Daaa

Before I officially started sign language with Angelina, I would put up my hands and say "all done", this is now her favorite thing to say. Picture her above, hands in the air with the cutest, sweetest, squeaky voice saying "daaa". Of course accompanied with a large smile.

How could one not think its adorable?

I've come up with a list of possible examples:

• After giving me the potty sign and sitting on the pot for 10 seconds - big smile, hands in the air, "daaa".
• After dropping her milk on the floor - big smile, hands in the air, "daaa".
• After swiping off her glasses because I said no to something she wanted - big smile, hands in the air, "daaa".
• After chewing once on her food and wanting to shovel more in - big smile, hands in the air, "daaa".
• After dropping her blanket out of her crib onto the floor and me being two seconds too late - big smile, hands in the air, "daaa".
• After throwing a toy over the stair gate - big smile, hands in the air, "daaa".

Oh, life with a toddler.

New Glasses

Have you ever noticed that when a traumatic event happens, even if it wasn't that bad, the trauma just snowballs in your mind making it the worst thing that has ever happened in your life? Well, that's how I can sum up our visit to the eye doctor last week.

Angelina did not like having her eyes dilated (who does?!). However, it was quickly over and we were out in the waiting room playing with toys so that experience was quickly forgotten. Then came time for the actual eye exam. Though it was not physically invasive, Angelina hated having the doctor wave the lenses in front of her eyes. She did not like having to hold her head still even more. He spent 10 minutes flashing lights and putting things in front of her dilated eyes and she screamed the whole entire time. Now, I was the lucky one to be holding her at the time the exam began so it was up to me to try to hold her head still and console her at the same time. That went over like a fart in church.

The eye doctor that we saw has been doing this for a long, long time and did not have the best bed-side manner, to say the least. After 15 minutes, he had her diagnosed and told us she needed glasses. I was overwhelmed as this was such a quick decision and because my baby was clawing at my neck and inconsolably crying.

Then, emotionally, it got worse from there. The doctor then told us that we were soooo lucky because the optical shop is the only shop around that has these wonderful toddler frames. I had an open mind until he put a pair on Angelina. I looked at Angelina and saw these rubber-made frames, the pair he put on her were this blue pair that looked like Harry Potter glasses on steroids. The glasses pushed me over the edge. Here it is, in a span of 15 minutes we had a traumatic exam, found out we needed glasses then looked at my red-eyed baby with rubber frames on her head that were far too big for me never mind her. I was choking back the tears, that's for sure.

Angelina has been diagnosed with being nearsighted, which is causing her to cross her eyes because she needs to focus so hard. So, we are going back in three months, if her eyes (after three months) are still crossing after having glasses we will have the surgery to tighten the eye muscles. But, she will still need glasses for the nearsightedness.

A week has gone by since our appointment. When I think back to it as a rational person, I realize that it was not the snowball-effect trauma that the emotional side of me still thinks it is!

I left the optical shop last week in such a sour mood because we were the lucky ones who got to purchase these wonderful rubber-framed glasses instead of a normal-looking pair! However, now, I see the positives of having a toddler in a pair of virtually unbreakable glasses, what a good feeling it is not to have to replace them every time an accident occurs. And, Angelina is pretty stinking cute in them, if I had to give my opinion!

Now, If I could only keep track of the number of times I have said "Lina, keep your glasses on your eyes!"

Angelina's Day In Court

Because Russian adoptions are considered "full and final", there is no need to re-finalize an adoption here in the USA. However, we were told that this re-finalization will make it much easier in the long run to get birth certificates and adoption decrees for Angelina in the future. So, instead of asking Moscow for copies (hahahaha) we can just ask the state of New Hampshire.

Our court date was scheduled for today and we even had the option of not going if we did not want to. Both Ken and I felt that it was important to go so that we can have this memory for us and Angelina. We had a nice family morning, and the mood in court was light and fun - much different than the mood of the Russian court 3 months ago!

Our social worker told us that the specific judge that will be hearing our case loves the "adoption" part of his job. She warned us that he will want Angelina to sit on his lap and he will play with her and ask us questions about our trips. What I thought was funny was that she even said that many members of our agency have tried to talk to him about the attachment process and how having a child sit in his lap could be harmful to that process, etc... So, when we walked into the room, he immediately fit the profile of what our social worker said. I wasn't going to complain, though her comfort with him just shows me how much more attachment work we have to do.

After court we went out for a family breakfast, then back home for nap. It was a nice morning.

Oh, we also had Angelina's eye appointment this week....that's a blog post all on its own, let me tell you! I will post about that next week when I can share some pictures of Angelina in her new specs!

Apple Picking

We have had such a wonderful stretch of unseasonably warm weather over the past few weeks and have been trying to get Angelina out as much as possible! On Sunday, we took her to our local apple orchard to pick apples. Now, Ken and I have not picked apples in many many years. We are the ones who just go buy the pre-picked bushels and call it good. So, there was a slight learning curve to yesterday's experience!

First, we should have gone on the hay ride, I think they just take you to the trees that are not picked over. Instead, we decided just to find some trees on our own. Yep, all picked over. Then, our camera batteries went dead. Which I think I was more upset over than finding bare trees! Despite our disappointment, Angelina had a blast! She saw the long row of grass, and she just kept walking and walking. It was great! We had to direct her away from the rotten apples on the ground but could not keep her away from the fresh apples that had just fallen. She would pick up an apple (and after we cleaned it off) and eat it until she found another apple, then would eat that until another apple was found.

After a while of hopeless apple searching we gave up and went for ice cream. Which of course, Angelina enjoyed just as much. I did manage to get some pictures of our day before the camera died. I put them together in a slide show.

In other news, Angelina has a busy week ahead of her. Finally, our eye doctor appointment is here. We go there tomorrow. I am anxious to hear what the doctor has to say. At times I don't think her lazy eye affects her, then I realize that she still 95% of the time walks with her hands up for balance. So this visit will give me certain piece of mind. Also, on Thursday, we will be going to court to re-finalize Angelina's adoption!

Fall Time in New England, and Other Things

It is just such a wonderful time of year in New England. The air is cool and crisp and the leaves are just beautiful. Fall is our favorite season, and we have been trying to spend as much time outside as possible. We want Angelina to experience all of the typical fall activities, even though we know that she may be too young to enjoy these activities as much as we do!

We spent the afternoon yesterday picking pumpkins with Angelina. At first, she did not know what to do and hated that she could not walk well (vines everywhere and uneven ground). However, once she saw Ken and I play with the pumpkins, she was all for it. She would go up to the biggest ones and try to pick them up, then she would give up and just sit on them.

Did she want to pose for the camera? Nope! Every time I take it out, she just turns her head. Wonderful. So, here are some lovely profile pictures of Angelina playing in the pumpkin patch.

I've also been tagged by Becky who has just recently brought home her son from Russia.

I've been aked to write 6 random facts about myself, enjoy!

1. I teach 6th grade English in middle school, this is my seventh year as a teacher. (well, it will be when I go back in January). I know nothing else besides teaching, for as long as I remember this is what I've wanted to do. However, if I were not a teacher, I would become a pastry chef. I love to bake and create sweet treats for my friends and family. I could be elbow deep in flour, butter and sugar for 40 hours a week and be perfectly content.

2. I am a girl scout! Yep, that's right! I started as a brownie and was a girl scout all through high school. I even used to spend my summers away at a resident GS camp in Vermont. Today, I volunteer for the girl scouts. So, with regards to camping, I can pretty much do it all: Start a one-match fire, cook over the flame, pitch a tent in the dark, read a compass, etc... Even now, I sing to Angelina silly camp songs that filled my summers past.

3. I am a coach for an all girls competitive canoe racing team. Our season runs for 3 months in the springs. We teach the girls how to canoe, then step it up to how to race with canoes. Every Memorial Day Weekend, the other coaches, I, and about 30 middle-high school girls travel to Bainbridge, NY to compete in a large regatta there. So, every Memorial Day weekend for the past 10 years, I've been driving vans, lifting canoes, life guarding, and cheering on team members as they race down a river. I know that makes you all envious of my yearly Memorial Day plans.

4. After not knowing what to name me and going to the Rocky 1 film, my parents named me after Rocky's wife. "Yo Adrian"! No need to say anything else.

5. I love solving the Cryptoquip puzzles in our weekend newspapers. A cryptoquip is a letter substitution puzzle where you are given one clue, t=y, and have to figure out the rest of the puzzle from there. Since we don't get the newspaper during the week, my mom cut out the daily cryptoquips and glued them all into a book for me for our plane rides to Russia. Since I have a very hard time sleeping on planes, this little book came in very handy!

6. My closest friend, Jess, and I have been friends for 23 years! We grew up together just a few houses apart, and though we don't live that close any more, we are still the best of friends. I was so excited to hear the age of Angelina back in April when we received our referral, as she is only 3 months older than Jess's son. We hope that they can have the wonderful friendship that we shared growing up.

2 Months Home

Yep, we have been home for two months. In some respects, its hard to believe, in other respects, it feels like we have just been a family forever.

Ken and I have noticed a few changes in Angelina lately. She is starting to laugh and giggle more which is something that she never did at first. Finally, she is starting to feel comfortable enough to let her guard down. Also, Angelina's attachment to us is getting stronger and stronger. While at the park a few days ago, when I would let her wander, she would take a few steps and then actually look back to see where I was. She would get a big smile on her face and reach out for my hand. It was wonderful to see this progress! Now, certainly for every two times she did this, the third time, she would keep walking past the sunset. So, though we have come many miles, we still have a lot to go. Every time that I get discouraged about our slow attachment progress, Angelina shows me something to make me feel so positive, and this was it this week. We are working on not walking up to strangers freely and willingly. Whenever she heads for a stranger, I have started to squat down to her and say "stay close to mama". This is going to be my new approach to the stranger issue, so I'll keep you posted on how this is working.

Angelina's language skills are starting to grow as well. She is so interested in trying to speak, its only a matter of time. I'll say a word and she will repeat a sound from within the word most of the time, for example I say "sock", she says "k". Even on the harder "s" and "l" sounds, she tries so hard to get them to come out of her mouth. I think that she probably understands most of what we say. She and I have been working on pointing to parts of our body and animal sounds. Though she does know the sound for a monkey, she would rather watch mama make a fool of herself and act like one.

In other news, Ken and I celebrated our third year anniversary yesterday. It is interesting to think that during our last anniversary, we were full of anticipation (and fear!) as we just finished our application to our agency. What a difference a year makes.

Here are some pictures from this week.