Day 2 - "The Final Countdown"(double click for pics)

Friday, August 12th “Hello Almaty”

Privet from Almaty KA3ACTAHCKNN.

Plans change again…When I left you yesterday, we had a planned visit for Landen’s medical exam scheduled for 10am and I had just returned from the grocery store. Aeda showed up to take us to the Embassy for the medical exam, but as we started preparing the paperwork in the room, Aeda could not find a copy of Landen’s passport. She was under the impression that we would have a copy, but we were told by Lena prior to flying from Pavlodar that a copy of the passport had been faxed to Almaty (either Aeda or the Embassy directly). Aeda did not have a copy and she was assured that the Embassy would not take a direct fax like that. Calls were placed to Svetlana and Lena, but we were not able to reach them. Aeda left our apartment around 10:20am and said she would be back in 40 minutes depending on traffic. Well, it was 2:30pm and she was still not back. I guess the traffic here is worse than Atlanta during Friday rush hour…. Kim and I wanted to get out of the apartment and explore, but we were pinned down until we heard from Aeda. We still had not checked in with family, we had no idea how to call out, we were getting low on baby food…can you get the drift? She did return at 2:30 as noted and had 2 young men with her. Appears she is having some health issues and will be leaving town for a few days. One of the men, Jenia will be taking over for her. We are not too sure how he came into the process, but as long as we can fly home on time, it does not matter. Jenia actually speaks better English than Aeda and was interpreting for her during this conversation. As for our medical exam, we had to move it until 10am on Monday. That will then move the exit interview to Tuesday…basically we are on track to fly on time, but can not have anything else happen or we may be delayed. Please pray for a streamlined process from hear out. For Aeda, we hope and pray for a speedy recover as it appears to be something serious…Puts things back in place doesn’t it?

Jenia was able to take care of some question we had; what’s the phone number here, how can I access the internet, where’s the trash can outside? Trash has been an obstacle…. If you were to pass by our house in Newnan on a Monday morning, you know we have a lot of trash. Add a bunch of dirty diapers and thousands of empty water bottles to the mix and we need a regular trash pick up here. In Pavlodar, we could set our trash outside the door daily and the custodian of the apartment would pick it up and take it away. It got to be a lot there, so we started feeling bad and would take it down ourselves. Now here, we don’t have anybody to pick it up and I don’t care to smell poopy diapers for 4 more days….Thanks to Jenia…I won‘t! On the internet, I purchased a NURSAT icard+ to access the internet. This will be a lot cheaper than it was in Pavlodar. It was nice to be back on line, but even better to get to talk with some of you again. Back on line, trash situation under control, and free time until Monday means the “fun” Woodard’s went……..to sleep. Actually Landen went to sleep, Rylee played with a horse sticker book, I worked on the blog and Kim was the understanding wife that sat up with me to help finish the blog.

It was getting to be late in the afternoon, so we went ahead and got ready to go over to the Ram store (mall). We had promised RyRy that we would take her ice skating every day we’re in Almaty. Loaded up with every possible thing a 11mth old could possibly need (Mom did the packing of course), we headed down to the mall. The mall is approximately 4 blocks from the apartment and an easy walk. Well, the walk would be easy if we were not in the middle of the “INDY 500”. We have discussed this in the past, but just to reiterate the point, pedestrians are like possums in the US. You don’t want to hit one, but if you do…oh well. Even with a stroller, cars go flying by you and they will not even stop at a cross walk. Even the best dirty looks we can muster up have no effect. It may take 10 minutes to walk to the mall on a direct shot, but add 10-15 minutes to cross the street…

I must say we had another first as we were getting ready to go to the mall. Landen got his first “scolding” by Dad. He has been biting our shoulder at times and we needed to correct this behavior before a law suit. I’m serious about the law suit as the bites are lethal. He dug into my shoulder and I pulled him from my shoulder (his favorites spot to lay on us) and placed him directly in front of me and said “No Bite, Nyet Bite” and shook my head no. Kim and I had planned this discipline in advance as we noticed the occurrence picking up. Well, it worked. Sam Edwards and I had discussed this strategical method of corrective behavior in the past and agree that you teach the kids earlier what no means. Although, I got the worst of this one as he was so upset and cried for 30 minutes. It broke his heart in two and mine in a hundred pieces. He got red faced and pulled up crying screams from his toes…boy they were loud. One would think I had done something much worse than a scolding…Ok all of you grandparents….he was fine after the 30 minute cry and even allowed me to carry him out. All was better and back to normal with a valuable lesson learned (by both of us)…

At the mall, we decided to eat out for a change. Kim and Rylee had a slice of pizza and bottled water and I had a burger and fries. Not the same, but ok. I could not finish either, but it was something close to home. Landen had cereal…..not much of a variety in his diet these days…but he’s doing a lot better with the spit ups. After diner, our ice princess got to try out this rink. It is smaller than the one in Pavlodar and Kim thought the ice was a little different as it had melted a little bit. Rylee is doing much better on the ice…she does not hold on to Mom or the side rail and can maneuver around the other skaters. While she still fell 3 or 4 times, she told Kim that she thinks “God wants her to be an ice skater”. After time on the ice, Rylee had a bruise on each knee and elbow…not sure what God was saying about those….

Walking around the mall, we again noticed the American influence everywhere. The stores carry American magazines, Disney items, beauty care products, gardening supplies etc… The funny thing about the magazines was the cost. A golf digest cost 1900 tenge, or $18.00 US dollars…and they don’t even play golf here…. A couple of the stores were very interesting. One huge store is like a super Wal-Mart, but much better. Put an upscale grocery store with a Target and you get the picture. The other store that caught my attention and luckily not my wallet was a children’s clothing store. One pair of jeans for a 18mth old boy was 15600 tenge, or $140.00 US dollars. Needless to say, I was ready to leave the minute I saw the first price tag….There really was a lot of cute clothes… All and all we had a very enjoyable evening out. We got back to the apartment and noticed the man that owns the apartment was waiting outside for us. He had two other guys with him and they were holding what appeared to be crib parts. They in deed had the crib that Aeda had promised us, so they came in a put it together for us. A lot of wasted time, since he was right back in the bed… I must admit that Rylee and Kim were correct on the safety of the crib…not too good. Also, the mattress was an old, old quilt…“no way a baby of mine will sleep in that” was a quote from one of us…I’ll let you think about who said that…

We ended the night with a call from Uncle Pitts. We owe Uncle Pitts a lot for his great job of taking care of the big dogs, all the critters and the house while we’re gone. Pitts had Kim rolling during the call, so I will share one story with you as I sign off. Jim had gotten a sandwich brought to him from his brother Bob that was handmade by Merlene, Jim’s mom. She makes a great sandwich; just ask the big dogs…. Yes, Jim had heated up the sandwich, placed his favorite mustard on it and had it on a plate ready for lunch, when he heard someone at the door. He was gone 3-4 minutes while attending to the man at the door and returned to find an empty plate. I hope my dogs liked the mustard!

Poka, poka from Almaty….. Fyi, check yesterdays blog for some updated photos.

Day 1 - Final Countdown (double click for pics)

*** We will post photos later and a new post for Friday tonight ***
Thursday, August 11th “So long Pavlodar”

Privet from Almaty KA3ACTAHCKNN. Yes, we are in Almaty and everybody’s doing well.

As I write this post from our apartment in Almaty, we do not have the internet up and running in our room, but we are working on it. We are going out to find somewhere to post, possible a local internet café… We also do not have the phone number; again Aeda is working on that as well. More on the apartment later…

After Wednesday’s post, we had the best playtime imaginable. Landen seems to be so excited about everything that he does not want to miss one minute of the action. When he takes a nap, the least little noise will awake him and it’s time to go at it again. Although he has been getting a lot of action, he has missed out on some sleep. I do remember from Rylee’s baby days that lack of sleep and little babies does not mix well….We will work on this one. Back to Wednesday night….we had another family movie night (only the 28th since we left Atlanta) and it was another special evening. Rylee was partially into the movie and partially into playtime. Mom and I had a chance to play together with Landen which made for some fun times. Landen would crawl all around the floor with the biggest smile on his face. When he got to the front of the couch where Kim and Rylee were, he would pull up and laugh, smile, kiss, giggle…you get the picture… He also played ball for a good bit of the time. He will pick up the little ball we got at the carnival and actually throw it. Where ever it goes, his little pitter patter of a crawl is not far behind.... then he does it again, and again… We played for hours with out any tummy troubles, but plenty of poopies. He is up to 4 per day as the liquid diet is going through him easily.

We all finally got into bed for the last time in that apartment….in Pavlodar. That was another moment for Kim and me to reflect back, but this time we were going way back to GA. You know it’s been a long time when you have to reflect back on your own home..

Thursday morning started off early….around 6:30am as Landen wanted to get as much out of his last day in Pavlodar as he could. We had a quick breakfast (we are using what food is left in the apartment, so I will spare you the -”why did they make a meal out of that” thoughts and just say they were quick. Our main two goals for the day were to visit Sergey and Luba at the photo shop, then pack. We did accomplish both with some unexpected surprises…

We did a little packing prior to our planned time to visit (3:00pm), but left plenty enough for Kim to get that motivation of having “a ton to do and we’re running out of time” going for her. When we got to the Kodak store, Sergey was not there, so Kim had a tearful good bye with Luba. Luba told Kim that she is in Kazakhstan, but her heart is in Atlanta…that’s where here daughter and two grandchildren live… Kim got emotional with Luba as she could see the pain in her smiles when she was telling us goodbye. We gave Luba a box of chocolates (just call me Forrest Gump) and took some photo’s to remember her by. She asked us if she could get Rylee a little gift and we of course said yes, but really hoped it was not chocolates…to our surprise, she had Rylee pick out 2 little key chains and two for Landen. Rylee has a collection of key chains attached to her book bag, so this was perfect for her. Landen just got something else to drool on…After 15 minutes or so, we sadly said the last good bye and promised to contact her family and say hello from her when we get back to Atlanta. We were disappointed not to see Sergey, but Kim was getting into the “lot to do in a little time” mood, so we headed back. Suddenly half way through our walk back, a blue van pulled up beside up and a big, Russian man was getting out….my first thought was we have made it this far, don’t let something happen now. As the man rounded the corner of the van, we could tell it was Sergey. He had a Landen type smile on his face (those from ear to ear) as he approached. He was able to communicate that Luba had called him and he came looking for us. I can’t express what a pleasant and happy man he is, just like Rylee’s granddad’s back home. He asked if he could hug Landen and we gladly pulled him from his stroller for a BIG hug. By the way, Landen loves the stroller…he will just sit back and chill while he’s on the rides all the time swinging his little legs. Kim thinks it is so cute, I think he is working on field goals or something like that… Sergey then picked up Rylee and told her he loved her, just as Luba had. Rylee truly cares about them, even though we have spent very little time with them…that’s the power of Grandparents. We took a photo of the three of them, and then Sergey asked if we could take our camera to the store for him and Luba to get copies of the photos. We were honored to do so, so we headed back. Now, Kim is really getting into the mode of packing with a little time (makes it easier on me…). We got another chance to say goodbye to Luba, gave them the memory stick to copy the pictures, then actually left and made it back to the room. It was now around 4:45pm and we had a lot left to do.

Kim knocked out most of the packing, while I made dinner out of a few odds and ins items, Rylee did a little playing with Landen and Landen, well lets say he decided to stay up and do his part. Lena arrived around 7:45pm with Sergey, our driver, and Leeza. Sergey had the unenviable task of taking our luggage down 5 flights of stairs. Those of you that know how my wife packs can appreciate his pain. I was thankful for saving me the pain. Leeza and Rylee went down with Sergey on his first trip (of 5) and said their goodbyes. Rylee had prepared a small gift to Leeza and likewise Leeza had a gift for Rylee. Leeza’a grandmother had hand-sewn a large pillow for Rylee that favors a quilt.… She loved it and realized how special it is. The airport is about 45minutes from the apartment and on the trip you go by the baby house. Kim and I both had several emotions going through us, but Rylee soon made us laugh as she reminded us we could still stop and get a baby sister to go with her baby brother. Just think Landen just passed the only place he has ever known as a home and is starting his new life!

We got a little “sticker” shock at the airport. The airport charges for bags over 20k, which we had known but did not realize how much more we had. Lena could not go back with us where they were weighing the bags, so we struggled to understand what we were being told. Kim was impressed at how calm I remained, as I did not even try to speak Russian to them. I was taken back out into the main area where Lena was and had to pay for the bags. Now, I look in my wallet and find that I’m no where near having the money(tenge) they are asking for on the bags. All kind of thoughts are going through my head as Lena and the lady are discussing the situation. The only word I could make out was Nyet (no). Lena finally asked if I had any American money so we could “payoff” the lady and board. I was asked to give $150.00 to board the bags and at this point what’s another $150.00?….Lets just board and start flying home.

We boarded the plane with little trouble…our seats were on the first row, where the rows only have 4 seats per row. I know everyone wants to know how Rylee and especially Landen’s first flight went. Well, to sum it up on both of them….ZZZZZZZZZZZ
Yes, Landen took a bottle at take-off to help with his ears and he was asleep before he finished. Only one little scare as he could not get comfortable at first, but after that, he woke up and it was 6:30am in Almaty.

As for the rest of us, we arrived at the airport around 12:30am where we were to meet Aeda. Half of the parties were there…us. Aeda put a good scare in us when she did not show for 15 minutes or so. We were so happy when she arrived and loaded her car and another taxi to get our bags to the apartment. Aeda was able to make up those 15 minutes on the roads….remember she goes fast!

We got to the apartment around 1:20am and after waiting for the key from some Kazakh man, we opened the door of the final place on our journey. The apartment is beside the hotel we stayed in on the flight over. We are next to the US Embassy and the mall. To describe the apartment, in a word it is “decent”. On initial appearance it was pretty good, but after Kim’s cleanliness inspect it scored out quite a bit lower. There is one bedroom with a queen bed, 1 bathroom and large room with a kitchen/living area. We have most of the same channels, but can actually get FOX News….much better than CNN… The kitchen has most of the needed utensils plus a microwave. Hey, we could stay anywhere for 5 days and this place is a lot better than anywhere!

I made a trip out this morning to a store next door and to my surprise, it was awesome. It is better than any grocery store we visited in Pavlodar. The upstairs is like a mall with many shops offering all types of goods. Appears we will be fine these last few days as we COUNTDOWN our return home.

Day 6 "Family of Four" - The final countdown (double click for pics)

Poka, Poka Pavlodar....

Wednesday, August 9th “Reflecting back on Pavlodar”

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN. (We have updated the pictures from yesterday’s post - our phone line was down almost a day.)

We were thinking about what to write in this post…our last post from Pavlodar, Kazakhstan…after some news of the day, we have decided to reflect back on how we started this journey, our trip to Pavlodar and what’s next in our lives. Basically another boring day….just kidding.

I was not totally kidding about another boring day…It turned fall overnight as a cold rain moved into the area and appears it will stay all day. Our great plans for touring Pavlodar with “spit up” bombs may wait till tomorrow or even another journey… Kim and Rylee did make it to the mall (imagine that) today to pick up some extra bottles. As for Landen, he’s doing well with the bottles (some with a little cereal) and we have slowly started to bring some bland type foods back into his diet. The challenge now is to keep enough food on his belly…and I do mean a challenge. He will play for a good while in the living room, then it hits…he is hungry and nobody’s going to stop him charging into the kitchen. We have noticed a ton of new things….like playing ball-he will roll a ball and chase after it, only to be stopped by a wall or Rylee… he is truly a man-if he sees a remote, it’s his or you better be ready to run with it….Also, you cannot just move something from his eye sight and think that will work-he will strain to look around you or behind the object, to the point that he will make you move it or he will. Overall we had some great family time today!

Kim and I started talking about adopting in November of 2004. An amazing fact is Landen was conceived around that same time…WOW, that’s amazing to think about how it has all been planned, we just completed the journey….

Looking back on our trip to Pavlodar, we have journeyed further than we ever thought we would….we have lived in another country for 7 weeks with out speaking the language (even though I like to think I’m fluent in Russian,…..we have met some of the most incredible and friendly people imaginable….we have learned to survive on cheese and pastries….we have seen things that most will only read about (they may not want to see some of them)….and we have been blessed with the greatest gift from God one could imagine-Landen!

Our trip would not have been complete without you! Doing this blog, hearing from our family and friends through Skype and reading your comments on the blog has been so meaningful and truly made it a lot easier…

As for the details from here:
-This is the last post we will do in Pavlodar. We’re not sure about getting on the internet when we get to Almaty, but we will post if at all possible.

-We will be picked up at 8pm tomorrow (8/10) and go to the Pavlodar Airport.

-We will arrive in Almaty around 12:15am, where Aeda will pick us up and take us
to our apartment there.

-Friday (8/11) we will have Landen’s medical exam at the US Embassy in Almaty.
We will also schedule our exit interview while there…this will be on Monday or Tuesday.

-Our return flight is on Lufthansa - leaving Almaty at 3:30am on 8/16. We will be gaining hours on the return flight, so we will actually arrive in Atlanta (after our layover in Frankfurt, Germany - Brigitte we will say hello for you) on 8/16 at 2:30pm. That will be such a great feeling to see all of you again….

-We will be signing off from Pavlodar for the last time, but we wanted to leave you with this….. Rylee - “I would also really like to adopt a baby sister, but I don’t want to stay here any longer….can we just snag one tonight? They have got so many they will never know….” God Bless and thanks to you all for taking this journey with us, supporting us, and for all of your prayers …. Until Almaty….

Day 5 "Family of Four" - getting back to normal (double click for pics)

"I'm so hungry, I could eat a...."

Tuesday, August 8th “Getting Back to Normal”

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN.

The days are getting longer here! Not the time of light we get each day, but we are guessing that some how each hour is about two hours long. (As for the day light, it is still light at 4am and does not get dark until 9:45pm.) We have hit the wall with being away from home, but thanks to each of you out there we are getting the encouragement to maintain sanity.

As for the highlights today: pretty uneventful on this end…and that was a good thing after yesterday. We are still feeling the effects from that excitement. It takes 6hrs to run 1 cycle of clothes, which is half of a normal size in the U.S. When the clothes are washed, we then have to line dry them as people over here do not have dryers. I must say that I tried one time to work the washer and wound up re-washing the clothes that Kim had just washed. Needless to say that was a sign for me to leave the washing alone. Yesterday created an extra 4 loads of clothes on top of the normal 2 loads per day we have been going through. Kim’s the best!

Getting back to the highlights, nothing from Landen on the spit up front today, that can be a highlight I guess. To follow up on my promise from yesterday; both Rylee and Landen are doing better on the tummy troubles. Our thanks go out again to Dr. Plotkin for his time and concern with our family. As discussed yesterday, Kim was to call him after I completed the blog. He gave Nana his cell number for Kim to call him during lunch where there would not be any distractions. He gave us some suggestions to help until we can get home, all of which seemed to work today. Landen has been able to hold down all of his formula, so we are ensuring he stays hydrated. We should be good to go now.

We played lazy bums today as we did not want to test the waters with a trip out with an upset tummy. We got to see Landen feeling better and back to normal today. He is such a little ham when he plays. We’re so excited for everyone to enjoy him in person as much as we do. He is great at letting you know what he wants. If it’s time to fill the belly, he will crawl into the kitchen and await you to feed him. No matter how long, he will win the waiting battle. Another little battle that was funny to watch today was Landen getting jealous when he saw Rylee on Mom’s lap. He immediately let everyone know that he wanted to be on her lap, not Rylee. Rylee was the great big sister and after 1 hour of crying by Landen, she allowed him to get up there….not really, only a minute…just enough to show him she is boss….

I was successful at one thing today…keeping Kim from starting to pack. She would have started yesterday if I had wanted to. We will need to pack some tomorrow as we fly out to Almaty on Thursday. Can you believe it? We can’t….it seems almost too good to be true that our journey is coming to an end. The end will be another week yet, but close enough to start the final countdown.

Tomorrow promises to be more exciting….we’re going out again. Look out Pavlodar, the Woodard’s are making one last tour and this time we are armed with some “spit bombs”….

Until tomorrows update, Good day and Good night….and Poka, poka…

Day 4 "Family of Four" - tummy trouble (double click for pics)

Who's next?

Monday, August 7th “tummy trouble"

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN.

Where O’ where to begin…..We can tell that these next few days will be some of the hardest as we are ready to get home. Kim and I had a good laugh last night, after writing our post, talking about what we miss about home….and what we will not miss here. This was very good therapy for both of us, but made us anxious to fly home.

We had a meeting with our attorney set for today at 12pm, so another chance for us to work on our “baby efficiency” skills. We were actually only 5 minutes late…for those who know us well can appreciate what an accomplishment that was. I think we were usually + or - 5 minutes without a baby. Before the meeting at 12pm, we had a lot going on around the apartment.

We slept in until 7:40am….yes, that’s sleeping in here lately. Landen had a good night, but he did wake up around 2am….I felt his little hand on my back and when I rolled over, I was greeted by those big brown eyes and a smile. Kim heard me rolling over and started to get up when I told her I would take this one. Landen was in need of a little love or telling me to quit snoring…I’ll pretend it was the loving. I was glad to assist him going back to sleep by holding him and singing some soft songs to him. He was back asleep by 2:30am and the rest of the night went off without any issues.

We started the morning with a bottle and cereal, Landen had eggs over easy and cheese toast. Just kidding, he had the bottle and cereal with a banana. He seems to really enjoy bananas and all different fruits (At least the 3-4 he has had with us). Everyone got a little play time together this morning, as we all got in the floor and crawled, laughed and played ball. The morning seemed to fly by and before we knew it, it was time to go to Svetlana’s office. When we arrived at the office, Lena was outside awaiting our arrival. She jumped in the van and we went immediately to the notary’s office to sign a power of attorney for the passport handling in Astana. We had Landen in one of the new outfits (the yellow one), with a bib for the likely spit up. The entire morning went by with out any incidents, and the afternoon appeared to be going the same way…..but as fate would have it, the moment we removed the bib….we were targets for his “spit up” rockets. While we were in the lobby of the notary, it happened. Kim took the brunt of this one and we laughed as it figured when the bib gets removed, we became fair game. All paperwork was completed and we were getting ready to get back in the van to go back to Svetlana’s office, when I decided to walk. To draw a picture of the distance from the Notary’s office to Svetlana’s office: Golfer - it’s a short par 4, Shoppers - it’s the distance from Target to TJ Maxx (Newnan), as you can tell, not very far at all. I was quickly told to get in from my wife, Lena and even Rylee. Kim made some room on the row Rylee and she were occupying, so I got in. I did not really have a good reason to walk (beautiful day, short distance, room in the van, etc…), but something told me I should have walked the minute I shut the door of the van. I was correct! I, along with Kim, took a direct shot from the “spit up” rocket. The poor little fellow is having some reflux issues and we already have an appointment when we get home to get this under control. The short drive now seemed to take hours as you are helpless until you get out. When we got out of the van, we quickly cleaned up to go and meet with our attorney. Well, all of the cleaning effort went to waste as I took another direct shot with in seconds of walking in the door of her office. Speaking of her office, it also took a direct shot on the floor….Kim was so embarrassed, but there is not a lot you can do, nor can he. Svetlana has 2 children as does Lena, so they fully understood and we all smiled as we cleaned up the mess. Rylee has now been named the “best little girl” they have meet! Both Lena and Svetlana went on and on about how good she is and what a great big sister she will be. Things we already knew, but of course you can’t hear that enough…

We stayed in the office for the better part of an hour (Rylee worked them for 2 pieces of chocolates) and we got the passport application completed for the final piece of the return puzzle. We had hoped to possible return a few days earlier, but those were shot down and we even had to pay some extra to ensure a speedy turn around in order to make our flights now. We have really enjoyed being here, but it is time to be home…. We did find out something interesting from Lena today; she gave us the name of the medicine Landen has been on for the spit up’s or what we think is reflux. Nice to know now..... We have been seeing an increased amount of spit ups after we picked him up from the baby house on the 4th. We will endure without the Russian medicine (no way to get it here), and on our return we will see Dr. Plokin.

The main street of Pavlodar was our next stop after the attorney’s office. We walked, of course, (our time of use with the driver-Sergey has passed until Thursday when we go to the airport) and found a few little store to check out. We have been past the point of spending and only window shopped to get some exercise in and allow Landen to see his home town. We did stop by the movie/cd store that is below the Russian restaurant to see if we could exchange some DVD’s we had purchased some time back, as they are region 5 and the US is region 1. Basically, they would not play in the US. One of the workers speaks pretty good English, so we did not have any problems exchanging the movies. The movies should be fun for Landen as they are in English, but have some Russian through out. He is picking up some English words, but when he hears someone speaking Russian his little head swings around and he is all into that conversation. After another couple of episodes with the spit up, we decided to head back to our home away from home.

It’s a good thing we got back to the apartment when we did as Landen’s tummy is having some major issues. It’s gotten to the alarming point now and we decided to have Nana call Dr. Plokin and see what we can do, if anything for now. We will have a call with him around 12:30pm today (GA time). The evening was spent loving on Rylee and Landen through the upset tummies and Rylee scraping her tummy on a cabinet door handle. One of the cutest things we saw was Landen playing the drums on a pot. He had a nice beat as well. We even put some water in the pot and he really enjoyed slapping the water and playing with the little toys we put in there. Check out those pics. Well, we will sign off for now, but promise to give everyone an update on the “tummy troubles” tomorrow. Poka, poka…

Day 3 "Family of Four" - rain, rain go away..(double click for pics)

Sunday, August 6 “ rain, rain go away” and please go to Newnan, GA.

Privet from KA3ACTAHCKNN.

As we come to an end of the second full day with Landen in the apartment with us, a couple of things have been very clear. First, as we noted yesterday, he is definitely on a schedule for naps, food and play. A couple times today we would take him into the bedroom for some reason and he thought we were going to put him down for a nap. Needless to say, he made it very clear it was not time for a nap and wanted to play back in the living room. It was so funny to Kim and me as we could not figure out what was wrong with him. We ran through everything possible that could be wrong (hungry, thirsty, tired, stomach ache, etc), and then Kim said I think he’s under the impression that we are trying to put him down for a nap. Sure enough, we took him out of the bedroom and he was Mr. Happy again. The other noticeable characteristic with him is his appetite. He is just like his father….we tend to get a little grumpy when the belly is a little empty. I honestly believe he can eat more than Rylee and almost as much as I can. We would like to weight him now and again in a month to see how much he has grown, but it may be difficult to find some scales. The only ones I have seen are with the street vendor and I’m not sure if my Russian is up to that challenge. From what we have been told, babies adopted from a baby house will add a good bit of weight in a short amount of time immediately after going home with the parents. We shall see…

The day was overall a wonderful experience and a lot of fun. We started out with a nice surprise this morning…sleep. Landen was the last one to wake up…he go up around 7:50am. We all stayed in the bed and played for awhile as everybody got good-n-awake. Mr. Landen had the smiles going again as he saw that everybody was still here with him. It’s such a neat feeling to see your son approving of his new family. It’s a good thing!

Kim made some biscuits (Diane had sent them from home) for breakfast and Landen had his bottle with some cereal. I must admit that he did have his first taste of biscuits today and all signs point to him being right at home in Georgia (loves biscuits and grits). We decided to jump into a new thing after breakfast….brushing his teeth. We had brought some baby toothpaste, so we all had our tooth brushes and started making the brushing motions to lead by example. Landen is all about putting something in his mouth, so it was no problem to give him his tooth brush and let him chew on it. You could actually see a difference on his (4) teeth.

We had planned to venture out today and take the kids (nice ring to it with the (s) on the end) to the carnival, so we started getting ready to head out. Luckily we were running a little later than scheduled as it started to rain. The day was mostly cloudy with some rain…figures our first day to walk around with the stroller and it rains. We waited it out in the apartment, which turned out to be a great thing as Landen had a poopie after lunch, coupled with a good bit of spit up. We probably saved two outfits by having a 30 minute rain delay on our trip. I was finishing my shower when Kim asks if I thought Landen would do ok in the shower. We had the best time as he loves water and does not mind it running over his head or getting on his face. He was so cute…

After the shower, we got ready to go and loaded up and took off. We started at the carnival, where a couple of first occurred. Landen got his first horse and buggy ride. He was not a bit afraid about this or anything we did today, he just sat back and took it in. After the ride, we stopped for some cotton candy…the second first at the carnival. Kim only gave him a taste (or two), but from the smile and attempt to get more, you could tell he loved it. We stopped by to see the band play and babushkas dance. They were so entertaining that Landen…. fell asleep. Not sure which one did it, the band or dancers… Rylee rode the swings again and played some games before we left for the baby store. Landen’s nap was over as we were leaving the carnival, so he got to enjoy the baby store. Again, he was not overly shocked by all the toys. We shopped around for about 1 hour and picked up some needed clothes for him. The clouds were starting to darken, so we made our way back to the apartment very quickly. Unfortunately, we did not make it all of the way back before the rain started again. Luckily it was not a heavy rain and actually felt good. Of course, Landen and Rylee had umbrellas so they could care less if it was raining or not.

Back in the apartment, we started to get dinner ready…but we could not go fast enough for Landen. He ate a jar of vegetables with rice and had 4 oz. of formula before we could get him some peas and mashed potatoes cooked. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think he will be making a commercial for mashed potatoes anytime soon…at least from the face he made when given a bite. We managed to get him full and have a good play time before it was time for his bath. This bath was for play as much as cleaning. He enjoyed it either way. Kim put him to bed around 8:00pm, where he is fast asleep as I write this blog.

I’m sure tomorrow will bring us many new things for the newest member of our family; we just wish you all could be with us to enjoy them…. Since you will not, we will have some photos and another update….Poka, poka…