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.

Thoughts on Sign Language

While we were waiting for our referral during the winter and early spring, I read and heard a lot about baby sign language. We even saw a baby sign with her parents at a waiting families meeting that we attended in March. Though I thought this was a neat concept and was interesting to watch, I really did not think that I could learn how to do it in time for when Angelina got home. During our traveling and trips back and fourth to Russia, we just were too busy to try to get anything extra done besides the necessities, never mind sign language.

However, what I noticed about Angelina's language skills is that she does want to communicate but still has trouble forming words and getting her wants and needs expressed. So, I started to think back to this sign language idea and since I'm home with Angelina all day, I figured that we could learn this together. I found this great site:

http://www.mybabycantalk.com/content/dictionary/dictionaryofsigns.aspx?letter=A

It has a video to go with each word in its dictionary, which helps me as sometimes a picture of a sign can be deceiving.

I started signing with Angelina about 3 weeks ago. She now knows how to sign the following words: more, eat, milk, please, thank you, help, up & down, and shoes. It has been amazing to see her use these words to aid in her communication. At first, I was not sure. She was just signing after I said the word. But, last week, she wanted to get out of her car seat, and I see in my mirror her sign the word "help". I had to laugh. So she has been using the words independently when she wants something. She is starting to figure out that she can use the signs to communicate, which has been helpful and less frustrating for the both of us.

We have started to put sounds with our signs as well, which is helping Angelina associate her signs with certain sounds. For example, when she signs "more" she will say "mmmm", and when she signs "thank you", she will sat "ta". Though her language is coming slowly but surely, using sign language has been a great tool to help us communicate.

Baking (or taste-testing) With Mama

Being an avid baker, I've volunteered to recently make some cakes and desserts for family get-togethers. There has been a sharp learning curve while trying to bake with a toddler at your feet. I have smartened up over the past few weeks and realized exactly where I can position a chair and have Angelina stand on it to watch me cook/bake and have it be safe. Now, this certainly beats having her at my feet either whining/crying or wanting to be picked up because she does not like the sound of the mixer.

So, this morning, Angelina stood happily on her chair playing with measuring cups while I make a birthday cake. Since she was such a great helper, I let her quality control some chocolate frosting.

I think she liked it:

Attachment Progress

We had a one month check up at the doctor's office this week. Angelina gained 2 pounds since being home. All of her labs look great and we are done with the vaccinations. It seems like our never-ending doctor appointment schedule has come to an end for now. Finally, after 6 weeks of being home, I can rest easy and feel reassured that Angelina not only looks healthy, but we have the lab work to back it up!

During the first two weeks home, I gave up the dream of Angelina attaching to us perfectly and quickly. It finally hit me that all of the reading I've done on the topic was accurate, attachment is a long, long process. And, we would not be the magic wonder family that would be done with attachment when the plane landed in Boston! Even though I do see small signs of Angelina's attachment progress daily, I still had not had that "aha" moment. I was wondering if this moment was even going to happen to us, and if I would recognize it if it did.


As one of my friends put it, shots can be a blessing in disguise. Ken was holding Angelina as the nurse was giving her one of her shots. Angelina instantly started crying once the nurses held her arm down. Once the shot was done, she reached for me. I was already standing away from the whole shot scene so that I could rescue her when they were done, but she actually reached for me, and when I grabbed her, she rested her head on my shoulder and let me console her. I was cheering for Angelina on the inside! Even the nurse commented that it was a good sign of trust. (Coming from a nurse with very little international adoption experience, this meant a lot!) I know we have miles to go with attachment, but this was certainly the "aha" moment that I needed.


I will leave some pictures of us at the park yesterday. However, the novelty of the camera has worn off for Angelina. She no longer poses, smiles, runs to the camera. Actually, I take it out and she looks the other way.

Must you take a picture of me while I'm eating, mom?

Head, shoulders, knees and toes

Walking around trees can entertain Angelina for a long, long time!

Late Summer Fun

Well, its that time of year in New England where all thoughts turn to apple picking and mum selection. The days are certainly getting shorter and there is that fall crisp in the night air. However, after a summer of cool, rainy days we welcomed a few unseasonably hot days this past week. Angelina and I took full advantage of the weather with our blow-up pool. She had a blast in the water. She was not comfortable to sit down, but would squat over and over again when I would tell her to sit. It was very cute! I brought some bath toys in the pool for her, and Angelina just played and played!

Here are some pictures of our late-summer fun: