Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Right back where we started from.

I've returned from California, and it was, as always, beautiful. I was gone for four heart-wrenching days, but the boys did wonderfully without me. Much business was accomplished, many 3-for-$10 t-shirts were purchased, and I made it through LAX with no snags. So mission accomplished, and I'm home for a few weeks. Next trip should be to Orlando.

On Saturday, after our final appointment with our social worker (more on that in a minute), I took Owen's diaper off and he spent the rest of the day in just a t-shirt. No diaper, no shorts, nothing between him and the couch, baby. I thought maybe, without a diaper, he'd think more about using his potty. A short time later, I was talking on the phone and he came running in to get me. He was pulling on my hand saying, "Come see! Come here for a minute!" We went into the bathroom, and sure enough, he peed in his potty. We did the cheering and dancing around, and the obligatory flushing of the pee and waving good-bye. Then after that, he used the potty all day long. Sunday morning he did the same thing, and even bolted from the breakfast table once to poop in the potty. I was very proud of him. I took him some big-boy underwear to the sitter's yesterday, since he can't go naked there, and I wasn't hopeful that he'd wear them. But when I picked him up, she said he used the potty all day, and only had one accident around 4:45PM. He continued to use the potty once we were home, and he wanted to go as soon as he woke up this morning. He is doing so good, so much better than I expected! I'm so proud of him. He's pretty proud of himself, too. We're still having some minor issues with pooping in the potty, but I think that's pretty standard for potty-training. It's wonderful.

We're also working on moving Ari to a sippy cup. We've got some time, since he's only 7 months. But he's doing really well with the sippy cup. He still gets one bottle a day, some days, but if he doesn't fuss for one, we don't bother. He gets formula in his cup, or water. I can't believe how big the boys are getting!

Like I mentioned before, we had our final homestudy visit on Saturday. We have a few more documents to wrap up, but she's already in the process of writing the home study. Owen was only horrible this time for about 1/3 of the visit, instead of the entire visit. I don't know if her report will reflect anything about him. I'm curious to read her draft. Once that's done, we can get our fingerprints done, and then we're just waiting for the government clearance. That's the final piece of our dossier, and once we get that, we can send everything for translation and then onto the US Embassy in Kazakhstan. I like forward progress, although I have a feeling that progress is fixing to come to a grinding halt once we start waiting on the government. I see her little face waiting for me, and it urges me to move on through this paperwork jungle. We've decided to call her Eva, and we'll keep her birthname, as well. Owen brought me a domino box the other day and told me, "Baby Eva is in here!" I thought that was kind of weird, but then he opened the box and had two pictures of her in there. It was cute. I'd like to post a picture of her so you could all see, but legally we can't do that yet. It won't be much longer, though.

On my way to California, my crown fell out. My expensive, paid for completely out of pocket, crown. I had a root canal about 3 years ago and thus the crown. I went to the dentist tomorrow, and the fix will include surgical extraction of the tooth, and then a bridge. Nice. I hate teeth.

Yesterday morning I was in the kitchen getting my lunch together when I heard both of the boys waking up. Owen got out of bed and went into our bedroom, bypassing the kitchen. When he couldn't find me in there, he went back into his bedroom to look. He never thought to look in the kitchen, but I was watching him go room to room. He then went into Ari's room, where Ari was talking and playing in his crib. I heard him say, "Mom and Dad not here, Ari. Mom and Dad not here, Ari." Like it was no big deal, like we did that all the time. Ari started fussing and Owen said, "I'll get you, Ari . . . ready?" Then I heard Ari start crying a little bit, which I assume is because Owen tried to yank him out of the crib by one arm through the crib slats. Apparently he gave up on that idea and just started playing with him, because I heard Ari laughing and then Owen said again, "Mom and Dad not here, Ari!" About that time I closed the fridge and Owen heard me and came running out. "Ari needs something!" he told me. It never seemed to phase him that he couldn't find us, although I told him that we wouldn't leave him there by himself. It was funny to hear him talking to Ari like the big brother.

It's rainy here today, and I am very tired. The rain always wears me out. Also, we didn't get to rest this weekend because we had the social worker over, and the car broke down so we were dealing with that all weekend. I am very much looking forward to this weekend, where I hope Keith and I can work something out where I can sleep in one day. We try to switch off with letting the other sleep in, but I don't always like this plan, because I tend to get up around 9:00, but on his day, he sleeps until 11:00.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see my granddaughter.

Nini

Anonymous said...

Are you out there? I feel so lost when you don't updating. Let's see some pictures of those cute boys.

Betsy