Snyeg

That's Russian for snow. And we have lots of it. Its going to be a white Christmas here. We've got 8 inches on the ground, and

Santa

I have been trying to "educate" the kids about Christmas with Christmas TV specials, "The Polar Express" movie, "Elf" the move and books. I don't think they fully grasp what Christmas represent both on the spiritual level and on the festive level, but they are starting to recognize aspects of Christmas. A couple nights ago Dominic had his Christmas pajamas on, which had Santa Claus on them. I asked both Liam and Sophie who the person on Dominic's pajamas was, and they both knew it was Santa Claus.

I have planned all along to take them to see Santa, but sometimes things are difficult to do logistically. That seemed to be the case with finding a Santa, and going to see Santa. On Sunday, I enthusiastically asked Sophie if she wanted to meet Santa and she said she did. I did some things around the house and rethought taking them to see Santa for a few reasons- it was bitter cold out, it was getting late and Liam was napping. I made up mind that it really would be OK to not take them to Santa. Unfortunately, the next time I saw Sophie, she was talking about meeting Santa. That sealed the deal- we had to go.

So, it was about 3:45pm, and I had to wake Liam up from the short nap he had. He wasn't happy about this at all. Papa was feeling very ill and decided he was going to stay home and rest. I dressed the kids warmly, all the while Liam was whining. It was 8 degrees fahrenheit...bitter cold! We rushed the kids to the car, and it takes about 5 minutes to get all three kids buckled in. After much maneuvering, we were ready to go and quite cold.

The mall was packed, which was completely expected, but I had hoped that the cold might work in our favor on this front. Nope. I dropped the kids and Rachel at the door so they didn't have to walk in the cold and found a distant parking space. I froze! And Liam freaked out because I wasn't with him.

In the mall, both kids just stared at everything-this was their first trip to a mall or store other than a grocery store. When we approached the elevator to go down to Santa Claus, Liam had a meltdown. I wasn't totally sure it was the elevator, so we walked some more and tried another elevator. No go...so Rachel and Dominic took the elevator and I tried to take the kids on the escalator. He wasn't having that, or the stairs for that matter. So, I carried him down the 20 or so stairs and held Sophie's hand. I tried to be enthusiastic and calm with him about visiting Santa, and we got in line.

The Santa area was Polar Express themed, which was familiar to Liam and Sophie. Liam would be calm for about 2 minutes then melt down. This repeated. I tried to find out if he wanted to go home, and he said he didn't. In a last ditch effort, Rachel stayed in line with Dominic and we went to the play area. He was much happier here. Unfortunately, he pushed some kids and was being a bit aggressive, so our visit to the play area lasted about 50-60 minutes.

By the time we got back to Rachel, we were pretty close to the front of the line. Dominic, of course, was very cranky by this time. It was a little after 6pm when our kids got their pics with Santa, and then we had to wait forever to get the prints, pay etc. We got out of the mall around 7pm, and it was 2 degrees! Oh my!

Needless to say, it took the kids forever to fall asleep. They didn't fight getting into bed, but they had A LOT to process in their little heads so they had a very time getting to sleep.

Next year, I am going to plan this whole Santa thing a lot better- no malls!!!! Enjoy the photo!

The Lowdown

Here's what happening in our house. I've had some repeat questions for friends, so I thought I would answer some of them here.

I went back to work on December 8 part-time. I'm so glad that I have the luxury of working part-time! I have Wednesdays off, which I think is good for me, the kids and our nanny (Rachel). So, many have asked who is watching the kids while I'm at work. My step-sister Rachel and her 20 month old son, Dominic, moved in with us in October. While I was still at home, Rachel cleaned for us, did some cooking and watched the kids as necessary when I had to run errands. Now that I am back at work, she is the nanny, and is a Godsend! She makes dinner for us on the days I work, and still does our laundry a lot. Because the kids knew Rachel when I went back to work, and were used to being alone with her, the transition when I went back to work was very easy. It has worked out beautifully.

There is a however, however. Liam has regressed in his behaviour due to my return to work. He's gotten more aggressive and tries to bite me, hits me etc again. Its not easy to stay calm when he does this, but I'm trying! I've been reading a book called, "Nurturing the Hurt Child". I think he is emotionally at about 1 year old, so I think I may need to regress him. Our little boy has a lot of hurt inside him and he has a lot of healing to do. He's a very loving little boy, but we have a lot of work to do to make him whole again. I'm learning...anyone who reads this who has some concise tips on regressing children please comment with them. I think I will be getting a bottle and bottle-feeding him some milk every night with a cuddle. No nasty comments on this please- he missed out on a lot of things with his birth mother so we need to give the nurturing back to him.

Pete is now in the vicious cycle of illness I had when I was home. He was on antibiotics for a week or so, missed a day, took the next dose and woke up with red spots covering his body a week ago. It turns out he's allergic to Penicillin! He had three days of waking up with various issues but those seem to have subsided. The spots are still there though. Now he has a very sore throat...poor guy. I can empathize.


So, the kids have reconnected with an old friend here in Michigan! A few weeks ago another mom from our adoption agency emailed me that she and her husband had adopted a little girl from Liam and Sophie's orphanage and gruppa! I had no idea that anyone else was even going to Detsky Dom 2 in Moscow, because our agency doesn't work there that often. We've had two play dates with S (won't mention her name until her mom gives me the OK) and I am just so excited that Liam and Sophie have their friend from Moscow so close! S and her family live in the city where I work, which is close to us (by large city standards). S was a little shy on the first play date, partly I'm sure because it was at our house, not on her "turf". The second play date was at an indoor playground called Jungle Java, and she and Sophie played together a lot. S would run up to Sophie and hug her and kiss her! It was so cute!

Hopefully I'll get the OK from S's mom and can post some pictures of the three kids together on their next play date.

Next up....our Santa Experience!!

Nyet

Wow! Its been a month since I posted last. I'll try to be better. I go back to work tomorrow, so I think things will be chaotic again. Perhaps it will force me to be more organized though?

Liam's birthday was yesterday. I made a firetruck cake, and he got lots of car/truck related gifts.

They still don't really get the birthday thing, so Sophie and Dominic didn't understand why they didn't have any presents.

We're all still getting sick often. Liam was feverish and sleeping on and off all day Friday. His temp got up to 103.4, which obviously is scary. He's better now though, and a trip to the doctor yesterday showed there's nothing serious going on. He still has conjuctivitis though. We can't seem to get rid of that.

We are going to do "Potty Training in Just One Day". I've ordered Corolle potty training dolls, gotten big kid underwear, training pants, printed off potty charts etc. I need to finish reading the book though.

Enjoy the pictures

Sicko

Status Quo at our house is the following:

Many pieces of a torn-up catalog or magazine scattered on the floor
At least two members of the household are sick
Toys are everywhere
No countertop surface is visible
If there's quiet, there's trouble a-brewin'
Little hands are reaching for something the adults don't want the children to have

No matter how hard we try, the house is in a huge disarray!

I'm sick once again. I'm sick of being sick. When I'm sick, I have a short fuse and my kids know how to push my buttons. Its a vicious cycle though, because I also am too tired to stay on top of the things that might prevent illness- purelling the heck out of all hands, lysoling all surfaces and eating loads of vitamins and minerals!

The kids are progressing very well. The rages are much fewer and Liam really is a the best behaved kid of all three. He actually listens! I think Sophie and Liam are definitely improving in their adjustment to us, and their emotional output shows it. Their English is coming along very well. I don't speak in Russian very much now, and they do seem to understand most of what I say. They repeat a lot of what we say, which shows they are working on their English language acquisition. Eating, on the other hand, is a daily battle. That seems to be normal with kids in general though.

Rachel and I had a night out last weekend. I wasn't feeling great, but I knew I needed to get out of the house and do something that didn't involve running errands. We went out to dinner and had drinks, and just let our hair down a bit. It was good and we both needed it.

Last weekend all six of us had family portraits taken. I can't wait to see the proofs! I think we got some very cute pictures. Now I just have to figure out how many Christmas cards we want to send this year. I think I will have to do the adoption announcement pics ourselves, because photographers don't seem to like to sell their digital images.

Liam seems to have a big fan in Dominic, which can be quite funny. Nearly 4 year olds and 18 month olds express things very differently. Dominic likes to get Liam's attention in non-verbal ways by doing things like gently bumping into him! The three kids really wind each other up at night so we are still working on that.

I'll try to post more often....I have lost a few things in the disorganization- my driver's license and the memory card to our camera that has all the kids' pics on it! Ackkkkkkkkkkk!!!

Sophie as Birthday Princess

Sophie's third birthday "party". It was just Pete, me, Sophie, Liam, Rachel and Dominic. Everything seemed to be new to them- the hat, the birthday cake with candles, blowing out the candles, the presents. Bedtime was not good- they were way overstimulated from the toys!

Cousins Playing

The cousins playing together on our deck and in our backyard. The curly haired cutie is Dominic, my nephew.

A Picnic at Pontiac Lake

It was a warm day, but the water was very cold. After our picnic, we took the kids down to the lake and they experienced a beach for the first time! They loved the sand, and they are real water lovers. We rolled up their pants, but soon enough they were naked with only diapers on, after falling in the water a couple times. Tantrums ensued when we made them leave.

Pics at the Playground

This is our local playground in Farmington. Its really nice, and there are loads of families that go there, so there are a lot of other kids there at the same time!

Pics from the last few weeks Part 1

Radio Flyer

My friend and boss Linda got the kids this great Radioflyer wagon. They're not so keen yet on sitting in it, but they do enjoy pushing and pulling it! I had the camera on some interesting setting apparently.

Discovering Her Tutu

Yesterday morning, Sophie discovered the pink tutu that my co-worker/friend Carolyn gave her. She was playing in the closet, standing on her toy box and pulled it off its hanger. She immediately took off her pj bottoms and put on the tutu. She wore this while eating breakfast too. Here's the lovely photo of her in her tutu....notice the overnight diaper hanging below the tutu....She's getting into my dining linen drawers to find something to use as a blanket for her bunny who's going to sleep.

After we went to the park, I was in the kitchen and the kids were playing. I went into the dining room and turned around to find this....that's a hat I thought I would have her wear to the park and decided not to.
So, at this point, as I'm taking pictures, Liam is saying "EE Ya", meaning "Me too." So, Sophie kindly, and not terribly gently, puts the hat on Liam so I can take pictures of him too.

And here's Liam, comfortable in his masculinity, wearing Sophie's cute hat (and his Cars pajama shirt which he refused to take off when I dressed them).

P.S. I forgot to mention that Sophie wouldn't let me dress her, so she dressed herself. Her shirt and pants are on backwards!

Last Night Went Well!

So, the kids started getting cranky around 4ish. I got a lot done and didn't hit the "frustration overload" point I usually do. It was Pete's turn for bathtime, so I worked on the necessary paperwork more. Bedtime went really well! We played a bit, then told them it was soon time for sleep. Sophie fell asleep really quickly. Once again, Liam didn't want to sleep. We called our Russian friends and had them talk to him, but to no avail. Marina suggested we just let Liam run around and tire himself out. So, we took him downstairs with us. He played quietly, and would sometimes curl up with me. We told it was time to go to bed, and he willingly went. Pete took him upstairs, Liam got in bed and said, "paka Papa." He went to sleep willingly, playing with his cars. I think they needed the exercise, and I think Liam needs time with Mama and Papa sans his sister.

Wish us luck for today!

More Pics for Fun!

Wednesday's a Better Day

Things aren't easy here, and we have our ups and downs. We're still trying to get ourselves into a good routine. One good thing, once the kids are asleep, they stay asleep. I've been able to sleep until 9am, which I've needed, as you'll see.
I'm going to be honest here. Every day, I wake, feeling refreshed. By about 3 or 4 PM, I'm totally frustrated. I think today will be better though! The last two days we've haven't been outside. I took them to the park by myself for the first time today and it went well. We played, and they terrorized the geese. They ran quite a bit, which is good for everyone in the house. I then drove around for 45 minutes while my mom made lunch. Sophie fell asleep in the car and Liam calmed down. They're upstairs playing with my mom right now. Thus, I am photocopying documents for our consulate registration and updating the blog. Ahhh.....bliss! I feel so behind on everything.
Mama is getting the brunt of violence around here. In the last week, Sophie has thrown two different things at my head. The first time was a Winnie the Pooh phone, which was fairly heavy. It hit me in the mouth and gave me a fat lip, bruises and a cut lip. Last night, she threw a hard plastic bath toy at my head and hit me. They both throw a lot, but its honestly not usually heavyish things at our bodies. Liam rages most nights at bedtimes, and its both scary and very upsetting. Last night he bit me four times. You never want to see anything like this in a child, because its really looks like the child in The Omen. We're still trying to figure out how to help/rectify/handle this. I have faith we will get there...we have to.
I've started making things from my sneaky chef cookbook. So far I've made Guerilla Grilled Cheese- not such a hit, Unbelievable Chocolate Chip Cookies- a hit, "Saucy" Meat Sauce- not such a hit with the kids and the French Toast recipe, which was also a hit. I have loads of purees I need to make, and my food processer is getting a workout!
I'm posting pics finally!
Nakey babies who didn't want to put clothes on
We see this often, usually accompanied by the word "Dyee", meaning "gimme" in Russian.
Liam the day we picked him up at the orphanage. Snazzy undershirt!
Both kids in the apartment in Moscow.

Pete's Back to Work

We're still trying to come up with a schedule that works. Nap or no nap? Sophie definitely needs an afternoon nap. Momma needs Liam to have an afternoon nap too! Babies sleep = my free time! If you know me, you know I like my sleep. This morning, however, I got up at 6:30 A.M so that I could get some things done. I'll be waking the kids up soon.



So, I have gotten various advice on whether to wake the kids up in the A.M. and in the afternoon. Today, I plan to wake them up this A.M. and let them nap as long as they want.

A Smallish Update

Things are definitely busy here, but much better. The flight home went amazingly well with the kids! They slept and behaved themselves tremendously!

The sleeping has gotten better, as has the eating. They now will eat most things we put in front of them, though they're still kids. One day something might be OK to eat, the next not so OK. Regardless, we aren't doing pureed food! Saturday night Pete and I got Chinese food. Sunday, we were wondering what to feed them for lunch quickly and tried chicken fried rice. They devoured it- about 3/4 of a carton between them! They also like pizza, and Sophie discovered BBQ potato chips by snatching the one Grandpa was about to eat out of his hand! We are feeding them healthy food too though...

Liam now usually only has tantrums when he is tired. They're still the kicking, throwing things, pulling mama's hair tantrums, but if I rub his back it usually ends after 10-15 minutes. We're getting better at knowing what works to settle them down. Cartoon movies are wonderful- we now put one on about an hour before bedtime to calm them down. Sometimes they fall asleep on their own, sometimes they don't. We can usually get them to fall asleep within 20 minutes or so, which seems pretty good.

I have rethought the cosleeping thing. Their beds will be here Saturday, and they will go in their own room at that time. It seems as long as we are there until they fall asleep to comfort them, that's what really matters. I spent a good week or so with them co-sleeping and I don't need to any more.

The doctor visit wasn't terribly fruitful. We need to have someone to explain what's going on in Russian to Liam or things will get ugly. He wouldn't let me undress him, and he wouldn't let the PA take his temp. He does have congestion, but its so much better now. The surprise of the visit was that we learned Liam has pink eye. Today we will try to give him eye drops, and I'm not really looking forward to that. He has pleasantly surprised me many times over the last few days though.

Babushka and Grandpa came up on Sunday, and both kids took an instant liking to Baba. Liam seems to think that Grandpa's Lincoln Town Car is cooler than our Mazda as he is saying that Grandpa's car is HIS car, and that our car is not his car.

Time to wake them up from their nap....will update again when we have time. Enjoy the pic.

Sankta Valya, Moscow Dance Party and Meltdowns

Last night we found a good panacea, or so we thought, for the kids. They love music. We played the radio and danced, and I got them head banging. It was really funny, and we all enjoyed it I think. Once bedtime rolled around, it was really difficult with Liam. He's just so scared, and both Pete and I think he's probably had some significant early trauma. More on that later...I thought I had gotten him to sleep, after SIGNIFICANT fighting on his part, he was really calm but not necessarily asleep. I was wrong, and I think we basically wore him out to get him to sleep. It was hellacious. Then, his breathing was so congested, I was worried that he would stop breathing, so I didn't want to fall asleep. Eventually we were all asleep...We didn't get up until 10am.

Today Valya came over. She has come over the last three days and has been a godsend. Its so nice to have someone who is both really good with kids and can communicate well with them. The language barrier, even with me knowing some Russian, has been a real issue. She came to the American Embassy with us today, and she was with us for 6 hours today. She occupied the kids so we could pack, got them to eat when we couldn't, got Liam and Sophie to get dressed when they wanted to run around in diapers and was all around a HUGE help to us. Thus, I have named her Sankta (Saint) Valya! I think everyone adopting two children at once should have a Sankta Valya. We asked if she wanted a vacation to the US, but she seems to have to work here...hmmmm...

So, today the kids didn't get naps because we went to the Embassy during their naptime. We decided that since we have to get up at 3am (yes you read that right), this was a good thing. They both started getting tired around 4pm. We fed them early (with Valya's help) at 5pm, then gave them baths. When bathtime was over, Liam had a major meltdown. I think he was really tired, but he's also very scared. He fights you tooth and nail! He fights for his life- pulling hair, scratching at your face. I try to contain him physically, but its difficult. He cried for a half hour, and eventually let me rub his back and t alk to him (albeit naked, lying on the floor in a corner of the room). I talked to him Russian and English and he fell asleep after 15 minutes or so. I left him sleeping for a bit, then tried t o move him and he w oke up. He let me put a diaper on him, but not his pajamas. I put him under the covers, left the r oom to change into clothes from bathing suit and he started crying. I came back, rubbed his back and talked soothingly to him and he fell asleep.

Now, for those who have adopted, I have some questions. Pete and I think he's probably had major early trauma, but maybe he's just still scared from all the things going on. What do you think? We're concerned either he, us or Sophie will get hurt because he throws everything in sight when he does t his. What advice do you have when one of these meltdowns starts? I try to contain him, but this makes him more mad and scared, so I really don't want to do that any more. I just don't want to damage this tender little soul any more. If you have advice please either email me or post a comment. Thanks

Its Mono, not Tonsilitis

We've got Liam home now and he's still sick. The hospital said its mononucleosis, not tonsilitis. Poor Liam. I have about 6 different meds we have to give him. His pants are too big and are falling off him now! 3t is too big!!! I 'm not sure if I brought 2t, we'll have to check. I think Pete is overwhelmed with being controlled by 2 pre-schoolers instead of being in control. The language thing is difficult at this time for us, because I can only understand 20% of what they say, and Pete understands a lot less.

Now we're having dinner, and if Sophie doesn't like it, Liam won't eat it. This is loads of fun for everyone!!!

Found- 1 Large Pink Rabbit

...stuffed in a small box by a malishka named Sophie.

Peter Stacey has been cleared as a suspect.

MIA- Talking Rabbit

The yaeetsa (rabbit) below has gone missing...we can't find it anywhere!! How can one lose a big pink talking rabbit????

Made a 'play pen' - the window sill (3ft deep)

Sophie singing 'my little one' whilst holding onto her bear and sheep cuddly toys. She spends many minutes shouting at the dogs that pass by and putting smiles on the faces of their owners.

Pete.

Singing Pink Rabbit

Yes, this is the beautifull voice that I have ringing in my head at night :) . I don't know what's bigger, our 16lb Flemish Giant (rabbit) at home or this thing, ah that gives me an idea for a new playmate......

Pete.

First Bath

We had our first bath with Sophie last night. I got in my swimsuit and sat in the bath with her. Pete videotaped :) She loved it!!! She didn't love having her hair washed and getting water on her face though. My friend Natalia had suggested putting a visor on her, so I think I will try that when we get home.

Our friend Valya, who we met through my friend Marina in Detroit, brought Sophie a stuffed rabbit. It plays a song...and she plays it over and over and over and over....its driving Pete crazy but she loves it!

Sophie's First Jaffa Cake

Bedtime Stories and More

Straw cup attempt..she chewed on the straw a lot. We tried it and you could barely get anything when you suck!

Sophie tried to make herself a bed out of tissue paper today for her nap.

Getting all bundled up at the Detsky Dom.

The metro was no big deal yesterday. I thought it would much more of a pain that it was, so that was good.

We got sophie yesterday, and that went well. When we got there, first she cried because she thought we were going to leave again. Then the caregivers told her to get undressed so Mama could put on her pretty new clothes. She immediately started undressing with a big smile. All the other kids in her grouppa told her "paka" and one little boy came up and kissed her goodbye. Another little boy tried to, and she said no! He walked away and started crying, so she ended up giving him a hug.

Sophie was mesmerized in the car with everything she was seeing! Once at "home", we have discovered we have nothing really good for her to drink from- the straw cups I brought take a lot of sucking to get anything. Thus, we have a lot of spilled drink on clothes and the floor.

Bedtime was heartwrenching. It took us a while to get her calmed down and we had one failed attempt where it seemed like she was headed to la-la-land. Once we got her calmed down, she rocked herself (sleep thrashing) for a full half hour before falling asleep. It was very difficult to watch, and I'm hoping tonight isn't as bad. I had tried t o comfort her, but that seemed to prevent her from getting to sleep. I guess it will be trial and error. It took a while for her to go down today for her nap, but she didn't sleep thrash. She's sleeping now.

Pete's off with Vlad to work on the kids' passports, and I need to check on our little peanut, who is napping. Enjoy the pictures.

Sophie and the Beach Ball

We're Getting Our Sweet Sophie Today

Masha called the director of our orphanage today and we were told that they will let us take Sophie this afternoon. The only hiccup is that we have to take the Metro to a certain point and meet Vlad. No big deal, except that we have all the caregiver gifts to take, Sophie's clothes, a cake for the staff and candies for the kids at the Detsky Dom. I'm not very happy about this, but Vlad can't come pick us up. I think they're a bit overbooked this week.

We got news that Liam is doing better, and I think his fever is down. Masha explained to us that the orphanage has a policy that if a child has a fever of 38 degrees celsius or more for 4 hours, the child is taken by ambulance to the hospital. Its normal policy. That's why Liam was taken to the hospital. The orphanage director thinks that we will be able to bring "home" Liam on Thursday. We are not allowed to take Sophie outside, except to the Embassy, which is required.

It is pretty cold here right now- 40's fahrenheit- so Sophie is leaving the orphanage in pants instead of the cute skirt outfit I had planned.

Right now, we're not even sure if the metro will let us take a suitcase, so this will be another interesting part of our adoption adventure.

Rare Sighting- Russian Herd of Pugs

These fat pugs were part of the pug convention mentioned in an earlier post in July. They held up traffic being herded down the road like sheep do in England.

Can't Sleep

Its the middle of the night here and I haven't been able to sleep. We think (hope) we will able to get Sophie tomorrow (rather today as its 4:22am right now). We should also get an update on Liam at that time.

On Tuesday, we will legally be Liam and Sophie's parents, and I will take the blog off private at that time.

I will post some new pictures later today...I'm going to try to go to sleep for a few hours now.

Liam in the Hospital

Its been an interesting 24 or so hours. Yesterday we attempted to go to the Detsky Dom. Max picked us up at 3:30. After sitting in horrendous traffic for about 1hour and 45 minutes, we decided we weren't going to make it to the Detsky Dom by 6pm (after that, they wouldn't let us visit due to the kids' schedule) so we decided to head back to central Moscow. It took 45 minutes for Max to get to a point where he could turn us around. We were in the car for 3 hours for nothing. Needless to say, we were quite upset. We had planned to get some firm information on Liam and Sophie's illnesses.

We had Vlad come get us at 8:30 am this morning, and he showed us how to get to the orphanage via the Metro and walking ( 1.5-2 miles). When we got there, we found out that Liam is in the hospital. He has Angine, known to us as Tonsilitis. He went to the hospital yesterday, and they expect him to be in for 6-10 days. We're not allowed to go see him, as he's in a hospital that is considered a sterile environment and no visitors are allowed. We're told that hospitals here are not necessarily the same as those in the US, i.e., its not always an emergency situation that puts a person in the hospital here. Regardless, we're very worried and not sure how to proceed. I'm a bit concerned they'll want to take his tonsils out, which would of course prolong his stay in the hospital. This scenario has not been mentioned by anyone though.

We did get to see Sophie twice today, which was great. She's a fast learner, and LOVES to mimic Pete. Its very cute. She says one, two and three now. She readily hugs me when I ask for a hug, but is reticent to hug Pete. I'm the one who rubs her back and head, and is waiting at the door to pick her up when she's brought to the room, so I think we just need to work on that. She's a little sick as well, and is sequestered still from the other kids. I'm still going to request that we can pick her up on Monday though. She's was running around this afternoon, and when I asked if she was good and not poorly, she replied in the affirmative. This morning she had told Vlad that she was poorly.

We went to the big "Macdonald's" on Tverskaya for dinner tonight. Its huge...the biggest I've ever seen!!!! Not only that, its absolutely packed. There are probably 15-20 registers, and all of them had long lines. It was crazy!

Well, I'm going to email our agency director and ask her to call us to discuss the Liam situation. Tomorrow we move to an apartment where we will have free calls to the US and free wi-fi. yay!

A Quick Post- Update

We don't get to use the internet much at the Marriott because its sooooooooo expensive...so, here's our update:

We went to see the kids today, and they are quarantined due to illness. Something was lost in translation today, so we're not sure what they have. Liam is much more sick than Sophie. He has very swollen lymph nodes, a sore throat, fever, very congested chesty cough and looks pale. Both children were much less active today and had gruff voices. We think it may be Glandular Fever, aka Mono to the Americans. We're being told they may not release the kids to us when originally planned now. We've been told that this won't effect when we leave, but I'm not convinced. I just want to get my kids out of the orphanage and get them home to our doctor. I'm going to see if I can get more info and email our doctor at home.

The weather SUCKS in Moscow. Its cold and wet. Court day was a beautiful day weatherwise. It flurried here last night (yes, I mean snow). It was 6 degrees celsius on our way to the hotel from the airport. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr....Pete had to buy a coat today at the Moscow equivalent of TJ Maxx because he forgot to buy one.

On the bright side, the king size bed at the Marriott is very comfy. I slept in until 11am!!!

Yasmin's 8th Birthday

We had a very good day today!  We made it safely to England and spent the night Thursday night in Rickmansworth at house of my good friend Yvie's parents.  After a leisurely lie in, we headed to Bath, where I got some clothes for the kids.  

Today was our niece's 8th birthday. She started the day with a treasure hunt for her presents, and then we went to Longleat Estate. They have a safari park, stately home, butterfly garden and many other attractions. We ended the day with a nice meal!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YASMIN!!!!

We're Officially Parents!!!

We got in yesterday, and once again neither of us slept on the flight. The ride to the hotel took 2 hours, during which we both dozed off, especially me. Nothing exciting happened yesterday, although I do have a beef to share with you all. We went to dinner, and I ordered still water, and Pete ordered a large beer. His beer was 30 rubles less than my water (about $1.20). It was $8 for a very small bottle of water!!!

Today we went to court and we are now officially Liam and Sophie's parents! We celebrated with Eunice and Darren Glynn, our friends who are with Lighthouse's sister agency, Grace. We went to an Italian Pizzeria and got a round of beer to celebrate. We're now at their apartment while we wait to head out to our flight to London. Pete's dozing in the chair.....I will post more later!

Our Whirlwind Tour

This is our itinerary:

2 September- 3:50pm depart the D for Moscow
3 September- arrive Moscow
4 September- Court, leave for UK in the late PM
5 September- head to Bath, England to see my BIL, SIL and beautiful niece who is celebrating her 8th birthday this weekend!
7 September- head to Devon, England to see my Mother-in-Law, Shirley and our good friends the Nixons, and perhaps more family
10 September- hightail it back to London and fly to Moscow
Visit the kids until we get custody
15 September- Gotcha Day!
20 September- fly home to Detroit and start a new chapter in our family

Marriott Roulette Not Russian Roulette

I didn't post about our Marriott saga, but I will now. As I wrote earlier in the blog, we booked 9/10-9/13 at the Marriott Grande in Moscow. When we finally decided to book an apartment, we decided that we wanted to extend the stay until 9/14. Luckily, the 20k points (one night's stay) Pete was due from his first Marriott Rewards visa purchase had been added. I looked at his rewards account to see if I could add the night online, and that's when I noticed that the dim-witted Marriott reservations agent had booked us for September 3-6 at the Marriott Grande. I have no idea what he was thinking when he was making our reservation, as the dates were mentioned several times during my lengthy time on the phone with him. This was a Monday evening (last week), so I called Marriott the next day to straighten it out. Lo and behold, the 10th was no longer available as a rewards points night. After more lengthy phone calls, and attempts to argue with agents that this was not my screw-up, I just said put us in the Courtyard. I thought we were done. Nope, not so fast. I logged into Pete's email this morning to print off the hotel stay confirmation to take on our trip, and there was an email from Marriott with reservations for 9/10 - 9/14 at the Marriott Grande. I called Marriott and once again, made sure that our points were applied to the right reservation, confirmed we were really going to have 4 nights at the Marriott Grande and am now just hoping this is the last of it.

Oh yeah, and only 4 more hours of work then I'm off for 14 weeks!!

Mo' Getting Ready

Things are falling in place. My co-worker/friend Carolyn and her husband will now be driving our Mazda to the airport and meeting us on the 20th. Marina and her son will be our back-up for this. Our neighbor Kate has said she will take care of our furry kids so we don't have to hire someone to come in. Shannon is going to go grocery shopping for us the day before we come home. Now, I just have to pack and keep plugging away at getting the house tidied and liam/sophie/dominic proofed!

Hopefully in the next couple days I'll get time to post about my showers and show pics of a couple of the beautiful personalized gifts we/I were given!

Back to work.....

So, I changed beds. This is the bed I ended up ordering, but a twin in antique white.

We are confirmed!

Lorien called last night to say that our court date for the 4th is indeed confirmed. Another Yahoo! for Monday. We went bed shopping and found Liam's bedroom furniture at JCPenney. I love it. I've found Sophie's bed online and I'm going to order it today. So, the bedroom is Liam's, but in a dark brown "espresso" finish. The iron bed is what I think we're going to get for sophie, but in antique white. I have an antique table to use as a nightstand already, complete with glass knob. Loves it!

Great News From Munder!

I work for an investment management firm called Munder Capital Management. You may have heard of our family of funds-the Munder Funds. Anyhoo, I proposed adding adoption benefits to my HR department about 10 months ago. As most of you know, the markets and the economy have been very rocky, so nothing happened on this. I was told recently by my HR department that they would be proposing adoption benefits along with the rest of the review for 2009 benefits to our executive management in the near future. I just got a call from our head of HR telling me they are adding an adoption benefit of $5k! They are making it effective September 1st (normally new benefits become effective January 1) to make sure Pete and I can use the benefit!!! Woohooo!!!! Go Munder!!!!

Strange Happenings in CyberSpace and More

So, we have our flights to Moscow booked (Lufthansa) and our flight to and from London booked (Aeroflot). We also have September 3rd booked at the Courtyard Marriott Moscow (rack rate starting at $716, free to us thanks to our Marriott Rewards visa cards), as well as September 10-13 at the Marriott Grand in Moscow (starting at $826 a night, again two nights free and one night at $187.50, thanks to Marriott points). I got word our Russian visas on the way to us. Now, we just have to book our apartment for 9/13-9/20, which we plan to do tonight.

We have to get one of the booster seats in my car tonight, as my sister Rachel and her son Dominic will be arriving tomorrow night. My brother Ryan is driving up from Indianapolis Saturday morning, so it should be a fun weekend! We have the LightHouse picnic Saturday, and then we'll go over to Woodward and show our guests the craziness that is the Woodward Dream Cruise. Sunday we'll be doing lunch with friends at our favorite ex-neighborhood eatery, the Royal Oak Brewery (despite their change of menu...AGAIN).

Now, for the CyberSpace strange happenings. My favorite forum is on FRUA.org, where many Eastern European adoptive parents gather discuss issues uniquely related to us. On Tuesday, FRUA was down, much to the chagrin of many of us. Once again, this afternoon, it appears to be down. The admin, aka Marshall Dillon, doesn't know what happened the first time. Conspiracy theorists on the board think perhaps its related to the situation in Georgia right now. We shall see!

2 down 2 more to go

We have our flights to Moscow and back booked for us AND the children!! We're flying Lufthansa, so that will hopefully be good food. Bier, wienerschnitzel and sourkraut all around I think! Perhaps we'll watch Das Boot on the plane??? And I'll sing about Eine Kleine Nacht Muzik. That might not be appreciated though. I have been told by both a machine (PlayStation) and people that I CANNOT sing.

And, I just sent off our apps for our double entry visas for our trip. Let's see...there are 25 days until we leave. ughhh...

Now, we have to book our flights from Moscow to London, and book our accomodations. Pete and I have to do some discussin' this weekend and get the accomodations booked.

Tomorrow will be a packed day from noon onward. My shower is at 2pm, and then Findlay's first birthday party starts at 7:30pm. Yvie's day is going to be action packed too!

Tonight, its more "clearing" and "tidying"...this is very therapeutic, I must admit!

On a final note, the Russian "invasion" of South Ossetia has definitely been on my mind today. I hope this doesn't affect our second trip. Most in the adoption community (OK, let me say that most who post on FRUA....) don't think it will have an impact. I'm going to think positively until I feel there's a need to do otherwise. Hopefully the violence ends soon and the innocent civilians can return to their normal lives.

Have a lovely weekend. I will post pictures of the shower (hopefully) Sunday.

Random Thoughts

I have no idea how I'm going to get through the next several weeks of waiting. At least we have a target end date, I guess! I'm going to find something to add to the blog to count down the days.

If I could take the next week off work, I think that would help. Alas, I have very few vacation days left and they have to be saved for our trip! I've never been good at focusing, as I have ADHD. It wasn't called ADHD when I was diagnosed in third grade, I was "hyperactive" then. So, nature and emotions are both working against me focusing on work. I, can, however, focus on perezhilton's blog for a good 5 minutes or so. I'm so cheesy.

Pete has put the kabosh on buying more clothes for the kids until after the showers. I know it had to be done.

Well, that's about it for now....my short attention span has led me to other things to think about.

We got a court date (tentative)

September 4th!!!

Finally Over the Jet Lag

We made it home safely, though we were absolutely exhausted when we got home. The 5 hour wait in Atlanta between flights was brutal. We were both counting down the minutes until we could board the plane and fall asleep, as we were afraid if we slept in the airport we would miss our flight!!

Its now set in how much we need to do to get ready for the kids. I'm making a spreadsheet of tasks for us. We're clearing loads of stuff out of the house and donating it. We've already done a lot of childproofing, but we still have a little more to do.

Our friends have been wonderful in their comments on the blog and their emails to us about how excited they are for us. Thank you all! We've really appreciated your kind words. I miss Liam and Sophie, of course.

Pete's working frantically to get some of his toys posted to sell. Tonight we are going to an adoptive parent outreach meeting, which should be informative on bonding and attachment.

Not much else is going on with us- just recovering from our trip and preparing for the wonderful change about to happen!

Oh, and we've booked a flight for my sister Rachel and her son Dominic to fly up for a long weekend. Rachel is going to be our nanny, and we want her to see the house and meet our friends before she moves.

Our thoughts are with our friends Sarah and Jeff as they get custody of their two little ones in Moscow today!

Fun Outside Today

We Sure Got Muddy This Morning

Riding the hobby horse in the orphanage.

Both kids trying to climb into the cab of this truck.

At the orphanage gate looking at a sourpuss who walks by every single day with his 3 fat pugs. There was a pug convention this morning. The sourpuss and a lady were sitting outside the fence of the orphanage with 10 obese pugs. I think the pugs are fed more than the children in the orphanage.

Sophie with her strop on. I can't remember what we had taken away.

One port-a-let entrepreneur. Can you make out the "office" in the leftmost port-a-let? Firstly, ooohhhhh. She sits in there waiting for her customers...mustn't it smell? Secondly, she's severely cutting into her profit margin by using that as an office. can't she just sit at a card table and chair? Its 15 rubles- about 62 cents- to use one of these disgusting things. Interestingly, you never smell anything from them when you walk by.

It rained and thunderstormed last night and this morning, so the playgrounds were muddy. We played inside with the kids for a while, maybe an hour or so. I'm trying something new with Liam. He likes to throw things, so I'm now giving him forceful loving whenever he throws something. I scoop him up and hold him in my arms. He actually likes it, but only for about a minute and then he wants down. It actually seemed to work in reducing how often he's throwing things. I think he's just doing it for attention. Sophie, on the other hand, isn't so fond of it. She throws a strop and Pete gives in!

So, we went outside after about an hour, and we were all covered in mud. The kids enjoyed stomping in the puddles, and putting their hands in the puddles. They're very active kids, so I need to learn how to discipline them while not damaging them or our bond. I've got plenty of books on this kind of stuff to read in the next 6 weeks!

Highlights of the Day

We bought a "bubble machine" on Ulitsa Arbat yesterday and it was a hit with the kids today! They went crazy for it, especially Liam Danila.For court, we have a picture of us with the kids, I guess to prove we have met them. Here's our first family portrait. I look like a librarian today....not that there is anything wrong with librarians. It was very hot because we were inside due to the rain, so by this time, we were all nice and sweaty. Lovely, huh?

After our kid time, we came home and Pete snoozed while I shopped. Soon enough, Valya was here and we were off to the circus (tsirk in Russian)!

The first thing we saw we walked in was this live camel. You could pay to have your picture taken with it. There were poodles, a crocodile, a baby bear, a panther, a cheetah, and two tiger cubs. You could have your picture taken with all of them for a price. When I saw the tiger cubs, I had to do it. I'll never get to hold a tiger cub again...so that $20 for 60 seconds basically. Valya's friend got us into the circus for free, so that was fabulous. The circus was very good, though the lion show was a bit upsetting for me. I just don't know how well they are treated.

This is Valya and I waiting for the show to begin.

The Moscow Circus

Tonight we are going to the circus with Valya. She should be here in about 10 minutes or so.

I spent the afternoon, as it was raining heavily, shopping and registering. Pete slept...there's something that just makes us tired all the time here. I think its the heat, and we're probably still a bit jet-lagged. Neither one of us slept well last night. I do miss my bed...I'm not gonna lie.

We gave the orphanage our donation today. We are buying a rug for our kids' gruppa room. The Orphanage Director is very nice and gave us a nice send-off, since she won't be at the orphanage tomorrow when we visit. Tomorrow is going to be very hard, saying goodbye to the kids and reassuring them that we will be back for them. I am about to cry just thinking of it!

Pete and I have both said that we're going to be beat Monday. My vacation days are dwindling, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make it in. We probably won't get home until at least 1am. I'm going to try very hard to sleep on the plane. I have way too much on my mind to sleep these days though.

I'll try to post some video and more pics when we get back from the circus. We got some really cute footage of them!

Lights Out

We went to the Izmailovo Market yesterday and will probably go again tomorrow because we didn't bring enough money. Prices on souvenirs were much better than they are here on Arbat Street. I'm so glad my friend Marina told me about it! They had chess sets where the pieces were the Soviet Union versus the USA, which I thought was very funny!

In the middle of my shower this morning, the lights went out. I could see well enough, but I unfortunately tried to brush my teeth with something that wasn't toothpaste! Strangely, it was only the lights that weren't working. The computer, fan and TV were all still fine.

Its raining now, so we'll probably be indoors ( I would hope so) with the kids this morning. We're getting picked up at 8:45 am to go the orphanage. It takes about an hour to get there.

Here's another interesting Russian phenomenon- privatized port-a-lets in the busy areas of Moscow. It will be about 3 or 4 port-a-lets per "entrepreneur". 15 rubles to use the "tooalet", and one of the port-a-lets is the entrepreneur's office! I have to take a picture of this.

Pete's found the Russian version of a English delicacy I don't particulary like- Jaffa Cakes. They're little sponge cakes with orange filling covered in dark chocolate. They have a lot of non-Russian food items here- Nestle, Fanta, Nescafe and loads more.

Gotta run...Vlad is here.