We're glad she's home...

...because she might just drop some Goldfish.

Can't a dog get some sleep around here?

Shabbat Shalom

No, she really shouldn't be stepping on the books but she was reading them first! I had to get the picture and then we talked about taking care of our books.

Egads! 5 years!

And we're even more in love today!

How did we spend our 5th anniversary? We started the day with a relaxing 1 1/2 hour visit to the pediatrician (they were running behind). Then, we had a romantic visit with the lawyer to sign more papers for Sasha's adoption. After eating a gourmet lunch of roast beef sandwhiches, Matt finished some work and I took a nap.

For our anniversary evening, I happily chased Sasha up and down and up and down and up and down the sidewalk while she rode her new stick horse. Then, we had a breathtaking dinner at our favorite pizza place with friends and their 9 month old.

It was the best annivesary we've ever had!

The Confidence of a Three Year Old

The pediatrician pierced Sasha's ears this morning. She is now going around showing everybody her ears and saying, "I'm so beeeeauuuuutiful." Even Murray and Dudley got a good look. We're so happy she has such a high self-esteem. Just now in the kitchen, she said, "Mommy, I'm pretty and beeeeeauuuuutiful."

Yes, Sasha, you certainly are.

Appendix A: The Pictures

Our Pictures

Aunt Kerri's Pictures

Didi and Pap's Pictures

Chapter 4

This was AFTER several clean ups.


Christmas!
or Wait is a Dirty Word
or Someone Give Me Another Mimosa
or When Is Naptime?
or Oy!

1 Six year old boy + 1 Four year old boy + 1 Three year old girl + 1 three month old baby + 1 fourteen year old dog + Six Grown ups= 1 Happy, Busy, Noisy, Messy, Exciting Christmas Morning.

The Mommies and Daddies had to look at their presents again later that night because none of us remember what we opened, or even IF we had opened it!

Then after everything had calmed down, Sasha's Bubbe and Zayde and Uncle Josh and Aunt Radka showed up bearing more gifts!!! WoooooHoooooooo!!!

And then, after everybody left and it was quiet, Mommy and Daddy and Sasha lit the first candle for Hanukkah and opened MORE presents! OY!!!

The End
or Just the Beginning

Chapter 3

The Love of a Family

Didi, Aunt Kerri, and Pap were on the porch the minute we pulled into the driveway. Sasha ran to Didi once she realized who it was and then Aunt Kerri got a surprise hug. Pap had to wait for a little while but pretty soon, it was like she's always known them.

The best was watching her meet her cousins for the first time. She was waiting for "baby Juliana" for weeks and she loved her. Jake, the best big cousin ever, took control and played with Sasha. Kristopher played too but only when he wanted to!

All it takes is love to make anyone feel comfortable. We are so lucky to be able to share all the love in our family with Sasha.

Chapter 2

Taking an Early Morning Flight With a Young Child
or Who's Idea Was This Anyway?
or Didi's Idea

Didi decided that we should take the 8:00 AM flight so we could spend the whole day together on Friday. I woke up at 3:00 AM because I couldn't sleep. I got up and cleaned a little bit, wrapped the doggies Chanukkah presents and then got ready. We were planning on leaving at 5:45 so I knew I'd have plenty of time.

I felt really bad waking Sasha up at 5:00 but of course, she was fine. She always wakes up happy.

We actually made it out the door by 6:00! I can't believe it. Of course, poor Sasha yawned and said, "I'm so tired," over and over but we were on our way.

She was great on the flight. I really thought (and hoped) she would fall asleep on the plane because Mommy really wanted to fall asleep too but she didn't. She did the next best thing by being extremely well-behaved the entire flight.

....Chapter 1

What Do We Bring?
or Planning a Trip with a 3 Year Old
or Trying to Pack AND Entertain a 3 Year Old at the Same Time
or Packing and Unpacking


With all of the traveling we have done, Matt and I had become pretty good at traveling light, only bringing one carry-on suitcase each. Things change a lot when you travel with a child. My biggest concern was not her clothing but being prepared to keep her occupied while waiting in the airport, while on the flight, and the 1 1/2 hour car ride to my parent's house.

I searched for a child's suitcase thinking Matt and I could still bring our carry-ons and Sasha could start learning to pack light. A little girl's suitcase was so hard to find. I finally decided to get a child's rolling backpack (Care Bear--if you are interested). All of her clothes fit in it fine, when she stopped taking them out, but I had no room for any busy work!!!

I moved on to my suitcase and of course Sasha was very curious and every time I turned around she was taking something out! One time I walked into the room and she had my boots on. I called Daddy and told him to hurry home quick or else I'd never get done.

We did eventually get packed and were ready to go the night before. And, Sasha was asleep so everything stayed in the suitcases.

Watchamacallit

We decided Sasha was ready to take a trip to PA to meet more family members over the Christmas holiday. The only family members who have met her so far were Didi (Kristi's mom), Great Nanny (Kristi's Grandmother), and Bubbe (Matt's Mom). Needless to say, there were a lot of people waiting to meet our little girl. Aunt Kerri called every day, sometimes several times a day, to talk to her niece. Pap had to be held back from buying too many presents for her. Zayde had already planned a trip to visit this week to spend more time with her after finally meeting her on Christmas day. Uncle Josh and Aunt Radka kept asking for more pictures.

We started talking to Sasha about our trip 2 weeks before our departure. When she was living with the other couple, they had given her up after taking a month long trip to visit family members. We also didn't want her to think she was going back to Russia. The last thing we wanted was to cause her any worry. We made sure to tell her that we were only going for 4 days and then we would come home together. We continued to tell her that she was going to live with Mommy and Daddy forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.....and always and always and aways.... .

Rather than writing EVERYTHING in one entry, I've decided to make chapters! It's the 2nd grader in me coming out (they love to make every story a chapter story). But, for those of you (i.e. Mom!) who read the ending of the story so you know what's going to happen; Sasha had a wonderful time and did much better than we ever expected.

Maybe by the end of all the chapters, I'll have the main title. "Watchamacallit" doesn't really cover it.

So....

Mommy's Birthday

My mouth looks funny because I wanted to hide any chocolate that might be on my teeth! This dessert was DELICIOUS!!
Sasha enjoyed it much more! In fact, she finished it off!


Sasha did a really good job not opening the present, although at one point the bows were in the trash and the cards that were attached were on top of my purse. Still, we should be very proud that a 3 1/2 year old left it alone all day.

By the way, it was the foot/leg massager that I've been wanting for months now! The first time I used it at Brookstone, I almost cried. It felt so good. All you teachers out there, you NEED this thing. In fact, we have no pictures of me using it because I was so relaxed I forgot to ask Matt to take a picture.

Why?

What is it that makes people think it's ok to go shopping in pajamas and slippers? If anyone who is reading this has done it, I'm sorry if I'm offending you but come on! Tell me why you don't have 5 minutes to put on a pair of pants and a pair of shoes? Do you really think that people want to see you in your pajamas, IN PUBLIC for crying out loud! It's not cute. Grown-ups should know how to dress themselves.



I wouldn't even let Sasha go out somewhere in her pajamas and she looks so cute in her pj's and bedhead.

Everybody Sing!

(to the tune of Happy Birthday---work with me.)

Happy Birthday to Kristiiiii.
She is 33.
The things that hurt her
are her back and her knee!

(And her ankle but that's an old injury.)


Of course darling Sasha slept in again this morning so now Mommy has to wait until Daddy gets home after work tonight to open her present. It's also sitting in the middle of the Family room for me to look at all day! I guess it's not a puppy.

Being a Mom Means...

Sasha could enter the bathroom at any moment. In fact, one time, she walked right in, closed the door behind her, gave me a magazine and a piece of toilet paper without saying a word. I didn't tip her.

I need to start a rolodex just for playdates and doctor information.

Putting your mom/sister/friends with children on call when you need to ask if it's normal for your child to get out of bed and play when she should be ASLEEP!

I created a spreadsheet of all the free activities available in our area. We could go somewhere every day of the week!

Knowing what medicines your child is on, what dosage they take, what you can/can't give with them even if it is 3:00 in the morning!

Laughing AT your child and WITH your child.

Saving money

It was raining pretty hard at Animal Kingdom so we had to buy those lovely theme park ponchos. We won't have to buy her another one until she's 20!

Is it enough?

Matt took this picture so it's his fault that it's blurry!
We met some new friends at Animal Kingdom this weekend and Sasha had a really good time. When it was time to leave, Sasha cried even though she had said she was tired and ready to go to the car. She didn't start crying until our friends said good-bye.

We are pretty sure that she was sad because she was saying good-bye to people she liked and to people who showed affection to her.

It makes me so sad to think that she might still be wondering if this is her forever home. We are her parents forever and always but does she realize that we'll never leave her or pass her on to someone else?

We can only hope that our love is strong enough to make her understand. We sure saved up plenty of love while waiting for her to arrive. We shower her with love and affection every minute of the day (even if she's being a stinker). Many parents worry about spoiling their children too much. We worry about loving her enough to make her understand that this is forever.

I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

As long as I'm living

my baby you'll be.

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

She's not sick anymore!!!!!

I can tell she's feeling better--not because her nose stopped running, fever went away, coughing slowed down--but because....
She put 1/2 roll of toilet paper in the toilet this morning, threw a toy up against the tv (twice) while I was taking a shower, and removed her belt several times.

But when I got dressed and was ready to go, she said, "Wow. Mommy looks beautiful."

But wait, there's more! While shopping for a gift for Daddy, she ran from me in the store, grabbed something off the shelf, and when we got home, she spit on the floor.

Yehaw!!! I love my 3 year old!!!

Feeling helpless

On Thursday, Sasha woke up and was so quiet. This is very unlike her. I tried everything to make her laugh but she just wasn't herself. At lunchtime, when she didn't eat her macaroni and cheese, I knew something was wrong. She had a slight fever so I gave her some Motrin. She was ok after nap and most of the day Friday, just complaining of a sore throat.

Then, on Friday night, she was up all night coughing and crying. I've never felt so helpless. There was nothing I could do to make her feel better. I just wanted to lay there and cry with her. I guess that's what being a mom is all about, good times and sad times. I guess I should prepare myself because I know there's more to come (hopefully not too much more).

(We did take her to the doctor and all she said is that this is going around, get plenty of rest and drink plenty of fluids.)

Bubbe's Visit

Well, Sasha had her Bubbe come visit last week. I'm such a bad mommy that I don't have any pictures of the two of them together. I know Bubbe has a camera full of pictures of just Sasha. Bubbe, did you take ANY pictures of Sasha's mommy and daddy? We understand. We know that Sasha is much cuter than we are (well, cuter than daddy anyway and just as cute as mommy). wink wink

If life gives you lemons...

...eat them!

Sasha's first Shabbat

Our synagogue had a special "family" (i.e. short) Shabbat service. Sasha really enjoyed all of the singing but she started getting tired towards the end. All of the children were sitting in the front so Sasha walked up to the middle of the group, layed down, put her hands over her ears and started rocking! When Sasha is tired, she's REALLY tired. We left pretty quickly after that.

Angels

I was allowing myself my daily thoughts about I and E the other day when I realized something. If it hadn’t been for all of the timing and waiting we were doing for them, we never would have met Sasha. So, instead of feeling sad that I and E will not physically be a part of our family, I have begun to think of them as our little angels. I think it’s Oprah that says there are angels among us (Am I right, Diane--aka "Oprah expert"?) and now I know exactly what she means. I and E were brought into our lives to help bring Sasha to us.

I was talking to a woman during our Mommy and Me gym class the other day. She adopted 2 children from Belarus last year. She told me that they had been waiting on a little boy in Russia forever. Then, Russia closed down and they decided to adopt from Belarus. She said that he would always be in her heart but when she looks at the children she did adopt, she knows they were meant to be her children.

Sasha is quickly picking up her mommy’s sense of humor and love of clothes. She has her Daddy’s obsession with using a billion napkins with every meal. She has her Pap’s love of all kinds of music. She has her Aunt Kerri’s dislike of milk (thanks Aunt Kerri). She has the K. family tummy problems (stock up on the Lactaid). I’m sure there are more similarities to develop. Sasha has just fit right into our lives just as she was meant to.

I remember the first time Sasha called me "Mama". It made me cry but I was so emotional that weekend that everything made me cry. A few days ago, she crawled into my lap and said, "I love you Mommy." I had the same feeling I did when she called me Mama so long ago. That sweet little voice tugs a place in my heart that I never knew existed.

Thank you I and E for bringing Sasha into our lives.

Today is E’s 8th birthday. Happy Birthday E! You and I will always be loved.