Super Mommy!

Hi-

So this is a totally self congratualtory blog post. Bear with me. 

Aaron has been a trooper these many months- diving right into the role of stay at home dad and doing an awesome job with the kiddos. But everyone needs a break. So, yesterday we waved goodbye to Papa and off he went for a couple days and nights of relaxation and snow boarding up at Mount Baker. Thanks Jane for letting us borrow your condo!!!

So, I am playing 'single mommy' for a couple days. Now, lets be honest. I have help- Anya, our trusty PT nanny was here this morning (as she would have been anyway so Aaron can get a break), we are going to dinner at a friend's house tonight and Beth and I are going to take the kids to the park tomorrow. So, it is not me and the kids on a desert island fending for ourselves or anything. But it is the first time Papa has been gone overnight since we got home. I have had a few quick business trips and he has been a trooper through those (with Anya's help too) but this was a big step all around. It is going very well. The kids were so cute when he left - blowing kisses and telling him to be careful on the mountain. 

Last night went well - totally normal night with Mama- we made dinner and just did our normal night time routine, only difference was it was all me and not the two of us. It went well- a bit of weepiness from Sasha when it was time to go to sleep since Papa wasnt there to rock him but he got over it really quickly. Of course we had another night of in and out of our bedroom and he woke up at an ungodly hour (5am) and would not go to back sleep but that is pretty much par for the course- except the early wake up- that was new.... Today they have been great and are currently napping- which is a miracle as several days this past week have been decidely nap free due to babies' refusals to nap. Lets just hope it all continues to go well with no major melt downs and we will be all happy to see Papa relaxed and rejuvanated tomorrow night. 

Things have been going well other than that- just really normal. We had a good Valentine's day- made cookies for Papa and had a quiet family night at home. President's day weekend was also extremely low key- no trips or anything. We continue to find our stride as a family and the kids are just more funny and adorable every day. Sasha is most definitely 2 at the moment and Ana is testing us with "No" alot recently but it is all very normal kid stuff. We are very lucky and blessed with our two little munchkins. 

We are still looking at preschools for Fall and I will keep you posted on that when we decide - do we go expensive, close and montessori or less expensive, not as close but still within 10 minutes and 'general' curriculum? Any ideas? 

I am so concerned about the state of IA these days in general though- things seem to be getting really crazy with the process and I just hope that all the families currently in process are sped through quickly and safely. It makes me grateful every day that our kids are home with us and I just want everyone to have their babies home too!

Here are some cute pics- just because. A couple from Valentine's - note Ana has decided to wear her Cinderella dress to dinner and Sasha thinks frosted cookies he helped make are the best thing ever and then one from post haircut Ana. :) 

SKB

Snowing, Again!

Hi Everybody-

It is snowing, again. It isnt sticking at all so it is really just a nuisance at this point! The kids are excited it is snowing but the whole not sticking thing seems to have them down on it too. Here are some cute recent pics for you to enjoy. 

The first is the kiddos at the child's play area at Bellevue Square. Okay, so note to parents- do NOT take your kids to the child's play area at Bellevue Square on a Sunday afternoon when it is sort of yucky outside. It was chaos, uncontrolled chaos. Children everywhere, jumping on things, each other, running, falling, crazy crazy crazy. I am pretty sure Mama aged at least 5 years in 20 minutes. But we had to go bed shopping- we are over the whole Queen size bed thing now that Sasha has decided he vastly prefers our bed every night starting at around 2am (he is a kicker!) so we all went together to look at King size beds. The kids were great about it and patient and while we have picked our dream bed we have not yet made the financial commitment to a fancy, super nice new sleeping arrangement. Hopefully soon. Sasha will love it! :) 

Anyway, they were good so we said we would take them to playland and apparently so did every other parent in the free world. I wish I had video - I have never seen anything like it.The kids LOVED it. But for you grown ups -- Imagine a lord of the flies scenario, in an enclosed space, with parents hovering to make sure their kid was absolutely first or not pushed out of the way or whatever. Seventh circle of hell time for me. So we survived and then off to have a snack and go home. 

The pic of Ana posing is right before we went for a new haircut- she was excited to get it trimmed now that she is 'growing it out'. I am glad the horrid mullet from the baby home is finally gone and cannot wait for it to be longer. I will post a pic of post haircut cuteness next time. I want to braid it and put bows and barrettes and stuff in it and right now it is pretty fine and still a wee bit short for that. Soon, soon, soon. 

The pic of Sasha posing is at the FRUA event we went to Saturday. It was fun but maybe a bit strange. We had not been to a FRUA event (for those of you not deep into IA, this is great group of parents who are all involved with Russian adoption that has been very helpful to us- especially the online community, and they have community events from time to time so you can hang with other adoptive families, which is great) with the kids since we were first home (and that one they were way too new and freaked to understand) but it was good we went. Ana was especially excited to meet kids who also came from baby homes and both seemed to really like the idea that all the families there were "made in the same way our family was made". But the strange part was all the people asking them which one they were from etc etc etc. They are pretty shy in general and some of the other kids were not at all and came right up to them and started talking away and asking a million questions one right after the other so it was pretty funny. But as you can see from the above pic they did eventually warm up and played with all the dress up stuff. One little girl told Sasha that he couldn't wear a tiara because he was a boy and he just laughed at her and put 2 on his head. I love him! I told her he could wear whatever he darn well pleased - so we are probably labeled as the wacky family now but c'est la vie. 

Anyway, so a super busy weekend was had overall as I had to work much of Sunday and now we are into a semi- busy week. I was out of town yesterday and that created a cranky girl at bedtime- she dislikes it when she wakes up and I am not there but I pointed out I made it home in time for milk snuggles so that somewhat mollified her- I need to figure out how to better explain the whole mommy works so you can eat/play/live etc thing. She doesnt seem to have a firm grasp on that concept quite yet.....

We have our second preschool interview on Thursday- this one is a bit farther away but less expensive and also Montessori- so we shall see. I think Aaron really liked the one we went to last week that is blocks from home but man, that is A LOT to pay for 1/2 day preschool so I need to mull it over and work the numbers and in the interim we are looking at lots of options. 

Thats all for now!

SKB