Hi everyone! I hope you all had a happy Easter! We actually had a snowy one down in the burg. The three of us went to Lynchburg for the weekend and had not one but TWO days of festivities. Rinat got 2 Easter baskets, 2 lunches, 2 egg hunts, about a million pieces of chocolate, and tons of toys. We actually came in town for our friends’ daughters’ baptism that Peter is the godfather of. The 1st egg hunt was after the breakfast at their place but he didn’t really understand how it all worked. He found one plastic egg and sat there taking it apart and putting back together. By the 2nd egg hunt at home, however, he was a maniac because knew exactly what to do and just went around finding eggs and putting them in his little basket as quickly as he could. And since we got back to DC, he will pull an egg out of his little basket that is still sitting in the living room, open it up, and hand me the mini chocolate bar inside to open for him. He definitely has the idea now. Aside from the holiday, we have been busy busy busy as always. In the last month, we’ve had several visitors. We had Aunt Kate come visit during her spring break and she was such a good playmate that he cried when she left room. He saw GMa G the bathgiver and GPa Mar the clapping man. Peter and I really loved having Aunt Ann come in town for the day because she took over parenting duties when he got restless at dinner- she walked him around so we could finish eating which is always a treat. And of course we’ve seen crazy Uncle Matt who stops by to hang out and put a big giant bus on his head which makes Rinat just fall over laughing. Too funny. Our little sweetie has definitely developed quite a sense of humor. The things that crack him up these days are me blowing my nose, when I brush the dirt off my hands, and when I dance to music on the radio. OK so really most people laugh when I dance but, it’s cute when he does it. He also finds it highly entertaining to be ornery and refuse to take a bite of food just for kicks. I will hold a bite of something up to his mouth and he will very dramatically throw his head to the side and kind of backwards like of like “how dare you offer me that horrible pile of poo- I would not dare eat it!” like he’s actually a picky eater or something. I have to laugh because it is really funny. Well, except of course when he knocks a spoonful of yogurt or something similarly messy out of my hand and it goes flying onto the wall or carpet in the process. But now that he can feed himself, he refuses to use his hands to eat with and tries to scoop anything and everything up with his little toddler spoon. I figure the faster that he can do it himself the better so I just let him go to town. He really does crack me up daily with his little budding personality. My current favorite is when he puts his little fists up near his head, points his chubby little fingers up in the air, and kind of bops up and down to any music that he happens to hear. It’s kind of like a disco-groove thing and I have no idea whatsoever where he came up with it, but it gets me every time. I also think it’s pretty funny that he will point to any food that he sees in a magazine, on the TV, or in person and say, very enthusiastically “Mmmmmmmm!” like it’s the most appetizing thing he’s ever seen. I guess we like food in our house. I know I do anyway. He especially loves fruit and it’s really funny to go to the grocery store with him because I will point to all the fruits in the produce department and tell him the names and he just says “Mmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmmmmmm!” Over and over again and makes the ‘please’, ‘milk’, and ‘more’ hand sign over and over again until one of them works and I put it in the cart. I have no idea why he’s not 400 pounds by now. I guess he got some good genes from his Kaz parents? And I think I might be turning him into a future alcoholic. I have been trying to find a way to get him to drop the bottle and drink milk out of a cup but he was a little reluctant so I taught him to ‘cheers’ me and then chug it down like a frat boy. I’m bad, but it works like a charm. And he is finally walking like he’s been doing it forever. He’ll just pop up from wherever he’s sitting and start cruising around with no hesitation at all. It just somehow happened overnight. But of course it always ends up in Mom or Dad’s arms- home base. And he still can’t get enough of things in the sky- planes, helicopters, birds- and now he is obsessed with the moon. He saw it one night when we took him over to Mer’s house after it had gotten dark and now he looks for it all the time. He always points to it and then looks at me like “Oh my gosh! Do you see that shiney thing in the sky?! Do you, do you?! It’s amazing!” Maybe he’ll be an astronomer. It’s so much fun to wonder how he’ll end up. It’s kind of like wondering what Santa is going to bring you for Christmas- no matter what it is, you’ll be happy to have it. Oh, and he has a new word that kind of sums him up I think. It’s ‘go’. He will point to the door, the stairs, his bed, the swings, the stroller, and say “go” (although it sounds a bit more like “gah”- but I know what he means)! He just wants to go, go, go 24/7. Our little maniac. He’s so fun. I think it is funny that he decided to learn to walk and talk all in the same week. He is a crazy determined little guy. My favorite of Rinat’s new talents, however, is that he can now give me big open-mouthed slobbery kisses. So now Rinat won’t be the only one with drool on his cute little face. When Kate was in town, she, Uncle Matt, and I went to see the movie Juno (about a teenager who gives up her child for adoption) which I highly recommend if you like indie films at all. It was really funny and ultimately uplifting but it also brought back some of those old feelings that I had before we brought Rinat home. Especially that feeling that something would happen to ruin all the work we have done and the confusion of not knowing who will be my child. Other parents don’t know what it feels like thank goodness because I would not wish it on my worst enemy- it is restricted to those of us who don’t give birth to our own children but are instead at the mercy of a stranger to decide when we get to be parents. I had a little flashback of this out-of-my-control kind of feeling a few weeks ago when I was just getting ready to start the process for our next adoption and found out that adoptions from Kazakhstan were suspended. I might have mentioned it to some of you which is why I am addressing it now. I, honestly, was kind of devastated by it. Not because I wanted to adopt from there again since we already know the drill, but really I wanted it for Rinat. I had always hoped to go to the same country to find him a sister or brother- someone to share some genetics with since Peter and I never will be able to give that to him. So I spent several insomniac nights cruising the internet trying to figure out what to do- should we wait and see what happens? Go to a different country and, if so, which one? Most of the other countries have several years of waiting before being matched with a child and if we wait for Kaz and it doesn’t reopen will it be forever until Rinat has a little sister? But the crisis was happily averted (for now anyway) when I checked the website tonight ( http://www.jcics.org/Kazakhstan.htm ) and adoptions have resumed as of today. WHEW!!! I can sleep again. And now I am off to do exactly that. Hope everyone is having a good month! -m
