Snow Day!

We received a phone call early this morning (at 5:20 a.m....uggh) announcing school was closed. A quick peek outside revealed about five inches of snow on the ground. The boys were so happy, and I was excited since Stu was snowed in with us. Yahoo!! Stu and the boys quickly bundled up and ended up playing out in the snow for about three hours. I think Stu might have had more fun than the boys did, sledding down the hills and throwing snowballs. I decided to put HotDog in her snowsuit and let her experience her first snow. It took about ten minutes to get her suited up but she looked adorable. As for her feelings about the snow:
It started out great

And quickly went downhill.

She lasted about five minutes and we headed back in and warmed up with hot chocolate (and warm formula for her). It worked out great; the girls stayed cozy inside and watched the boys playing their little hearts out.
I should have known they would be exhausted but silly mommy tried to take photos for the Christmas card last night. You can imagine how it turned out:

I'm tempted to just send this out for a laugh. I'm driving myself crazy trying to get three kids to look at the camera at the same time, much less all smile. I'll give it one more attempt and then I'm finished.
Anyway, I'll wrap it up with a couple of cute pictures. I can't believe my baby turned nine months old today! She's is growing such much right before our eyes. And it's amazing to think that she's been home with us for two months; it really does feel like she's been here forever. I'm trying to savour every single second with my family because time really does fly.....

I Think We're In Trouble...

This is what she was doing when I left her room:

This is what she was doing when I came back a minute later:

And this is the look I got when she saw me peeking in her doorway:


Yes. She is pretty much completely mobile now. Her crawling is improving daily and she now prefers to crawl rather than roll. Her favorite spot to crawl: the Christmas tree, of course. The second you put her down, she inches her way to see how many shiny ornaments she can pull and how many presents she can unwrap. Suddenly, keeping my eye on HD has become a full-time job (hence the lack of blog posts lately). It is quite amazing to watch her development explode on a daily basis. Every day brings new discovery and successes for our sweet baby girl. Another skill she has developed is the ability to pick up the snack puffs (the kind that dissolve almost instantly) and feed herself. Of course, only about 4 out of 10 reach her mouth, but she is so proud when she does manage to eat one; and this gives us a few minutes of peace while we shovel food quickly down our throats. You see, our girl has decided that it is absolutely unacceptable for someone else to eat in her presence unless she, too, is being fed. It has been two months now (wow...two months already), but Stu and I are finally able to eat a meal together again. It's the little things that make me happy! It will be nice when HD has some teeth (none in sight at this point) and can eat a variety of finger foods. She's also started to interact with her big brothers, making Chipmunk and Monkey very happy. She loves sitting on the floor in the middle of their madness. They play peek-a-book with her and she laughs hysterically. They tickle her feet and she laughs hysterically. They make goofy faces and she laughs hysterically. Are you seeing a pattern here? Yes, she is definitely enjoying the entertainment my two silly boys provide. I, too, am enjoying it as it allows me to get a few things accomplished around the house. My family seems to be falling into a nice comfortable place. I am sure as soon as I say this, it will all fall apart tomorrow. But I'll take it while I can. Soon enough the boys will be out of school for Christmas break (for 3 weeks I think) and my schedule will go to hell in a handbasket.
Other than that, not much new to report. We are gearing up for Christmas. We enjoyed our town's annual Christmas parade last week, made ornaments at the library, and did the obligatory visit with Santa this weekend. We tried to do it several weeks ago while we were at the mall but the boys refused to talk with Santa that day. They knew they had been naughty that day and they were scared to death of what Santa would say:) This time, Chipmunk went right up to him and had a nice chat. Monkey, on the other hand, would absolutely not get anywhere near him. He stood behind me the entire time and only came out at the very end after Chipmunk said Santa wouldn't know what to bring him. So my dear Chipmunk took his brother by the hand and walked up there with him so he wouldn't be scared. Such rare moments of sweetness take my breath away and help me carry on during the daily struggles between the two.
It is definitely going to be a Merry Christmas for our family.

These Are the Days

I wanted to do a quick post as today is Monkey's "Family Day". Three years ago, Stu and I were in a Russian courtroom and legally became Monkey's parents. What an amazing day that was. We picked him up later that night and life has never been the same. Monkey was described by his caregivers as "spirited". And is he ever! I have never seen a little boy so full of energy and smiles. He is truly one of the happiest kids I've ever seen. He never slows down from the moment he wakes up and keeps us on our toes. But he always has a smile on his face or a hug to share. We are so blessed to call him our son.
Amazingly enough, I was looking through some old papers (still on my organizing kick!) and I discovered that today is also the day that we received the referral call for Chipmunk. I can't believe I never realized it before. It is incredible to think that this time five years ago we were just beginning our journey to parenthood; now we have three beautiful children to love. Life truly is amazing.
HotDog is doing great, as always. One big development: She started crawling a few days ago! I was really, really hoping she would wait until after the Christmas tree came down, but there is no stopping this girl. I think she just wants to keep up with her big brothers. She definitely wants to be in the middle of all the action. She doesn't do the traditional crawl or army crawl for that matter. She gets on her elbows, straightens her back legs so her butt is straight up in the air, and then juts forward. We call her our little Inchworm. It's slow-going right now as she has to think about every movement, but she can get across the room if she wants too. And I don't think it will be too much longer before she can wiggle her way in an instant. Guess it's time to start getting my baby-proofing gear back out.
I wanted to add a few pictures too. The first is a picture of Monkey as we picked him up at the orphanage. The next is Monkey today. Can you just see the gleam in his eye?!

Next of course is HD. Is it possible for those cheeks to get any bigger?

And finally, a good family picture taken a couple of weeks or so ago. I think it's the first time where we are all looking at the camera at the same time.

Catching Up

Somehow I found a few minutes to do a quick update. Things are great here but I am finding it so difficult to finish any task that takes more than five minutes. Chasing three kids around is a lot of work! So many people warned me that the transition from two children to three was much harder than from one child to two. I was terrified of this, as I had such a difficult time when we added Monkey to our family. However, I’m finding the transition from two to three to be quite easy; due in part to the good-nature of HotDog, I’m sure. If anything, the addition of another child has had a really positive impact on me. I used to be happy in a household of organized chaos. No more. I am currently in the process of organizing everything in our house. I don’t have the time to hunt and search for every little thing. I need to know exactly where everything is; this is essential as I can tell one of the boys what I need and where it is if I’m busy with Little Miss. I’ve also learned the benefits of planning ahead and following a schedule. No more spur of the moment trips to the grocery to pick up a few things I forgot. It’s too difficult to drag all three kids anywhere, especially now that it’s getting cold outside. I’ve started making a detailed list of what I need and if I forget something then it waits until the next run to the store. We are currently in the process of moving Monkey to his own room (he is currently sharing a room with Chipmunk). This is forcing me to finally clear out the guest bedroom/junk room and I’m getting rid of a ton of stuff that we haven’t used in years. It is such a great feeling to drop a big load off at Goodwill or a consignment store.
Last week was our big appointment with the IA doctor and HD did great. She is either on target or ahead of where she is supposed to be in every single area they tested. The doctors were all very impressed with her development and completely charmed with her big smiles and giggles. All of the tests have been negative so far (which is a good thing) although we are still waiting on a few results. The blood draw wasn’t fun but she was a trooper. Unfortunately they weren’t able to get enough the first time around so we had to return a few days later for another blood draw. She was not a happy camper; thank goodness we are finished with that part of it. We did find out that she has gained some weight too. She weighs a whopping 19.5 pounds at seven months old. Such a big girl!
Also, we received HD’s certificate of citizenship this week (it just took three weeks - that must be a record for the federal government) so we now get her a social security number. That should be the last of the important paperwork we need to complete…until the post-placement reports begin in a few months.
So now that the big round of medical appointments is over, I’m hoping that I’ll have time to catch my breath. Of course, the calendar looks pretty busy over the next six weeks: Chipmunk’s birthday is today…Happy 6th Birthday!! Monkey’s “Family Day” (Stu abhors the term Gotcha Day so we call the day we picked up Monkey “Family Day”) is next week, followed by Thanksgiving, then my birthday and Christmas festivities begin.
But this is my absolute favorite time of the year and we are so thankful that HD is home with us to celebrate the holidays. I wouldn’t trade this time for all of the sleep in the world.
Off to celebrate Chipmunk’s big day now. I don’t think there is anything sweeter than experiencing the excitement and joy of a birthday through your child’s eyes.
Life is good…..

My birthday boy

Brotherly Love

A picture is worth a thousand words

Real Life Resumes

Sorry it has been awhile since my last post; three kids are keeping me rather busy!
Things are wonderful (most of the time) around our house these days. HotDog is such a great baby...thank goodness because we had to jump right back into reality as soon as we touched down. When we brought Chipmunk home it was the dead of winter and we were living further away from our families. We hunkered down and really hibernated as a family of three for the first few months. It was wonderful and really allowed us to start a great bond with him. When we brought Monkey home, we did much of the same. It wasn't as easy, as it was right before Christmas. However, we found that it was much easier staying home with a 3-year-old and an active 17-month-old than trying to brave most of the holiday madness.
Unfortunately for HD, with two big brothers and the upcoming holidays our calendar never seems to be empty. In the past two weeks we have had a parent-teacher conference, Monkey's third-and-final post-placement for Russia (woohoo!!), trick-or-treating at the zoo, a baby shower, an evaluation with Monkey's teachers/OT, a pediatrician's visit, our annual pumpkin-carving with Nana and Pops, not to mention the daily trips of picking up Monkey at 11:50 and Chipmunk at 2:30. I really am trying to keep things very low-key for her and am attempting to maintain some semblance of a schedule, but with a 5-almost-6-year-old and a 4-year-old, it makes it challenging. However, she is quite the trooper and very rarely fusses. For the most part, she is a very content, happy-go-lucky child.
We had our first pediatrician's visit last week. It was fantastic. The doctor said she looked "fabulous" and was thrilled at how healthy she is. She had gained almost a pound since the previous week and I'm almost positive she's gained at least a pound since then too. He did give us the okay to go ahead and start her on cereal and baby food. That has made a world of difference. She gets a mid-morning snack in between bottles and then a big meal right before bedtime. Filling up her belly that late has helped the sleep issue tremendously. She usually goes down between 8:00 and 9:00 each night and usually sleeps until about 7:00 each morning. Yeah! She is also taking a couple of naps during the day that last for about 2 hours each.
The only thing that really upsets her is the car seat. She cannot stand it. It is a battle every time we have to put her in it. This has me very worried because we have our big visit to the IA doctor next week and it's about 2 1/2 hours away. I think I'm going to head up the night before and spend the night with one of my best friends. Her house is a little more than halfway up there so at least it will split up the trip into more manageable pieces, for HD and for me. I am still not looking forward to it though I know it is something we have to do.
It is amazing to watch her little personality blossom. She is really a calm and content little girl that loves her thumb and her blanket. As long as she has both of those things, she is great. She loves to be tickled and has a deep belly laugh. She is definitely a momma's girl too (sorry Stu!). She gives me big open-mouthed kisses. If I am in the room, she wants to be in my arms. If other people want to hold her than I need to be out of her eyesight. She loves the mornings and wakes up with the biggest toothless smile on her face. She does not like to lay down and be in a position where she can't watch everything around her; she definitely wants to be part of the action. She loves her exersaucer and her leg strength is amazing. She can already stand up by herself as long as she is holding my hands, the couch, etc. Bringing her home at six months, I thought it would be awhile before we had to worry about her mobility, but the pediatrician thought she would bypass crawling entirely and go straight to walking...in just a couple of months. Uh oh. Looks like we need to start baby-proofing again very soon.
The boys are doing great. They absolutely adore HD and I find myself constantly reminding them to take a step back and get out of her face. It's really cute to watch them talk to her and bring her the toys they think she'll like. It's become quite the competition to see who can get her to smile the quickest or whose turn it is to fetch a clean diaper or get the bottle. They are such great helpers. They are acting out a little bit in order to get our attention but we are really trying to make sure that we are spending "big boy" time with each of them. So far, so good. They are super-excited about Halloween, which is followed by Chipmunk's birthday a few weeks later. Also big news around our house is that the Tooth Fairy finally made a visit. Chipmunk has had a loose tooth for several weeks now and he has been working hard at pulling it. Finally on Monday night he pulled it out himself. He was so proud, as were we! Now, of course, Monkey is determined it's his turn to loose a tooth. I'm scared to think of what he may try in order to make that happen. We don't call him our Evil Genius for nothing:)
I'll leave you with a few pictures of my beautiful family. I look at my children (and my wonderful husband) and wonder how in the world I got so lucky. I have certainly be blessed and it's going to be such a happy holiday season for us.

Loving her swing!

A smile before bed

The cutest skunk, farmer and cow ever!

Carving pumpkins with Daddy

My beautiful children

So Sweet

This little face just melts my heart.

Home Sweet Home

Okay, so I had a long post written about our trip and our time home so far. Unfortunately my computer kicked me off and I lost the entire thing. So I'm going to make this short and sweet while little one is playing with the Monkey for a few minutes.

Our trip was amazing. I won't say it was a piece of cake but it was much easier than I expected. HotDog is such a good baby. She is a fantastic eater, sleeper (while in Kyrgyzstan, that is), loves to be held and rocked. The only time she fusses is when we can't get her the bottle quick enough. It was great to get quality one-on-one time with her and we made wonderful progress with bonding during our stay. She was a fantastic traveler too. She had one crying fit of about 45 minutes out of the 29 hours we traveled. Of course, she didn't sleep much on the flights - too many things to look at and see. Several of the grandmothers on the flight took pity on me and took turns carrying her around for awhile so I could eat and have a few moments to myself. Having Stu meet us in Memphis for the final leg was a wonderful surprise. I sobbed for a few moments after I saw him - I was so exhausted and it was such a relief to see his face again. It was such a special time for him to have a little while of quiet time with her before we arrived home to the party at the airport (as the Monkey refers to our family greeting us at the airport).

Since we've been home, little HD has been great. Her big brothers absolutely adore her and she is particularly fond of Monkey; anytime he is around she laughs and giggles. It's funny how much she is already part of our family; it feels like she's been with us forever. And she definitely has us all wrapped around her chubby little finger:) The only real issue we are dealing with is her refusal to sleep for more than two hours at a time, even overnight. Her little body is exhausted and she needs to sleep but I think she has the days and nights confused and is just so overstimulated by her new environment.

We have her first pediatrician's visit this morning so I'm hoping to get the okay to start her on food. I think this will fill her up and she might actually sleep for a longer period of time. Eventually she has got to crash...right?!?!

Okay, gotta run and try to get little miss to nap for a little while this afternoon. I'm sure all you want to see is pictures anyway:)