Three Weeks Home

One of our big events for this week was getting a picture of all three kids for a Christmas Card. Here are a couple more that we didn't use:


Chloe is loving her brothers and the feeling is totally mutual. Here they are in action:




It is very hard to get a picture of Chloe's regular smile because as soon as she sees the camera she doe this cheesy little smile, crunches up her face and squints her eye. She also says, "sheeeee" translation: cheese. It is too cute! So here she is cheesing it:



Chloe has kept up the 11-12 hours of sleep at night but is still taking short (1 hour) naps and waking up crying. I can tell she's still tired but she is not comfortable enough in her room during the day to get back to sleep. A couple times I was able to rock her back to sleep and she slept for another hour. Here's one more cute little picture. Chloe loves books, but doesn't have much patience for listening to me read them. I think it's getting better as she better understands what I'm saying. I told Justin a story about Chloe taking her bow out and handing it to me and she was listening and took it out and handed it to me. Amazing!

Two Weeks Home

How big is Chloe? Sooooo big!

It's been quite a week. We were at the doctor 3 times, everyone has or had pink eye and nearly everyone has or had a cough. I had a sick boy home Monday and Tuesday with Pink eye. Another sick boy home on Thursday with a fever. Then, just when I though they were both going to school we had 12+ inches of snow and school was canceled. So, Chloe and I have not had much time alone, but boy has she been having fun with her brothers. Here are the boys having fun in the snow:


And here's Chloe watching them:


Some more fun with a sick brother:


Chloe has been eating a lot and sleeping great. She's slept through the night without a peep for 11-12+ hours each night. The only exception was one night when she fussed at midnight, but didn't really wake up.

Here she is blowing a kiss:


Another cute picture:


I've got to get everyone to bed, but I will try to write later about:
Chloe bonding with her Daddy,
How Justin helps get her to sleep,
Chloe's spunky side,

Chloe Week One

Here's a run down of Chloe's first week home:

Sleep
Chloe has gone to bed great each night between 7 and 8. I rock her and sing to her. She snuggles up and looks at me until her eyes close. Then I lay her down and pat her a little and she’s out. She wants nothing to do with a bottle or a sippy cup at bedtime. She pushes it away immediately. The 2nd and 3rd nights we were home, she woke at 12:30 – 1:00 and never really got back to sleep. The next nights were each a little longer until she slept until 6-6:30 the last couple nights. She still cried out at around 3:30 but I was able to just pat her a little and she went to sleep. Napping has been a little less consistent. If she wakes up very early she’ll take a morning nap and if she’s wakes up a little later, she’ll take an afternoon nap. Her naps have also been on the short side. Despite the fact that she’s slept less than she probably needs, she has been in the happiest mood and is just the smiliest little sweetie pie.

Play
Chloe loves hers dolls! She hugs and loves them as soon as you hand her one. She also loves exploring and playing, but has avoided all the dangerous and destructive things the boys did at that age. She does not seem the least bit interested in the toilet or pulling lamps off of tables. ;)
She loves being outside and does not let you to hold her or her hand when she’s outside. But, her favorite toy by far is our dog, Chili. She gets so excited when Chili is around and has worked her way up to giving Chili the kind of love that only a toddler can give.

Bonding with Family
She will at times let Justin hold and feed her. If I say “go find”____ (insert a name), she goes and finds that person. She gives kisses when asked by leaning in with an open mouth. She will also pat and rub our backs just as we do to her. It is so cute.

Follows Directions
She will follow the directions, "Lay down." "Can I have kisses?" "Call Chili."

Says
“Cully” for Chili, “ha” for hi and she also says “woy” or “oy” and “ooooh” a lot.

Food
She seems to like most things we’ve tried. We’re still doing some baby foods and Gerber graduate stuff, but she also is eating all the table foods. At Thanksgiving she ate turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. She loves the Yo Baby yogurts and eats lots of those. She’s drinking whole milk with a less and less Ovaltine.

Here are some pics of the little princess:

Home Sweet Home!

Finally, all three children under one roof. What a day!
It was hard to get everybody looking at the camera. Chloe loves to have her picture taken and her brothers love to clown around. ;)

So, the flight... We got to the airport in Moscow before 10:00 and had several lines to stand in before getting on our 1:20 flight that sat for an hour before taking off. Here we are at the Moscow airport:

Chloe fell asleep right before we got on the plane and then woke up shortly after. With only a half hour of sleep she was not her usual happy little self. She is so funny when she's crabby. It's like she'll look for something to be sad about. One thing she would do was hand me something and then when I took it, she'd sob like I had snatched it from her. I know she was feeling pretty grouchy, but it was so cute anyway. She was mainly just fussy for the 4 hours we were on that flight. She wasn't really crying, just complaining. I know the guy sitting next to us had to be wondering what he did to deserve the seat he got.

So, we arrived in Frankfurt about an hour late and after all the lines etc. we only had a short time before our flight left. We used that time to feed Chloe and let her run around a little. The Frankfurt airport is super serious about security. They had me put Chloe down and they patted her down and scanned her with that little wand thing. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Here's one from the Frankfurt airport:

The flight from Frankfurt to Chicago was 9 hours long! We were so lucky to have one of two bassinet seats. Chloe fell asleep shortly after take off and then slept in the bassinet for 2 hours. There was a chatty little girl in the other bassinet next to Chloe and Chloe woke up and was very interested in her. They smiled at each other and touched hands. It was so cute! Chloe was up and happy for the next couple hours, she ate and played in my lap. Then, she hit a wall and was very tired again, over tired in fact. She kept trying to fall asleep but just couldn't. She would twist around in my lap and then twist around in the bassinet. If she tried to get down, Justin would hold his arms out as if he was going to hold her, which he's still not allowed to do if she tired and crabby. This made her whine and stick her hands in her mouth and pretend to sleep on me. We kept up this little routine until she fell asleep about two hours before we landed. Here we are after landing, can you tell she only slept 5 hours total in the previous 24 hours.


We had planned to have the boys meet us at the airport but had told grandma and Grandpa to wait to leave until we called to say we were off the plane. We were told we would have about a 45 minute delay at immigration, but the guy who helped us was so nice and rushed it along so we could get out. So, instead of meeting their sister in the airport, the boys met her in the van. They were all very happy to see each other and then Chloe slept most of the car ride home.

It was so cute to all three together at home. The boys were so excited to bring Chloe toys. I was afraid she would be overwhelmed, but she acted as if she had been expecting that onslaught of toys. She loved her dollies and will hold and hug them. So cute! We tried to get a little food into her, but she wasn't hungry. Then I tried to rock her but she was very squirmy and whiny. I tried to lay her in the crib and she rolled over as if to say, "Thank God, I thought these people were never going to let me sleep in a bed again. Then she slept straight through until almost 9:00. We were up before 5am. It will take me awhile to adjust back to our time zone.

Last Post from Russia

This picture is of the three of us at Red Square with St. Basil's in the background.

What a day... what a trip! Do we look cold? It was so cold and Justin forgot his hat as did several other people on our trip. I guess when you’re going to get your baby, little things like the fact that you'll need a hat and gloves in Russia can be forgotten. The second picture is of all the families in front of St. Basil's as well.

Today walked through Red Square and also saw places like the Kremlin and Gorky Park from the car. After that we went shopping on Arbat Street and had lunch there. Chloe ate well, but then really wanted to just explore a little around the restaurant. Hmmmm, I wonder how the plane ride will be?

Chloe fell asleep for about 1/2 hour near the end of our trip and then continued her nap for a few hours after we got back to the hotel. Then we went out to American Grill for our last night in Russia. Funny, huh? There are no Russian restaurants near the hotel, only the American Grill, Japanese and Italian. We weren't that thrilled with the last Italian restaurant we tried in Russia, so we went American. It was pretty good! Chloe had eaten at the hotel but still ate some bread at the restaurant. After she ate half of a super hard baguette at lunch, we realized that she can chew just fine. But we're sticking to the bland baby food diet until we get off the plane in Chicago. I've heard stories of babies throwing up on planes and it doesn't sound fun, particularly when the trip home will be about 21 hours door to door. Chloe also was not that happy about sitting in the restaurant all that time. Again I wonder how's that plane ride going to be? Here's a picture of us at the American Grill.

After a little more dinner for Chloe and a shower (after a sobbing through one bath and a shower, she reached up and let me take her in the shower this time. She whimpered a couple times, but was much more comfortable) it was off to bed for her. When I was laying with her to get her to go to sleep, I rolled over and pretended to sleep and she started rubbing my back. What a sweetie pie!

We are being picked up at 9:00 in the morning (midnight at home) for our 1:20 flight. It can take awhile going through security I guess. Then we have about a 3 hour flight to Frankfurt and a 3-4 hour lay over there. Finally, we get on the big, long, 12+ hour flight home. We are supposed to have the bassinet seat, so hopefully Chloe's sleeping skills will allow her to sleep awhile on the plane. Then at 7:30 pm we arrive at the airport where the boys will be waiting for us. I can't wait.

I forgot to write yesterday that at the clinic Chloe weighed 20 pounds and was 29 inches. She's grown a half an inch and gained over a pound in the last 6 weeks. She had only gained a pound and grew an inch between 12 and 15 months, so that is good growth just in the last 6 weeks. Also, after reading the books several times and listening to me make the animal noises, she's saying, "Ooooo" for the cow and "Cack Cack" for the duck in one of our little board books.

From St. Petersburg to Moscow

We had to be out of our room by 6 pm last night, so the hotel let us use one of their "club rooms." It was very nice and we had it mostly to ourselves. Chloe was wide awake and having fun until 10:20 when we left. Here we are in the club room

It was a short ride to the train station and all 4 families were in one car. Our little room on the train had two bunk bed type things and a little table. Chloe slept next to me. She slept pretty well and only fussed a couple times. We were up at 6:00 to get ready for our arrival in Moscow. She ate some baby cereal and apple sauce before we got off the train. I'm glad because it was a while before we got back to the hotel.



Right after our train got in we went to the medical center and Chloe had her exam that is part of the "going to the US" end of things. In fact all of the Moscow stuff is required by the US government. Chloe was very unhappy about the exam. She really likes Justin and even he rarely gets to hold her. So, when this doctor took hold of her and started his exam, she wailed. She screamed bloody murder and then did that little "I've been crying" breath thing for about an hour after. Here we are waiting for the exam.

Our next stop was the hotel where Justin and I were so tired that we paid to have room service sent up for the cost of a small car. Everything is so expensive here! Then after all three of us had eaten we napped for a couple of hours. Chloe was very ticked when we woke her up. Here she is napping and playing at the Moscow Grand


Our final official stop of the day was at the US Embassy. It is the biggest embassy in Moscow. We were one of 18 families there adopting children. It took about an hour. Chloe was a champ and just chattered and giggled in my lap while we waited. Then we stopped at a grocery store and got some snacks and a few more baby things we'll need for the flight home. It was such a nice grocery store. There was nothing like that in St. Pete and Justin and I were sooo happy to see food we recognized.

We're in for the night. Justin may go get take out from KFC, but I just want to relax. Tomorrow the only thing we need to do tomorrow is register Chloe at the Russian consulate. Then we'll do a little sight seeing at Red Square.

Our First Night with Chloe

So here's a run down of our time with Chloe so far.

I brought a variety of baby food type things for her. It was suggested to keep her diet as bland and similar to what it has been in order to avoid stomach upset. So, last night she has baby rice cereal and baby food bananas and watered down appple juice. That was fine with her. She ate enough but was done after about 1 serving of rice and 1/2 the container of baby bananas. She gave me her little head tilt to let me know.

Then I wanted to give her a bath. As soon as she heard the water, she started sobbing. I ended up in the tub with her and she wasn't happy but also wasn't hysterical. She has a little rash or excema or something and I wanted to give her a bath with aveno and put some cream on it. She was happy again when it was over. Here she is in her jammies (thanks to Aunt Colleen or Grandma - my muddled brain can't remember which.)

When it was time for bed I put her in the crib and she cried. I took her right out immediately and laid her next to me. She started sucking her fingers and settled right down. After a couple more tries, she was fine with the crib and went to sleep. We started at about 8:15 and she was asleep by 8:50. Then she slept until 9:00 this morning! Justin and I didn't fall asleep until after 2, but then we got to sleep until 9:00!

This morning she had oatmeal baby cereal and bananas. She liked that much better than the rice and she also drank about 6 ounces of juice. We took her downstairs while we wolfed down some breakfast and coffee. She sat very nicely in my lap and ate little gerber snacks and bit of bread and stuff. But, after about 15 minutes she was done. Here she is wearing a cute little outfit from Kirsten and Sophie.

Then we got her bundled up and went for a walk. She likes the baby carrier I bought. I'm quite glad because it was not cheap and we don't have a stroller. We took her picture with St. Isaacs in the background. When we got back to the hotel she played and was a happy camper. Here we are in front of St. Isaacs. Chloe's in her lavender winter ensemble thanks to Cindy and Allison O.

She ate a nice little lunch and now she's napping. She was not having any part of the crib for a nap. Justin left and then the cleaning lady knocked and opened the door and her comfort level went right out the window. So, she laid on me until she was pretty drowsy and then she wiggled off and is sound asleep on the bed with her cozy Little Giraffe blanket on her (thanks to Cindy K.):)

Tonight we take the overnight train to Moscow. I'm not sure what our internet access will be like, but if I can, I'll post more. Otherwise I'll be phoning to check in and I'll have someone post for me from home.

We've Got Our Girl!

WooHoo! We went to the baby home for the last time today. Chloe saw Justin and started yelling "Momma, Poppa." As soon as she got in my arms she did not want to leave. I changed her into her little pink Polo dress (thanks Grace:).


They wanted her to eat her snack so I had to sit right next to her and even then she only ate a little. I'm so glad we took her today or she would have been very upset to have us leave again.

I wanted to get a picture with her caregivers holding her, but she had been duped too many times into being handed over and left. She was having no part of leaving my arms. She did her little head tilt thing and made it clear. So, we all posed together. She was very good about the car seat and car ride considering it was all new. Her's a picture of Chloe on her cell phone. It came in her little "My First Purse" (thanks Mom and Missy). She obviously seen people on the phone becasue she was jabbering away on it.

Tomorrow we 'll post before we take the overnight train to Moscow. It leaves at 11:30.

It's official! We're a family of 5

This morning we had our last visit with Chloe. The fun rooms were all taken so we were in the directors office. While we were there one of the doctors went over more of Chloe's information. It was incredible. They had a record of all her developmental milestones.
*First tooth - 9 months
*First rolled over - 6 months
*Could roll front to back - 7 months
*Pulled to standing, stand unassisted and started cruising - 10 months
*First steps - 11 months
*Walking independently - 12 months
*Started babbling - 9 months
While we wish we could have seen some of these firsts, we are so happy to have this information to put in her baby book. She has really been well cared for and loved.

After our last "visit" with Chloe we went to court. It didn't take too long and everything went well. One of the things that the representative from the baby home shared with the judge and had also shared with us was how surprised everyone was when Chloe went to us right away. She said that when Russian families had come to see Chloe, she cried and cried and refused to go to them. But when we came, she went right to us. They couldn't belive it, but I can. She was meant to be ours and she must have known it. They asked us a few questions each and then at the end Justin had the responsibility of formally asking the judge to grant Chloe's adoption and for the 10 day wait to be waived. When she came back into the room she announced her decision to grant the adoption and waive the 10 day wait! Hooray!Here is a picture of us with the wonderful woman who translated for us during court.

Then we went to another office and received her birth certificate and adoption decree. Tomorrow morning we'll go complete the last of the paper work and get Chloe's passport. Then, at around 4:00 we'll go to the baby home, give everyone their thank you gifts and we'll take Chloe with us.

Tonight we're going to dinner with a couple of the other families and we're going to celebrate this amazing day.

Trip 2 Day 2

We got to visit Chloe twice today. When we arrived this morning and went into the play room there was a caregiver with a group of kids. Chloe was so quiet and stayed right in my lap. She got up a little and if another child came over to me, she would come right back to sit in my lap. If someone came over to Justin she also got closer. It was like she was saying, "Oh, no. There with me." When most of the other kids cleared out she played more, but she is only as daring as she was yesterday, if no one else is in the room.

She still has a cold and seemed kind of sleepy and not up to par this morning. I didn't get as many pictures of her smiling in the morning. I'm posting one from this morning. She has that very sad look in this picture, but I think it was mostly because she was feeling a little yucky.












She did let Justin hold her a little this morning. It seems to work best if he immediately shows her something when he picks her up. Even though she's a little afraid of him, she clearly thinks he is pretty cool. If he so much as pats on the ground, she'll do the same thing. She does it from a good 4 feet away, but she is very interested in him. Here's a picture of Justin and Chloe.













When we came back this afternoon, she was in a knew outfit and looked like she'd had a bath. She also seemed to feel better and we got quite a few more smiles out of her. Here's one of her enjoying the slide. I had to hold her as she went down or she tipped over. It was a pretty slippery wooden slide.














Chloe does this cute little head tilt that means. "No." She does it if Justin tries to hold her or if I reach out to her when she's swinging and wants to stay on. Here's a picture. Justin got it by holding his hand out and saying, "Can I hold you?" We just had to get a picture of it, it's so cute.











We took her into her rooom to eat her snack and she said, "Poppa" and pointed to Justin as soon as she saw her caregivers. They said she takes her little picture book of us and shows it to people and says, "Momma," "Poppa" and points to our pictures. She also let Justin feed her some of her food. We think she was a little more secure with him when her caregivers were around. But, she didn't want much of her food and just wanted to get back to us. As soon as they said it was okay, she took off her bib and came right over smiling and reached up to me.

Yesterday afternoon and this morning she smiled at us when we handed her over, but this afternoon she was not ready for us to go. When we first put her down, she went right over to have Justin hold her. I think she decided that this big guy must have the authority to allow her to stay with us. Then we put her down again and her caregivers told her she could have candy and they showed her a piece. She started to walk over and when they told her to say goodbye, she abandoned the candy idea and came running over to us. When her caregiver picked her up so we could leave, she wailed. It was sad, but it was great to know she wanted to come with us because the day after tomorrow she is! We were told we could pick her up on Tuesday in the late afternoon, so that's what we're going to do.


Then we met with a wonderful woman who talked to us about what to expect at our court hearing tomorrow. I'm a little nervous about the whole thing, but I think it will all go fine. As long as it does, we'll be Chloe's parents tomorrow around 2:30 pm St. Pete time. So, when you wake up in the morning on Monday (assuming that is not before 5:30am), we will officially have a daughter and our boys will officially have a little sister. Yeah!

One more quick picture... Since Chloe's hair has gotten longer, it curls up a little on the ends. It is so cute!

Trip 2 Day 1

We made it here and went right to the baby home and saw Chloe. We had to wait for he to wake up from her nap and have a snack before we could see her. Then we went to the play room. She was very quiet with us at first, but then got very interested in playing with everything. I don't know if she has come into her own a bit during these last 6 weeks or if we just saw her in a different environment, but she was BUSY! She wanted to go down the slides, play with the balls, etc. I may have to have more gates than I thought. She is such a smart little cookie. She tried to do anything Justin did. She quickly learned high five and wanted to play with him. She still didn't really want to have him hold her much. She would come over and let me hold her for a moment if I asked, but really wanted to play. She had this cute little blue dress, blue shoes and little red flowered tights on. She also seems to have cold. She had that snuffly sound when she was breathing but didn't seem a bit held up by that at all. Our camera battery was dead so I don't have pictures to post. We did get video and several pictures with the video camera, but I'm not sure how to post those pictures. We will definitely have pictures tomorrow. Tomorrow we will get to visit Chloe twice and we will go over the things we can expect at court on Monday.

Our flight was fine, although Luftansa is no where near as nice as Air France. We had a short layover in Franfurt and the trip from Frankfurt to St. Pete was much roomier and we both slept. We were asked to volunteer to take a later flight out of Chicago in exchange for $800 EACH because the flight was over booked. We said yes, but there ended up being plenty of room. :(

Chloe's Brothers Waiting to Meet Her!

Spiderman and The Human Torch can't wait for Chloe to come home. The Human Torch asked the other day if he could adopt a baby when he was grown up. I said of course. Then he said, "When I adopt my baby, I'm gonna bring my kids with me." Ouch! It seemed to help when I explained about the lack of cartoons, toys and places to plug in a gameboy charger. Then last night he said, "You know, I'm gonna bring my baby girl for show and tell." Spiderman is also very excited and talks about Chloe often. I can't wait to have them all together.