We also taught him to sign "more". We don't know if he really gets it yet, but he was doing it to indicate that he wanted more cheerios. Of course we think he is brilliant for picking this up so quickly. I think tomorrow we're going to try "hat" or "bird", and of course continue to work with "more".

Nick is also becoming more vocal. He was babbling alot more today and he said Mama, very clearly. Now we just have to teach him who Mama is because I'm pretty sure he called Bill Mama also. We will see how that progresses!

It seems that he has a slight cold because his little nose was running a bit and he coughed a few times. Hopefully this passes without getting any worse.

Before our translator left us, she secured a pass for us to use to visit Nick for the rest of the week. Bill seems slightly stressed out about this and I think we'll be fine. As far as we know, we show up, show the pass to the security guard and then head in to Nicks groupa. Tomorrow we'll find out if it works like it should.

After our visit with Nick we made the commute back to the apartment and regrouped to head out for an early dinner. After the 2 hours of commuting and 2 hours of playing non-stop, with no lunch, we were fairly hungry and tired. We decided to try an Uzbek restaurant called, Kish Mesh.

At Kish Mesh, Bill started with a hearty soup with potatoes, carrots and lamb (I think) and a Samsa. The Samsa was a large dumpling like object which appeared to be a cross between phyllo and puff pastry around seasoned mashed potato. (I am surely butchering the description of the food, but you get the idea.) I started with a Chebuluk (sp?) which was a light pastry around some type of soft cheese (hopefully not goat, but it was still good!) with seasonings. It was quite good. For our main courses we both had the kebabs, Bills was mutton and mine was chicken. We ordered the spicy sauce with the kebabs, which turned out to be slightly sweet but ended with a kick.

Tomorrow we venture to the baby home, by ourselves for the first time, to see Nick. I can't wait to see what the day brings us!

Paka!

Rainy Day

2008-08-03T23:23:00.000-04:00

We had a slow start on Sunday trying to figure out how we wanted to spend the day. We finally decided to head out to the Novodevichiy Convent which is supposed to be a beautiful and serene holy site south of the city center. Apparently an early purpose of the convent was to sequester the daughters, sisters and wives of the nobility. On the grounds are several churches in various architectural styles and a cemetery where many of Russia's literary, musical and scientific heroes are buried. We ended up changing plans at the last minute because by the time we left our apartment the rain had started and it seemed like it might go on for a while. We're going to try to figure out another time to head to the convent, when the weather is better.

Our first stop on our outing was the large bookstore that is next to our apartment. It is the size of a Barnes and Noble, maybe even bigger. While there we purchased 2 CD's, one with Russian Fairy Tales and the other with Lullabies. We also purchased a DVD of Pinocchio in Russian.

We then walked for what seemed like a few hours, in the rain. We went from our apartment toward the City Center. We were looking for a restaurant we are interested in trying out called,
White Sun of the Desert. It took a bit of searching, but we finally found it. We didn't eat there because we want to go for dinner and it was mid-afternoon. But now we know where it is and plan on going sometime in the next week.

We decided to head over to one of the spots we found on our first trip, Maki Cafe for a snack. At the Maki Cafe Bill ordered the Siberian Fish Soup and Blinis with Sour Cream and I had the Pot Stickers. All the food was very good, as we had remembered it. It was also nice to rest for a bit as we had been walking for at least 2 hours prior to stopping to eat.

After our snack we headed back to our apartment, in the rain, with a quick stop by the grocery. At the grocery we were able to get our French Press, YAY! We were both very excited about that.

Upon returning to the apartment it was time to do some laundry. We have been here for almost a week and we didn't bring too many clothes (for ourselves at least). It took us longer than it should have to figure out the washing machine. The first load was lights, mainly. When I do laundry at home I am not a stickler about totally separing whites from other lights, etc. This proved to work against me today as all the whites in the first load came out pink. We can not figure out how this happened as there wasn't anything too dark or saturated with color that was in the load. Oh well, I suppose no trip to Russia would be complete without a laundry mishap!

Finally, we ended our day with a movie. We had another Netflix movie so we pulled it out. Without going into too much detail, one of us must have indicated that we like Terri Gilliam movies, because today's movie happened to be another Terri Gilliam flick and although I didn't think it was possible, this one was even more bizzare than the one last night.

Bye for now!

Passing Time

2008-08-03T00:56:00.000-04:00

Its Sunday morning and I'm enjoying my breakfast of instant coffee and a biscuit. Bill is still sleeping. I don't know how he does it. It gets light very early in the morning (around 5:30am) and we have thin vertical blinds that don't really block much light at all.

I have to say a few words about the instant coffee we've been drinking, its awful. I've never been an instant coffee girl, but here in Moscow we have quite a selection of instant coffee, Nescafe (Classic and Gold), Folgers and Maxwell House. They are all terrible. So the other day we thought we would pick up a French Press at our local grocery store and that would save us. We both really like our coffee in the mornings. Anyway, we're in the grocery and find a little kiosk in the middle of the store with various coffees and many different sized French Presses. So we find one that we like for about $25. I go to the front and there is a woman sitting in a chair doing some sort of inventory and there is a hand written sign on the counter, of course it means nothing to me, and our dictionaries are buried in my bag. So I proceed to stand there, look at her, and will her to wait on us. She won't make eye contact, of course, and Bill says to me he thinks she must be closed. I really want good coffee so I stand there for another minute or so, and then we leave without our French Press. Oh well, maybe next time.

We had a fun day yesterday (Saturday). We made it out of the apartment around 11:30am with a plan to visit the Pushkin Museum. Buying tickets was slightly confusing because there was the regular ticket, the ticket to the Impressionists (different building) and a ticket to the Italian Masters. Bill got us the ticket for the main museum, that my guide book indicated also included some of the impressionists. Unfortunately my book was not correct and all the impressionists had been moved to the other building, for which we didn't have a ticket. We saw many beautiful works of European Art from the 13th - 18th centuries, but no impressionists. We'll be going back to see them later in the week.

Across the street from the Pushkin is the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer. Wow, it is totally amazing and slightly over the top, but beautiful nonetheless. Apparently the original cathedral was blown up on Stalin's orders in 1931. The cathedral was rebuilt from 1994 - 1997 for a cost of US $200M. Here is a picture of the cathedral.

After the museum we decided to have some lunch. A place called 5 Spice (Chinese Food) had been recommended by Ron and Dinia, and Bill thought we were close so we set out to find it. I have to take a pause to say how good Bill is at finding things. He has an incredible sense of direction. I will have no idea where we are and he will know exactly. He doesn't understand how my sense of direction can be so bad. I think he thinks I'm making it up, but I'm not. It ended up being about a 10 minute walk from the museum to 5 Spice.

We were the only people in the restaurant, which was a little wierd. But the people were really nice, atmosphere was good, service was great, and best of all the food was really good. We both had the spicy ginger chicken. Bill thought it was the best meal he's had in Moscow. I think we'll probably go back there again before we leave because it was so good and its pretty close to our apartment.

After lunch we decided to head to the Arbat to see if we could find a place to sit outside, have a drink and enjoy the nice weather. We ended up stopping at the Doolin House which had outdoor seating under big umbrellas. When we got there the sun was out, there was a slight breeze and it was probably about 75 degrees. Shortly after arriving the wind picked up, the clouds rolled in and a fairly strong storm dumped a ton of rain and drove all the folks into the restaurant from the outside. We waited a while for the rain to slow down and when we thought it was stopping we left. We stopped at the local grocery on the way home and bought a frozen pizzen (yummy!) for dinner.

Back at the apartment we decided to watch one of the movies we brought. I'm really not sure how or why we ended up with this movie from Netflix, someone either recommended it or it came up on a list somehow. Anyway, we watched the movie Brazil. Oh my goodness, I hope I don't offend anyone, but it was really bizarre (not in a good way) and I'm certain that I didn't "get" it. I don't think we'll be watching that one again!

Bye for now, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

A Lazy Day

2008-08-01T14:33:00.000-04:00

We weren't sure what we were going to do today because we weren't scheduled to see Nick. We wanted to, but we needed a translator to join us one more time to show us the way and no one was available. So we will wait until Monday to see him again. I can't wait!

We spent a good part of the morning researching restaurants and cafes to visit over the next few days. As opposed to our last trip, we are within walking distance of many spots that we're looking forward to trying. I think the difficulty may be having enough energy by dinner time to actually go out. We'll have to work on our endurance for sure, we'll need it when Nick comes home.

We headed out around 11:30am for coffee at Starbucks which is about a 10 minute walk from our place. We found a table outside and had a really nice time sitting in the sun (yes, it was sunny today!) and watching the foot traffic on the Arbat. The only downside was the pushy roaming artist with a friend named Nicolette in Massachusettes. He spoke enough English to know that we weren't interested but he kept acting like he was going to start drawing. I finally said "Nyet" in my firmest voice (anyone who has heard me scold Abby will know the voice, which often makes Bill laugh) and it worked, I guess I'm scarier in Russian!

After Starbucks we walked around a bit and then went to the lunch spot that Bill had picked out called Tinkoff, which is, among other things, a brewpub. We had lunch there and hung out for a bit. Bill had the Borscht and we shared a pepperoni pizza. I have to say, the pizza was really good and I would recommend it to anyone coming here. The food was also reasonably priced (for Moscow).

On the way back to the apartment we checked out Detskiy Mir which is the childrens store across the street from us. We bought a few little toys for Nick and looked for a hat that we can use while we're here if it really gets down into the low 60s. Bill seems to favor the hats that have little animal ears on them, like bear ears. I didn't find any of those but will keep looking.

We stayed in for dinner tonight and watched the James Bond movie "From Russia With Love". It was good, pretty funny all in all, and we both enjoyed it. Thanks Mike D!

Tomorrow I think we're going to hit the Pushkin Museum and I'm not sure what else. Have a great weekend everyone!

A "Positive Outcome" = Meghan and Bill are parents!

2008-07-31T11:16:00.000-04:00

I can't believe its already Thursday evening. Sleep has been so hard to come by here for both Bill and I since we've arrived in Moscow and today was no exception. My problems started with random guys yelling at each other outside our window at 3am, this went on for quite a long time. Bill's problems started earlier in the evening when he wasn't able to get to sleep, at all, until about 4am. This was after he tripped the circuit in the apartment and we had no overhead lights, no big deal, its fixed now. We're hoping things go better with sleeping tonight.

We had court this morning at 10am. One of us was designated as the first speaker, yours truly, and I was in front of the judge for about 20 minutes answering questions. Then it was Bills turn, he was questioned for about 5 minutes. I have to say the court had a really positive vibe and we felt very comfortable and supported. After some official business, the judge left the room, and after another 5 - 10 minutes she returned with a "positive outcome" for the adoption request. This was very good news, obviously, and we were thrilled to have this part of the process complete. Of course we will have to wait the mandatory 10 day period to take custody of Nick, but hopefully the time will fly by.

After court we had the pleasure of meeting 3 other American families, all with court today, all adopting beautiful, healthy, young, baby girls (each right around 12 months!). The mood was very upbeat with all the families and we will hopefully be able to meet them again when they return to pick up their children in 10 days.

We were scheduled to see Nick at 1pm, so we rushed back to the apartment to change clothes and then head out to the baby home. When we arrived, Nick came walking (assisted by a caregiver) out of the play area, sporting a huge grin, to the outer room where we waited. Once the caregiver let go of his hands and Bill bent down to pick him up, he lost it, crying his little heart out. Boy, was he unhappy with the situation. It may seem strange, but even though we felt bad for Nick, we view this behavior as positive. What this tells us is that he has formed a bond with his caregivers and is not willing to go blindly to any old stranger, even ones that are now his parents!

We gave Nick a cookie and he settled down very quickly. After that we played ball for a while and spent some time playing with the cool train Julie gave us (thanks Julie!). We then found out they were going to allow us to take Nick out for his Passport and Visa pictures. How exciting! Nick was fascinated with the cars and all the activity. It was too cute to see his reaction to everything. The pictures turned out really well and Nick looks totally serious for his Passport and Visa.

After our little outing it was back to the baby home for more play. I was really happy that they allowed us to stay outside with Nick. We walked around the grounds of the baby home, played on the teeter totter for a while and then spent the end of our time in one of the outdoor play pavilions. It was during this time that we witnessed Nicks first unassisted steps, walking between Bill and I. How thrilling!

We also found out that they will allow us to visit Nick on weekdays, unaccompanied by a translator. This was great news for us, as we weren't sure they would allow this. We aren't going to be able to visit him tomorrow, but will get to visit each weekday next week. YAY!!!

Tonight, Bill and I made a quick trip to the grocery and then stayed in for dinner. We had spagetti with a pepper tomato sauce that was quite good. Our apartment host, David, brought us a beautiful torte on our first day that we have saved to celebrate with tonight. So when I'm done blogging, I'm going to have to wake Bill up (well, maybe not) and have some torte!

Till tomorrow!

Reunion with Nicholas

2008-07-30T12:23:00.000-04:00

Today started really early for me. I am usually the "good" sleeper in the family, but today I was up at 6:30am, after a night of fitful sleep. Bill on the other hand slept till about 9:30 or so. I was so jealous!

We were to meet our translator and driver at 12:30 so we had a leisurely morning with instant coffee, toast and granola bars for breakfast. Sounds good, huh. We're really going to have to do something about the instant coffee situation. Maybe I'll switch to tea while we're here. After breakfast we got ready to face the day and then headed across the street to the baby store to buy diapers. How convenient, there is a supermarket and childrens store within 5 minutes of our place. We picked up the diapers to take to the baby home as a donation and were picked up right on time to head over to see Nicholas.

When we arrived we waited in the locker room outside of the playroom of Nick's groupa. After a few minutes, Nick appeared in the doorway, walking (with his caregiver's help), and a big smile. He is just the cutest guy. He was very proud of himself and his abilities and just had a huge grin on his face...until he realized they were going to leave him in the room with, gasp, strangers. He did not like it when his caregiver left the room and cried a bit. Luckily, he settled down pretty quickly.

He is very cautious about us but definitely warmed up to us as the time went by. His favorite toys were the peek-a-boo ball (which occupied him for quite a while) and the toy cell phone that played cow, dog and sheep noises. The books didn't go over too well, nor did the singing of various nursery rhymes by Bill and myself. One thing I have definitely come to realize is that I really wish I had learned more Russian. Our translator is helping us with some basic phrases that we can use to help comfort Nick if he gets upset.

We had an opportunity to meet with one of Nick's caregivers to get his routine and find out what he has been eating, etc. I'd say the most interesting information we were given today is that he apparently has several food allergies that we will need to be aware of. Some of the foods they do not feed him are bananas, citrus, milk and carrots. We'll have to look into this more when we return home. We'll also see what additional information we can get about this over the next 2 weeks. We had a great reunion visit with Nick and we can't wait to see him again tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, its our Court Day. We feel well prepared and are looking forward to having it behind us. We'll be updating the blog tomorrow night with the details!

Bye for now.

Back in Moscow, at last

2008-07-29T13:29:00.000-04:00

Its Tuesday evening here in Moscow, we're tired but really excited about the upcoming weeks, especially tomorrow when we get to visit Nicholas.

Our trip was long, mainly due to the 6 hour layover in Atlanta, but uneventful. Everything was on time, all the luggage made it, and our translator A was at the airport to meet us. It was really nice to see her again.

We made it to the apartment around noon and David met us at our building to show us around. I think the apartment will work out really well for us. The location is good and it has everything we need to be comfortable for the next 3 weeks. We unpacked a bit and then decided to take a nap. 3 hours later we both woke up and while we were trying to decide what to do I checked email and found that Ron and Dinia were meeting up with another adoptive family for dinner. We couldn't pass it up and quickly threw our stuff in a back pack and hit the road.

We had dinner with Ron and Dinia, a very nice couple from the states that enjoy meeting and helping adoptive families during their time in Moscow, and another adoptive family, Christa, Vernon and Andrew. It was really amazing to meet a family a few weeks ahead of us in this journey and to see how well they are doing and how happy they are. Dinner was really delicious as well, I'm sure Bill and I will be heading back there again during our time here.

I'm going to sign off before I collapse into the keyboard. I'll be posting more tomorrow!

Blogging in Atlanta - Bill's Entry

2008-07-29T13:20:00.000-04:00

It is Monday morning and we are on our way. Thanks Mike for taking us to the airport at the ridiculously early hour of 5AM. We have arrived in Atlanta and are hanging out in the food court in the international terminal (we have a 6 hour lay-over, so we are in no hurry). Things are OK so far, no issues with the extra heavy bags (other than extra cost). We’ve already had success shopping in the airport, where we bought a Georgia Tech T-shirt and sippy cup for Nicholas.

So, I have been thinking about my Dad’s birthday party and while I didn’t speak due to the short notice, I do want to convey a sentiment as Meg and I get ready to expand our family. If there is one thing I would say about my dad, its that I can only hope that I am as good a dad to Nicholas as he is to me.

Time Flys

2008-07-27T22:28:00.000-04:00

The past few days have been incredibly busy getting ready for the trip, with a little fun squeezed in here and there.

The weekend starting with a Friday night happy hour with Bill's work friends. He has a really fun group of coworkers so there were many laughs and it was also nice to catch up with some of the people I also used to work with and hadn't seen in quite a while.

Saturday morning we worked on getting the house in order and also did some errands. Later that afternoon we drove to Northern Virginia for Bill's father's surprise 70th birthday bash. Bill's mom did a great job putting on the party. A family friend put together a powerpoint of pictures throughout his life and friends and colleagues also roasted Bill's dad. It was really nice and I think everyone had a wonderful time. I was happy that we were able to make it there. Earlier in the week we weren't too sure that we would have things under control for the trip. It turns out that we did, or so we thought.

Sunday we got up fairly early to hit the road back to Richmond. Once we got home the fun began...packing. Packing for this trip was much harder than I had anticipated. I honestly don't know how people bring everything needed while staying within the airline baggage limitations. When I had finally gotten every thing in the 3 suitcases, Bill weighed them and we were over by one pound on one suitcase and 17 pounds on another. This is when we decided we would bring a fourth suitcase and try to redistribute the really heavy stuff into the smaller bags. We tried and were partially successful. We brought the 51 pounder to under 50 and the 67 pounder to 60. Plus now we have 4 suitcases. Oh well. whats another fee for excessive baggage on top of everything else, right? For luggage we have, 2 really large bags (27 inches +), 2 smaller bags (21 inches or so), a laptop bag, large purse, backpack and umbrella stroller. It should be really fun lugging this stuff around for the next day or so.

Tomorrow morning our flight is really early and our friend Mike is picking us up at 5am! Wow, I hope I can sleep tonight. I am sooooo excited to see our little guy again and really looking forward to our time in Moscow. We do have internet access in our apartment so my plan is to update often (hopefully daily) once we're settled!

Documentation Drama Update

2008-07-23T22:39:00.000-04:00

I'm starting to relax...well...no, not really, but kindof. I do have some good news about the infamous police/background checks. After talking to various employees of the State Police, M, and M, and finally T (my new favorite person), our updated documents are now in FedEx Tracking on their way to our social worker. If all goes well and FedEx delivers as they normally do, our updated reports will be available around 10:30 am on Thursday, with our local Home Study Agency. I am so relieved. I called the nice people at the State Police every day this week to get updates. T told me that the reports would be mailed today, but I every time I checked Fed Ex tracking they didn't show up, until this evening around 9PM. I know they aren't in my hands yet, but its nice to know the hard part (I think) is done. Tomorrow, I plan on making a beeline to get the documents from our HS Agency as soon as they have them and then I'll head downtown to get them apostilled. I really appreciate that T went above and beyond to ensure that our documents were processed and mailed out on time. I am so amazed and thankful that she was able to help us.

Thats it for now!

Documentation Drama

2008-07-19T07:36:00.001-04:00

Its 7am here and I've been awake since 4, up since 5:30, and have already made a trip into work (and Panera). I'm a tad stressed out due to events of late last week and this morning. This is what happened.

It may be hard to believe for people who are currently or have recently been through a Russian adoption, but, I did not know that our Police Reports/Criminal Background Checks were only good for 90 days (thought 365) until I read a thread on the CHI Yahoo Site regarding documentation updates (thanks all that helped trigger this realization for me, I think it sunk in due to posts from April and Rachel :-). Anyway, up to that point, I thought I had done really well with keeping up with documentation updates and that we were in good shape, not quite. Prior to trip 1 we had requested updated Police Reports which we didn't receive in time for trip 1 but received immediately upon return, dated April 18. Court is July 31st, so with the knowledge of this new timeframe, these docs will expire July 18th. Thus the drama ensued.

I first called CHI to verify the life of these documents. Our rep was not available so I decided I'd rather be safe than sorry and immediately tried to contact my local Social Worker for help with requesting a new set of police reports. Turns out she was on vacation so one of the other Social Workers walked me through the steps. I then left work and headed out for the appropriate signatures. While I was at the Social Workers office, we called the State Police and they said I could hand deliver the request forms. So, that is what I did, with a letter begging them to process by Wednesday and I also included a pre-paid Fed Ex envelope for next day delivery once the request is processed. I called the office that handles these requests and explained my problem. The women I spoke to was very nice, but wouldn't commit to the needed turnaround. I feel like they will make it happen, but have no guarantees. After much thought in the wee hours this morning I decided that I will call again first thing Monday morning and beg them to process it as soon as they can. I am beside myself about this and not sure how this requirement fell through the cracks for us.

This morning, as I was stressing out about the Police Reports, I decided to check the timeline for getting these reports back in April, to try to understand the normal processing time. Its 5:30 am and I go to the spot where I keep my "adoption bag" (adoption bag = tote bag full of all important adoption papers and the accordian file with copies of the dossier, our original I-171H, etc.), its not where I normally put it. I looked in my car, checked by the garage, scoured the house and my adoption bag was nowhere to be found. This is the kind of thing that will undo me. I will obsess about a lost item, be it an earring, sunglasses, clothing, for much longer than I should. I knew the only hope for me getting through this weekend was to go into work to see if I left the bag there. Lately I have been taking this bag everywhere because you never know when something is going to pop up. It had to be at work.

Luckily work is pretty close to home so I set off to find the bag and there it was, sitting in my chair. It is so unlike me to forget something so important. I guess I've got a little bit on my mind!

We had another mini-drama Thursday night that I won't go into in detail except to say we've now got that one under control. I will say this, know how long it is going to take you to get any required finances in place so that a Registered/Certified check can be ordered by whatever deadline you have!

I have a few updates. The leak from the dishwasher was caused by a puncture in the bottom of the dishwasher. Crazy, it looks like a very sharp knife or something was dropped straight down into the bottom of the dishwasher. We have no idea how this happened, you couldn't do it on purpose if you tried. Oh well, our wonderful friend and handyman Glen put a patch over the puncture wound that we hope will last until we have finances to replace it (in about 20 years or so). We haven't actually tried the washer yet post patch.

My running has been going pretty well. I think my leg is almost healed and I have been able to run every other day for the past few weeks and even went 6 miles last weekend. I was going to try 7 this morning but due to the trip to work, etc. I missed the coolest part of the day so I am going to try tomorrow instead. Also, due to the timing of our Russia trip there is no way I'll be able to do the Rock 'n Roll 1/2 marathon in September. Now I'm thinking maybe the Richmond 1/2 in November. We'll see how it goes.

Thats about it. This weekend we are focusing on picking up the remaining items we need for the baby and making sure everything around the house is in good shape for us to leave for 3 weeks.

Have a great weekend!

Progress and Making the Time Go By

2008-07-15T20:23:00.001-04:00

The list making has officially begun and progress is being made. I can't believe that in less than 2 weeks we'll be in Russia. I am so excited! The fact that we're so close to finally becoming parents and expanding our family is surreal to me.

Preparations for the trip are underway. We have plane tickets, an apartment for 3 weeks, a house/Abby/Chloe sitter (Thanks Sam!), doctors appointments rescheduled (I had originally made appointments for our little one for the end of July...wishful thinking), a preliminary packing list and a list of items we still need (happy shopping).

Other than the trip planning, we have one document that expires the day before we go to court. Yes, the day before. So, tomorrow or Thursday I'll be trekking down to the Sec of State office to have this final document apostilled. Good times...and whats funny is they now know us down there. Bill took something a few weeks ago and they said that I had just been in and asked about our progress. Funny. I think we'll definitely take a picture and thank you note down there once we're home.

We are also trying to have some fun, relax and spend time with friends. We had a rousing game of Killer Bunnies on Saturday night at Mike and Arletts house. I actually won, which was totally unexpected and random, but a nice surprise nevertheless. On Sunday afternoon I had brunch with a few college sorority sisters, Lois, Christine and Marsha. It was really fun and as always there was alot of laughter, especially when Marsha pulled out the pictures from back in the day!

Aside from that, I just found what appears to be a leak from the back of the dishwasher to the other side of the breakfast bar where I am sitting right now so I better go and try to figure out what is happening!

More later.

YAY...We Got the Call

2008-07-10T18:27:00.000-04:00

Yes, its true! We got the call to inform of us of our court date around noon today. YAY!!! We aren't sure exactly when we leave but it will be on or around July 28th, Court is July 31st and we should head back home with our little guy around August 18th.

I was at work when we got the call and to tell the truth, not doing well at all. The bottom line is that I had pretty much hit the wall this week. You might think to yourself, it seemed like she hit the wall about a month ago, and you would be correct. But, I hit it again, and harder. Really, it was not pretty. I had gotten sooooo frustrated with the lack of information we were getting, it was just eating me up inside. The logical side of me could not make sense of everything and I was looking for answers where there weren't any.

It was such a relief to hear that we're actually scheduled. At first I didn't believe it. So, after I pinched myself a few times I tried to call Bill, but he wasn't at his desk. I was really bummed about that. I eventually got in touch with him and he was thrilled with the news as well. I spent a few hours wrapping up a project and then set out to take care of the paperwork for the replacement Visas.

We are both really excited about the news and the first thing I'm doing after updating the blog is to make some lists!

I'm really going to try to be good about updating regularly on the prep for the second trip. Hopefully I'll have an update soon!

Life on Hold

2008-07-09T06:54:00.000-04:00

Through this adoption journey I have felt like my life is on hold. I've been afraid to make plans for weekends out of town because we might be travelling soon. In anticipation of the 3 week return trip to Russia, both Bill and I have been trying not to take any extra vacation, etc. So, having the 4th of July off and being able to hit the road last weekend was a god send.

Originally we were going to stick around town. After all, we had Abby's friend Spike staying with us while his family was away on vacation and we hadn't made a reservation for Abby at the Holiday Barn (kennel). Not only was the upcoming weekend the 4th of July, it was also the beginning of Bill's family's annual summer vacation at the Outer Banks. Once again, due to our upcoming trip to Russia, we weren't going to be able to join them. But, we really needed to get away so we decided to go to Va Beach for the 4th to hang out with my friend Maria and her family and then we travelled to Frisco on Saturday to spend Sat/Sun with Bills family before returning home-to work on Monday morning.

It was a great weekend. We had a blast hanging out with Maria, Chris and their 3 wonderful children. We played at the pool, relaxed, had great food (thanks Chris!) and even saw fireworks. Its always great to spend time with good friends and it was a fun way to spend the 4th.

On Saturday we travelled to Frisco, which took us about 5 hours from Va Beach. We hit a fair amount of traffic and Frisco is almost all the way South to Hatteras. Even though our time was short, we enjoyed the beach which mainly consisted of eating, reading, laying around and chatting. It was just what we needed. Boy, was it hard to get up at 4:30am on Monday to return back to Richmond. We made it back in about 5 hours which was pretty good time.

So now we're back to reality and waiting. I have no news regarding our court date and I'm trying not to have any expectations...that is really hard!

Hopefully we'll hear something soon.

On the Road Again

2008-06-26T18:52:00.000-04:00

This entry is not going to be about the adoption, although I can't promise that I won't mention it in passing, and in this first paragraph. I am boycotting any extended discussion of the status right now because I have no new information except that the expedited ($$$) Visas we received last week in anticipation of travelling soon (?) may not be correct. I won't bore you with the details but please say a prayer for us that we don't have to shell out another big chunk of money to get new ones.

Early this year I decided that I was going to try to do the Richmond Marathon in November 2008. I am no great runner, nor am I even mediocre. I'm really slow but have pretty good endurance. Running a Marathon is something I've always wanted to do and I thought this year would be a good time because next year we'd probably be completing the adoption. The good news is that the adoption should happen this year. Now I need to figure out whether I'll be able to do the Marathon in November or not. Aside from the lifestyle changes that will occur with a little one joining the family, I have had some recent training issues.

In anticipation of starting Marathon training in May, I signed up for the Rock 'N Roll 1/2 Marathon in Virginia Beach over Labor Day. I did this last year with my friend Maria and thought it would be fun, and good timing in terms of training for the Marathon. Training for the 1/2 Marathon should have begun in June and training for the Marathon in November should have begun in May.

So, have I started training? Not really, not like I need to. My problem is that I have a self diagnosed myself with a strained achilles tendon in my left leg. No, I haven't been to the doctor about it and I don't know for sure if this is what is wrong, but I am treating this ailment. Nice, huh. My treatment is that I didn't run for the first 3 weeks of June, ice my leg regularly, and take Motrin sometimes. Prior to my diagnosis I had been running 3 - 4 times a week, about 3 miles a day and then 5 - 10 miles one day/week for my long run.

I had originally planned to stop running up to and throught the trip back to Russia, but I couldn't do it. I had to start back. Running helps me deal with stress and I needed a release for all the anxiety that I've been feeling recently.

I started back last Saturday and it went pretty well. My foot/heel/ankle hurt slightly for the first 2 blocks and then it loosened up and felt pretty good. The big test was whether I'd be able to walk on it without limping on Sunday morning. I could. I was happy. Since then I've been out twice. On each subsequent run, my foot/heel/ankle hurt for the first few blocks and then felt pretty good. My dilemma is whether I should continue or not. I know the leg is not normal and don't think its completely healed, but its better than it was before I stopped for 3 weeks and running is helping my stress levels. Thats good, right? I'm going to try to go for a long run Saturday to see how it does. Hopefully this isn't a bad idea.

I'm not any closer to figuring out the Marathon question. I think in the end it comes down to two options, 1) an extended period off the leg, thus missing training and stress reducing runs and potentially not being ready in time for the distance, or 2) running half injured, potentially creating a chronic condition, and not being ready in time for the distance. These are not good options, but if there is really a problem 1) is better than 2). I guess its time to see the doctor and have a professional help me figure out what is wrong and what I can do about it. Maybe there is an option 3) that I don't know about!

Thats it for now, I'll update if I hear anything of interest regarding the adoption!

I Couldn't Change the Station

2008-06-22T11:22:00.000-04:00

I was on my way to work Friday morning, listening to NPR, when Story Corps came on. Story Corps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening. It usually involves one or two people discussing one of their lives or an event in their lives. Sometimes I have to change the station when it comes on because it is so hard to listen to...translation, it makes me cry.

Well on Friday it caught my attention because it was a man talking about his experiences spent in an orphanage in Denver in the fifties. He talked about how back then prospective parents could check out a child from the orphanage like a library book, to see how the child would fit in to their family. He recounts that the only recollection he has of these trips to peoples homes was the trip to their home, in the front seat of the car, with the families trying to make him smile and laugh. And the trip back to the orphanage, sitting in the back seat, with no one speaking to him, feeling that they didn't like him, not knowing why. After one such trip he decided he never wanted to leave the orphanage again.

Heart-wrenching is what this story is. It was about this point in the story when I lost it, crying my eyes out for this child and the countless others. I couldn't change the station.

Luckily, there was a happy ending! When he was 5 he was adopted by a family that didn't take him home on a trial basis, they simply adopted him. He goes on to discuss finding the first two gifts his parents ever gave him in his mothers belongings when she died. More tears. If you'd like to hear the story I have included the link below. You may want to get a tissue first.

Click here to listen to: An Orphan's Adoption: 'And Away we Went'

Needless to say, the story got me thinking about our little guy and what he's thinking. Does he realize we're coming back as soon as we can? Does he look at the photo album we left for him? Does he listen to our voices in his bear, telling him we love him? I hope so. I hope they tell him every day that Mommy and Daddy will be back soon, and hopefully he understands this and hopefully he believes them.

Many people have said adoption isn't for the faint of heart and they weren't kidding. It's an emotional journey that will turn you inside out. But, in the end, when we're home with our son, it will all be worth it.

May Showers bring June Court Dates, Right?

2008-06-17T20:40:00.000-04:00

I know thats not how it goes, but I can dream can't I. Ok, this isn't supposed to be about Court Dates, its about showers! We were very fortunate to have had 2 toddler showers last week. One we knew about ahead of time, the other was a surprise...mainly.

The first shower was hosted by my sister Jill and Bill's sister Mary. It was at Jill's home, where many of you know, Bill and I were married. We've had alot of good times there! Anyway, the day began with Mary driving down here, picking me up and we headed to Jills. Those of you that know Mary know that she loves cooking, putting parties on, and entertaining. The larger the scale, the better. She really should start a catering business. And Jill is no slouch either, a gourmet cook, accomplished artist, talented decorator, of course the house looked awesome. The shower theme was Jungle, in honor of the nursery, and everything was just adorable. The food was amazing and I think everyone really enjoyed the afternoon. Lots of my local pals attended and it was really nice to celebrate such a wonderful occasion with everyone. Thank you everyone for all the fabulous gifts. We needed 3 cars to get everything back to the house!

After the shower, Mary, my friend Maria (from Va Beach) and Anne returned to the house for a girls night. Mary's friend Melissa also joined us for a late night (2 am!) of girl talk, eating, drinking, chatting, etc., with various pop-ins from Bill. It was a great weekend and thank you to everyone that made it happen. Bill and I really appreciate it.

The second shower was given by my co-workers. It was pretty funny, the intent was for it to be a surprise. But, about 5 minutes before it started, one of the men that I work with came by and asked if today was "my lunch thing". I told him I didn't know what he was talking about. As far as I knew we were having a going away lunch for one of my team members. He said he'd go check his calendar, huh?! So, a few minutes later one of my team came and asked me if I had a minute to chat. We headed toward my bosses office and...surprise... in his office was a party. We had lunch, watched the Wiggles, opened gifts and had cake. It was very sweet of everyone and among other things our kiddo received his first sandals, sunglasses and most importantly, the first of many...a UVA Teeshirt! Go HOOS! Wahoo Wa!

Thanks to all my CC buddies, you guys are the best!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T16:06:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to take a moment to say Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Blogging is Hard!

2008-06-13T17:57:00.000-04:00

If anyone is still out there trying to find out what is going on with our adoption I apologize for being such a lax blogger. Putting my thoughts down on paper has been alot harder than I thought it would be. Good thing I didn't follow through on my childhood dream of being a writer. Something tells me that wouldn't have worked out too well for me.

So, the latest is that there is no latest. We have no news, no court date, no flight plans, no last minute scurrying around to figure out what outfits to bring and what books to pack. We are still waiting, and I've lost my mind. Now most folks that know me would hopefully say I'm pretty level headed and even-keeled (mainly). Well, mild-mannered Meghan has been replaced with court date crazed Meghan. What has happened is that we have passed the point that I expected to receive our date (6/6). This has caused much internal stress which is manifesting itself as a generally irritated and surly demeanor to everyone I cross paths with. Its not pretty and unfortunately I think I am at my most irritable while at work. Sorry to all my coworkers, hopefully this phase will pass soon. The other good option would be that we get our date soon and I can get on with worrying about other things like what I'm going to feed a 15 month old.

We have heard from our agency that we are the next family to get scheduled for court. I don't really know what this means. Are we the next family in the world, are we the next family from our Agency, its hard to say. We got this nugget of information on Tuesday (6/10). I pinned all my hopes for a date on Wednesday and since we didn't hear Wednesday, Thursday (6/12) is a Russian holiday and I believe Friday is a vacation day for most. So, now maybe we'll hear next week. I've set a recent record of not contacting our agency for 3 whole days. I'm sure our case worker is glad about that. I suspect I'll start in early Monday. No, I take it back, I'm really going to try to be calm about it.

So, thats it, all I know. My next post will be happy and will focus on all the fun things that have been going on recently to help us prepare for our kiddo's homecoming!

The Beach and other Diversions

2008-06-01T19:09:00.000-04:00

Our annual spring beach trip to the Outer Banks was last week. You may wonder what we were thinking taking a vacation when we already had 2 weeks in Moscow in April and another 3 weeks coming up in the near future (we hope!). It would be difficult to justify all that time away from work, so we opted for the weekend, up on Friday night and back on Sunday afternoon. We were also able to take Abby with us which was really fun for her.

We had a wonderful time, although too short! The house was great, the weather was gorgeous all weekend and it was nice to get away and spend time with friends. The weekend was spent sunning by the pool, reading, eating and game playing (Killer Bunnies...very fun, check it out). Plus, our friends totally caught us off guard with a surprise baby shower. Well, apparently Bill stumbled upon it early but he kept quiet until they could get me up to the living room. We received all kinds of books, toys, clothing and to top it all off, a stroller. Here are some pictures of the festivities. Someone was really excited about Spider Man!

Other than the beach trip we are keeping busy with preparing for Nicholas to come home, there is always more to be done. We still haven't gotten any news regarding our court date. I'm really hoping we're going to hear something this week. This timing would be consistent that of recent families that have travelled to Moscow with our agency. I'll definitely update the blog when we get the news.

Baby Prep

2008-05-18T14:18:00.000-04:00

We're well past time for an update. Its been quite a while since I've posted. In the 3 weeks since we've been back we've been busy preparing for our kiddo's arrival. It's been fun!

We started with setting up the nursery. The room we chose was previously known as "Abby's room". The first thing we did was move her crate into the office. She has made the switch with relatively no issues. I occasionally find her hanging out in the nursery, its pretty cute, I think she still thinks its "her" room and it just has a good vibe.

We agreed almost immediately on furniture and a theme (Jungle). Getting the furniture home from the store and then into the room was quite the ordeal. The boxes were big, heavy and there were several of them. We definitely underestimated the size and weight of the furniture. We could have never done it with just the two of us. Luckily our friend Mike helped us get the furniture home in his truck and then helped carry it up to the nursery. Thanks Mike!

I am including pictures of Bill putting the crib together and of the finished room.

Other baby prep activities have included visiting daycare/preschools, researching local pediatricians, registering at Babies R Us, putting together brag books for the grandmothers, finishing up the remaining adoption paperwork that needed updating for Moscow and investigating options for trip 2 in terms of accomodations and flights.

So, we really have more than enough to do while we wait for our court date. From what I can tell, recent wait times for families going to Moscow City for trip 2 have been about 8 weeks from returning from the first trip. When we hear something we'll definitely let you know!

Back Home in Richmond

2008-04-25T07:25:00.000-04:00

First, thanks to everyone for your positive vibes, prayers and support while we've been away, it really means alot to both of us.

We are sorry that we couldn't post earlier in the week. Over the weekend there wasn't anything to report. Once things finally got back in motion on Tuesday morning, we were a long commute away from Internet access and the plans for updating the blog were squelched by trips from one end of the city to the other to sign papers and deliver documents.

We switched hotels Saturday morning from a Holiday Inn to a government run charity hotel (as our agency rep described it) with no name that anyone could ever really tell us. Once we got past the graffiti walls and barbed wire that surrounded it, it was actually not that bad, although it was about an hour commute to the city center, it took 11 bus stops and 7 metro stops to get to Red Square. The room itself was like a small apartment with a very large bedroom and a small sitting room. Pictures of the outside of the hotel follow, unfortunately we don't have a shot of the barbed wire, maybe next time.

One thing that helped the transition to the far flung reaches of Moscow is that another couple moved with us and the husband is fluent in Russian. Through talking with him we found out that buying a phone for use in country wasn't very expensive and was nice to have in case of emergency or if one of the agency reps needed to contact us. After we moved, our driver Alexi, helped us buy a phone. This did wonders for our comfort level.

We had 3 days to ourselves until we would go to the Ministry of Education on Tuesday. Over this time we explored the city and spent more time with my friend Patti and her family. It was a welcome distraction from the worry and anxiety surrounding the past and upcoming events of the trip. Here is a picture of St. Basils (in the rain) and a guy in Red Square with Monkeys dressed in rain gear. We don't know what his purpose was with the monkeys but they were cute.

After not sleeping a wink on Monday night, we were finally going to meet our second referral child on Tuesday. We started the day going to the Ministry of Education (the folks that control the international adoption process) at 10am. We were the first group of foreigners to show up. As the morning progressed additional American and French families came to meet their future children.

We were eventually called back to an office where the officials questioned us about why we wanted to adopt, etc. and after alot of Russian spoken between our Agency Rep and the officials, we were given our referral. At this point we received a picture and some background on his circumstances. He is an adorable little cutie-pie that just had his first birthday.

We then went to the Baby House to meet him. The baby house appeared to be well run and was very clean. We met with the Director of the baby house and the Doctor and were updated on his medical and family history. Here I am waiting for the caregivers to bring him in to meet us.

Once our little guy came out to meet us, we were able to go back to the play area and had a wonderful time playing with our babe and his play group. They have a nice big play area with a wall of windows to let the sun shine in (when it is out which seems rare based on our 10 days). The kids were all very interested in what we were doing, it was a nice experience.

On Wednesday we returned to the baby house and were able to take him outside to play. One thing that is fairly amusing is that in Russia they really bundle the children up if they are going outside. Wednesday was a beautiful day and was probably about 55 degrees and sunny. They had our little guy bundled in a body suit, shirt, pants, big wool sweater, hat and a snowsuit over all of this. Of course we didn't know how many clothes he had on until we came in from the outside. We were surprised he could move with all that clothing on!

The time to say goodbye came too quickly and we left him with a blanket, a teddy bear and a little teething photo album with pictures of us and Abby.

We then spent the rest of the day running around one end of the city to the other signing documents and delivering paperwork. Among other things, we signed the petition to adopt our little cutie.

Unfortunately, we can't post pictures on the blog until the adoption is finalized.

After celebrating with a dinner in a great Georgian restaurant with our Interpretor, we went back to our hotel to crash and pack up for the trip home.

Now we will wait for a court date. Our agency tells us we won't hear anything for at least one month. The wait until we travel back is going to be really hard, but we've got a ton of stuff to do here to prepare so hopefully time will fly.

We're really happy that the trip was a success and look forward to the journey ahead.

Update on Trip 1

2008-04-18T12:14:00.000-04:00

After two days of waiting we found out today that we will be allowed to stay to meet a second child. We should be able to spend time together on Tuesday and Wednesday and plan to fly home on Thursday. We are hopeful.

In the mean time we have had alot of time to explore the city.

We have mastered the subway...kind of. Today, I (Meghan) got through the turnstyle for the first time without my legs getting caught.

Yesterday we saw Red Square, St. Basils, Alexander Gardens and GUM. We also ate at the local Mexican restaurant where we were treated with live music and special dancers, they were fabulous, there was a fog machine and everything.

Today we went to the Arbat which is a pedestrian area with many shops and cafes. We met my friend Patti and went to a cute little bistro for lunch. It was great to have someone to talk to (in person) about the situation and also to find out more about what it is like to live here.

Tomorrow we're switching hotels because this one is booked and we were supposed to leave on Saturday. We don't know much about the new spot except that it may not be very "convenient". That gives me a warm fuzzy. Anyway, hopefully we'll find internet access somewhere so we can keep you updated.

We probably won't post again for a few days as nothing will really happen until Tuesday.

Have a great weekend!

Update from Moscow

2008-04-16T10:56:00.001-04:00

Greetings from Moscow, we have had a tough few days.

I'll start with the good stuff:

All our flights were on time and we had no troubles along the way. The one highlight of the trip was running into a Sorority Sister that I haven't seen for 20 years (Patti F.) in the Munich airport. How random and wonderful is that? And, she has recently moved to Moscow which is very cool and hopefully we'll get together at some point before we leave.

Now for the tough stuff:

After spending two days with a very cute and sweet little 18 month old boy we made the extremely difficult decision not to adopt him because of high potential for significant issues down the road.

As you can probably imagine this is tearing us both apart and is one of the hardest things we have ever had to do. I don't think either of us was prepared for how awful this would be.

We don't know what is going to happen next. Right now, we hope that we may get a second referral by early next week but it is possible that we may come home Saturday (as planned) without one.

Thanks everyone for your support and prayers!

We will try to post again when we have more information.

Anticipation, Shoes and Lists

2008-04-12T22:37:00.000-04:00

We leave tomorrow for Moscow and I'm very excited, thats how I feel, very excited. And scared and nervous and very excited.

We spent the day finishing up preparations for the trip. I think we're there, we're ready to go. Bags are packed, and unusually light I might add. One of my most noteworthy packing accomplishments would be the fact that I'm taking just one pair of shoes plus the ones I'm wearing. That is a new record for me! Baby stuff is definitely more important than one more pair of shoes.

But seriously, I worry that I've forgotten something important. Although part of me wonders how this could be possible given that I have about 20 lists of things to do, things to buy and things to pack. Surely that elusive item has made it onto one of these lists...right? I did have a good day in terms of my lists. I think the list makers out there would agree, when you get to cross all the items off the list that is really good (and pretty rare, at least with my lists). One more thing about lists and then I'll be done. Have you ever added an item to a list, that you've already completed just so you can cross it off your list? I have.

I can't believe we're leaving tomorrow. I hope everything goes well. I think its going to be incredible. We'll try to post while we're away. I told Bill we would have to be silly and take pictures in Dulles and Munich and everywhere we go so we have something to post. He was really excited about that!

Adoption Details

2008-04-11T07:02:00.000-04:00

I realized today that I haven't really provided any information regarding how our upcoming trip is going to work and what the purpose is.

The first thing that might seem kind of surprising is that right now, we don't know anything about the baby that has been chosen for us. When we completed our original paperwork we didn't specify boy or girl, the only thing we specified was a healthy baby, as young as possible, under 18 months. We are also approved for 2 children, which is probably highly unlikely but you never know (smile).

The youngest that the baby will be is around 9 months. The babies have to be on a Russian database of children without parental presence for at least 6 months before they become available for International adoption. Also, from what we are told we are more likely to be matched with a boy.

Two trips are necessary to adopt a child from Russia. First, we travel to Russia to meet our child and apply for a court date (this trip will last about one week). After this we return to the United States and wait for the court date. Unfortunately, our prospective adoptive child must remain in Russia during this time. The time between trips ranges between 1 to 3 months. We will then travel to Russia a second time to attend the court hearing. After the court hearing, the parents will receive the adoption certificate and a new birth certificate showing the child's new name, and the adoptive parents as the child's parents. During the second trip we will have alot of time to spend with the baby. Especially if the court doesn't waive the 10 day waiting period. We expect to be there for the second trip between 2 and 3 weeks.

Thats the process in a nutshell. We expect many ups and downs over the next several weeks. My goal in all this is to go with the flow and to try to keep perspective.

Countdown to Trip #1

2008-04-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

I am so excited! We have 4 days until we leave for Moscow and I think we're in pretty good shape to get everything done that needs to be done before we go. Some of the major accomplishments of the past week include: arranged for a doctor in Moscow, arranged support from a doctor in the US, updated passports, received visas, bought a camcorder, arranged for special money, completed most of the updated documents with notarization and apostille, bought baby clothes (fun!), bought baby toys (thanks Katherine!), made a photo album to leave with our little one (very cute!), set up this blog, and ran a 10K.

We still have a few documents to pick up from various sources, we'll have to get those documents apostilled and then we need to scan all documents and send to them to our agency. Whew!