Experiencing Play-doh

With more time off to spend with my little guy, we are now able to get into more time consuming toys, like Play-doh. Daniel seems to be entering the next level of play also. He seems more focused on one toy at a time and he also will now sit and color or draw (scribble) for more than five minutes. It's pretty pleasant because I can sit at the table and do other things while he colors.

Back to the Play-doh - it appears my son enjoys stuffing the Play-doh in the tubs and then taking it back out and then in, then out. Oh yeah - he likes the lids too. He had more fun just doing that than anything else. Wait - he did try to taste it once, but I caught him and explained that while we all ate Play-doh as kids, I still didn't think it was a necessary staple in his particular diet.

Speaking of diet, his is changing yet again. Guess what brilliant mother (me, in case you weren't sure!) figured out how to get her son to drink milk??!! Since coming home, we have pretty much been solely giving Daniel juice (mixed with water, since he won't drink water either) to drink. I have been trying and trying to figure out what else I could give him. Crystal Light was a no go with Daniel too. So I sat there one night and out comes Troy with his favorite drink - cold sweet tea mixed with milk. (YUCK!) At any rate I had a moment and ran to pull out Daniel's food chart from Russia. Yup - tea was on there. I should have known - we helped feed him one night and they gave him tea to drink. I ran to the store the next morning and bought decaf, made a pot, barely (I mean barely) sweetened it and mixed it half with milk. Ta da!! My son loves it!!! Plus, he gets the minerals from the tea, which according to my health book can be very good for you. Well, that only took me almost 4 months to figure out!!

Anyway, here's a few pictures of our Play-doh experience.

Learning Safety and Colors

This week starts my first part time week at work! We didn't make it to Mother Goose time at the library today as we had other things to do, but hopefully next week. I'm already enjoying the extra time with Daniel.

Last week I talked with Becky whose little boy Andrew has already learned his colors. I asked her how she taught them to him and she said they used little cars. I've tried books on colors with Daniel and crayons but haven't had any luck. So today I pulled out 5 cars in the colors red, yellow, blue, black and gold. We went over the colors and I asked him to pick up a certain color car. It took him a few tries, but he got it! Then after we were all done, I sat down on the sofa and he picked up a car and ran over to me saying "Gold, Gold!" and sure enough it was the gold car!! I was so excited! Thanks Becky for the great tip!! Here he is holding up the colored cars for me!!

Also, on a funny note - Troy thought it would be hysterical to put a pair of goggles on Daniel and have him ride his riding toys. He said it was all in the name of safety. Poor kid - he'll do anything for his Papa.

From Full Time to Part Time – A Big Change For The Better

Three and a half months have passed since we brought Daniel home. For six weeks I was able to rock him to sleep every day for his nap and every night at bedtime. I sat with him at every meal, kissed every boo-boo, sang good morning when he woke up, met his every need, with Troy’s help of course. After six weeks I went back to work full time. It felt good to go back to work, but I started missing Daniel every day. After a couple of weeks he cried one morning when I left him at the sitters. Since then he doesn’t cry but stands at the door some mornings looking after me and sometimes banging for my attention. I hate walking away from him.

So, Troy and I finally came to the decision that I would stop working full time and ask my current employer if I could change my position from full to part time. After waiting a week for a response, I was informed that they would be pleased to have me remain with the firm part time!! I was so excited. I’ll only be working three days a week for seven hours each day verses the five day, eight hour a day, work week. That means four uninterrupted days with my baby boy!! It means not having to wake him up in the mornings to get ready to go and then rush through dinner and bath time in the evenings so I can get him to bed early enough to just have to wake him up anyway. It also means we can go to Mother Goose time at the local library! I have been wanting to do this for quite some time.

I’m also looking forward to returning to the SPCA to complete adoption paperwork and match families with their forever pets just for special events and to help fill in. I have not been able to return as I was not working a 6th day away from home and from Daniel. This will give me the opportunity to just go in every once in a while for my ‘not mine’ animal fix!! Life is looking good!

I’ll begin my part-time position in just two weeks! Now, I’ll have

More time to do this:


and watch Papa and Daniel do this:

Hey, Papa - now that Mama will be home more - how about you, because you're comin' with me!

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?