Is Leopard Print Girly??

Well, is it? The reason I'm asking is Andrei is using Kennedi's old car seat. It has a leopard print cover. I kept wondering why everyone was asking me if I wanted a new cover for it. I kept saying, "no." I mean, it is in great shape. Why would I want to foolishly spend money that doesn't have to be spent. This morning Annsley sees her old car seat in the barn and says to me, "Mom, I think we need to start using mine. It looks more boyish." It was at that moment that I realized what everyone was trying to say to me but I was in La-La Land. I asked her, "You think leopard is for a girl only?" My husband, who overheard the conversation, said loudly, "Uhhh...YEAH!" Oh jeez....if I keep him in the leopard print, will it mar him for life? I really, really like it....

Andrei is suddenly big into copy-cat. We were all eating supper the other evening, and Doug was sitting at the table with his hand on his chin listening to Annsley tell a story, and we look over at Andrei. He has his elbow in the middle of his lovely Gerber Pasta Pick-ups and his food infested hand is resting on his chin watching his daddy. Oh I wish I had had my camera ready! At some point during the meal, Kennedi starts clapping with her hands over her head. Andrei follows in suit. This morning he was out on the porch, and Kennedi yells loudly, "Mo-o-o-o-o-m--a-a-a-a-a!" Andrei, in that loud loud voice of his, copies her. (And yes, he really said, "Mom!")

He loves it when you praise him. I often wonder how often he heard praise in the orphanage. One place it has a big pay off is in the high chair. He devours the food he likes first, and then his enthusiasm waffles at the veggies or non-banana fruit. I've learned that I can feed him one piece, say "Yeah Andrei!" and clap, and then he will pick up the food on his own and feed himself it. I say, "Yeah Andrei!" and clap again. By the third bite he is clapping for himself when he puts a piece in his mouth. And he continues to clap for himself until everything is gone. Hilarious!

He has started this reclining thing when you're on the floor. He will push himself up against you and sit or stand next to you. I mean really push. It's like he's trying to make himself stick on you like Silly Putty. If he were any heavier and I any lighter I'd topple over like a bowling pin. What is he doing??? I think we're also starting to experience the separation anxiety phase. He's getting to be that age, and it has really taken a hold of him the last few days. All of a sudden I can't go to the bathroom without him having a break down. Stepping over the gate to get something cooked in the kitchen brings tears. Putting him down on the floor and walking away is murder. I suppose that is all good and well in the adoption world, HOWEVER, I find myself trying desperately not to roll my eyes in exasperation. This too shall pass....this too shall pass... this too shall pass...

As I've mentioned before, the boy is loud. This high volume primal grunting comes with everything he does. At the time of this writing, he is currently in the living room doing his "business" in his diaper. He is grunting so loudly that people would have to turn down their hearing aids if they were in the vicinity of my house. And no, he's not constipated--trust me on that one. I finally got his name letters up in his room, and he now points to them and thunders something about them daily. He grabs his wrist when I change his diaper, and he blows his own raspberries on it. I consider it a good day if I can go all day and not pick up something saliva ladened.

In adoption news our homestudy agency has contacted us about setting up an appointment this summer for our first post placement visit! Yikes! Time is flying! By the way, his name is pronounced Aun-dray. We never thought in a million years that people wouldn't know how to pronounce his name by the "common spellin" we used. So much for that thought... :)

Big-Huge successes!

Andrei has FINALLY begun taking naps on a consistent basis over the course of the last week and a half. He really hasn't been consistent since we left Krasnoyarsk, and he is so much more of a joy to be around when he's rested. He's in that difficult in between stage now of sometimes 2 naps are too much and 1 nap is not enough, but AT LEAST HE'S NAPPING! 60+ days without any type of consistency of day time sleeping for a 14 month old wears thin in a hurry. He's been taking two 1 1/2 naps or a 2-2 1/2 hour single nap these days. HALLELUJAH!

I had asked God for a laid back child--a phlegmatic. I don't have much experience with this personality type as I'm not one, Doug isn't one, Annsley isn't one, and the world knows Kennedi isn't one either, but I knew in order for me to survive I couldn't entertain a demanding child. One of my friends from high school who has a baby girl Andrei's age thinks that it just God being nice to us "older" folks. What ever it is, I'll take it. That being said, I'm starting to think Andrei is really going to need to work on the "git" in his git-along. Point one: The boy can stand without holding on to anything for a good 5-10 seconds. Does he try to take a step? No. We try to coax him to take a step to one of us, and he just grins, drops to his knees, and speed crawls to us. I've never seen anyone crawl so fast in all my life. I wish there was a Toddler Crawl Race somewhere. He'd clean up. Point two: I decided last week that he should really be moving past the pureed stage of mom feeding him and on to feeding himself. Yes, pureed food is easy, not messy, and probably it's number one selling point...it's fast. But toddlerhood is calling. I tried hard to think back how I transitioned the girls to finger foods, and I kept drawing a big blank, so I came to the conclusion that it must have not been a big deal. I figured the same with Andrei. After all, he handles the Puffs, potting soil, and rocks from the yard with ease.

The boy just sat there. Literally. Didn't put his hands on his food--nothing. Five quiet minutes went by. I picked up a piece of carrot and tried to put it in his mouth. He just pressed his lips together. I tried having him pick up a piece with his hand, but again he just pressed his lips together. I gave him a spoon. He just pulverized his food with it. I finally got out a spoon and offered the carrot in the spoon. Ahhh....success! Yes, he was waiting for me to feed him, and he was ready to refuse to eat otherwise. Unfortunately, I'm as stubborn as he is, and after basically skipping his lunch in lieu of waiting for me to feed him, he wiped his tray clean at snack time of cut up cheese, toast, and yes, those carrots all by his little ole self. It's taken about 5 days, but he is finally feeding himself for the most part of the day. He's still getting Mom to feed him his cereal because I load it with all sorts of vitamins and other stuff that most adults would turn their noses up and his yogurt because I mix fruit with it to make sure he gets some kind of fruit every day. He gets broccoli/avocodo fed by me once a day to make sure he's getting his greens, but other than that, he's taking care of his own business which also means I'm having to clean the high chair after he's used it. (One more caveat of me feeding him pureed food....) He's even taken to eating Yogurt Melts now, something that he has adamantly refused for two months.

His favorite finger food so far? Hands down a Tyson frozen chicken nugget. He scarfs those things like there is no tomorrow. I'm not too crazy about some kind of processed food being his "go to" meal, but at least bananas seem to be pretty cool too. Can a toddler live on those two things? He did, however, have about 5 pieces of his peach at lunch today, so maybe he's starting to branch out and enjoy the array of fine food his mother prepares for him daily!

Boys are nothing like girls!

Are boys just LOUD???? Andrei is so loud! We are going to have to work on some serious voice control soon. He has one volume---ear splitting! I can't even hear myself think some times, let alone try to read the girls a book with him in the same room. And the spit! Raspberries are spewed all over the place all day long. He makes truck noises even when there isn't a truck to play with in sight. He does everything with noises--from sitting in his high chair to crawling across the floor. Oh my! It was so different with my girls!

I think he may be an early NASCAR lover. I had him in the stroller the other afternoon, and the girls were wanting to ride their bikes. They wanted to race me up to the road. I said, "On your mark...get set, GO!" and the second I said "GO" and started running with the stroller, Andrei starts squawking (loudly of course) like he was saying, "Go faster! Go faster!" As soon as both girls left us in the dust, literally, he stopped talking and looked up at me like, "That was all you could do???" I thought it was just coincidence that he acted like that, but later Kennedi wanted to race me again. Same thing happened. He was kicking his feet and chattering up a storm until he saw that he was getting dusted, and then he settled back down. Maybe I should introduce him to the story of the Tortoise and the Hare; he's obviously dealing with some issues of perserverence.

We're going to have to get Andrei to the barber. We need a professional to take a look at his hair. The orphanage buzzed it down pretty well, but it has always had strange growth pattern. We have the Justin Bieber look going on as it seems to naturally want to grow forward towards his face. Then we have the section that is growing straight out. I mean, straight out. Doug calls it "hedgehog" hair. I'm not too sure about that term, but all I know is it's about 2 inches long, and grows at a 90 degree angle out. Water will not tame it. I'm not sure even bubblegum would. Doug tells me I should be combing it backwards if I want him to have a part--that it's not girls' hair. I thought hair was hair and I could train it to do what I wanted. I guess not...So, in preparation for his first official American hair cut, Doug's been asking me, "Do you want something like a 1 block and fade in to a 1/2 or go with a 2?" Huh????? What ever happened to scissors?

We got our paperwork and Andrei's Russian passport back from the Russian Consulate this week. So, we are now officially registered with them. I found it interesting that while in Russia, everyone carried their "legal" or important papers in plastic files or plastic sheet protectors. Every time we got a document in Russia, the secretaries always handed it to us in a sheet protector--like those that you'd put in a 3 ring binder. We were never given any papers without some sort of protective covering. Low and behold, the letter we got from the Russian Consulate, which is written in Russian and I have absolutely no idea what it says, came in...drum roll.....a plastic sheet protector! I am now the proud owner of enough sheet protectors I could set up a kiosk on a college campus and have quite a little side business.

And in other news...Annsley was asking me the other day what kind of candy they had when I was a kid. I told her my favorites were Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups and Willy Wonka's Wacky Wafers. Do you remember those? I'm drooling thinking about the green apple and banana ones. Do they even make those any more? Anyway, she'd never heard of the Wacky Wafers, but she did recognize the Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups (maybe because her mother still has a penchant for them today??). She wrinkled up her face and asked, "They had those way back then? That is some old candy, Mom!" Yes, my dear, and I can still remember the TV commercial jingle..."Two great tastes that taste great together....Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups!"

Another Monday update

Andrei still isn't walking, and really he doesn't have much interest in trying to launch out from the couch on his own. He still prefers crawling and "cruising" around the furniture as his means of travel, but I know it won't be long. Both my girls were late walkers, and quite frankly, once they start walking, there's a whole lot more baby proofing that has to be done, so I'm OK with him being on the floor for now!

He's starting to talk a bit. He gets in trouble pretty regularly for hitting on the face, and we always repeat "Be soft" to him, so he now says "off" whenever he touches my face--whether he's being "soft" or not. He says "duck" whenever we read this touch and feel book to him although he consequently calls the hen, sheep, and goat "duck" as well, but it's a start. Doug just knows he says "Daddy" and "Doug", but I have my serious doubts about that. He's drinking his milk cold now. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't do the warming up thing forever. I think warm milk is gross anyway. He's not a big fan of green beans, and he's still not too sure about ice cream, but I have no doubt that his sisters will be teaching him about the joys of the frozen confection. He's not too sure about grass yet. We put him on the ground in the back yard, and he sits with his feet off the ground. It's hilarious. He doesn't crawl; he just sits balancing himself on his rear. He does have a strong attraction to dead leaves and bits of grass around him, so he's getting his "greens" you might say. This boy has gone from putting absolutely NOTHING in his own mouth to eating rocks and anything he can get his little fingers on. I was so hoping he was just one of those kids who didn't eat paper and such, but it was all wishful thinking.

He's starting the phase of throwing things off the high chair or out of his crib. I tell him that I didn't pay extra money for him to have a SuperMan blanket, and it's not coming back to him, but so far he hasn't caught on. I watched him yesterday take every one of his Puffs and one by one drop each one on the floor--all 25 of them. He'll be rationed to 5 at a time from now on. I've always wondered just how long it takes them to figure out that gravity works EVERY TIME!! His volume of poop has drastically reduced from 6-8 times a day to maybe twice a day. That's so good to someone who doesn't like changing diapers. Maybe all those toxins are finally getting out of his little body--or maybe he's getting used to American food. I don't really care as to why, but less poop is always a good thing in my book, so I won't ask questions. Andrei is finally starting to protest when someone besides Doug or me wants to hold him, so I guess in the adoptin world that is a good thing!

Nobody has thrown up in my house for 9 days now, so we're on the downhill run for that--praise the Lord! Andrei is still on breathing treatments 3 times a day, and the coughing is down to maybe once a day or not at all, so I know we'll be able to ditch the breathing machine soon!

Moving on the other world shattering events, I cleaned my coffee pot for the first time since we got back from Russia. I wish I could say it was a black one, and I couldn't tell just how nasty it really was, but sadly it is white. My bed has actually gotten made twice this month, and I set my alarm this morning for 6:00 and didn't turn it off and go back to sleep. Perhaps a somewhat normal life can be seen returning one of these days!

And for the most exciting news of the week...Annsley decided she wanted to be baptized, and so Doug baptized her at our church's Good Friday service this weekend. I was so proud of her wanting to make a public profession of her faith. Yeah Annsley!

The Boy from Baby House 10

Just this weekend I finally got around to watching Dateline's episode on The Boy from Baby House 10. Incredible! If you haven't watched it, click on the link and watch at least the first segment. There are 6 total. Each one is about 5-6 minutes http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/the-boy-from-baby-house-10-part-1/6u0gp1d?q=date+line+boy+from+baby+house+10

It is about a boy who was diagnosed with cerabal palsy and his journey of adoption by an American. I think I was particularly moved for several reasons. One being the recent developments of some families from the Poskv region who are attempting to adopt some special needs children. One family was denied at court with the judge ruling that the child would be better off in an institution than a family. I am floored that this sentiment still exists. Secondly, Dateline shows the fence around the mental institution. I literally got cold chills looking at it as Andrei's orphanage had the same type of fence surrounding his baby house. In fact, nearly all "government institutions"--orphanages, schools, hospitals, etc. have the same type of fence. It is rather eery. Thirdly, we didn't know until the afternoon before we picked up Andrei that his baby house was half special needs. That would explain the strange Stalinistic high chair with about 10 different straps attached to it to belt a child in that where Andrei was fed. I had thought it strange when we were allowed to go into the room where he spent his days that only a 1 or 2 children were out and then they were quickly whisked away to another room as soon as we walked in.

Fourthly, I had a flashback to college (when it's been over 20 years, is it still considered a flash back???) my last semester. A teacher's last semester is spent doing 10 or so weeks of student teaching after you have about 4-6 weeks of classes. One of those classes was Gifted and Talented. Our class took a field trip to a nearby mental institution. To this day, I have NO idea what that had to do with our class, but the van ride back to college was strangely quiet after spending 3-4 hours in an Oklahoma severely mentally handicapped institution. And this was in the good ole USA. I can only imagine what life would be like in countries like Russia for the mentally/physically disabled. We did not visit any place in Krasnoyarsk that was handicap accessible. There were very very few in Moscow, it what we saw were pretty primitive. Truly, this is just ONE of the many reasons why Doug and I now think everyone who lives in this awesome country of ours should go and spend a month in a foreign country--and not in the Marriott. We all should be kicking ourselves for not doing more with the blessings we have here. It made a profound impression on us.

There's puke, and then there's puke...

Again, I apologize for the few and far between posts since we've gotten home. I set up this blog to document our adoption journey, and I'm not sure at what point I need to bring it to a close. I do have one topic I want to discuss before I venture on, but I'm not ready to go there just yet. So, until then, you'll have to labor through my what has become once a week updates!:)

I'm not sure what all the hitting is about with these orphanage kids, but Andrei is doing plenty of it himself. Did he get away with it in the orphanage because he does it too often and laughs too much to think he was ever "repriminded." It is definitely one of the irritating moments we're having at our house lately.

My family has always been so well and healthy. Since we've been home from Russia, Annsley threw up first; a few days later, Kennedi blessed us with it. By the way, it was the first time in her entire life that she has EVER thrown up. I got the 24 hour stomach virus the next day--threw up no less than 20 times. And Doug, not to be left out, came up with it the day after me with the (and I quote) 'high trots and thin scatters...' Andrei voted no way and never caught it--thank the Lord! Kennedi currently is taking antibiotics for her sore throat, and Annsley is taking the same for her severe sinus infection. It is the first time in 3 years that she has been to our pediatrician for being sick. She has thrown up three times in the last four days as well. Andrei has seen our pediatrician 3 times in less than a month. He is also on his second round of antibiotics for this severe lung infection that our pediatrician feels certain he had while in Russia. One week after we got home, he developed this cough that sounded like some 90 year old man that had spent his entire life smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day. He could hardly catch his breath and was laboring to breath. It was so severe that the receptionist at our pediatrician got our doctor out of another exam room to look at him immediately. Round #1 of antibiotics and the sacred breathing treatment machine--always fun for the one year old in your life. Our pediatrician thought that he'd had this "problem" quite a bit in his little life as he was "too comfortable" with his rapid breathing she said. This past Saturday, he was back to the old man coughing and the breathing treatments weren't making a bit of difference, so Doug took him in Saturday morning. Round #2 on major high powered antibiotics now and we have an agressive plan of action to get rid of this thing once and for all. He was coughing so much Saturday night that he threw up all over his bed. He never cried. We wouldn't have even known about it but we went into his room to give him a breathing treatment. He's better now, but I am so tired of cleaning up vomit. Annsley threw up just this morning all over the bathroom rug. I should buy stock in Tide. Don't come to my house these days. It stinks here--literally and figuratively.

On a positive though, Andrei has gained nearly 2 pounds in a month--and that is despite being sick. Go Big Boy! His favorite game in to crawl back and forth over your legs when you are sitting on the ground. He loves to play "tickle" with his daddy. And he loves baths. His father lets him splash, but I don't. In fact, we get out as soon as that starts. I'm sure he thinks I'm not the "fun" one, but it's just a tiny detail I'll have to live with. He's still not walking, but he is so proud of himself when he uses his "walker". He still clucks his tongue when he sees someone eating although it has slowed down tremendously from what he used to do. He grinds his little teeth though, and I still can't figure out what makes him do that...stress...tired....scared....just because....

Getting some Texas sun. (I think he's going to be putting his part Indian daddy under the bus with the suntans!)

Checking out the cat...he's still not too sure about this furry thing...

And More Paperwork! Does it ever end? Ever???

I think Andrei has gained 50 pounds this last week! Not really, but he's sporting himself a little buddha belly these days, and many of his size 12 month clothes are starting to look a bit snug. It's amazing what good nutrition will do!

Our agency gave us the option of doing our Russian Consulate registration at home rather than stay in Moscow for another day, and we gladly opted for that! By the way, I am so incredibly glad that we chose our agency, Wyoming Children's Society. I don't think I had mentioned this before, but while in Krasnoyarsk, we met up with another couple adopting from another agency. Their 2nd trip was 6 days longer than ours! They were spending 29 out of their 30 day tourist visas! Can I have a big shout for our agency's efficiency???!!! So, anyway, we have 3 months to get Andrei registered at the Russian Consulate. I think I have everything ready for poor Loritta to notarize. We have to send in Andrei's Russian passport, and they will put a stamp in it and then send it back to us. So that will be added to the "make sure this file folder goes with you in the event of a natural catastophe." When we left the American Embassy, we were given all the original notarized Russian documents (birth certificate, court decree, adoption certificate, etc.) If we lose them, the only way to get another copy is to travel back to Russia.

We still need to get his American passport...one of these days (sigh...). We got Andrei's certificate of citizenship from the Department of Homeland Security today. We plan to readopt him in Texas one of these days. I'm thinking that it will be much easier to get copies of birth certificates and such as he gets older and will need them rather than using the Russian one with the translation stapled to it. I did find it interesting that he already has a social security card and we didn't fill out any paperwork for that one. Big Brother is watching! :(