Cute and funny moments

I'm sure all moms think their kids are the cutest, funniest, coolest kids on the planet. I'm certainly no exception. I marvel every day at what RP has accomplished, the funny things she says/does, or where her imagination takes here. Here are some of our highlights from the last week:

* About a week ago RP's Nana was in the hospital and told us, while we were visiting, that she was hungry for cake. RP and I had to run to the grocery store anyway, so we picked up a little mini decorated cake, which RP got to pick out all by herself. She was so excited about picking out the cake that I couldn't understand what she was saying over and over and over until she started singing "Happy Birthday" at the top of her lungs... in the middle of the store. Apparently RP is under the impression that the only time it is appropriate to have cake is if it is someones birthday. This was further cemented when we walked into Nana's room with the cake and RP wouldn't let anyone eat it until we sang "Happy Birthday" to Nana (yes, even though it wasn't her birthday) and in lieu of real candles, RP was kind enough to pretend to blow out the non-existent candles on the cake for Nana. I certainly hope she is this accommodating when it really IS her birthday!

* RP insisted the other night that we have tacos for dinner. Since I did not have anything for tacos taken out, I promised her that we would stop for tacos the next day for lunch. True to my word, we went to a local Mexican restaurant the next day for lunch where my little RP inhaled not only 3/4 of her own taco (which is really a good percentage for her!), but also all of her refried beans (yeah, don't ask me about the diaper after THAT one - ewww....), all of her Spanish rice, and part of MY rice and beans along with a handful of chips. While drinking down some of her pink lemonade after that massive lunch RP discovered, purely by chance, how to blow bubbles in her beverage. The squeals of delight at that discovery, and the 20 minutes we sat there so she could "test out" her new discovery were truly priceless.

* In the car today "We Will Rock You" came on the radio. This is not the first time RP has heard it, but for the first time she clapped and tried to sing along. After the song was over she proceeded to tell me that Superman sang that song only when he was happy, so it must be a good day for him today. Huh? I have no idea what she was talking about either, but it was damned funny to hear her go on and on and on about it!

* After moving RP from her crib to a toddler bed in September I was still afraid that she would get up and wander at night, so I kept the baby gate in her doorway as a precaution. This week we are experimenting with NO baby gate, and so far she has been doing pretty well. Getting her to sleep at night is a bit of a struggle, as she now enjoys coming to the railings that overlook the family room and yell down to me, ask questions, or simply blow me kisses. Tonight she was railing on and on about something and since I was trying to actually get some of our stuff packed in the suitcase I was only half listening until she grabbed me by the hand, pulled me over to the gate which was propped up in the hallway, and yelled, "NO GATE MAMA, NO GATE TONIGHT" at me while tapping her little hands on the gate and looking at me like I was an idiot. I certainly learned my lesson about listening when she is talking!

I could go on and on, as there are certainly others but I'm running out of examples at the moment, and you get the idea. While there are days that she wears me out between the questions and the sporadic, out-of-the-blue tantrums, these are the types of moments that I will remember and cherish forever - and I look forward to each new day and new exploration with my little RP!

True confessions...

With all the chaos surrounding getting ready to go on vacation, I've been pretty stressed lately, although I try pretty hard to hide it. That being said, I figured a few "true confessions" might be good for the soul and might take some of the stress of, so here it goes...

* True confession #1: I like being a stay-at-home mom. I never thought I would, but I have to say I'm enjoying this time with RP and marvel every day at something she says, does, or has learned. Some of my favorite moments with her are when she experiences something new and lets out an amazed, "Wooooowwwwww...."

* True confession #2: Being home all the time is starting to drive me crazy. Yes, this is a complete contradiction to True Confession #1, but it's true. There are times I miss the adult interaction, and I also sometimes fear that my being home with RP all the time has led to her relying solely on me not only as a parent but as a playmate. She doesn't have as much time with other kids these days as she did when I was working, and I am afraid that this could potentially derail all the social development that was progressing while I was at work.

* True confession #3: My house is a disaster area - quite literally. For some weird reason my house was cleaner and more organized when I worked full time and was gone 12-13 hours a day five days a week. Could this be because I wasn't home much to make a mess? Maybe, but there are still two dogs and one cat living here for whom life really has NOT changed while I've been out of work. As posted in True Confession #2 I think part of this is because I have become RP's sole source of entertainment, and it's hard for me to get anything cleaned while she is either begging me to play with her, or pulling out 500 toys at a time with which she keeps herself entertained.

True confession #4: I am both looking forward to, and dreading, this vacation. Don't get me wrong - I am TOTALLY excited about our visit to the "Happiest Place on Earth." I have wanted to share it with my own child for YEARS now. My dread comes in because over the last couple of weeks I have been having awful nightmares of RP being abducted while we are on vacation, and it is causing me to be completely paranoid about letting her out of my sight for a second while we are there. I don't want to become a completely paranoid, overprotective parent, and I'm not sure what is causing the nightmares, but they are driving me crazy, and I'm hoping it doesn't impact our trip.

Yes, those are the biggies, for which I am TRYING to put in place the following resolution:

* Enjoy each moment with RP while I can. I will either be going back to work or back to school shortly and I know I'll regret it if I waste this time that I have, as there are no "do-overs" with this kind of opportunity.

* Finalize plans to either go back to work (aka - finally complete the quest to find a new job!) or go back to school, and start to plan for life accordingly.

* Actually follow-through on my "clean one room per night" plan after RP is asleep for the evening.

* Stop worrying and enjoy life, and especially this vacation! Who knows if we will ever be able to take a vacation like this as a family again, so I really need to stop the worrying and just start enjoying...

How long is the "tantrum" stage going to last?

So today was pretty much a typical Monday - RP and I got up early, had breakfast, and got ready for our day. I had a tax appointment at 11, and tried WELL in advance to prepare RP for the fact that she was going with me and would have to behave during the entire event, and I brought along plenty of things to keep her busy for the hour... or so I thought.

I should back up. Yesterday we went up to my brother's for my niece's birthday. RP was excited to play with her cousins and chattered all the way up there, which wouldn't have been a problem except that she chatted through her entire nap time. No nap = slaphappy, grouchy toddler later in the day. RP had a blast playing with her cousins and actually wasn't too bad while we were there, but napped only on and off during the drive home, and then had a hard time falling asleep last night once she was in her own bed. Sigh...

I have to say that RP wasn't BAD during the tax meeting - she ate her yogurt melts and colored on her MagnaDoodle for most of the time, but toward the end she was getting antsy. The tax guy noticed and was great in trying to interact with her and keep her somewhat entertained while we were waiting for some documents to print. RP was sweet and attempted to share her yogurt melts with him, but after one melt he politely declined any others (yes, they are an acquired taste). After this RP wanted down from her chair and then proceeded to head over to him, sucking her thumb and wandered over by him, almost like she wanted him to pick her up, which is odd. Mother Bear and paranoia combined in me, especially after I said a few days ago that I no longer worry about attachment issues, and I immediately began to stress that perhaps she wasn't as attached to me as she should be, or perhaps she is longing for a father figure that she recognizes that she doesn't have in the home. In reality she was wandering around as far as she could get away with because she was bored and tired of sitting, but I still couldn't help the paranoia response, and I now wonder if that will ever go away.

After the tax appointment RP and I ventured home where RP told me that she wanted to lay down for her nap. Odd. She NEVER wants to take her nap, and now today she doesn't want lunch so she can sleep? I laid her down for a nap and after almost 45 minutes of back and forth with her she finally fell asleep and slept for over TWO hours, which is almost unheard of for her anymore. After nap I gave her a snack and we ventured outside so she could take her "babies" for a walk in their stroller, and then we "play play play" (as RP would say!) with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, sand, and swings. Beautiful weather combined with RP's good mood made for a great afternoon.

UNTIL... dinner. RP played and played and played with her food at dinner and after countless requests from me to "stop playing with it and just eat it" I finally told her I was setting the kitchen timer and she had five minutes to finish or she would not get dessert (which happened to be the M&M ice cream she had been asking for all day). She laughed and continued to play with her food until I actually set the timer - then all hell broke loose. She began to scream at the top of her lungs about "no time no time no time," to the point she actually turned purple and the dogs ran and hid under the beds upstairs. She threw the hot dog she had been eating on the plate and started beating her fists on the table, all the while screaming at the top of her lungs. My response to all of this was to calmly get up, pick up her plate, and throw the remaining dinner in the garbage. I turned off the timer, grabbed the wipes, and walked over to wipe up her hands and face, all while she is still screaming bloody murder. After wiping her up I walked her over to the corner in the kitchen that we use for time-outs (yes, the "naughty corner") where she proceeded to scream for at least 5 more minutes until she finally realized that it wasn't going to work. She came over to me, said she was sorry, and snuggled in my lap for at least 10 minutes.

This is at least the third time in the last six weeks that a major tantrum has erupted from something minor, and I'm hoping it is a just a phase, and a quick one at that. I'm not sure either of us have the wherewithal for any more!

Bedtime woes...

I realize that it is simply toddler behavior to NOT want to go to bed at night, I really do. That, however, doesn't make bedtime any less maddening around here.

RP has come a long way in the last 13 months. At 22 months old she was barely speaking Russian when she was adopted and brought to America, where she was inundated with English, a language she had never heard before she met me. At first she didn't speak at all, just observed everything with big brown eyes that were wary of everything she saw and heard. Then she moved into babbling. I'm not sure if the babbling was in Russian or English, or a hybrid of the two, but she would burst into babble, then shut herself off again, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours. By nine weeks home she had a vocabulary of about 30 English words - Mama, bye-bye, puppy, no - pretty much the basics. Since then her vocabulary and speech have really taken off, and she talks all the time. And I do mean ALL the time (gee, wonder where she gets THAT from?!?).

Would you like to fathom a guess as to when she puts that great vocabulary to use? Yep. Bedtime. Every night we have the same ritual - grab RP's pillow (which goes EVERYWHERE with her), head upstairs, put on pajamas, pick out a storybook, brush teeth, fill up the sippy cup with water, say prayers, read story, give kisses and snuggles, then music on, lights off, and it is bedtime. After all this I try to hang out upstairs for a few minutes to address any last minute requests such as "one more 'nuggle Mommy," "fix blankets/pillow please," or "more water Mama." It never fails, however, that once I head downstairs there is a litany of requests that come my way which typically are addressed as "RP get back in bed and go to sleep." Tonight this went on for almost an hour and a half and I was about at my wit's end. I'm not entirely sure what all she is able to do in a darkened room but she makes the most of it - toys out, books on the bed, blankets on the floor, etc. and so forth, all while keeping a fairly consistent running dialog with me about what she is doing that she isn't supposed to be doing, what she wants to do that she can't, or just checking in to see if I am ready to go to bed yet.

I know someday I'll look back on this and laugh but right now I'm too tired for that - and I just keep hearing myself say, "RP get that tushie back in bed right now" over... and over... and over...

Yet another countdown

Ever since I've started this blog I seem to be doing an awful lot of counting things down. Counting down how long it will be until the adoption process is finished, how long since I've received RP's referral information and can be scheduled to travel to see her, how long until court, how long until we come home, how long we've been home, etc. etc. etc. One of my New Year's resolutions was to try to spend more time in the "now" and not spend so much time sweating the small stuff and worrying about what lies ahead. I've made some progress on this, but still have a LONG way to go.

That being said, I can't HELP but launch my latest countdown (okay, who are we kidding here, I've been counting this down since Christmas and have a countdown ticker on my Facebook page to prove it!). We are going to DISNEY WORLD in exactly TWO WEEKS!!! Two weeks from now, luck and weather gods permitting, we will already be in Orlando, Florida, hopefully soaking up some sun, calming down five crazed kids, and starting a week of fun in the sun with Mickey Mouse.

In case you weren't aware, I LOVE Mickey Mouse. Always have. I have been to Disney World three times already - once as a child, once right after college, and again in 2009 when I took a class at the Disney Institute (work paid for this trip - at least I got something good out of that wretched job!!!) - and each time I find something new and magical about the experience. This time, however, is sure to be the MOST magical because I will be there with five kids on their first trip (thank goodness there will also be five of us adults as it's sure to be a crazy time!). I can't wait to see all their eyes light up the first time they see Cinderella's castle, or shake Mickey's hand, or hug one of the princesses. RP is beyond excited for this trip, and I'm not sure she truly comprehends what all it entails, but probably more so because everyone else around her is excited for the trip.

If it weren't for my experience last year I would probably be worried about our flights to and from Orlando. Five kids, ages 2-8, flying for the first time and contained in an airplane for three hours, are sure to be a bit of a challenge. I know I get bored on long flights, and the anticipation of going to Disney World is sure to heighten the "are we there yet?" syndrome, especially for little kids. That being said, I figure if I could survive three flights with RP - one about 90 minutes from St. Petersburg to Moscow, one about three hours from Moscow to Zurich, and then a ten hour flight from Zurich to Chicago - before she was two years old, uncertain about what was going on, and VERY cranky, then I can survive anything. I can still remember bursting into tears when the plane touched down in Zurich because RP screamed and cried for two of the three hours of that flight, causing other passengers to give me dirty looks and disgusted grunts. One of the flight attendants, who was wrapping RP in a blanket because I couldn't get to her coat and we had to catch a bus outside the plane to get to the terminal, told me not to worry, that it happens to everyone (even her with her own child!) and that I was never going to see these people again, so what did I care if they were upset?

Hopefully, with lessons learned, plenty of on board entertainment packed for RP and her cousins, and a bit of patience the flights will be smooth and worry-free. Even if they aren't, oh well - we're still GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

Dreaded Daylight Savings time

Yes, dreaded. Dreaded only in that while I love when the days get longer and the sun is out past 5 p.m., I dread daylight savings time because of the havoc it wreaks on RP's schedule. Last year at this time I had JUST gotten RP on a sleep schedule after two weeks of trying to adjust her from Russian time to CST, only for DST to kick in and knock everything askew for the next two weeks.

This year is a bit different only in that I'm not trying to adjust RP to an 8-9 hour time difference, only one hour. While one hour doesn't seem like a whole lot, to a toddler who goes to bed at 7 p.m. and then proceeds to pull out all the stops in terms of reading, singing, and sometimes just talking to herself for at least an hour every night, one hour is huge.

I bounced all our clocks ahead last night but put RP down at the "old" 7 p.m. (now 8 p.m.) and true to form, she proceeded to babble for an hour and a half, heck, almost two hours. This I blame almost entirely on my idiot next door neighbors who do not understand that I do NOT want to listen to their music in my house, and neither does my toddler whose room is on that side of the house. RP kept asking me what that noise was because they had another of their infamous parties and we could hear their music in our house, starting pretty much around the same time I laid her down for bed. URGH... if I haven't mentioned it before, I HATE my neighbors, which is saying a lot since I really don't believe in hating anyone. Anyhow, RP didn't drift off until after 9 p.m. old time/10 p.m. DST, and was up bright and early for church today. We ran to mass, then headed home for lunch and naps, and I knew RP was tired when she slept for over 2.5 hours, when she has really cut her naps down to about 90 minutes or so. Of course this meant that tonight when it was time for bed she was still wide awake, and I don't think she fell asleep for almost 2 hours after going to bed, which should make for an interesting day tomorrow.

I'm hoping that it doesn't take two weeks to get her back on a normal schedule like it did last year, especially since we are leaving for Disney World in exactly two weeks. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I should even worry about a schedule for right now as it's going to be blown out of the water once we reach Florida. Yikes!

Funny story...

RP's Nana is in the hospital, so this morning (after a long and drawn out drama regarding my lost car keys which is another story for another time) we went to visit her. Nana being Nana offered to share her fabulous hospital jello with RP, which happened to be topped with a dollop of whipped cream, which RP absolutely LOVES. Since we had some errands we had to run, and I had a couple of follow-up phone calls to make on some part-time job opportunities, we cut our visit to Nana a bit short and headed off to lunch before running to the grocery store.

At lunch, I ordered quesadilla's, and totally forgot that they come served with guacamole and sour cream, both of which I absolutely despise. RP seemed pretty intent on eating her cheese pizza, but became interested in my lunch when she saw me move the cups of guac and sour cream off my plate and across the table.

"Acky?" she asked me.
"Ummm.... not really, but Mommy doesn't like them, so she put them aside," was my response.
"Me eat! Me eat!" was my little RP's response, pointing at the sour cream.
"Really? Y'know, sour cream doesn't really go well on pizza," I responded, not entirely sure WHY she wanted the sour cream.
"Yeah, ME eat," was the insistent response I received.

At that point I pulled the cup of sour cream back over and put it in front of RP. When she took a huge (and I do mean HUGE) spoonful of the stuff, it dawned on my why she wanted to eat it.

"Honey, I don't think this is what you think it is. This is sour cream, NOT whipped cream," I told her, which apparently fell on the same deaf ears as my follow up statement: "You might want to just put a little on your tongue to taste and see if you like it."

RP proceeded to put the whole spoonful of sour cream in her mouth, and I can only say I wish I had a video camera of the look on her face when she finally tasted what she had done. Her entire face contorted into something I had never seen before, and immediately the sour cream came flying out - all over her, all over the table, and a bit over me - followed by her scream of "ACKY MOMMY!! AAAAAA-CCCCCKKKKK - EEEEEEEE!!!" (Yeah, the business people on their sales luncheons LOVED us at this point).

I can't help it. I laughed - out loud and hard. I tried to warn her but in typical RP style she knew better than I did what she was doing... or so she thought. Is it too much to hope for that she learned a lesson from this today? Yeah, I thought so!

Where does the time go?

Today I mailed out the birthday party invitations for RP's third birthday. I can't believe that I am already getting ready for her to turn three as it seems like only yesterday I was bringing her home, getting settled, and completely amazed over the fact that she was turning two.

The last year has brought on a LOT of changes:

- RP has gained several pounds and grown FIVE inches!
- While quite not where she needs to be developmentally, RP has gone from speaking zero English to being able to communicate very well.
- Food favorites are developing: anything chocolate, pizza, macaroni and cheese, fish sticks, and pasta are the current favorites! Not so much the favorites are: meat (of almost any sort, although she will eat it), milk (I can only get her to drink the drinkable yogurts with some milk mixed in - give her plain milk and she gags and tells you that it's "ackey!"), and most cooked vegetables.
- RP loves anything artsy (coloring, painting, drawing, singing, and playing music), anything physical (dancing, jumping, and what appears to be her own version of gymnastics), and anything that allows her to talk, talk, talk.

The best change, however, is her attachment to me. I was afraid from the beginning, as I am sure most adoptive parents pursuing international adoption are, that there would be issues with attachment and bonding. I was almost compulsive about cocooning with RP from the moment she came home, and can count on one hand the number of people she was regularly exposed to in the 10 weeks I was home with her, preferring to spend most of our time together working on attachment and building our family. Today I am no longer afraid that when she wants to be held by someone else or play with someone other than me that it means she hasn't bonded to me as her Mommy. She has become affectionate and loving, still wanting to hold Mommy's hand when she walks up the stairs with me, even though we both know she has done it by herself hundreds of times. She regularly requests additional " 'nuggles" at night before settling down to bed, and on Monday I received the greatest gift from her to-date, when she came up to me, patted my shoulder and cheek, and said "I wuv you Mommy."

For as much as I wished time away during the adoption process, I now find myself willing it to slow down so that I can soak up and enjoy this time with RP. In looking through old pictures recently it dawned on me that not only is she getting bigger in terms of size, but over the last few months she has truly lost a lot of the "baby" look she had when she came home and has transformed into a true toddler. I wish I could keep her little forever, but since I can't, I am working on really enjoying this time with her, knowing how fleeting it truly is.

Holy temper tantrum!

It may come as a shock to you, but my little RP is not perfect. Sure, she is utterly adorable and she has shiny brown eyes and a HUGE crooked grin, and for the most part is pretty happy-go-lucky, but she has her moments. Today she had a HUGE "moment."

I'll back up. RP has been battling a pre-spring cold for almost a week now. For the most part she is doing pretty good, although she sounds really congested in her nose, and there are nights I can hear her snoring across the house. Yesterday she seemed to be almost past said cold and was not only in pretty good spirits, but the nose seemed to have stopped running as much which is a good thing (because, really - yuck!). We had a birthday party to go to yesterday afternoon so I gave RP an early lunch and settled her in for an early nap, which surprisingly she took. She slept for about 75 minutes or so, then I had to get her up to get showered, dressed, and ready to leave, and although at first she was clingy and grouchy, when she fully woke up she was in high spirits and ready for the party!

After the party was over we went to visit Nana, who had been in the hospital since the middle of last week. While RP at a sandwich, some chips, and crackers at the party, she was running a bit "high" on the LARGE piece of cake someone slipped her when I wasn't watching, so I knew that she wasn't going to go to bed anytime soon and Nana could use some cheering up, so we headed to the hospital even though it would put us getting home past RP's bedtime. We had a really nice visit with Nana and Papa, and headed home for the night, where RP went to bed about 90 minutes after her normal bedtime.

Today RP woke at her normal time and seemed in pretty good spirits. We ran some errands, had lunch out, and the whole time RP behaved VERY well - listened nicely, behaved and did as she was told, etc. She fell asleep in the car for about 20 minutes or so, then decided that she absolutely could NOT nap any more today. Even without a nap she played pretty nicely for a while, but things got ugly when she decided that she wanted to color on herself with the blue dry erase marker instead of her easel, so Mommy took the marker away and told her she would have to use one of the SIX other available markers for her artwork since she didn't listen to directions on only using the markers ON the easel. The simple act of me taking the marker away launched her into a fit of epic proportions - screaming bloody murder as her face turned purple, throwing herself on the ground and flailing every limb she had in directions I didn't know the human body could go, and jumping up and down as rapidly as her little legs would allow. This raged on for about 20 minutes during which time she also tried to scale the kitchen cabinets to get to the marker, attempting to scale ME to get to the same marker, and dragging along behind as I put the easel and the rest of the markers away in the other room.

I won't lie - I was so stunned at the sight of my sweet little girl losing her mind that I laughed - out loud - during a bulk of her tantrum. It was really the craziest sight I've ever seen, and I witnessed a few doozies of tantrums from her in the past, including the one when I first met her and she screamed so loud and so hard that she knocked herself over backwards. This surpassed them all, and for all her efforts she DIDN'T get the marker back, she had to stand in the "naughty corner," eat and early dinner, take an early bath, and go to bed early.

I asked her WHY she pitched such a fit while she was in the bathtub, and she very sweetly told me "Me wanted marker Mommy." When I asked her if it worked, she shook her head sadly and said, "Noooo...." Let's hope she learned a valuable lesson from this because I really don't want to see a replay of this ever again. Ever.

Wow.

A taste of spring

Yes, it's true - today was truly a quick taste of spring. The temperatures here hit over 60 degrees, so RP and I took full advantage of them to spend some time outside before the temps dipped back down to "normal" (aka - cold!). After trying unsuccessfully for a half hour to get RP to take her nap this afternoon - unsuccessful because my crazy neighbors were already outside taking full advantage of the weather and find it completely necessary to have conversations at volumes which allow me to hear every word they are saying... while I am still inside, and allow their children to clamour around outside like the untamed banshees they have proven themselves to be - I gave up, told RP to put her coat and shoes on, and we ventured out to take the puppies for a walk around the block. After that, we spent about an hour or so playing in the backyard and just enjoying the mild temperatures and the break between rain systems!

In three and a half weeks we will be headed to Disney World, and I can't wait, so much so that I pulled out the suitcase today and started putting the stuff that I had been setting aside INTO the suitcase. I know I shouldn't be packing so early, but I haven't had a vacation in over 3 years and I am really looking forward to enjoying all Disney has to offer with my family. RP may still be a bit too young to appreciate everything she will experience at Disney, but seeing her face light up the first time she sees Mickey Mouse will be priceless AND it gives me a really good excuse to plan to go back with her someday when she is a little bit older!

Our little excursion outside today came at the expense of nap time, for which I paid dearly later as RP was out of pocket from dinner time to bed time. I'm considering this a good test of what will happen while we are in Florida and strengthens my resolve to try to find time each day for her to rest and take a quick nap, even if it means we have to leave the park and return to meet up with everyone later - isn't that why they invented the "park hopper" in the first place? :) At least I was able to test this here, and didn't wait until we were in Orlando to figure it out!

Video montage - Home, months 7-12

This one is quite long (approximately 45 minutes, give or take a few) but sums up the second half of our first year home quite nicely. I can hardly believe it's been a year, and I'm looking forward to the memories we will make year after year!

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