Anna In The Box

I swear this wasn't posed. The top of the children's Imagination Box is removable -- not sure why. One of the children had removed the top, Anna backed up to it and went in behind first. I just happened to have the camera nearby and could snap a cute photo before there was too much complaining from her. I took this photo a couple weeks ago and kept it in my back pocket for posting when needed. Not there wasn't a lot going on yesterday.

The children are napping now and I should be too, as I couldn't go to sleep until 3ish! Darn Starbucks I picked up on my way to my parenting class last night. I'd stopped drinking coffee for a few weeks because I felt like it was really aggravating my acid reflux problems. Stopping did help, but I just felt like rewarding myself last night after such an unusual day. I say unusual because we were totally out of our routine, with no nap for the children, odd eating hours, etc.

It all started in the morning, as I felt rushed to get the children dressed and loaded into the car (where I shoved breakfast down them) so we could take Alexander to his urologist. Turns out I was too much of a wuss to remove the bandages from his Monday morning circumcision. I'd tried Tuesday afternoon and actually got about 3 inches unraveled but didn't like what I saw so I stopped. I was afraid I was going to hurt the poor little guy. I called the doctor and they said to just bring him in the next morning. So that's what I did. Forty dollars later (our copay for specialists), the bandage was gone and I was juggling two crying toddlers with their big winter coats, my big winter coat and the diaper bag in just trying to get out of the doctor's office.

Afterward we met Mikel for "lunch." He watched the children for me while I ran into the Social Security office to apply for SS numbers for Anna and Alexander, somethings we just realized we'll need in order to file our taxes. As you can imagine, it's a little more involved than what it would be for children born in America. I had to fish out the original adoption certificates and birth certificates (showing us as the parents) which we got in Russia and also the original U.S. Certificate of Citizenship, a very nice framable document with their photo (which also arrived with a special letter from President Bush). The SS office made copies of everything. Even though the Russian documents included an English translation, the SS office still has to send them to its own translator. This application process took an hour. When I emerged from the building, the children were asleep in their car seats.

When we arrived home, of course they did not nap and I didn't even try to force it on them. I think I fed them lunch around 2 p.m. and we just hung out the rest of the day. I fed them an early dinner, then Mikel came home to take care of the evening with them while I went to class to learn how to be a better parent. Next week is the last session. A lot of it is common sense (you'd think for most, anyway ... there are some who've been ordered to be there by the foster care system) or things that I've heard or read before. But I have to say it's really caused me to think more seriously about why we all (parents and children) do the things we do and how we can, therefore, adjust if needed. Reflection (and reiteration) are always good things.

On another note, we received a letter yesterday informing us that Anna has been placed in the Montessori preschool class I'd applied for last week. The preschool program runs the same as the regular school calendar, starting in late August or early September and going through late May or June. She'll be attending three mornings a week for three hours. I'd visited the little school a couple weeks ago and was very impressed with how each child receives so much individual attention and encouragement based on their needs and talents.

Oh, and Alexander got a card in the mail from the hospital telling him what a good boy he was on Monday. They also gave him some stickers. How cute is that!