Smile Mama Smile!!

It's been one month since court, which is hard to believe. In some ways it's going too fast in others it feels like she's always been here. She keeps growing and surprising us each day. Here are a few short stories.

I was in the car with her the other day and we were listening to music. Then I heard our little N yelling from the back seat.... "Smile mama Smile.... Da..." I looked in the rear view mirror to see her pointing to her smile. Lonestar was playing at the time and I realized in the song they kept saying "Smile" --- It made me laugh and proud to know she was connecting and understanding words she heard.

While we were in Magadan, Steve wore a Key West shirt. It was N's first English words. Steve would point to his shirt and she'd yell Key West and laugh.
Well the other night on the radio Steve and I were driving home and had both kids in the back seat. The DJ was talking about Jimmy Buffet and Key West, next thing we know she's screaming "Key West, Key West" -- we couldn't help but laugh. We agreed we'll have to take her there some day.

Her dentist appt. went okay. She wasn't too happy to see the dentist again, but they both made it through. He filled the three cavities on her front teeth and then bonded them to hide the cavity. It actually doesn't look that bad. She wouldn't let him get too close to the edges so if you look closely you can see the dental work, (it kinda looks like she needs to brush her teeth..) but again you have to look for it. So all and all we are pleased. Our dentist also took x-rays and said her teeth will fall out in about a year, so he didn't want to do anything major.
Now her "pretties" as we call them make her happy. She looks at my teeth and then puts her finger on them and rubs mine to show me how smooth my teeth are and then rubs her finger over her teeth and says "Pretty". So now that we have her happy with her teeth --- we have been gum free for two weeks. I told her she can't have any gum with the new pretties. (While that's not really true-- it was a nice way to break her habit of always asking for gum!)

So far we had her and B baptised, took them to Dorney Park, had fun at the neighborhood community day and Knobels ( an old fashioned amusement park) She is adapting well. Steve and I live a fast paced life, so we talked about putting things on hold or to just let her jump in and take it as it goes.... We chose to take it as it goes and so far she is doing great. If she gets too stimulated we just leave. I'll post pics soon.

Her vocabulary is growing. She says things now like---
"Oh my gosh!!"
"How cool" ( I think her little learning computer is teaching her those)
Her learning computer is also teaching her the alphabet and she keeps surprising us how quickly she is learning the letters.
Now she so confident in counting 1-10 that she's pointing the calender and asking what is 11-20. So we sit with her and go through the numbers.

Her understanding is coming along much faster than her talking. (Which is expected) We, again, were in the car the other day and I had a Russian Learning CD on. It was going through different phrases. She was repeating the Russian I was repeating the English. Then when the CD announcer said.... " I am an American Citizen" She yelled.."MAMA" she said the sentence in Russian and pointed to herself. She makes me so proud!!


She has started to play with baby dolls. One day I walled into the living room to find a china doll, I had sitting in her room in a high chair for decoration, laying in B's swing. The hair had been fully brushed. Next to her was her real baby doll in the exersaucer. I couldn't help but smile. While I would have preferred her not to have brushed all the curls out of the china doll (I got from my Great Aunt... ) what did I expect by leaving it there. I wasn't thinking. It looked cute for a little girl's room, but now it's just part of her play toys. I am happy she is finally playing and loving her dolls. She now has three. The blond china doll doesn't have a name, but the one with the brown hair that looks like her -- she calls N... (not her actual name but her nickname) and the third baby doll is a bald baby.. she calls.. B. So her names aren't too creative but she is learning to love and care for them. She's also having fun telling me that "her" B has ca-ca-ed and she has to change his diaper. My husband came home one day to find a diaper folded up like I do on the floor in the living room . In surprise he asked "what is this?" I said that is "N's little B's diaper.. he ca-ca-ed." My husband then asked the next logical question.. "where did she get the diapers?" I said your mother. She gave N some new born diapers to change her baby. "Great" was his only response as he shook his head and walked away.

My all time favorite story since we've been home is this:

It worked out that the hardwood floors we wanted were scheduled to be installed the week we came home. So we get home.. try to relax and enjoy being home and then boom... move all the furniture out of the living room and master bedroom so the floors can be installed. Meanwhile I'm trying to catch up on laundry from our trip and get her situated into her room. I had asked Steve to watch the kids while I went to get my hair cut. Steve called me and asked me where her clean clothes were. I said in the basket in B's room. I didn't get a chance to fold them yet. When I got back Steve just had this smirk on his face! I asked "What happened?" He said... "Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be smelling little girl's underwear!!" Chuckling I smiled and shook my head. "What happened?" "Well you did the laundry. And put the clean clothes in a basket that looks like her Tinkerbell basket for dirty clothes. So she assumed the clothes were dirty. So when I went in to get her a clean pair of underwear.. she backed away and waved her hand and shook her head no. I said yes, these are clean. She just kept shaking her head. Then she Screamed something in Russian and put her finger over her nose! Then I realized she thought these were dirty. So I said.. no... and smelled them to show her they really were clean. She then smelled them and smiled and started to laugh."
I couldn't help but laugh at this story as he told it to me.

Two Weeks and LOVIN' IT

Our court date was three weeks ago, we've been home two weeks now and we are loving life. Little N is doing great. She is picking up the language so well. Here is a list of sentences/phrases shes saying regularly.
1. Sophie come here. (Sophie and Walter are our dogs)
2. Walter eats.
3. "B" sleeping mom.
4. Good Job!
5. Mom, toilet, mom.
6. All Gone!

Oh and how could I forget... she can count to 10 without us helping her!! The board game Chutes and Ladders helped her to learn her numbers quickly!

We took her to get her lab work done this week. She was great. I was expecting her to scream at the needle. She didn't -- She continues to amaze me. Steve went with me for support. I asked the nurse to pretend to give me the needle first and do blood work on me so she could see what was going to happen. She then sat on Steve's lap, and despite the few pokes it took to get the blood flowing, she was great. No screams, no tears ---- just smiles!!. I couldn't have been prouder. She did better than me-- and I was just faking it!!

She has another dentist apt. next week. I've been working with her on what's going to happen. Now every time we get into the car she points to her teeth -- asking if we are going to get them done now. So I hope she's excited and this next appointment will go well. She was okay at the first one last week, but she was a little scared. So we all agreed to bring her back for X-rays. The dentist says she has had some major dental work done -- he's not sure how much or to what extent but x-rays will help him figure it out. He wants to be friends with her and since he doesn't know how much pain she was in the last time she saw a dentist, he wants to take it slow. We'll let you know how it goes.

Her behavior is getting better. Her meltdowns aren't nearly as bad or as often. In fact Steve's loving the "1.....2.... " by then she's already doing what you want.
While our dentist won't be happy with the following form of rewarding we do it anyway. If N eats all of her dinner and drinks all of her milk she gets to pick out a gumball from Papa's gumball stash. Well the stash was running low (actually only the container was low.. the hidden box of gumballs is filled) So when the gumballs were all gone, she seemed sad to take the last one. However the next morning I showed her it was filled.. and she lit up like a little girl who won the lottery! Then when Steve got home, she ran and gave him a kiss and thanked him for filling the gumball stash!



A friend of ours who adopted her girlfriend "D" and "D's brother" (From the same children's home) called the other day. The two girls got to talk. It was so funny. N just kept laughing and got louder and louder as she spoke. I hope it was all good and she was saying how much she loves her new parents.. but only the two of them know what was said!!!

HERE SHE IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is our little (5 year old) girl saying hi to her little brother.

Enjoying the play ground.

Here we are as a family leaving Magadan.
Her first Breakfast with us.In Moscow looking forward to her new life.

Simple Pleasures

Watching Little N experience the world for the first time is so much fun. The doctor the other day gave her a tootsie pop -- she thought it was a toy. She reluctantly gave it up to Steve when he asked her for it so he could show her what was under the wrapper. Her eyes lit up. She was even more surprised when she got to the middle!

Then today on our way to church we were all in the car when we realized Steve needed something in the house. He opened the garage door and N started to yell in Russian. Her eyes were so big. She was saying "Look mama, another car-- look another car" I smiled and said "Da, Mama's machina" N was so impressed and thrilled to tell Steve when he entered the car and we took off. I guess she hadn't explored the garage yet. :)

Then in church I took her out to go to the bathroom. She was fine until she saw the seat. it was black. I don't think she ever sat on a black seat before.. she started screaming, so I took her off and I sat down to show her it was okay. With a puzzled look she sat down and trusted me that it would be okay. And it was.

Her Aunt Kristen painted her toe nails yesterday and N loves it. It just makes me wonder if she's ever had her nails painted.

N is such a loving little girl with such personality. She has already made herself part of the family. There's no question she's ours and we're hers. I think if she spoke English no one would even know she lived in a children's home. She really doesn't show too many signs of being an institutionalized child. She is adopting very well and seems to understand the boundaries we set.

Just before logging on to put this post up, I had the children's site up and I was looking over the pictures... she came over and smiled really big and started to name all the kids. It's sad to know that some will never be adopted. But we gave N a home and every time I look at her -- all I can think is how lucky we are. She is a gem and a true blessing.

We're HOME!!!!!!!!!!!

We are home!!! It feels so good to be home. "N" is doing great. I'll post pictures after the full 10 days are up... they waved our ten day wait. But as we all know, it's not over till it's over.... so I'll wait until the 10 "BUSINESS" days are over. We took her to the doctor yesterday and found out she has an ear infection. So she's on meds for that right now. The nurse taught her how to say "Good Job" so that is her favorite phrase right now. We are trying to catch up on sleep and laundry. Little "B" seems to like having a big sister. And our two dogs enjoyed her at first, but I think she is wearing them out. She is very cute and loving. She doesn't seem to have any attachment issues really. In fact after court when we went to see her, we were given the option to take her for good or take her in the day and let her sleep there at night, as soon as she saw us she yelled "good bye children's home" in Russian and started to walk out the door. She didn't want to wait to get changed. So while we knew we wanted to take her for good (even against the wishes of everyone there-- they wanted to keep her on a schedule for as long as possible) we got her changed into her new dress and left the children's home. She has not once looked back. She doesn't have any problems sleeping (except for a few active dreams-- which don't seem to be a big deal). She has had a few melt downs. But that's to be expected with the language barrier and new freedom. She does test us, but Steve and I are firm and stand our ground. So she is learning very quickly the boundaries. She knows when she's in time out and that she has to kiss Steve or I when it's time to come out. Since she can't say she' sorry yet, we have her give us a hug and a kiss. She does well with these boundaries and we are very proud of her. I can't wait to share more, but Little B is crying and I must go.