Indoor Fun!!

This past weekend Troy and I picked up a sit and spin for Daniel and it was a big hit! Once I sat him on it, it was like he just knew what had to be done!! He would spin so fast that either he would fall off or he would stop, stand up and then fall over. It was pretty funny!! Here's the star of our blog, in his PJs getting dizzy!!

We also brought out the ball popper and Daniel had more fun sticking his face over the hole where the balls popped out. He would get nailed in the face and just giggle (don't worry, it doesn't hurt - don't ask us how we know, that's a whole other post I won't be writing!).

Attachment Part Two and Gardening Fun

This weekend we had tons of fun!! We visited Granny and Grandpa (Troy's parents) and had a great time. Troy's dad recently had both knees replaced and we were amazed at how well he was moving around! We had lots of fun swimming in the pool and had lots of good food!

I need to say a special thank you to Granny (Troy's mom Barbara). She loves, loves, loves children and we knew it would be especially hard on her to not be able to run to Daniel if he cried or pick him up if he fell or give him snacks if he was hungry as we needed to be the ones to do that in order to help Daniel understand that Troy and I were his parents and we would be his providers. In the pool this weekend, I would swoosh Daniel to Granny and he would start to fuss and instantly look and reach back for me. Granny let go every time and even spoke about how thrilled she was to see Daniel acting that way. I know it had to be hard though!! I do know once my little daredevil was laying on a raft that Granny was able to tip him over and into Papa's waiting arms and we had lots of giggles!! Barbara - we're so proud of you and don't you worry Daniel loves his Granny or as he says "nanneeeeee".

On Sunday we played around outside with our tomato plants. Last year we planted them against one whole side of our house because we dug out some other plants we didn't like and stuck the tomatos in for fun. Well, they grew like crazy so we did it again this year. We have the biggest darn tomato plants I've ever seen in my life. We also got our first red tomato!! Daniel loves to help us water them!!

Here I asked Daniel to look at Mama and say cheese and instead

I got this...when I squealed it became an all out war as he thought

it was hyterically funny to spray Mama!!
Not too sure about payback though!

Helping Papa tie up those huge plants.

Do you see how big the tomato plant is behind me? I mean seriously

it's so big I can't see the top of it!

Attachment Strides

This past week and weekend has really opened our eyes to some strides Daniel has taken in the attachment area. Each morning this week for the first time after I have dressed Daniel he has run into the living room and called for Papa. Then I have to take him by the hand and show him Papa isn't sleeping or in the bedroom and that he has left for work. Daniel seems okay with it, but will ask for Papa more often now. He also has started talking on the phone to Papa. Before he would hold the phone and not say anything but now he is babbling back and always says "I luv luuu" (I love you) back to Troy when he says it.

As for me the past two weekends have really shown me that Daniel is bonding with me well. At one of our July 4th BBQs, he got a 'boo boo' and when my cousin leaned down to check on him he backed up and ran straight to me. The same thing happened when my aunt held out her hand for Daniel's dirty napkin. He looked at her hand and then ran it over to me. Just Friday night we were out and I walked away to go to the bathroom and Troy was sitting with Daniel and for the first time Daniel yelled out "Mama!" after me. He also made the hand motion to "come back!" I was so excited. While he would always look for me, he never actually called out after me. Lastly we stopped by a farm with horses (I know, I know but you can do that in the country) and asked if we could pet the horses. The older gentleman grabbed Daniel right up and actually took us into the ring where the horses were eating and let us rub them. Daniel was amazed by how big 'horseys' really were. But the more amazing thing was he wouldn't really pet them because he was too busy twisting and turning in the man's arms to see me more than anything else. I explained to the gentleman what was going on and he handed him right over and we proceeded to pet all the horses! Fun times. Troy has a few pictures on his cell phone and if we transfer them over, I'll share!

One other thing we have noticed about Daniel is that his little personality and his understanding of everything is really coming out. He wasn't eating his lunch the other day and I started being silly saying "Scoop, scoop, whoop, whoop, scrunch" and making the gestures and of course a big loud "scrunch" for eating and he looked at Papa and then at me and started laughing and then waved his hand at me and shook his head as if to say "Mama, you're so silly" and Troy and I just got a big kick out of it. But guess what - he ate all his lunch!! It's neat to see how far he has come!!

Lastly a few photos...

Happy Fourth!!

I hope everyone had a great fourth!! We were so busy and Daniel had a fantastic time. I'll just let the pictures tell the story...

Waiting for the Parade

Waving my flag to everyone...and I mean everyone!
Uh...that wheel is bigger then me!!
Playing with Tess-Great Aunt Sarah's doggie at the BBQ after the parade - look at me giggle!
Another day, another BBQ. This is at Aunt Cat's house. The pool was full of little girls - Yuck!
Aren't I cool?

From Easy to Please to Picky & A Funny

I thought I would start out by sharing a funny story from trip 2 in Russia. We had our son for the very first night in Moscow (and with us) as we picked him up and immediately boarded the plane to Moscow. We arrived at the hotel and put our things in our room. I had to go right back downstairs to fill out paperwork with the representative and Troy stayed in the room with Daniel. Fast forward to me arriving back to the room. What greets me?

Our son lying on the bed with a blanket over him holding the remote control calm as can be. I say something to Troy to the effect that I can’t believe he’s just laying there so sweet and then I look towards the TV and I think I said something to this effect, “Troy, you might want to take the remote control from him because from the looks of it, he’s about to buy us an adult movie.”

Needless to say Daniel has a remote (without batteries) that he plays with at home!!

And here he is shortly after the remote was taken away...


Wow that seems like so long ago!

On to the real topic at hand!

Our son has decided to become picky about his food. From what I’m reading though it seems like this is pretty much the norm. Daniel knows he can be picky now. When we first picked him up from the orphanage and arrived in our hotel we gave him a drinkable yogurt and he sucked it down like it was going out of style. Once we were home he would cry when he finished a bottle for more. Now, he won’t touch yogurt in any shape or form. He also has decided against applesauce as well. What child doesn’t like applesauce?? Mine!!

Milk is another disaster. He will literally shake his head no as soon as he sees it and won’t touch it with a ten foot pole. I’ve tried Hershey’s chocolate syrup, Butterscotch syrup, Strawberry syrup, Ovaltine...nothing will make this child like milk. One thing I’ll never forget was when he took a sip of the milk with the butterscotch. He stood there with this shocked look on his face and then just opened his mouth and it all came running out everywhere. I think it was the one time he didn’t look in the cup before shoving it in his mouth expecting juice. I just stood there dumbfounded as the milk came out and hit the floor. I had no idea he could put that much in his mouth! The only way to give him any milk is in his morning oatmeal which I make with the milk and mix a fruit yogurt in. He’ll also eat cheese...for now.

He also has now decided he hates corn and peas. He used to love them too. What happened to my fantastic eater? A life with lots of choices, I suppose!!

Have a Happy Fourth of July!!

Keeping It Small

I can’t even believe Daniel has only been with us for a little over two months. It feels like he’s been with us since day one. I can’t imagine life without him now. At the same time, it feels like just yesterday we left Russia with a squirming child on an eleven hour flight. What were we thinking?!

I looked through pictures from our second trip to Russia a few nights ago and it really surprises me that in a way it all seems like a distant memory. I have this odd feeling that it is almost like we never even went to Russia. I think it’s because I realized that no one will ever really know what it was like for us except for those who have been through it themselves. I also realized that I never really wrote much on my blog about our visits to the orphanage on trip one or on trip two and the circumstances we went through there. For example no one knows (except family) that Daniel was held in a hospital for the month between trips as on trip one when we said goodbye to him we said goodbye at the hospital where we were lucky enough to accompany him and a caregiver so he could have his routine check up done. Then there was a chicken pox outbreak at the orphanage before his return so they moved him to another children’s hospital so he would not get the chicken pox and be unable to travel to the US. Most think we picked him up from the orphanage on what some call “Gotcha Day” but instead we went the children’s hospital. I didn’t write much about court or why it lasted four hours or anything else for that matter. I did send more detailed emails home of course along the way, but mostly I kept a lot of what went on just between Troy and I. To remedy that, I’m hoping to write a newsletter to our family and friends this year of a more detailed account of our trip so they can feel more involved in the process and maybe understand more our time there. I find it hard to express the feelings we went through in Russia so it will take some time. Words just don’t seem adequate.

Our daily schedule is getting better since I’ve gone back to work. It was hard the first couple of weeks to get everything just right and we’re actually still working on it. We’ve overcome the “I’m starving” issue we had when I would pick him up in the evenings and then listen to crying while I frantically tried to cook dinner. I’ve finally found an afternoon snack that seems to hold him over ---- a cereal bar. Applesauce just wasn’t cutting it! That only took a few days. We’ve also overcome the “don’t wake me up in the morning, I want to wake up on my own” issue in which when I would try to get him up in the morning he would crawl as far away as possible and lay back down and squeeze his eyes shut and then when I would pick him up and start dressing him he would whine the whole time. Now I simply pick him up and make a big production of yawning and stretching and helping him stretch in my arms every which way and morning hugs and morning kisses and so on and so forth. It’s amazing what a silly song will do for a child and what they will do for a silly song!!

Last week I got my first big cry and “please don’t leave me today mama” whine from Daniel when I dropped him off one morning. I was so sad to leave as the sitter had to pick him up crying and take him to another room so I could get out the door, but at the same time all I could think was “He really loves me, he really, really does!!!” I know, silly me!!

Lately we’ve been working on Daniel’s name with him. He knows who he is and he answers to Daniel, but we want him to be able to tell someone else his name. We’re only working on the first name right now but finally just yesterday in the car I asked him, “What’s your name?” fully expecting to get a grunt back. Instead he said “Aniel” Close enough. I about drove off the road clapping and carrying on!! Just kidding – I promise I didn’t even go over any lines!! But I did clap and carry on!!

Lastly meal time has gone from being wonderful to being well...not so wonderful. We never bought a highchair for Daniel and instead used a portable booster seat that strapped to one of our chairs. Daniel started out as a champion eater but has now become ancy in his chair, tries to kick away from the table, bend his spoons in half (soft plastic) tear his bib off, smear his food, move it around on his plate and even throw it once or twice. After thinking about this and talking with several people, I decided we did need a highchair after all and that I needed to cut back on the food available on his plate at any given time.

You see, I’ve been so worried about giving him enough to eat and making sure he knew he could have plenty that I think I was actually overloading his plate and therefore his giving him too much to handle. It was just way too exciting for him to see all that food. So yesterday I started off with our old breakfast of the champs –oatmeal with raspberry yogurt mixed in. That was it, no extras and guess what-he ate nicely and he ate all of it! Then last night I made him chicken nuggets and macaroni salad with veges mixed in and instead of giving him a bunch I started him with only two nuggets and a very, very small portion of macaroni salad. At first he looked at his plate like, “Hey, wait a minute. Are you cutting me off?” Then he ate every last bit so nicely and when I asked if he wanted more, he said, “more” and I gave him two more nuggets and another tiny amount of macaroni salad. That went down nicely too. Then he banged his spoon on his plate, so I just took everything away quietly and on we went with our night. Mealtime was great!!

This morning he sat in the highchair for the very first time and although he tried to kick the footrest, see his feet over the edge of the tray and of course try to take the tray off, he ate nicely again with small portions. The highchair also forces him to sit up straight, instead of slouching way down and so he spilled less and the morning was pleasant!!

We’re figuring things out slowly, but surely!!

I’ll leave you with some pictures of Daniel playing tug of war with his favorite doggie, Ruby or as he says “Ruuuuuuuuuuubeeeeeeeee”. And yes – we let our dogs on one of our couches – what can we say – we’re suckers!!

Introducing a New Blog - From Dimes to Dollars

Just a note to say that I've started a new blog - this one for families who want to live frugally! It focuses on the art of using coupons, stretching your dollars and finding freebies. I've been reading many frugal blogs for the past few months and have really benefited from them. Stop on over and read if you have a chance! I have discovered I love blogging and this new blog is another hobby I'll enjoy! It's called From Dimes to Dollars and you can find it at:



http://www.fromdimestodollars.blogspot.com/



Update about Daniel and great pictures coming shortly!!