Family

Hello! Just wanted to comment a bit on Jill's talking. She's gone from saying one word, to two word phrases, to a few three word phrases over the past few months. Then, about two weeks ago she must have noticed that when we talk we use some smaller words in with our important words. So, at Jake's soccer game she said, "car?" "car?" and I ignored her because the game had just started and we had a long time to go before getting back in the car, but then she said, "do......you.....car?" It was so cute the way she asked! She was just trying out words and guessing if she said it right or not, but I knew what she meant and filled in the blanks for her, "No, I don't want to go to the car right now; we'll go after Jake's game." Then, a week later she did come up with a real sentence! On the refrigerator there's a picture of Jill riding on the giraffe on the carousal at the zoo. My mom stood by her and my dad took the picture (They took her to the zoo one Monday-she loved it, especially seeing her favorite animal-the elephants!) She comments 100 times a day on that picture "Jill giraffe" "Jill-Wheee" "Jill Myama (grandma)", "Pah picture", "round a round" "merry go round" etc, etc. But this day she said, "I'm going round!" I was not sure I heard her correctly and said to Wade, "I think she just said a sentence!" Then she said it again, "I am going round!" Turns out my mom has her repeat after her in the car whenever they are going somewhere, "I am going __________" (to school) (to the store), etc. And, I guess she transferred the 'I am going' to the picture of her going around on the carousal! The next amazing thing was tonight when I was pulling up pictures for our first post placement report (can you believe it's that time already?!) I pulled up a family picture and she yelled out while pointing at the computer, "Jill's family!" Wow! I know at school they do a lot with 'family'. Like we've gotten several projects where she'll for example glue on five teddy bears in a house and they'll label them with our family members names, or that they have a prayer book with a family picture of each student and they take turns praying for each family, etc. So I guess she is learning what family means because she didn't say that for any of the other pictures I pulled up, but said it again when I clicked on the one of the five of us! The social worker tonight asked me to tell a favorite memory of time with Jill and that's the one I picked-it brought tears to my eyes that she realizes she has a family, and seems to know what that means, and that our family is now complete because of her!

Jill at Soccer

Fall Leaves

Jill's First Halloween

For Anyone Who Hasn't Given Up on Checking This Blog...

Hello! Sorry it has been so long! Just as we all got settled in, school started and I was back to planning lessons, grading papers, attending school events as well as all the extracurricular activities the boys are in and helping them with their own homework and tests-I just haven't sat down to type! So....

Jill is doing great! She started school the Tuesday after Labor Day. I peeked in on her a lot the first day. It was funny when I heard the teachers say, "If you are a boy, I want you to line up behind Miss Carol; if you are a girl, I want you to line up behind Miss Connie." She had no clue. I was afraid she'd get teased for not knowing if she was a boy or a girl. But, the teachers helped her out! They say she follows along well. She is always proud of her projects. Her first one was two handprints with a poem underneath. When I pulled it out of her bag she got SO excited and kept saying, "Mama-Hand-Push!" over and over demonstrating what she did to make it. We do the sign language sign for I love you with her and one day another preschool mom came in and told the teachers that her son had come home and showed her that sign. He told his mom that Jill had fixed his hand like that for him, but he didn't know what it meant. They told her it meant "I love you." How sweet. She really likes that little boy, and his mom says he likes her too.

She was baptized on September 7th. It was so special for so many reasons. It was Wade's birthday, it was also my brothers baptismal birthday and he is her Godfather, my mom made her dress, and it was the day of the All Church Fair, so we had a big celebration afterwards. She just stepped up onto the stepstool and didn't flinch or anything as the pastor baptized her. She looked so sweet, and so did the boys as they watched on. At the fair she played a few "duck pond" type games, but then she went in the 'bounce house'. I was a little nervous about it, but she LOVED it! Afterwards she kept pointing to it and asking, "Jill jump?" So we let her back in it three more times!

Her birthday was September 15th, so now she is four! We had a small party with mostly adults. Because they also celebrated her birthday in preschool, she can sing happy birthday pretty well, she also picked up on how blow out the candles very quickly. We had Elmo plates, napkins and an Elmo cake which she loved; especially the Elmo and Big Bird characters that came off the cake to play with! She got lots of baby doll things. This was also the day she said her first three word phrase, "Jill like baby". She's gone from saying words, to two word phrases and now sneaks in a three word phrase every once in awhile!

She had a cold a few weeks ago and was wheezing. Luckily we have a nebulizer for the boys' asthma, so I got it out and filled it with the capsule of albuterol. I was prepared for a lot of screaming and fighting to keep the mask on her face, but instead she helped me put it on and started breathing in an exaggerated way like she knew that is what it was for! I flipped on the switch and the noisy machine didn't bother her one bit. She just sat there and breathed it all in (while watching Sesame Street). Then, when I turned it off, she took the mask off, held it out to me and said "Thank You!" So, I'm pretty sure she must have used one of these over there-but they didn't tell me that! What if I wasn't experienced in wheezing and/or didn't have albuterol or a nebulizer? I would have been in a panic!

We ordered an Abby Cadabby costume, the fairy that's friends with Elmo, off the internet for her to be for Halloween, so I'll post pictures of her wearing it after Halloween! It's her favorite character now, she likes her even more than Elmo!

That's about all for now! I'll try to update and post pictures after Halloween!

Family Photos!

We went to a great place called Portrait Innovations to have family photos taken last Friday. All together we had 88 pictures snapped! We ordered quite a few and were given a CD of all 88 shots. I asked if it was legal to post them on the blog and they said yes!!! So here's a sampling of how they turned out!

Lots and Lots and Lots and Lots of Photos

Wearing her cool sunglasses holding her cell phone at Ty's baseball game.

Jill played her very first 'board game', Cootie, with Ty, Jake, and Mommy, and SHE WON!

The winner gets hugs and kisses!

Jake and Ty both love to spin her around until she's dizzy. She falls down, gets back up and wants to do it again, and again, and again, and again!!!

Story time in the laundry basket. Good thing Jake was willing to read because Mommy doesn't fit in the laundry basket very well.

All of her Band-aids from her shots and blood work. At least they matched her dress!

We don't have a baby stroller, so she uses her shopping cart. She loads up every baby doll she has and then walks around and around the house.

This was her first day playing in the yard. She ran, chased bubbles, and played on the swings and the slide!

Her first swimming experience in our friends' in-ground pool! She loved it! She called it a 'patsa' which is the word for bath in Russian.

She also loved the Drumstick our friends gave her after swimming!

She loves the play food and little kitchen. She fills up plates for us and for her dolls.

The sandbox is her favorite thing to play with outside. We have "gems" hidden in the sand and she digs, finds them and puts them in the pail, then lines them all up on the steps before burrying them again.

No More Snoring!

Well, what a week. Two Tuesdays ago Jill had her CT scan. It went well. They were hoping to not have to give her anesthesia to do it by just giving her something "like drinking two margaritas" to make her relaxed enough to lay still for it, but they said she kept moving at the last second, so they ended up giving her the anesthesia. Luckily she came to quickly and felt fine, eating Cheerios and drinking apple juice right away, so they let us go home more quickly than we expected.
The CT scan showed that the hemangioma is not anything to be concerned about!
Then last Thursday she had her tonsils and adenoids taken out and her ears cleaned out. There was so much wax and dried blood in her ears that the doctor couldn't see her eardrum! It's amazing to hear (or should I say not hear) her breathe now! She can close her mouth and breathe through her nose!!! She doesn't snore any more-at all!!! She does have to be reminded to close her mouth because it's such a habit. She's breathed through her mouth her whole life! She has her ups and downs recuperating. She's cranky, then we give her pain medicine, then she's great, then she's tired and either cranky again or falls asleep, then wakes up cranky again, then we give her pain medicine, etc.... The biggest problem is getting her to drink water! They told us she should drink a liter a day to keep the packing stuff in her throat from drying out, but bare minimum she must drink 500 ml. This really didn't look like much, but it's almost impossible to get her to drink it! At first I thought it was because it hurts, but now I think she's just being stubborn because she eats fine, but won't drink! The first day home (Friday, because we spent the night in the hospital eating only broth and orange jello)she ate oatmeal and yogurt, then Saturday she ate oatmeal, yogurt, applesauce and banana, Sunday she ate oatmeal, yogurt, banana, flaked salmon, canned peas, and macaroni and cheese. Yet, she screamed, whined, cried, etc. when we wanted her to take a drink. Today (Monday) she was to the point where she would spit it out at me when I made her drink! The other reason I think she's just being stubborn is because when my mom tells her to drink, she does! My dad was over and I was trying to get her to drink and she wouldn't, but when I gave it to my dad and said, "Here, tell her to drink this." she did! Wade had a little better luck than I do in making her drink, but it's still not easy. So, that's our biggest frustration right now.
We don't have any new English words to report because her speech is tons worse now from the surgery. I do think this is temporary, her mouth and cheeks are kind of swollen and she's got a big excess saliva problem (and doesn't want to swallow it) so she sounds really funny when she talks. She also kind of holds her head down a little all the time now and all this makes her voice sound different. So, hopefully a week from Thursday we'll move forward with words and language some more as we were told this surgery had a two week recovery period.
Hey, the school secretary told me this week that a new girl just enrolled in Jill's preschool class and she was also adopted from Russia! they're only a month apart in age, but the new girl was adopted at about a year and a half. Still, I can't wait to meet them!
Bye for now!

Ours for One Whole Month!

Wow! Sunday was one month from the day we picked Jill up! Today was a crazy day! Our pediatrician had told us to make an appointment with a pediatrician who deals with international adoption, so we did. We had a 1:30 appointment today at Cardinal Glennon's Medical Center. My grandfather passed away last night, and therefore my dad was home from work today and said he could watch the boys for awhile so they wouldn't have to sit through yet another of Jill's doctor appointments. Thank goodness, as this 1:30 appointment didn't end until 4:30 after a thorough examination, developmental tests, four shots and five vials of blood! She hated the shots and bloodwork. In fact she started screaming when the nurse put alcohol on her arm! I don't know if she just didn't like the alcohol's feel or smell or if they do this before giving shots in Russia and she remembered it. She was so worn out afterwards that even though she had a package of 3 graham crackers in the car, she fell asleep after eating only two!
Here is a list of words she says in English...
up
shoes
ball
my
show (as in TV show)
jump
more
banana (pronounced nana)
apple (pronounced bopple)
no
book
fish
hello
brush (as in teeth)
teeth
touch
it (put together as "no touch it")
Mama, Dada, Jill, Ty, Jake, Grandma (Myma), Pah (what we call my dad)

She seems to understand most all of what we say!
In the car we listen to the CD from this summer's VBS a lot and today after Jake's ball game (nothing was playing at the time)Jake said, "She's singing a VBS song!" I listened and asked if he was sure and he said that it was "Never Let Go" I listened and yep, it was that melody and rhythm, so I put the CD in and she sang along in her babble words right on with the melody and rhythm and even got the word "go" right every time!

Tomorrow is her CT scan, I'll post how that goes later!
Maybe I'll try to get some pictures up soon too. Also, since I translated most of the menu for the "French Restaurant" I'll post that for anyone going to Astrakhan soon! You've got to get the fruit salad!

Bye for now!

Yes, We are Home!!!

Hello again! Yes, we are home, and have been for 10 days. Wednesday, July 9th we left the hotel at 9am and drove an hour to the airport. We met up with the family we first met at the doctor's office and sat with them waiting until it was time to board our flight. Hooray, hooray! The in-flight movies/TV shows, etc. worked! Jill didn't want anything to do with them, but since she occupied herself looking at the Sky Mall magazines and such Wade and I got to watch some movies. After two hours of looking at the magazines on the plane it was time to eat, then she took a two hour nap! After that it was time to eat again, then she read the books we had brought. Then we ate again and she napped about a half hour to hour, then she and the other three year old girl played together with stacking cups and other toys for the rest of the trip! So, it wasn't bad at all for an 11 hour flight. We had a three hour layover in Atlanta, then a one hour and 22 minute flight. But... we boarded the flight and he announced that it was an hour and 22 minute flight, we started heading to the runway, then stopped. He announced that the winds had changed and so they were changing the direction of takeoff. A little later he announced that there were 50 planes that were to take off before us. I really, really thought Wade misheard that, there couldn't possibly be 50 planes before us! But, he hadn't misheard. I started counting as planes would take off and fell asleep. I woke up about an hour later when the pilot announced that the winds had changed again and we were turning around to takeoff another way, but the good news was that there were now only 11 planes left to take off before us. We finally took off a little after we were supposed to have arrived in St. Louis! I slept the whole way and so did Jill. I'm not sure about Wade. So, we finally arrived and it was SO good to see the boys!!! They both grew a few inches this month! They were super excited to meet Jill and started trying to play with her and tickle her and get her to say their names. She of course had been woken up from a much needed good night's sleep and wasn't too into the commotion, but did OK. When we got home she perked up a little playing with the balloons the kids and my parents had decorated the house with. Then, about midnight here (9am the next day-24 hours since we left the hotel) we went to bed. She was so tired she fell asleep immediately, no crying or anything. The next day Wade made pancakes and sausage; the boys favorite breakfast. We pretty much just hung out the next three days. My mom came by, we played outside, I brought up a bookcase and some toys for her and set it up in the living room, etc. Ty taught her to climb up the fort and go down the slide; she loves that. I pushed her on the swing; she likes it too, but jumps down with no notice which scares me! The boys pick her up and swing her around until she's dizzy and falls down, then she says "up?" and they do it again, and again, and again, and again, 20 times if she wants! They've hardly gone downstairs this week, and they usually hang out there all the time because that's where all their stuff is! Saturday we went to my parents and she met their dog, a big Golden Retriever. She wasn't to thrilled about that. She pull her legs up while someone held her so the dog wouldn't lick her feet and she yelled "nyet" if the dog got to close. But she was OK sitting on my mom's lap with the dog close by, she just didn't really want to touch it. On Sunday we went to church and she had tons of fun saying "up" because anyone and everyone wanted to pick her up! Later that day we went to Ty's baseball practice where she and Jake and I played on the playground, then we all went to our friends' house to swim in their inground pool and have dinner. She like sitting on the step of the pool, but didn't want to go further at first. Little by little we coaxed her in and it was OK; then after awhile, she loved it. She even would get out and I'd say, "one, two, three, jump!" and she'd jump in to me! Then I'd hold her middle and she'd kick her legs to 'swim' to the other side, get out and jump in again! Monday started our week of doctor appointments. Monday we saw our pediatrician. I was so surprised to hear that she was in the 10th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height! I had heard that orphans usually aren't on the chart when they first arrive in the country, and she was a premie baby too! He agreed with our going to an ENT and eye doctor and told us to also see an International Adoption Specialist that we know of from a workshop we went to. Tuesday we didn't have any doctor appointments, but Ty's new teacher came to visit. At our school the teachers make home visits to each child in their new class over the summer to get to know them, give parents the emergency contact forms, computer use forms, supply lists, etc. Monday night I had three of those visits to make. Anyway, Ty's teacher came over during the day, then Ty had a baseball game that night. On Wednesday we went to the ENT and she does have HUGE adenoids and HUGE tonsils. Both will come out on August 7th. But before that she needs to have a sedated CAT scan because of a hemangioma (not sure how to spell it). If you noticed in the pictures what looks like a blue vein or a bruise on the bridge of her nose, that's it. Since it's on the inside it can sometimes spread or something inside and the doctor wants to check it out. She did say that it's usually nothing. After that we grabbed lunch at McDonald's then the boys had piano lessons and then Ty had an allergist appointment. He had to do the back prick test thing again which I hate; it just seems like torture to poke someone, have their back swell up with huge itchy mosquito bite like bumps and not let them touch or scratch it!!! So for the second time he tested highly positive (3++ to 4+++) for every tree except Mulberry, every grass but one, three fall weeds, and a bunch of animals and dust mite things. So, we're going to start allergy shots because he's so extremely allergic to so many things. If they work he'll probably be a much more agreeable kid and do even better in school because he won't feel miserable in September, October, March, April and May! (over half of the school year!)Wednesday night I went on three more home visits! Thursday we had her eye appointment. According to the eye doctor, she is not cross eyed; it's called pseudostrabismus where her eye appears to cross, but it's really an illusion due to her large nose bridge. We're going to watch her after her adenoids are out and see if they still looked crossed after the swelling goes down some. He said to come back in November and he'd check her out again. That's good because I don't think I'd want to have two surgeries so close together right now. Thursday night I had two more home visits! Friday we didn't have any appointments until my home visit at 7pm!!! So we hung out at home until 3:15 when I drove to drop off Ty with a friend to take him to the Cardinals game! His baseball team went and they even got to walk on the field before the game!!! Today, Saturday, Jake had a 9am baseball game, Ty had an 11:30am baseball game, Ty and Wade had haircut appointments and then we had friends over! Tomorrow will be church again, then Jake's baseball pictures, Jake has a baseball game, and then Monday morning starts a week of soccer camp at Lutheran North which is about an hour drive for us, but the camp is well worth the drive. We usually have to leave at 7am to make it on time, but there are lots of people I like to sit and visit with while the boys participate in the camp and a number of them knew last summer about the adoption and are probably anticipating meeting Jill this summer! I'll continue home visits next week, then Wade's brothers are coming into town, we have two days of teachers meetings August 5th and 6th and then Jill has her surgery the 7th with a two week recovery. Whewww! We've been busy, and it looks like we will continue to be busy! But, all in all she's doing really well. She goes to bed easily about 8pm every night. She eats well, she's done some weird things like not eating watermelon one day, then eating a ton of it the next, or not wanting to eat off her own plate pointing at Wade's plate, then when Wade dumps her food on his plate-she eats it! Just stuff that has no rhyme or reason, but nothing big deal. I recently found out that most 2-3 year olds chew with their mouths open! That made me feel better; I just don't remember the boys ever doing that. And, I think it will be easier to teach her when the tonsils and adenoids are out and she can breathe. She does great with the potty as long as it's just pee, but we're still fighting the other using something called Miralax and still going only every five days! She says up, shoes, my, show (as in TV show), jump, more, nose, banana (well, nana), apple (actually bopple), no, book, fish, hello, and sit! Along with these she knows all of our names. She understands more than she can say; for example when I say, "put that back" she does! And today when I got her down from breakfast after two big bowls of Raisin Bran even though she wanted more and said, "come wash hands" she whipped her hands behind her back and shook her head no! So, it's really going well. The boys really help out a lot playing with her and keeping her content. They're exceptionally good with her! Hopefully I've covered all the bases from the flight to what we've been up to (why I haven't blogged for so long!) to doctor appointments, to what she's learned so far and how she's adapting and how the boys are adapting. If I think of anything else I'll try to get on and add it or write it down for the next time I have some time to blog again!

Last Day in Russia!

Hello from McDonald's again! Did you know that in Russia you can get carrot sticks in your Happy Meal? And, I had a salad topped with shrimp! It took some coaxing to get Jill to eat a carrot, but once she did, she liked them and has eaten a bunch along with her chicken nuggets. Not terribly much to report today. After eating the hotel breakfast buffet, we came back up and started packing a little. We had plans to go to the zoo after the embassy appointment, but someone needed to use the toilet-but wouldn’t. She would sit on the floor and rock back and forth trying to hold it in, or she would walk around in circles holding her bottom with her hand and whining. But, if we put her on the toilet she’d scream and cry. This went on from 10am until we had to leave at 1pm, so we put a pull up on her and left. We knew she’d be uncomfortable until she went and so going to the zoo would not be a good idea. We almost missed our 2pm US Embassy interview. The driver was there right at one, but Mia was not. She came shortly after one from the airport with a family who just arrived for their first trip. She got in the van with us and we headed to another hotel to pick up a CHI mom and daughter going for their US Embassy appointment at the same time. About 5 minutes into the drive from our hotel to theirs we hit some construction traffic! We sat or inched along and finally got to the other hotel. Luckily there wasn’t much traffic getting from there to the embassy and we made it; 2:00 right on the dot! In the embassy were at least 10 other adoptive families! We met up with the New York, California and Texas families we met yesterday and met some new families from Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and another family from Texas. We got all of the paperwork squared away and got Jill’s passport back with her visa in it! We were driven back to the hotel and after about an hour of whining, rocking back and forth and walking in circles holding her bottom-she went! YAY! We were really hoping she’d do this before the flight. Now she’s a lot less cranky and has happily been playing with her doll that has the snap on clothes, her stacking cups and the cardboard cut outs that came with her meal on the Aeroflot flight. She’s pretending that the long rectangular piece is a brush for her hair, the littlest one that looks like a sailboat she’s pretending to be a hairclip and the big one must be make-up and the medium one a make-up brush because she swipes the medium one along the big one, then brushes it on her cheeks. She has watched me put on make-up everyday since last Saturday; it’s very cute to watch her imitate. We haven’t decided what’s in store for dinner, possibly McDonald’s again since we still have some packing to do and don’t want to be out too late. The driver is picking us up at 9am tomorrow for our 1pm flight. Wade thinks this is crazy, but I think it might be right on with about a 1 hour drive to the airport standing in line for them to rummage through all of our luggage, time to eat something, then time to go through security and board. My biggest fear is that the in flight video system won’t work again. On the way here they only worked for about the first two hours of the flight and then they went out. The family we met up with our first night in Moscow sent us an e-mail that they arrived home safely, but that the in flight video system didn’t work for their entire flight! We have her doll with the snap on clothes, stacking cups, cardboard pieces, two dolls, all of her board books, Play-Doh, Crayola Magic fingerpaints/paper, 2 coloring books, crayons and stickers packed for the flight, but we were hoping she’d spend some time quietly watching TV! I guess there’s always the laptop which will last about two hours. Well, thanks to all who have kept up reading my ramblings about our big adoption adventure! And another big thanks to all who have left comments or sent e-mails! My next post will be from HOME!

Sunny Day in Moscow

We went nonstop today! First we enjoyed the excellent breakfast buffet that’s included with the cost of the hotel here, then we headed off for our 9am doctor’s appointment. While there we met a couple and their newly adopted three year old girl who are from Texas, another couple and their newly adopted 13 month old girl who are from New York and another couple with a newly adopted 13 month old girl who are from California! Jill’s appointment went fine; the only thing she didn’t like was when he looked in her ears. This made me think there may be something wrong with her ears, but he said they looked great! He did say that we need to see an ENT as soon as we get back to take care of her adenoids and tonsils. That’s why she can’t breathe! Ty had his adenoids out a few years ago, so we know just where to go! After the doctor’s visit we headed to the zoo! Mia had given us Metro directions; we followed them exactly and made it! This was trickier than our usual Metro outings because we had to change lines, but we did it! Actually, we had a little help. As they announced the stop for the zoo I said to Wade, “It’s the next one.” A lady overheard me and said, “Are you going to the zoo?” We told her yes and she said she was going that way and would show us where it was. That was very nice of her as there were two different ways out of the subway station and only one took you to the zoo. Also the zoo is a couple of blocks away from the station. So, we got to the zoo, took a few pictures and a little video outside, then went up to buy our tickets. There were a lot of people standing around looking through the gates, standing by the cashier booths, out front milling around, but there weren’t any people working at the cashier booths. There were workers inside the gates hosing down areas and sprucing things up, but the zoo did not appear to be open. I guess there wasn’t a sign up saying anything about them being closed because all sorts of Russian people were walking around looking as confused as we did! We decided to take a walk and look for something to eat, then come back and see if they had opened in the meantime. We saw a sign that said McDonald’s 1.5 km, so we headed in that direction. We ate at McDonalds then walked back to the zoo to find new people milling around the cashier booths looking confused. We also saw many adults walking away with some very disappointed looking children. We decided they must not be open today for one reason or another, so we headed back to the Metro station and figured out how to get to The Red Square. We took some pictures around St. Basil’s Cathedral, looked at the things vendors were selling around the square, and generally just strolled around taking in the sights. We went in GUM mall where no one I know could afford to buy anything, then went across from The Red Square to a normal mall. That was more fun to look through, although we still didn’t buy anything. Every store was either a clothing store, shoe store, or sold accessories like jewelry, hats, or purses. There were no household stores or Halmark type stores. We found that somewhat strange. It was only about 3:30 when we were pretty much finished looking around The Red Square area, so we got back on the Metro and went back to Arbat Street. We went back to a store we had been in yesterday, and I bought an amber necklace and earring set. Russia is famous for their amber. We also bought a small flag of Russia. I think I forgot to mention that we bought a handcarved chess set yesterday! Wade got a Euro 2008 T-shirt and a hat that says Russia yesterday, and today he bought a Hard Rock Café Moscow shirt after we ate dinner there. We split their huge plate of Nachos. Wade was so happy eating nachos and drinking iced tea-with ice! Jill ate an entire chicken fingers and fries kids meal with milk! As we headed back down the street to get to the Metro we ran into one of the couples we had met this morning at the doctor’s office; the ones from Texas! We chatted some more with them and found that we both have 2pm appointments at the American Embassy tomorrow! We told them our zoo story and said that we may try again tomorrow after our appointment. They asked if they could join us, so of course we said yes! So, now we’re back, Jill’s had her bath and is in bed, and we plan to sleep in tomorrow. Then, after the big breakfast buffet, we may look into the hotel pool before going to our 2pm Embassy appointment. After that we do hope to visit the zoo with the Texas family for the rest of the day and possibly join them for dinner. And then……..sleep, get up Wednesday, eat, go to the airport and begin our journey HOME!

Rainy Day in Moscow

Picking up from where I left off yesterday afternoon…After I returned from McDonald’s, Jill was up from her nap. We decided to go looking for the German restaurant that others have recommended. Mia had told us that it was across the street past the Metro station. We walked past the Metro station which is a nice park-like area lined with stores and restaurants on either side. It was a nice walk, but none of the restaurants looked German, and none of the names per my ‘sounding them out’ sounded German at all. So, we gave up about the time it started getting windy and looked like it might rain opting to go back and eat in the hotel instead. Wade got the $18 club sandwich and fries and I got the $10 bowl of Borscht that was pretty much a ten dollar bowl of beef broth. The Borscht at the Horseshoe in Astrakhan had beef in it, chunks of potatoes, chunks of beets, and shredded cabbage, carrots and such; it was so good. This had some shredded vegetables in beef broth and that was it, very disappointing. After dinner we met up with another CHI couple. It turns out they are from Kansas City and they were both raised in the St. Louis area!!! What a small world! We chatted for a long time, then Wade went with them to the market to buy some bottled water while I put Jill to bed. Her bed here is not a crib like it was in The Korvet. It is actually a chair that pulls out like a pull-out couch and makes a twin bed. It’s the perfect size, but we were curious to find out if she would stay in it or get out whenever she wanted to. I helped her with pajamas, teeth brushing, and read her her favorite book; then I kissed her goodnight and patted her back a few times. She didn’t cry or fuss at all! I headed to the bathroom and soon heard her behind me. I told her ‘para spat’ (time to sleep) and ‘go back to bed’ motioning for her to go back. She Did! She went and climbed back into the bed and stayed there! This morning we met up with the KC couple for breakfast before the headed back home for their 10 day wait. We also went to the lobby to catch Mia before they all left to ask her for the name of the German restaurant. It’s something that starts with a K and sounds a little like kielbasa. While there the couple offered us one of their umbrellas since we didn’t bring one! How nice! Even though it was raining, we decided to head out to Arbat street (since we now had an umbrella) for some shopping. We met a couple that spoke English on the subway; the man was from Scotland and the woman from India. They were very nice. We got off at the same stop, but split up then. We didn’t go ‘up’ from our stop the same way my dad and I did on my first trip here, so we didn’t see the church that was my sign for which way to go to get to Arbat street. We walked around the block and still didn’t see it, so we asked someone who pointed us in the right direction. Finally, we found it! We did have a poncho that covered Jill and the stroller, I had my water-resistant jacket with a hood and Wade had his water-resistant jacket as well as the umbrella. The rain let up every now and then, and we had an enjoyable time strolling up and down both sides of the street going in and out of shops and looking at the various things the vendors in the middle were selling. We ate lunch at Sbarro’s Pizza. It was OK; it would have been much better if it had been hot, but it was barely even warm. I’m also not sure if it had any sauce on it. We found a closer Metro station right at the end of Arbat street and headed down. Unfortunately, we found out the hard way that it was a different line. We figured this out only two stops in, got off, headed back two stops the other way and asked someone which way to go. She directed us to go one more stop and then change lines. We went one more stop, but weren’t sure how to change lines. We knew we needed the red #1, but were unsure of where that was. A man who spoke some English could tell we were trying to figure something out and stopped and asked us where we were wanting to go. We told him and he pointed us in the right direction, how nice!!! Then we got on and rode back to the hotel! So, in all of this Jill missed her nap. She seems to be doing okay, though, she was going strong until dinner, then had a few fits during dinner because we don’t like her to hold onto the prong end of the fork after each bite getting her hand all yucky, but for the most part she was fine. We did find the “German” restaurant and it was FANTASTIC! Wade had some kind of German beef and mutton sausage with sauerkraut (that he didn’t eat) and French fries, I had beef stroganoff with mashed potatoes, green beans and a salad. Jill ate a ton again! After having this HUGE piece of pizza and a banana this afternoon, she ate most of the tomatoes from my salad, about a third of my beef stroganoff with beef and mushrooms, an ice cream scoop size of mashed potatoes, and LOTS and LOTS of fresh green beans! Tomorrow is her doctor visit at 9am. Our American Embassy Interview is in the afternoon on Tuesday, then, we’ll head to the airport Wednesday morning; we’re very close!!!

Free Photos courtesy of McDonalds!!!!!

Reporting From Moscow!

Hello from Moscow!!! We found out last night when Lena dropped off Jill’s passport and other necessary documents that Voloya wouldn’t be picking us up until 6:20am! Yay! One extra hour of sleep! So, since we were pretty well packed last night, we got up this morning, got ready, each ate a banana to tide us over until the flight served breakfast, and headed to the airport. Volyoa was so nice helping us with our bags, cutting into a different line and somehow getting us up front where we got our boarding passes and checked our bags. Then he walked us through to the security area, made sure we knew where to go and what to do and said goodbye! We were worried about not having a translator with us, but Voloya was just as good, or better (it looked like he “knew people” there)! When it was time to board we could see the plane from the waiting area; it was about 150 yards away. Wade figured we’d walk right up to the plane, but I warned him that we’d probably have to board a bus; that’s just how they do it here. Sure enough, I was righ.We spent 10 minutes boarding everyone on flight and all of their carry-ons onto a bus, then drove about 1 minute over to the plane, then spent 10 minutes getting everyone and all of their carry-ons off of the bus to stand in line to go up the steps to board the plane. Luckily they let families with children board first, and we walked right up and got situated without a crowd. The flight was uneventful. Wade played with the doll making it jump up and kiss Jill on her cheek so that she would laugh for about ½ hour, then it was time for breakfast. The adult breakfast was a ½ piece of ham, a piece of something that looked like fatty turkey, two pieces of Swiss cheese, one pecan, ½ cucumber, ¼ tomato, ½ piece of bread, a dinner roll, and a brownie. We also each had a glass of orange juice and cup of coffee. Now, Jill got the “kids meal”. Her meal consisted of a vanilla yogurt, a strawberry yogurt, ½ piece of bread, a dinner roll, a whole green apple, a juice box and a pastry that was like a small pie crust filled with a chocolate icing type treat. It also had a cardboard punch out thing to play with. After lunch she watched Sesame Street on the laptop, and then we were heading down! She whined a little on the way down; we thought she might have been queasy or that her ears were hurting, but all in all she did OK. We landed, waited about 15 minutes for a bus to come to drive us to the terminal, waited another 10 or 15 minutes to get our luggage, then met up with our Moscow translator, Mia, who helped us with our bags. The driver, Eugene, got us to the hotel Holiday Inn Solkoniki where Mia and I filled out a small stack of paperwork for the Embassy. After the paperwork was out of the way, Mia and Wade headed across the street to McDonald’s. Jill and I waited here until Dada brought back two BigMacs, two orders of fries, two Cokes (WITH ICE!), and one cheeseburger. She SCARFED down the entire cheeseburger and then ate a handful of fries! The boys have some competition in their McDonald’s eating now. This room has one double bed and a chair that turns into a twin bed. So, I changed the chair into a bed for her nap. She really didn’t want to sleep, but really only cried about 5-10 minutes while I patted her back before she drifted off. Lucky for us she’s a very sound sleeper because a minute after she fell asleep we had some kind of construction noise going on. It was LOUD, but she slept right through it and is still asleep now. I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to my cousin Adam and his beautiful bride Jennifer who are getting married today! I so wish we could be there, we were so close to being back in time! Have a wonderful day and we’ll try to catch up with you the next time you’re in town!

Days 7 and 8

We ate our last breakfast here this morning! 3 hot dogs each, peas, swiss cheese, bread, butter, yogurt, juice, and coffee. Jill just woke up from her last nap here! Pretty soon we'll go have our last walk to dinner. We have plans to go to the "French Restaurant", La Vanille, for the last time. Last night we visited our other favorite dining establishment "The Chicken Hips Restaurant", Chocolate (Hut?), for the last time. The girl who waits on us there speaks quite good English, so we told her we were leaving town soon and that this was our last visit and we thanked her so much for being so friendly and helpful through our trip. I know we ate there at least 7 times. We're pretty much packed, except for the toys that Wade keeps packing and then I keep getting back out so Jill has something to play with the rest of today! We have to leave at 5:30 am tomorrow morning and will not have a translator with us! Voloya, the driveer will pick us up and take us to the airport. Hopefully he will help with our luggage, but once in the airport we're on our own! I hope I remember how to maneuver my way around the place; I think I will as it usually 'all comes back to me' when I see it. We take off at 7:30. We hope Jill will watch an episode of Sesame Street for half of the flight, then there's a meal served, that will take about 10-15 minutes, which leaves about 45 minutes to fill with looking at her photo album and other books. I think it will go fine, really. We're excited to meet up with the other Americans in Moscow, we're excited to have a McDonald's Big Mac!, Wade's excited to see The Red Square/St. Basil's etc. and shop on Arbot street, since he hasn't yet had a chance to explore Moscow. Jill has a doctor's appointment one of the days there, probably Monday. I hope the doctor can prescribe something for the rash on the creases inside her elbows. She's scratched the one side so much that is has bled and is now scabbed over. She has a little of the same rash on a crease in her neck too. Maybe the doctor can tell us if she has bronchitis or something that makes her sound like Darth Vader. Her nose is a tiny bit stuffy, but the sounds she makes with her mouth open is awful! I kind of really hope that she is sick with something; that way it can be cured instead of finding out that that's just the way she's always going to sound!

Yesterday she finally paid attention to the other doll we brought. This one's not a baby, it's a girl with red hair and an all stuffed material, about the same size as the baby doll "Lala". She would yell, "Nyet!" and wanted nothing to do with it this entire week, but all of a sudden yesterday she pulled it out. She started singing with it, the only word I could catch was 'lala', she took it's jacket off and put it back on and made it dance. She used some of the big Legos and made a sort of car for it. Then she took all her blocks out of the dump truck and put the girl in it! She rolled it back and forth like a stroller, and pushed her around the room talking to her! Until then she had never moved the truck, she just used it to put things in and out, so it was so cute to see her using it as a stroller. Today I took "Baby Lala" out of her bed where it usually stays and she used both dolls in the imaginary stroller. She also wrapped "Baby Lala" up in a blanket and rocked her. Very cute. Oh-speaking of very cute, I can't believe I didn't take my camera to the grocery store yesterday! I mean, really, why would you need a camera at the grocery store? Well, if the grocery store has cute little child sized carts you do! Jill pushed the cute little child sized cart around and we filled it up with bananas, a bottle of Pepsi, a bag of Lays Crab flavored chips, a bag of Lays Bacon flavored chips, (the tiny vending machine sized ones) and some animal cracker type cookies. She was SO cute pushing the cart around. She kept rearranging the food in it whenever Wade and I would stop and stand there discussing what else we needed to get. But, she almost cried when we put the food up on the shelf to be checked out. We showed her the food in the bag that Dada was carrying, but once she wasn't pushing the food in the cart, she was in a bad mood. It was a little difficult getting her to walk back (we didn't take the stroller). Then once back here she didn't want to eat lunch! Of course when it came down to lunch or nap, she ate.

I guess that's it for now. Everything is going so well now! I kind of feel bad about posting all the "bad" stuff a few days ago now that it's going so well, but then again, I think it needed to be said for anyone out there who is reading this and soon to adopt a three or four year old. I searched and searched the blogs through this whole process looking for information on what it would be like adopting a three and a half year old and I couldn't find much of anything! CHI only had one family on their reference list that adopted a three year old girl; I e-mailed them, but didn't hear back. I really wanted to know what to expect as to if they're really potty trained, what I may need to know about eating issues, sleeping issues, etc. but I just had to jump in and do it find out. Hopefully someone out there is contemplating or even in the process of adopting a child of this age and they will know exactly what kinds of things to expect because I didn't hold back information, I didn't just put the good stuff, (of which there is a lot of 'good stuff'!) I put it all and I hope that it helps someone! If anyone out there needs to know more they are very welcome to e-mail us! Just leave a comment on the blog with your e-mail, we won't publish your comment (we have it set up that we can choose which comments to publish) and then we can e-mail back and forth about anything you want to know!

We hope to be able to update the blog at the McDonald's across the street for our hotel in Moscow. Then, once we're home I'll try to update here and there as most people who have completed their adoptions tend to do! Pray for a safe flight to Moscow for the three of us and for a peaceful one on Jill's part, that she is not scared and that the time passes quickly!

Next post.....Moscow!!!

The Rest of Day 6

AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING....

#1 no thumb sucking attempts for over 24 hours
#2 no regurgitating food for over 24 hours
#3 goes to bed without complaint (naps and nighttime)
#4 loves to brush her teeth
#5 TELLS us when she has to go potty and goes on a regular basis!

I really can't believe the bedtime thing, I mean she gives us hugs and kisses, she holds her arms up for Wade to put her in the bed, then she lays down and after a little while-she's out! No crying, whining, we don't even need to pat her back anymore! We do stay close by and I think she knows we're there, but that's it!

I think we finally have a routine, and that really helps. She gets up about 8, calls out "Mama" so we know she's up, goes potty, washes her hands (which she loves!), plays for awhile while we get ready, we get her ready, we go down the hall to eat, she eats a lot (1 and a half hot dogs, a yogurt, a piece of bread and a piece of cheese for breakfast today) and is well behaved for meals (still working on the NOISE of eating with her mouth open), we come back to the room to play more,potty a few times, have lunch (ham and cheese sandwich, banana, milk, 1/2 granola bar with dried fruits and nuts in it today), go down for a nap with no complaints, sleep for two hours!, go potty, play while we get ready to walk to dinner, get her ready to walk to dinner, walk about 30 to 40 minutes to a restaurant, eat, she's very well behaved at the restaurant looking at her photo album or playing with the toy animals we bring (had a chicken salad off the children's menu tonight-basically shredded chicken and cucumbers), walk 30 minutes to an hour back depending on how much of it we let her walk and how much of it we push her in the stroller, play, potty, bath, brush teeth, watch a short show (Little Einsteins tonight), then bed with no complaints!

I almost hate to go to Moscow now because it will mess up the schedule and things will be new again and I'm not sure how it will go. Then, I'm sure once we're home, we'll go through some problems again until she gets used to that!

New things for today...
...using the Crayola Color Magic Finger Paints that only show on their special paper. I painted on a piece and she painted on another piece, and then she carried them around all day. She rolled them up and used them as drumsticks, she unrolled them and pretended to read them, they entertained her for a large part of the day.
....PlayDoh! She liked this! We rolled it out with one of the cylinder building blocks and then stamped it with one of the stacking cups (they have an animal on the bottom of each cup) to see what animal it would make. Then she broke it up and put pieces into the cups, then she took a long rectangular building block and pretended to stir the playdoh in the cup and dump it into a new cup like she was cooking or something! I was rolling out strips and weaving them while she played 'baking'. When I finished, I held it up for Wade to see and she went wild! Yay!! Yay, Mama!!! she yelled and clapped! She seemed to have a name for what I had made and pointed and called it something (can't remember what)over and over. I was very surprised at her reaction, but it was very nice Playdoh weaving if I say so myself!
....holds the yogurt cup and spoon herself; I had been feeding her the yogurt, it seems so messy, but today we let her try it herself. We only had to remind her once to hold the cup with her right hand while using the spoon in her left (yes, we're about positive that she is left handed). We also thought she might take too big of bites, but for the most part she didn't
....Kind of 'played along' with Little Einstiens, patting and clapping and raising her arms when they said too.
....says, "Mama, kiki" and motions with her hand for me to follow her when she needs to go to the bathroom. We've now gone from holding it 20 hours to going every 10 minutes though. We think she's smart enough to have figured out that since we've given her a cookie every time she's gone, that if she goes a lot, she'll get a lot of cookies! So, now we're not giving her a cookie every time-it has to be about an hour after the last time to get the cookie.

Hmmm...I'm sure there's more, but nothing else is popping into my mind.

I do wish she'd learn my name though! Sometimes I'm Mama, but about half the time I'm Papa, or a word I don't recognize. But, Dada is always Dada. In the pictures I'll point to Wade and she'll say 'Dada', I'll point to her and she says some word that means 'boys'and I'll point to me and she usually says, 'papa'. So we just keep correcting her and saying 'Mama'. She follows Wade around everywhere calling Dada. She follows him around holding his shoes if she wants to go out, stacks books on top of him while he's watching TV, jumps in front of him and shouts 'boo!', etc. He's really been out-of-this-world-great with her. I knew he'd be good with her, but he's been 10 times as great with her as I even thought he'd be!!!

AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING!!!

Day 5/Half of Day 6

Wade's has said several times on this trip that his worst nightmare would be if we were walking to or from somewhere and it started to pour down rain. Well, yesterday we walked to the horseshoe, over by the Azimut, for lunch. About halfway back it began to pour!!! Wade ran pushing the stroller and I ran just behind them for about 1/2 a mile in the rain. She cried about the last 1/4 mile. We were soaked! Like, we could wring out our clothes soaked! She was shivering, wet, and cold when we got back. We immediately got her out of her soaking wet dress and into comfy pajamas, Wade wrapped her in two blankets and held her on the couch until she fell asleep.
Also yesterday, we spent our entire morning waiting for her to use the bathroom. She woke up dry! This was amazing to us because she hadn't gone since 3pm the day before and she had had a big bowl of chicken and potato soup for dinner, along with a good amount of water and some other food. We wanted to wait until she went before going to breakfast because we didn't want her to have an accident in the resaurant. Well, breakfast time came and went (8am-10am)and she still refused to go, so we ate some stuff we had in the room. Finally, at 11am, she motioned for us to come with her to the bathroom, held her arms up wanting us to lift her onto the toilet, and went! So 3pm-11am=20 hours. Wade says she has a bladder of steel! So we headed to lunch after this, and this is where the rain story comes in. The strange thing is that after that morning incident, she now loves to go on the potty! She went on her own three times after her nap! And, she was dry again this morning and walked right in there and went right away. And, she went just a minute ago about an hour after breakfast! So, now that that seems pretty well taken care of we're working on zakreetya rot (close your mouth) a little more. If she concentrates she can do it and smiles and points to her mouth to show us, "See, my mouth is closed!" She can do it for about 6 seconds now. Then back to the mouth hanging open with the 'Darth Vader' sound, and the drooling. So, at least she listens when we tell her to close it and she tries, so I'm sure it will get less and less as the weeks go on.
So, now we're just playing, reading books, doing puzzle cards, etc. all while reminding her to keep her mouth closed.
We plan to go to the French Restaurant for the second to last time for dinner tonight. You know we're close when we have the rest of our meals planned out; French Restaurant tonight, Chocolate Restaurant tomorrow night, then the French Restaurant Friday, then we leave early Saturday. We're so excited to know that there will be other Americans in Moscow when we will be there. One couple is going home for their ten day wait and will be in the hotel with us on Saturday. Another mom with her daughter will be in Moscow, but in a different hotel, the same days we will be! We've e-mailed each other and hope to be able to get together while there.

Day 4

Wow! It really doesn't seem like it's been four days! We've made a lot of progress in four days. For one, she doesn't suck her thumb all day anymore. Even when she's mad at us (like when we want her to use the toilet for example) she starts moving her thumb to her mouth and then-usually-stops on her own and slams her hand down on the ground. She really does seem to want to please us.

We're now working hard on 'zakreetya rot' which, we think means 'closed mouth'. We're pretty sure it does, because when we say this, she closes her mouth! Usually it only stays closed for about 1-2 seconds, but once she kept it closed for 5 seconds! Her breathing is a lot better and she CAN breathe through her nose now, but I bet she's never really learned how to because she's been conjested her whole life. We wouldn't be so adamant about her trying to keep it closed except having it open all the time makes her drool and we're tired of carrying around Kleenex to wipe her mouth off with! So, she's trying, and I'm sure someday she'll be able to walk around like most people with a closed mouth.

I just have to keep reminding myself that all this (chewing with your mouth closed, breathing with your mouth closed, going on the big toilet, sleeping in a new place, not sucking your thumb all day) is new to her and each day she'll progress and we'll almost forget about how difficult it was!

Today we walked to the Astor mall. It rained some last night which gave us beautiful, cool weather, but it also gave us-MUD! Jill's new white tennis shoes are now splattered with brown spots. I tried washing them, soaking them, scrubbing them, etc. but it just won't come out. It also wouldn't come out of her socks. Hopefully some bleach will do the trick when we get home. We walked around the mall, looked in the toy store, and rode in the elevator. She is very well behaved. She held my or Wade's hand most of the time, but we let her walk on her own some and she stayed close by and walked nicely. Unfortunately, she then wanted to let go and walk on her own every once and awhile on the walk home, which surprisingly other kids her age seem to do, but the driving around here scares me, so there was no way we'd let her walk alone around here even for one second! This led to a few tantrum like episodes, but I think she understands now that outside she MUST hold a hand.

Potty time in the mid-morning was great! She got on and went (#1)!!! But, in the afternoon, 45 minutes again. (probably a #2 issue) NOT FUN!
Playtime has been great.

We've read all the books, she piles them up and one by one 'reads' them to herself too.

We used the dry erase boards and markers for the first time today. She loved that! When she uses crayons she isn't very successful at making marks on the paper. They're always too light or the opposite, she presses too hard and the crayon breaks. But the markers write so smoothly. We used red and blue and tried to get a start on learing colors. I drew a circle and she tried to draw one too. A few of hers were pretty good!

Later she BUILT with the blocks!!! This is a milestone because she usually just takes them all out of the bucket and puts them back in the bucket. Or, she takes them out of the bucket, puts them in the truck, then puts them back in the bucket. Either way, not much excitement. But yesterday she would hand me a block and I would put it on the table. She would hand me another and I would stack it on the previous one, etc. Then today, she was taking blocks in and out, I wasn't paying too much attention, but I looked over at her and noticed-she had built something! She had two blocks stacked together, then had stacked two more together next to the first pair. She continued stacking pairs of blocks until she had 8! We took a picture of course!

She still loves the nesting cups! She puts blocks in them, or Fisher Price animals, she stacks them together, uses them in the tub, etc.

She played with the Fisher Price doll a lot today too, combing her hair and using the lace from the lacing beads to make a necklace for her.

She continues to be a big eater. Breakfast and lunch were about the same as yesterday. For dinner she ate tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken and potato soup, and bread. These might have been her first vegetables!

The only eating problem we have is that she seems to regurgitate food to chew on later. I'm thinking this must be an orphanage thing, like, when they get hungry again they make themselves bring up a little bit from their last meal and chew on it. I'm really just guessing, but that seems like what she's doing. When we see her chewing and take a napkin and swipe it out of her mouth, then brush her teeth (which she actually likes now!)She did this a number of times, on days 1-3, but today she only did it 3 times between breakfast and lunch and hasn't done it at all since! So, maybe she's realizing that she'll get enough each meal to be full until the next meal and she doesn't need to??? Either that or she has some reflux problem. We really don't know, but are loooking forward to the day that this stops for good.

Sleeping is getting MUCH better. Today, for the first time, she didn't complain about her nap! We had to pat her back, but she didn't scream about it. She's also slept in until 8am the last two mornings! When she wakes up, she doesn't cry, she just says, "Mama" and I go get her.

She hates the microphone we use for Skype, so Mom and Dad, and Ty and Jake don't get to hear her, but she does love to listen to them. She especially likes it when Ty and Jake laugh, she comes running to see where the sound is coming from. I guess getting the camera phone for the computer would have been a good idea. But, in 10 days she'll get to see where those voices are coming from and hear them laughing all the time!

Day 3

Well, it took two days to break the thumb sucking (during the day) habit, and it looks like it’s going to take two days for potty training! That’s not bad at all! Yesterday she only went twice; once on her pillow and once in the tub. Today though, we could tell she needed to go mid-morning. And we could tell that she knew she needed to go. She very willingly went to sit on the toilet, but got up after about 30 seconds. Then she would walk back out to play, turn around and run to sit on the potty again. She did this a few times when I started making her sit longer and longer each time. She cried after about 30 seconds and SCREAMED when we hit about 45 seconds. Wade suggested ditching the pants, that way we didn’t have to go through the pulling them up and down every two minutes. She hated that. SCREAMING, SCREAMING and more SCREAMING!!! When we ditched the pants, we’d let her off the toilet if she wanted, but didn’t let her out of the bathroom (The rest of the room is carpeted!) She really hated that. Crying, SCREAMING, laid on the floor with her head on a towel. I continued to try to put her on the potty, but at this point she wouldn’t sit at all without screaming. Wade said to let her out, but to not give her the pants back. She quit crying when she got to leave the bathroom, but surprisingly she didn’t go but about two feet from the bathroom door. Here she sat, laid down for awhile, cried for awhile, then came back in, sat down on the toilet and WENT!!!!! (both kinds) We cheered and cheered and hugged and kissed her and gave her animal crackers! Surprisingly, she continued to cry through our celebration. She ate the cookie, but cried while eating it. When we got her pants back on, hands washed, etc. you could tell she looked proud of herself. Now, fast forward to after dinner/before bath. She was playing, she was holding herself and whining much like she had been during our mid-morning ordeal (which I forgot to mention only took a mere hour and a half) she went and sat on the potty, didn’t go, got off, went back to play, played 15 seconds, went and sat on the potty, didn’t go, got off, went back to play, played 15 seconds, went and sat on the potty, didn’t go, got off, went back to play, played 15 seconds, Wade said, “If she does that again, ditch the pants.” She did, so we did, and then—SHE WENT RIGHT AWAY! So that time only took about a minute and a half instead of an hour and a half! WOW!

Other good things from today…
She slept through the night, until 8:00am, when she woke up she didn’t cry or anything, just said, “Ma-ma”.
On our mile there and mile back walk to dinner, she only tried to suck her thumb once!
We think her eating may be getting quieter, or else we’re just getting used to it.
She was singing in the stroller, “Mama, Mama, Mama, Dada, Dada, Dada, Mama, Dada, Mama, Dada” while pointing to either side of her where each of us was walking.
She sort of did the puzzle cards! She really just likes to take them out of the bag, then put them back in the bag, over and over and over. We try to coax her into matching them up and putting the together, but she never will. Today, she let us help her do them! We would set out three, two that went together and one that did not to see if she could find the two that went together. Some she got right on her own, some we helped her with, but the big news is that she let us help her use the toy the way it’s intended!
She played with the Fisher Price animals and made the sounds for each animal. She thinks the black and white bunny is a cow though; it’s her bunny that says MOO!
She didn’t scream at naptime, just whined a little, then slept a little over 2 hours!
She didn’t cry, or scream at bedtime, and didn’t even really whine. She called out Mama, Dada, a few times, and now Wade is rubbing her back, our usual nighttime routine, but really, not a fight at all.

She was a good eater at all three meals; a yogurt, bread, ham, cheese, half a granola bar and a whole banana for breakfast….ham, cheese, a few strawberries mixed with applesauce, and crackers for lunch, and A LOT of my chicken stuffed with mushrooms and brie cheese that is so good from one of our favorite restaurants, almost all of the grapes from my lettuce with grapes salad, some of the lettuce, and a roll for dinner.

We walked to a new place today. I can’t believe we didn’t know about it until we went to buy our Aeroflot tickets on Friday. It’s very close to the Azimut and not too far from here. It’s right on the river with a statue of Peter (don’t know which one). The streetlights have a nautical theme to them, the paving is beautiful, there were people swimming over on one side, two big houseboat type boats there, speedboats on the river, 3 men fishing, lots of flowers, a beautiful view across the river, lots of people with kids strolling about, etc. If you are planning to be in Astrakhan, e-mail me and I can try to give you walking directions from the Korvet or Azimut.

So, three days down, five to go. We’ll be in Moscow in no time!

Day 2

We're just finishing up Day 2 with Jill. It's going fairly well. When we're just hanging out playing in the room things are great! She plays well with us or alone. We're having a little trouble with sleeping and using the toilet. I guess that's pretty typical for three though. Here's an outline of how today went...Jill woke up during the night at 1am (patted her back to get her back to sleep pretty quickly) then again at 4am (patted her back, but much longer to get her back to sleep again) then was up for good at 5:30 (after patting her back from 5am to 5:30). We watched Blues Clues: Blues Big Musical until 6:30, then Dada got up and played toys with her and I dozed off until 7:30 when we all got dressed and ready for breakfast. We went down the hall to the hotel restuarant for breakfast where they had fried eggs (They've finally learned that I like my yolks well done!, bread, butter, strawberry jam, banana yogurt, pineapple juice, cheddar cheese, some meat that looked like raw bacon, (but Wade tried it and said it was just smoked ham with a lot of fat still on it), pickles, and coffee. Jill ate about a fourth of one of my egg whites, a piece of bread, a half a piece of cheese, an entire banana yogurt, and almost the whole pineapple juice box. She said 'nyet' to the pickles and ham, and sat nicely waiting for the food. She also sat nicely while eating. What we will have to work on is the acutal eating. She 'chews' with her mouth way open and pretty much sounds like a pig. It's quite disgusting. We've learned the word 'closed' in Russian and have even tried holding her lips closed while she 'chews' to help her understand we'd like her to chew with her mouth closed. The problem is that the word for closed is zat-KRY-ta and the word for open is at-KRY-ta. They sound so similar that she probably doesn't know which one we're saying; whenever we say zat-KRY-ta she opens her mouth wider that I thought humanly possible and makes even more chewing noise than before!!! If you noticed that I put the word 'chews' in quotation marks, I did that for a reason. She doesn't really chew with her teeth. She smooshes the food between her tongue and the roof of her mouth. It takes forever! Anyway, after breakfast we went back in the room and played some more, then put her on the potty. She did not go even once yesterday, despite the fact that we put her on the toilet about four times. But, she did wake up with a wet pull up this morning. So, no luck on the toilet, then we went for a walk. We didn't put her in the stroller since we were just going around the corner to the small grocery store and we wouldn't have to cross any streets. She walked nicely holing hands with both Wade and me. All we needed was bread for sandwiches for lunch, so it didn't take us long. When we got back they were still cleaning our room, so we left again and went to the open market where we bought a couple of tomatoes and some strawberries. When we got back they were finished with the room and we fixed ourselves some lunch. She didn't eat as much today as yesterday, maybe because she had had a bigger breakfast today than she had had yesterday. She ate a little ham, a little cheese, a piece of bread and tried the strawberries three times, spitting them out each time. I think that she's never had strawberries before, as they mentioned that they don't like giving the children red fruits or vegetables. I was not making her try them, they were just on her plate. So, I was surprised that every once in awhile she would poke one with her fork (Something else we had to teach her; I think they only used spoons in the orphanage because she just tries to scoop everything and then it falls off the fork!), smell it, (She smells everything before eating it,even if it's a piece of the exact same thing she just took a bite of!)try it, spit it out and go on to something else. Then awhile later she'd poke another one, smell it, try it, and spit it out! So she's open to trying new foods and even trying them multiple times. You never know, maybe tomorrow she'll like them! After lunch we tried the toilet again. She sat there at least five minutes-nothing again, so-time for a nap. She SCREAMED! Even more than she screamed at naptime yesterday. This surprised me because she didn't even cry at bedtime yesterday. Maybe she just doesn't like naps. Anyway, SCREAMED, SCREAMED, STOOD UP, SHOOK THE CRIB (Which is on slight rockers and therefore we thought she was going to tip it over!)We tried to calm her, but nothing worked, she kept getting up, screaming and shaking the crib, then-she peed all over her pillow (that she was standing on). The only good thing about this is that it didn't get on the sheets. We put her on the potty while I washed the pillow, pillowcase and her blanket (it got on the blanket a little bit) and she cried the whole time. Then, we put a pull up on her and put her back in bed. She cried, but didn't scream like before and eventually we patted her back enough for her to fall asleep. She was asleep by 1:15 and slept until 3:00! I slept the majority of this time too! At three we tried the toilet again, you guessed it-no luck. We gave her a banana for snack and tried to practice the 'chew with your mouth closed' thing. Then played until 4 when we called home! After talking to my parents and the boys for about 20 minutes, we went for a long, long walk to La Vanille (The French Restaurant). For this one she rode in the stroller. I ordered a Ceasar salad of which Jill ate about two lettuce leaves of and a bunch of croutons, Wade and I both ordered chicken sandwiches of which Jill ate about 1/3 of my bread and hard boiled eggs, but minimal chicken and cheese, and NONE of that lettuce, and Wade and I both ordered the fruit salad of which I picked out all of the apples for Jill and she ate them all! A pretty well rounded meal for her! She is very good at drinking out of a glass. If you give her a plastic cup, though, she squeezes it while drinking, thus spilling it! So, we have to use a real glass. Another weird thing we can't figure out is when she doesn't want to drink any more, she dumps the rest of her drink all over her plate!!! This happened twice yesterday, and now we can see it coming and grab the glass and/or move the plate. Weird! When we tried to put her in the stroller for the walk back, she didn't want in; she wanted to hold my hand and walk! She walked at least a half mile when she started to try to let go of my hand, so we put her in the stroller. She DID NOT want to be in the stroller. She got used to it though, (even without sucking her thumb!) and we kept her in it until we came upon a park-like area. We got her out to walk around, but she freaked out when we put her on the grass! She settled down after we walked a few feet over to a pathway where you could see some water. There was a parkbench there too that we sat on for awhile. Then, we began walking towards the hotel again, Jill holding my hand and Wade pushing the stroller. She walked the rest of the way! It was probably about another 1/2 mile. Wade just can't believe she walked a mile!!! We played with blocks for about 1/2 hour after returning to the hotel and then I told her (in Russian) that it was time to take a bath. She put those blocks away so quickly! She ran to the bathroom! She remembered how much she LOVED that bath yesterday! Before we put her in the tub we wanted her to go potty; surely she had to go by now; she hadn't gone since 12:30! It had been 6 and a half hours! She sat and cried, and cried, and sat, and cried, etc. In the meantime, the bath filled up with water, so we took her off the toilet, put her in the bath and then...she looked down, and-THE WATER STARTED TURNING YELLOW!!! I swooped her out of the tub and plopped her back on the toilet. I dried her off as she sat there and cried, and screamed, and cried "NE KEKE" (No potty, perhaps???). After ten minutes of not going, we took her off, put a pull-up on her, brushed her teeth (which by the way she hates), put her nightgown on, and told her it was time for sleep. (By the way, while she was sitting on the potty, we drained to tub---you pee in the tub, you don't get a bath.) She of course didn't want to sleep. We said, sleep(spat) or potty (pisat)? When we put her in the crib and she cried. We took her out and led her to the potty, when she cried there we walked her back to the crib, and again said, 'spat' or 'pisat'? and she said "Spat!". So, into the bed she went; she would rather sleep than go potty! She cried some, but I patted her back and she settled down. It was a little early for bed since we skipped the bath, and so it took her a little longer than last night to fall asleep. But, she's alseep now, and we'll try the potty thing again tomorrow! One thing that is going very well is the breaking of the thumb sucking during the day habit! She did it A LOT yesterday and we would take it out of her mouth. Today, she hardly did it at all. On the walk to the restaurant (about a 1/2 hour to 45 min. walk with the stroller) she only did it twice; once about 5 min. into the walk, then again about 5 minutes later, then not again at all until bed! Wow!

Third Post of the Day!

Well, I had to post as soon as I could after we got her here, then of course I had to post pictures!!! And now that we've spent the day with her I wanted to post again!

She's already saying some words! She says Mama, Papa, Dada, Ty, Jake, Jill, baby, ball, and up. She'll repeat other things we say, but these are the ones I think she really knows.

She played with the blocks and big dump truck a lot today. She actually built some towers with the Lego-like blocks, we played "Boo!" (Dada stands behind the corner, she runs to find him, he jumps out and yells Boo! then she runs away laughing) for a long time, we played with the 'My First Leappad' for a long time using the Winnie the Pooh and Dora cartridges, and she looked through the big photo album of mostly herself several times.

We went for a walk to the grocery store in the mall. She rode nicely in the stroller and it went just fine. For dinner she ate an entire chicken leg (cut off the bone) and some of my chicken thigh plus an adult serving of cole slaw for dinner.

She took a bath and LOVED it, playing with the stacking cups in the water pretending to soap up her hair and dump a cup of water over her head again and again and again and again (for a half hour!).

We all watched an episode of Sesame Street where she imitated Elmo acting like a chicken, made her baby dance to some of the songs, held up 10 fingers in a counting song, and then.......when I laid her in bed and told her it was time to sleep-

SHE DIDN'T CRY!

She's still awake though, so Wade is patting her back like I did to get her to sleep for her nap, but I'm still amazed because she cried off an on for 15 minutes before her nap, and stood up every once and awhile, so I'm shocked that this time she just laid down! Whewww!

So tomorrow will be our first FULL day! I will post when I can about tomorrow's adventures!