Busy Busy

Hi All!


We have been busy with a capital B. Can you tell our sweet baby is tuckered out? Not only are we having an absolute blast with the newest member of our little family but we have been looking for a new place for our brood to roost for a while. Just last week we found a house that we both like and also can afford which is a hard thing to do around here. Sadly, we just can no longer afford to live in the actual District of Columbia and so off we go to the ‘burbs. I never ever thought it would happen but we’ll give it a go and see if we like it out there. We found a cute little house that is big enough to house us for the foreseeable future AND we can now afford to go on vacation every once in a while and, dare I even mention it, adopt one more time if we decide to. I told Peter when we got home from Kaz that I wasn’t even going to mention it for a year and then we would revisit the idea but buying a house made it necessary to chat about it now. So if we decide to adopt again, great. And if not, then we’ll have some cash free to do something else with. I have always wanted to go on safari…

But things are going amazingly well with the little man.  Aibek is the easiest baby ever.  Truly a piece of cake.  I know there will be something we’ll have to deal with down the road but so far no major issues aside from the Giardia (yes, he did have it).  And he and Rinat continue to be completely amazing together.  I mean, they absolutely adore each other and there is not one single day that I don’t feel lucky to have them together.  Just today we were in the little market below Rin’s school and I put Bek on the floor so I could use both hands to get Rin a slushy without spilling and he was just holding onto him and talking to him in the cutest little voice making sure he was safe and didn’t crawl off or get stepped on by anyone and this woman just stopped and stared and you could just tell she was melting and she said “Oh, that is so sweet!”  And when I commented that Rinat was an absolutely amazing big brother, she practically went into conniptions telling me how sweet they are together and great it was that they love each other so much.  People are really nice.  The other day I was shopping with Bek and the Asian girl ringing me up commented that he was super cute and that he looked a lot like her baby pictures and asked if he was adopted from Korea like her.  I told her that he was actually from Kaz and blahblahblah we were chatting away.  Someone behind me in line overheard and had to come and take a look at him and they started asking questions, then someone else overheard and came up to see his cute chubby cheeks, and before I knew it there was a crowd of literally 10 people who were oohing and aawing over my sweet little guy.  I don’t know what it is about him but everywhere I go strangers comment on how cute he is and how they just love the big cheeks and I have had lots of people call him a little Buddha.  I couldn’t agree more.  He’s adorable.  I just want to give him big kisses on those chubby cheeks and squeeze him so tight he explodes.  I can’t get over how cute he is.  And of course Rin's no shlump either.  I would kill for his cheekbones.  And I love how snuggly he is these days.  I'm sure it's partly due to someone else occupying my lap lately but I'm sure not complaining. 



Our fabulous friends also had a welcome home Aibek party that was tons of fun.  He’s still a little skittish with strangers (a totally foreign thing to me since Rin is outgoing sometimes to a fault) and I thought he might be a little overwhelmed by it all but he did pretty OK.  At the end of the night it was Rin who we had to drag out of there crying because we had overstayed by at least an hour past bedtime.  But Bek was unfazed as always.  He’s easy.  But he has been rapidly moving out of his calm and quiet phase and into the crazy maniac and constant blabbering phase.  And I couldn’t be happier about it.  He has been crawling around like a maniac.  Sometime he does what Rin likes to call the polar bear crawl where he walks on his hands and feet with his butt stuck up in the air.  And he absolutely loves standing up and getting his balance before he lets go and falls to the floor laughing and laughing.  It’s been paying off too because just the other day I was having him practice standing and letting go and rather than just falling down with a laugh, this time he took a step toward me before falling face first into my lap.  I honestly can’t believe that just 4 months ago he couldn’t even sit up.  It’s crazy.  And he was basically mute until probably December when he started out with “dadadada” before we had to leave him to come home and wait out the paperwork.  And just the other day as I was taking him up to bath, he waved and said “byebye” to Rin. I cried (of course, what’s new).  That’s a big first.  And we’ve heard something that sounds like ‘all done’ although you would never guess that would be one of his first words with the size of his fat rolls.  And he says a lot of ‘rahrah’ which I have decided means he is talking about Rinat.  That’s what I told Rin anyway and it always puts a smile on his face when Bek says it.  And I know he understands a lot.  Like when he’s in the bath and I tell him to sit down.  He just smiles and laughs and splashes back down.  Little stinker.  I swear Rinat does not help the situation.  Whenever I say “That’s not funny, Bek.”  Rin yells back from downstairs “Yes it is!”  They are going to be T-R-O-U-B-L-E when they get older.        

      

Rin decided one day that we needed to celebrate Bek’s BDay since he wasn’t actually here with us for the big day.  So off we went to Giant to pick up not one but two cakes.  One for little BekMan to destroy and one for us.  Except that Bek didn’t really destroy his.  He didn’t actually want to touch it at all.  Rin had to literally take his little hand and shove it into the frosting and then stick it into Bek’s mouth for him to get the gist of it.  But then he was hooked.  The boy likes cake.  You know, his tastes are nothing like I thought they would be.  Rin ate literally anything that we put in front of him until he hit probably 2 or so.  But Bek?  Not so much.  I will offer him, say, a bite of carrot, broccoli, corn, potato, banana, pear, peach or whatever and he will let my hand get within centimeters of his little lips and he will then dramatically whip his head to the side in a frantic bid to make sure not one tiny bit of it touches him.  It’s so frustrating.  I mean, it took Rin many many tries to like some of the foods that are his favorite now.  But Bek won’t even touch them.  Not even put them in and spit them out if it doesn’t suit.  Oh well, he’ll learn eventually that man cannot live on meat and bread alone.  And really, it’s not like he’s starving to death or anything, right?  I mean, he has baby boobs for gosh sakes.   

Spring has sprung around here and the weather is warm.  And for us that of course means it's time to spend a whole lotta time outside.  The park, the zoo, picnics, and lots of backyard time.  When the crocuses start sending up their little shoots and I spy those gorgeous deep purple blooms, it's off with the boots and on with the outdoors.  Spring is here.

And have I mentioned Rin's obsession with dinosaurs?  Yup, it's official.  He's nuts for dinos.  And he is finally starting to draw some photos that actually look like something besides just a bunch of squiggles or a happy face.  Here's his dinosaur book that he made.  He told me I could rip it apart to copy and put it here for everyone to see.  So enjoy.

Happy Spring everyone!  Love to all, -m

It's Been a Good Month

Hi All!

I think I have selective memory. Somehow in the last few years, I had forgotten just how messy babies are. And how exhausting. And how much stuff you need just to leave the house. And how, no matter what you do, sometimes they still cry. But having a new little one in the house is, of course, worth every second of work you put into them because you get back every bit of it in drooly smiles and sweet comfy snuggles.

It’s been four weeks now (four already?) and things are going well so far. Our little Aibek is a super easy baby in almost all respects. Literally the only issue we have been having with him are the blow-out diapers. And when I say blow out, I mean up the back almost to his shoulders, out the sides, and up and out the front. I have no idea what is going on with this little guy. Usually the morning one will occur about 5 minutes before I am supposed to walk out the door to take Rin to school. So it is off with the clothes, wipe off the majority of it, run his little bum under the bath faucet to get the little bits off that the wipes couldn’t, get him to stop screaming because I won’t let him play in the water, new diaper, new clothes, snowsuit, and out the door. A little chaotic but at least he doesn’t have the diaper issues that Rinat had.

So we went to the doctor about the boys both being a little off (Strep was going around Rin’s school) and told the doctor about the stomach issues that Aibek had been having. She ordered a bunch of tests on him at the lab but asked if there was any way I could go ahead and get the Giardia one done today (it was 4pm on a Friday). Thankfully Peter had gone with me to the doctor’s office to help out and so he took the boys home and I hopped in the car and floored it to the lab with one of Bek’s dirty diapers (triple bagged) in my hand. It was one of my all time most revolting experiences ever. I talked to the front desk lady and made it clear to her that the doctor wanted me to turn in the Giardia sample before they closed the office and could I please go ahead and get the container and fill it (and dispose of the nasty thing in my bag?). “Sure, you can fill it,” she said as she tapped her four inch, lighting bolt painted, rhinestone covered fingernails on the counter and handed me a bag with two little vials in it. “Instructions in here. Hope you have enough.” Clearly this woman had no idea of the magnitude of the issues we were facing at our house. She was not the best listener and when I asked her which vial to fill, without even looking up she mumbled something about the pink one and added “Bathroom’s out the door, down the hall,” and turned and walked out of the room. So off I went, poo-filled diaper in hand to find the bathroom. Which was nowhere to be found. So I went round and round the office building hallway until I found one. And, I might add, it was locked. I knocked and no one answered. I looked at the time- 4:43. “OK, I’ll wait a minute,” I thought. And I waited. And I knocked. And I waited. And I banged. And no one answered. So off I went in search of an alternative (again, holding a smelly diaper in a public place as people passed me by in their business suits and high heels wondering what that horrendous smell was) and after wandering for a minute, I found a handicap bathroom down another hallway, around another corner. And also locked. But this time someone answered my knock at least. So I waited until they were done and then walked in to see…a toilet and a pedestal sink. Hmm… OK, I have been carrying this diaper around with me for quite a while now and I just decide to get over myself so I put on the florescent purple plastic gloves that the bitchy nurse gave me, cop a squat, and start digging the nastiness out of my sweet son’s diaper with the teeny tiny little spork provided by the vial full of foul smelling liquid that I was required to put the poo into and shake it up. I had more than enough to fill it all the way to the red line as the directions said. Mission accomplished. I packed back up the nasty diaper but couldn’t quite make myself put it in their trash. I felt bad. It stank worse than anything coming out of my son should stink. So I stuffed it back in the three bags I had tied around it, put it in my bag and off I trotted back to the office, a smile of relief on my face that I got it back to her 5 minutes before they left for the weekend. “So do I just fill up the gray one and bring it back on Monday for the rest of the testing?” I asked the ornery nurse. “Uh, NO. You gotta fill that one up too. With the same batch as the pink one.” Groan, huff, and I made her promise not to lock the doors before I was back (and didn’t trust her when she reluctantly agreed). So back I went to the bathroom, back on with a new set of purple gloves, back out with the diaper, unwrap it. This time, however, I was having a much harder time getting the stuff out with the tiny spork as it had been mushed into the diaper in my rush to cram it back into the bag. So what would any desperate mother do in this situation? Yup, I pulled a plastic Take&Toss spoon out of my diaper bag and scraped that sucker clean. This time diaper went in the trash, as did the spoon, and I dropped it at the office right on time. Done. And she handed me the other 7 vials to fill over the weekend. Sigh. Having children requires relinquishing all dignity at the door.

But truly I can’t complain. He is an absolute dream. The only time he cries is when he has a reason to. There was one day in particular that gave me Rinat flashbacks (sorry Rin, but you were not exactly an easy baby). He cried for two hours in the morning rather than napping and then two hours in the afternoon rather than napping. I tried everything to make him stop and the only thing that worked was food. So at dinnertime, I sat there and fed him and fed him and fed him and fed him…for more than an hour. I’m not kidding. I think he clocked in at 1 hour 10 minutes. Any time he did his ‘more’ grunt, I fed him more. I had been feeding him only the amount that I thought his belly could hold without him barfing but I guess that just wasn’t enough. Who knew? So I fed him until I was afraid there might be intestinal damage and he was all smiles and happy once again. Lesson learned- feed him about 10 times the amount I think I should and he might barf but at least he doesn’t cry. I can deal with the barfing. The screaming? Not so much.

And, like with Rinat, I have been teaching him a little bit of sign language- just enough to make our lives easier. And after only a week, little man did the sign for ‘more’ unprompted. Yeah, it was brought on by cookies for breakfast but whatever works, right? ‘Milk’ came soon after. And ‘all done’ and ‘sleep’ are the latest. He gets confused sometimes but overall it makes our life easier and it makes him really happy to know that he can tell us something. He’s so proud.

I want to get this on record because I know it won’t last forever but Aibek and Rinat are playing together absolutely amazingly. It’s wonderful. They just roll around on the floor like puppies and laugh. Every time Aibek wakes up from nap, Rinat screams “Don’t get him yet! I wanna come too!” and we go and make faces at him and Rinat tickles him while I change his diaper. It’s sweet. At bath time, Rin wants to ‘scrub-a-dub him’ and for some reason, Aibek thinks it’s really funny when Rinat comes running and yells “BOO!” right in his face. Whatever floats their boat I guess. Rinat is so proud to show him off too. The first day that I brought him to school, he was so so excited. He asked “Will you bring him to school and put him on your hip like this?” and pantomimed it “and I can tell everyone what his name is?” It was really sweet. And everyone was very excited to see him finally home with us.

We haven’t had a million people come and visit like when we brought Rin home but we have had some visitors and it’s really interesting to see him with them. He is getting more and more active and vocal at home but the second we step outside or someone comes here he just freezes and stares. He’s not afraid really- he always wants new people to hold him and wants to see everything- but it’s just like he’s a little bit overwhelmed and doesn’t know what to do. Deer in the headlights syndrome I guess. But it sure makes shopping easy. He just sits in the stroller and stares. It’s awesome.

There have been many wonderful moments on this journey to bring another child into our family- meeting him for the first time after resigning ourselves to going home empty handed, the first time he reached out his chubby little hands for me to pick him up, his little finger curled around mine as I fed him his bottle on the plane to Almaty- but the moments I have found that I love the most are those that are unremarkable except for the fact that they are mine. Hearing Peter read him books at night, watching my two boys in the bath as they climb over each other and laugh and laugh and laugh, his little head on my shoulder and hands tucked under when he’s sleepy, Rinat begging me to let him sleep on the floor in Bek’s room so he can tell him it’s OK when he cries at night. They are not anything unexpected except for the fact that I felt like at times it was never going to happen for us. But it finally did. And it is so worth all of the tears and headaches of the last few years. Unbelievably worth it. Each and every day I feel blessed to have these boys of mine. All three of them. I may not mention Peter as much at I do the two little ones but he is enmeshed in our lives like very few of my friends’ husbands are able to be. He is there for each and every important part of our lives, both the exciting (arriving home from Kaz) and the mundane (poo scraping). I don’t know how I would do it without him. I am so lucky to have the life that I do. It may not have been the life I planned but it is so much better than I could have hoped for.

Love to all and I hope it’s not quite so long until I post again. I’ll do my best, -m

Photos from the Airport

Completely belated, but here are photos of our arrival at the airport in DC and the first night home- Rin even took one of them.  He was so excited.  Nothin' like bringing a baby into your world.  I have a post coming soon.  It's just taking a while to get it done.  We've got a lot going on these days  ;)

Love to all, -m

A Day of Love

Hey All!

I’ve tried to start writing this a couple of times so far but I just don’t even know how to put into words how deliriously happy I am right now. Or maybe it’s just that I am so tired that I can hardly put a sentence together. One or the other. There have been many happy times in my life but last night and today have been just blown away the competition. I have all my boys together again and I can barely believe it has finally happened. The world is good and my heart is absolutely overflowing. And so are my tears. I just can’t stop them from coming. There was a part of me that was always a tiny bit on guard until it was done. But now there is not one single thing to get in the way of it being the four of us together forever. Now that wall is ripped down, smashed up, and put in the shredder and my heart is utterly open to invite this little one into it fully and completely. And he is crawling, cooing, laughing, babbling, and snuggling himself right on in.

But what a trip back home it was. It, as all Kaz flight seem to do, started when we were picked up at 1am to head to the airport in Almaty. Little man wasn’t too out of whack being woken up in the dead of night and stuck into the dreaded snowsuit yet again. Just a little crying and then he laid his head on my chest and was happy again. Things went well, we got lots of smiles from everyone (except the Kaz passport guys who looked a little pissed actually when they saw Bek’s Kaz passport). He was also pretty good waiting at the airport too. He just sort of chilled in the stroller mostly. As we were waiting around for our flight, a woman (American looking) was fast walking around the area with a stroller of her own and said “Congratulations” as she passed which took me a little off guard (it was 2am after all). Carson has been obsessed that everyone thinks we are lesbians adopting a baby together this whole time and so she was on a search to talk to the lady again and casually drop the ‘My friend’s husband is home with their other son’ to set things straight. So we started looking around for her. As we looked, we noticed that there were several of us non-Kazakhs with babies on the flight. Four to be exact and so we gravitated to each other and shared our stories. Two of the four were also in Karaganda at the other baby house and then the woman who had congratulated us (who, yes, was set straight by Carson) was in Ust. What a small world. Not to mention meeting (don’t think I mentioned anyway) a woman and her sister in Frankfurt, on their way to Kaz, who recognized me from the blog. Super small world. In any case, our flight was called, we bundled him up yet again, and headed to Germany. He was pretty decent on the flight. It helped that there were at least three other babies on the flight crying so he just sort of blended into the mix. Overall, no complaints. I shoulda known it wouldn’t be that easy…

So we got to Frankfurt and just sort of hung out for a bit- got some coffee, bought some internet minutes, strolled Aibek to sleep, Carson took a short nap. Sidebar- Carson cannot for the life of her, despite multiple glasses of wine AND Ambien, sleep on a plane. But she has no problems whatsoever falling asleep in seconds in a booth at a café in the middle of a crowded airport in a foreign country. Really? Anyway, sidebar done- we were just hanging out trying to waste the time we had there. Until we looked at our itinerary… and realized our flight left in less that an hour. Oh shit! Shut down computer, pack stuff back into bags, grab stroller, and run to monitor to see that it is…dundundun….cancelled. So we went to the Lufthansa counter to see what the deal was and they said “Oh yeah, it’s because of the blizzard.” Um, ‘scuse me? Blizzard? In DC? As Rinat would say “What the J?” So they then sent us down to the United counter (who was operating the flight) and basically told us to run because they might be able to get us on the 12:15 flight. So Mama ran with Baby, followed by Friend with all the bags down the terminal hallway, down the stairs and to the counter where we were told “Oh no worries, you and the baby are on the flight. But your friend? Nope.” Say what? So they got her a standby ticket and we rushed down to the gate to see what we could do- beg, plead, pay somebody off. As easy as our first flight had been, this one was making up for it. Carson is talking to the gate agent, I am trying to find a place to change stinky diaper #3 of the day without having to change him on my lap (gross), running around like a chicken with my head cut off so I can get back and try to evoke some sympathy from the flight people. There was just no way I could leave Carson stranded in the airport after she came all of the way to Kazakhstan to help me. But there was also no way I could stay at the airport because I would literally have to stay at the airport since Bek, Mr. Kazakh citizen, had no visa to enter Germany. It was total insanity. So we are waiting and waiting and they start calling all of the people to board. First it’s the Awards Members and First Class, then the people with children and elderly, and then they begin general boarding and still nothing. Officials keep telling me I have to board and I keep saying “No, I have to make sure my friend is on the plane.” And finally when everyone else has boarded, we hear those sweet words “Carson Hobby, please come to the check-in counter” Hallelujah. I didn’t even care where her seat was as long as she got on that friggin plane.

It turns out that the stewardesses, however, did care. Carson tells me (or so she says) she repeatedly kept trying to come up to check on me and the stewardess kept telling her that she was not allowed into my class of seats (Um, was that Crappy class? Or Bitchy Stewardess Class? Either would be an accurate description) But it didn’t really matter all that much anyway. My perfect child slept. For 6 hours. I mean, it wasn’t exactly sound slumber or anything but it was sleep. He was on my lap and would only lie facing up, fingers in mouth, head on my belly. He would, ever so slowly, begin to slide further and further down my lap and so about every 20 minutes I would have to rouse myself from my semi-slumber and gently ease him back up without completely waking his cute little finger-sucking self. At one point, the man beside me (who was super nice and offered to help me many times) actually woke me up to point out the fact that literally the only part of him still technically on my lap was his head and shoulders. I actually knew that but have any of you tried to hold a sleeping baby for 6 hours straight? It’s exhausting! The last two hours or so of the flight, I actually woke him up because I just couldn’t do it anymore. I had to get up and move a little bit at least. Carson spied me after a bit and headed up my way into- oohaah- business economy class or whatever it was. So we got to hang out for the last little bit.

Carson was worried about missing her connection in DC so when the wheels touched down, she booked it out of there to get to the front of the passport line. If anyone from DC passport control out there is listening, it would be super great if there was a line for families. I’m just sayin’. In Kaz, we get bumped to the front. Frankfurt has special security lines for families. But in the nation’s capital, we have to trudge though like cattle being led to slaughter. Bummer. But we got to the front finally and- final step in the adoption process- handed over the big fat immigration envelope to the not so nice passport man, wait for him to fill out some forms, and we were done. So I ran out to try and find Carson before she headed to her next flight and was sort of surprised to find that she was still there watching the luggage go round and round. But none of it was hers. So off she goes to the counter and they have, in fact, lost it. And she has missed her flight. And there are no more today. Oh but wait, what about other airports (thank the lord that we live in a big city). Yup, one flying out of DCA in a couple of hours. DONE. Silver lining? She got to walk out with me and see my sweet boys greet the new member of our family. And it was good.

Peter and Rinat were waiting with balloons and smiles and hugs and happy tears. I saw them and immediately started crying to. I was just so amazingly happy to be home where we belong and together again. We caught up for just a minute and then little man had a stinky diaper (of course, what’s new) and so Rinat went with me to change it. He was just so so amazingly sweet with his new baby brother. He jumped up and down and twirled around in circles to make him laugh, he handed him toys and made funny faces, he said ‘kuhkoo’ and tickled him under the chin, and he even told me he’s giving him one of his favorite stuffed animals, AhAh the monkey. It was everything I had hoped- minus the stinky diaper that is. It’s crazy that changing a smelly swampy diaper in the airport bathroom is one of my favorite memories but what can I say- some of the best times in life are not about fancy clothes and big to-do’s but just the everyday ones, covered in spit-up, covered in love.

So we hopped in the car, happy to be back in the US and drove Carson to Reagan National. Rinat was excited to have not just me in the backseat with him (doesn’t happen often) but also his little brother. Poor little Bek though hadn’t had his fill of sleep and shook his head back and forth and back and forth and back and forth soothing himself until he drifted off. It was hard to say goodbye to Carson at the airport. I mean, how can I even begin to say thank you for something like that? It’s just not possible. But the thing is- she knows. She knows because I would have done the same for her. In a second. Any time she needs me. No matter what. That’s just how it is with us. She is treasured and I am lucky to have her. So Carse, wanna head back in say, about 3 years? HaHaHa

And then we headed home. Thankfully, our power came back on while Peter was at the airport. He had packed a bag to stay at a hotel but we got to head home after all. The sheets were dirty, dishes unwashed since the power had gone out a day ago, but it was home and I couldn’t have been happier to be there. Poor Bek was woken up yet again and Rinat could not wait to show him around the house. He wanted to tell him anything and everything about living here and being in our family- including the rules which made me laugh. I let them play for a bit while I made some dinner. And, again, as we sat around the dinner table, the four of us, I thought about how absolutely lucky I am to have all three of my boys in my life. I would not be the same person without each and every one of them. They have all changed me for the better.

Then it was bath and bed. Bek seemed to really enjoy his first bath, unlike the shower in Kaz. He was mesmerized by the moving water and pretty much just stayed at still as he could. I washed off all of the stink from the last few days and he was a soft, fluffy-haired baby again. And so cuddly. And Rinat was super excited because when I handed Bek over to Peter, I told Rin he could come in the bath with me for a few minutes which he LOVES. I’m sure he’ll hate me for it later, but he loves taking a bath with his mama. My sweet boy. After bath, we put the boys (the boyS!) to bed. Bek was fussing a little bit but I left him alone to sooth himself. Then I heard Rin go in there and tell him in his sweet little voice, “Aibek, it’s time for bed little guy. Look outside, it’s nighttime.” He’s being an absolutely wonderful big brother. Zero complaints. I’m amazed by him.

Bek was up a couple of times in the night but did pretty well actually and was up for good at 4:30. Damn that jet lag, but I can’t really complain. Rin woke at 7 and we all rolled around on the bed together for a while. Another memory for my all time best memories list. I loved it. Aibek was ready for a nap soon after and Rin was so bummed. He wanted him to play but I assured him he’d have plenty of time. And it was good because it gave Rin some time with me that was much needed. I missed him so much while we were gone. The snow was falling outside and I was curled up in my robe with coffee in hand, baby sleeping upstairs, big brother playing quietly downstairs, reading all of the well wishes on email, Facebook, and the blog. I have to admit something- I was in my robe from the time I woke up, until after dinner and I am not apologizing for it. Don’t new mamas get to take it easy for a while? I sure did. I soaked up the entire day from 4:30 in the morning when my little sweet chunks let us know he was all done sleeping until I just laid his sweet little head back down in his crib tonight. It was a good day. An amazing day actually. A day for the record books. I hope yours was too.

Love to all, -m

Sorry for the long winded post but I didn’t want to leave a single second out. Every single little thing added up to a difficult, amazing, exhausting, stressful, and blissful experience. And, thank goodness, now it’s done and we are back to our everyday lives.  Thank goodness for the loving magic that happens every day I am with these guys.