Friday Flashback

Today is November 20, a day that is etched in my memory. It was a day of comfort of finally being at home and being a mommy. I felt like my new life could finally begin.

We had along journey from Vladivostok back to Russia and I don't have a lot of pictures to document it. Here are a few, though.

Here we are with the wonderful Irina at the airport in Vlad, before checking in for the first of 3 flights that would take us home.


Here is Henry and Nana peeking out the window before we took off on our first flight.


And here is Henry sleeping on the seat between me and Nana on the longest leg of our journey, the segment between Seoul and San Francisco.

Overall, Henry was a trooper on the flights. For the first segment (about 2 hours long), he fell asleep and they had a little bassinet that hooked to the wall in the bulkhead seat. However, being untrained as I was, I accidentally bumped his head while putting him in there (already asleep). This woke him up and that was the end of him being in the bassinet or sleeping for the rest of that segment.

For some reason, we had very little time between our connection in Seoul. We had to go through Security again, and we were concerned that we would miss our next flight. So we were pretty much running from the time we got off the first airplane until we finally sat down on the next. Henry was starving and I remember him gnawing on his Robeez shoes while he rode along in his stroller.

As soon as we got settled on the flight between Seoul and San Francisco, I asked the flight attendant to fill his bottle with warm water so he could eat. He gobbled that bottle down as if he hadn't eaten for days. I think he ate it so quickly, that a few minutes later, he vomited it all up...all over him and all over me! Fortunately, I was prepared with a few changes of outfits for him...not so much for me. However, I was wearing layers, so I removed my top layer and was in pretty good shape.

He slept off an on during that long flight. I don't remember exactly how long that flight lasted, but it was an overnight flight. However, we passed over the international date line coming home, so we arrived on the same evening that we left...even though the trip exceeded 24 hours.

As we landed in San Francisco and went through customs, Henry officially became a US Citizen. Unfortunately, the US Government doesn't allow cameras/picture-taking in that part of the airport, so I have nothing to share with you. San Francisco is where we parted paths with Nana. After customs, she went one direction for her flight to Chicago, and we went another for our flight to Houston. Henry and I freshened up a bit, ate a bagel and waited for that final leg that would take us HOME.

I don't remember much about that last flight. I don't think Henry slept, but he was quiet and content on my lap playing with the few toys and books that I had packed for him. When we arrived at the airport in Houston, Leslie was there waiting for us. Again, the details are a bit fuzzy, but it seems like it was late on a Saturday night. By this time, Henry was DONE. I buckled him into the car seat, which was a whole new experience for him and he was cranky the whole way home. The only thing that seemed to sooth him was for me to hum the theme to Batman. If I stopped, he started crying. So all of the way home, I hummed "na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na BATMAN" over and over and over. Whatever it took.

Based on the recommendation of my pediatrician, and with the help of my wonderful best friend, Leslie, we had an open house the following day. Now, you may ask why it was recommended by my pediatrician. In fact, I had decided that we would "nest" when we arrived home to allow us both to bond to each other and to allow ourselves to begin settling into a routine of becoming a family. I wanted to limit external stimulation and allow Henry and I to merely focus on each other. However, I had a bunch of close friends that were just so excited to meet my new son that I couldn't put them off. So we decided to go with the "big bang approach" and let them all meet immediately. Then, we could settle down and focus on bonding and attaching.

Again, I don't have a lot of pictures from that evening as we were all just enjoying each others' company. And I can't say enough how nice and comforting it was just to be home. Here are a few:

And Henry seemed to instantly bond with Hailey!

That rest of November continued to be a steady stream of firsts, documented below with some of the pictures I have:

Wearing a "hand-me-down" outfit from his cousin, playing with some of his new toys.

Taking his first bath at home...he wasn't a fan of baths when he first arrived home, now I can't get him out of the shower!


His first piano recital!


Hanging out in his high chair while I prepared the next meal.


Attending his first book-study, back when we met in people's homes.


Being sized for his first pair of "good shoes".


Attending his first meeting at the Kingdom Hall.


Playing in his first box...favorite toy. Having a kid around 24/7 was new for Dolly, too. She's not quite sure what to think.


Having his first doctor's appointment with the wonderful Dr. Singhal (adoptive mother herself and featured on Discovery's Adoption Stories)


And all tuckered out after that doctor's visit, that involved drawing several vials of blood for all kinds of testing.

Reviewing these pictures to put together this blog post brought back all kinds of memories and reminded me of things I had totally forgotten about.

What I haven't forgotten is how grateful I feel to get to be Henry's parent! Prospective Adoptive Parents go into the journey called adoption, not knowing what they are going to come out with on the other side. For me, I can honestly say I have no regrets. My journey to Henry is THE best thing I've done in my life. He has become my heart and soul. And as we celebrate 5 years of being HOME, I wouldn't change a thing. That boy is my life!

Spring Break

This week is Henry's Spring Break. He could have stayed in school as an "extended day" student, but I decided that a week off sounded like a great idea for both of us. So we've planned (or haven't planned as the case may be) a bit of a staycation.

Yesterday, our first day, we were just kind of getting our bearings. The day was spent running a bunch of errands. It's amazing how long it takes to get things done. When you have a whole day ahead of you with "nothing" planned, it seems like the possibilities are endless.

But then, the day gets filled with sleeping in, a quick visit with a lawyer, a short visit with Nana and Papa, one last "work thing" that needs to be finished, a trip to the car wash, a lunch stop at Taco Bell (Henry's choice), a quick run through Wal-Mart, a stop at CVS to order some prescriptions, a run back home to pick up the grocery list, the weekly grocery shopping, and whew...back home at 4 p.m. to start having fun. Wait a minute, we're having guests for dinner. Time to start the donuts...I mean the dinner. Then there was that minor issue with the potatoe peels clogging the pipes. Good thing Papa was only a few minutes away and "available". Time to put the salmon on the grill...whoops, the propane ran out. Good thing there was a backup tank in the garage. In the end, we had a lovely "dinner party" with Nana & Papa, and Grandma and Grand-daddy (as Henry refers to Leslie's parents). After dinner, we finished the day off with a round of our favorite dice game (10,000...check out the rules here) and a dish of Nana's homemade tapioca.

We decided Tuesday would also be a low-key day, and then we would actually try and go somewhere and do something each of the rest of the days of the week.

Tuesday started with The Boy sleeping until well past 9 a.m. Glad he gets the concept of sleeping in. After that, it was a rush to start our day. We had an appointment at 10:30 to get his silhouette made at a local children's clothing store. Here's a picture of him sitting patiently, and then the end result.

After we finished there, we went to the toy store a few doors down. We had already spent a few minutes in there because we were early for our silhouette appointment. Henry had spied out a few things he wanted to spend his allowance on. It's funny, when we first went in, the first thing that he looked at was the thing he "had to have". After a bit of encouragement, he spent some time looking around at the rest of the toys and in the end, decided on something completely different.

From there, we decided to go to Mr. Fuzzywiggs Candy Factory, down the street. It really was a block away. When I asked if we should move the car, Henry insisted that we walk: "C'mon Mom, it's such a nice day...let's just walk down there!" I couldn't have agreed more, but had to feed the meter a few more quarters. And off we went. On the way, we stopped by the fountain.

And then I let Henry run, since there were no streets to cross or traffic to worry about.

Again, as we entered the candy store, Henry stopped at the first thing he saw. I again encouraged him to shop a little more and take a look at what there was. Again, he totally moved off that first item. He selected three things: the colorful mints with the sprinkles on them (non-pareils??), a stick with sour powder in it, and a package of colorful licorice. Thanks to the generosity of Aunt Courtney, he had a gift card that covered his selection, and has enough left on it that he will be able to make a similar visit in the future. Here he is with his loot:

From there, we made a stop at The Dessert Gallery, where Mama got a treat. I had a piece of delicious lemon cake (before LUNCH!!!) and a cup of coffee. I nibbled on this while Henry ate his licorice.

After this, we made our way back to the car. On our way home, we stopped at the local Regional Airport to watch the airplane activity. There wasn't much going on, so we didn't stay long.

And this was all accomplished before noon. The rest of the day won't be quite as exciting, but I'm hoping we'll make up for it as the week progresses.

Saturday - Fun in Kansas City

Saturday, we had an absolute blast. After eating at the hotel, we headed off to Union Station. This is an old train station that has been converted into an entertainment complex.

We hung out there for a bit until Brian, Maria and Joaquin joined us. There were model trains and I think if we left them to their own devices, the boys would have spent the entire day watching them go around and around.

From Union Station, there was an air-bridge that took us to another shopping area. As we started discussing lunch, Brian described a restaurant he had noticed when they had made a bathroom run to change a diaper. It was decided that we give it a try and it was a big hit.

The place was called Fritz's Train Station Restaurant. The concept was really cool.

There is a telephone in the booth. When you are ready to order, you pick up the phone and place your order. There is a train that runs around the perimeter of the restaurant that carries and delivers the food to the appropriate table.

And here is the boy wearing his Fritz's train hat:

And the boys together at the train in front of the restaurant:

After lunch, we decided to strike off to the Hallmark tour. Hallmark cards are based in Kansas City. It was interesting to see a bit about the history of the company and the demonstrations they had about making the cards. There was a machine there that made bows and we each made our own souvenir bow to bring home.

From there, we decided to head back to Union Station and take in a 3D movie at their IMAX. Based on the schedule, the only choice we had was one about Whales and Dolphins. However, it was quite interesting. Henry is not typically a fan of the 3D movie, he gets too freaked out with the things seeming to come out of the screen at him. I must say that he did pretty good. There was a part where one of the whales was waving his fin and with the 3D glasses, it did seem like it was going to slap us in the face with it. Henry didn't like this part but I worked with him to get through it. I think it finally convinced him that while it "seems" like things are going to come out and get you, nothing really does. He was totally fine for the rest of the movie. Here we are sporting our special glasses:

After the movie, we all piled into our rental car (a Mazda SUV with 3rd row seating) and headed off across town (and as it turns out, into another state) for the surprise dinner venue. As the GPS tried to direct me onto the interstate bypass, I just couldn't find the entrance ramp it said should be there. As a result, I ended up in downtown Kansas City. As we pulled up to an intersection, we noticed a pool of policemen on motorcycles, all with their lights on. The streets were all lined with onlookers. It only took us a moment to realize that we had stumbled upon an Obama siting (we had heard earlier in the day that he was in town for a rally). As we sat there, the policemen gave the go-ahead signal and took off. Following them were several dark SUV's, one containing presidential candidate Barrack Obama, waving at the crowds. Right or wrong, we all felt that we had stumbled upon a chance view of royalty.

Once the traffic dissipated, we made up our own alternate route to get to the interstate and off we were to the next stage of our adventure. We crossed state lines from Missouri into Kansas and landed at another shopping/entertainment area called Legends.

There, we ate dinner at a restaurant called T-Rex. It is the same concept as the Rainforest Cafe, except with dinosaurs. Since Henry is currently totally fascinated by dinosaurs, we thought it would be a hit. However, we were a bit worried since he currently refuses to eat at Rainforest. We knew we were okay as soon as we walked up to the place. Henry was so excited that he could hardly utter an undertandable word. There was a huge animatronic t-rex right inside the front door. He was mildly nervous of it, but totally fascinated.

The restaurant, along with a gift shop, had a build-a-dino (think: Build-a-Bear) area where Henry chose to build a pteranodon. One of the steps in this process is to name your new 'pet'. He chose to name his "Cutie Pie'. Later, when explaining why he chose that name, he stated "Because he's a cutie, and he likes to eat pie". Makes perfect sense to me. All in all, it was a great hit with Henry, and the adults didn't mind it either.

The evening was finished off with ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. We headed back to drop Brian and Maria off at their car (left at Union Station), where we said our good-byes. Then it was back to the hotel.

Sunday morning, we again had to get up very early to pack and catch our flight. We found ourselves ready with an extra 40 minutes to spare, so we headed to Cracker Barrel (right behind our hotel) for breakfast.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Henry was again sporting his pilot gear and was again being asked about flying the airplane. Our airplane was configured with one seat on the right side of the aisle and two seats on the left side. Henry decided he wanted to sit by himself on the right. He seemed so grown up sitting over there. The flight home was pretty much a repeat of the flight there, except no muffin.

Friday morning...our travel to KC

We spent this last weekend in Kansas City. We covered a LOT of ground in a short time. Rather than a single, hugely-long post, I am going to try and break the weekend down into segments.

For the first segment, I'll cover our travel to Kansas City. We had to leave the house at 6 a.m. to catch our morning flight. We all went to bed earlier than normal on Thursday evening. I was a bit worried about waking Henry as he doesn't usually do well when he has to wake up before his time. However, I was pleasantly surprised. He jumped up and was ready to go. I guess the excitement of the trip helped in this area.

Here is a picture of the boy in his travel gear:

Of course, his outfit garnered him many cute glances as we walked the concourse at the airport. Several asked him if he was going to fly the plane, to which he responded "No, I don't know how to fly yet. I'm too little. My feet don't reach the pedals yet!" Regardless, everyone got a chuckle out of him.

He did well on the flight. Such a rule-follower and such a seasoned traveler. He knew to wait for the little ding after take-off to know when he could play with his Leapster. The flight attendant brought him a muffin and glass of apple juice. After taking a bite out of his muffin, he told me "This muffin is yummy" and ate the whole thing. After a while, he turned off his Leapster, put his head down and slept for about an hour.

When we arrived in KC, it was chilly (at least to us). Henry enjoyed donning his hat and mittens and settled right in to the rental car:

Thank goodness for Leslie's GPS. Off we went to the hotel. We'd have just enough time to change clothes and get ready for the big event.