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| First jog! |
Let's see, what have we done in the last 6 weeks? Both girls started school, piano lessons, and dance class. I started teaching dance class again, helped my dad with a huge fundraising event (well, why not?!), Bard went back to work, we finished the painting and gutters on the house, took Max to a million doctor's appointments and spent $40, 000 at Target.
Okay. I might be exaggerating, but seriously, the kid goes through diapers and food like Donald Trump adopted him, not Mr and Mrs Brokey McBrokerson!
But, I have to say it's quite fortuitous (don't be too impressed I spelled it wrong on the first try) that I am writing this at 6 weeks instead of 4 or even 5 weeks home. In just the past week Max has taken some huge leaps-he seems determined to prove some of those naysayers wrong. Go Max Go! Although eating is still a huge ordeal, he is getting faster and has adapted to mush that has a bit more texture-think oatmeal or chunky ground up spaghetti. We've even discovered two favorites-Spinach Blueberry Pear and Oatmeal, and Squash, Sweet Potato, Banana, and Avocado, (that's pretty good, Bard and I ate some!) We're still working on getting anything hard into his mouth, but he holds his bottle pretty well now so between that and eating faster, I now have about 15 minutes of free time a day.
Wahoo!
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| Typical man, hogging the remote ;) |
His next biggest step, literally, is his steps. Don't you love the overuse of words in our culture?! In just one week Max went from not being able to sit on his knees, to mastering that and then moving on to pulling himself up, standing, cruising, and I've now seen him climb the first couple of steps 2 or 3 times. IN ONE WEEK!!!! It's all that spinach :)
Sleeping is okay, better but not great-probably the same as most 16 month olds (happy birthday Max!) And we've started to notice some attachment and awareness issues. He gets agitated or anxious in new situations and then is clingy with us. This may sound like a step back but because he was so used to constant change, he just checked out whenever we took him some place new. He would explore and be mobile, but totally disengaged from any people-including us. The fact that he now feels stability in our regular routine-so notices something different-and turns to us for reassurance is huge!
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| Max-stealing bread from the Ukrainian Delegate. |
I love the adoption community because everyone bonds over these baby steps and knows exactly what we're going through. At our one month mark we were able to share this journey with other adoptive families in the area-all who adopted from Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, or Central Asia (basically former Soviet countries, so lots in common.) Our State Department invited adoptive families to come meet with government officials who were traveling from Ukraine, Moldova, even Kazakhstan!!! (If you have really followed this blog, you'll know why that was slightly hilarious for me.) The officials wanted to see how the adoption process was going in our country, check out foster care, and of course our government really wanted to show all the success stories that have come out of these countries.
It was an incredible experience-we met families who were right where we are now (Max was the youngest by at least several years), and talked with a Ukrainian official who knew our in country team and had even reviewed Max's file. How crazy is that?! I'm looking forward to more gatherings and deeper connections as time goes on; every family there, even the ones I didn't speak with, are a blessing and encouragement to me.
Of course, everyone was curious about Max, especially because he is so young. We are very curious about him too...and he seems to want to keep it that way! We have been to our pediatrician (twice), the adoption doctor at UW, the heart specialist, started Occupational Therapy, start Physical Therapy tomorrow, have appointments for vision, hearing, and genetic tests, have turned in blood work, and tomorrow will be dropping off another sample of...let's just say something stinky :/ So far there are no surprises, just doctors who want more tests and more information.
Dear Insurance Company,
HA!
The blood work came back clean and the OT therapist says he is doing pretty well-all things considered! The cardiologist didn't want to talk about surgery until he's gained some weight and had genetic testing done, so we go back in 3 months. UW said get a bunch of tests and then come back and see us. Pretty much every day I'm either at a doctor's appointment or on the phone with their office. Is it bad to have Multi Care's number memorized? Yes. Yes it is. But, he has gained over a pound and grown over an inch, and did I mention that in one week he learned to sit on his knees, pull himself up, and start cruising on furniture? Oh I did? Good.
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| Max, if you eat solids, I'll let you have that whole box of Ukrainian chocolate! |
Okay, let's see, I must be forgetting a milestone. . .Oh YES! The one where I stay home with all three kids BY MYSELF for four days while Bard goes on a business trip to Pittsburgh!! That is a big milestone :) We were kind of bummed since it's so important to bond right now and even though we Skyped with Bard, I'm not sure if Max was excited to see him or just thrilled to pound on the keyboard. Or both. Bard comes home tonight (actually, early Friday morning :/) and surprisngly it's been a pretty good week. I've eaten Ukrainian chocolate, American chocolate, and British chocolate, there was minimal yelling (by all concerned), and we even made it out of the house on time each morning. Of course that's because each night I laid out all our clothes, made Evelyn's lunch, prepped the girls' breakfasts, laid out things for my breakfast, made sure all the dishes were clean and put away, set the coffee pot, and. . .ate a lot of chocolate. Come home Bard!
Six weeks. Max now is the emotional age of a 6 week old baby. It's a little amazing to think about, a week ago I was losing my mind-going insane-crying on the landing-freaking out. But just like a newborn, Max is undergoing drastic changes, ups and downs, unbelievable milestones. And just like a first time parent of a newborn, so am I.
