... And Look How They've Grown

The memories are as fresh as yesterday's, and yet it feels like we've known them forever. We couldn't be more blessed that Anna and Alexander are our children. They're both beautiful inside and out -- happy, healthy, smart, seemingly well-attached to us. It's amazing to think of how much they've grown cognitively, physically. Here are photos taken last week -- Thursday, April 26, at the library, and Wednesday, April 25, at our little park. One of the photos shows Alexander still trying to figure out his sister. But they are best friends. And sister and brother.

6 Months Ago A Family Was Born ...

Last week marked six months since we became parents -- legally on Oct. 24 when a stern Russian judge heard our case and granted us permission as Vladimir Putin peered down from the wall; and then on Oct. 26 when we picked up the children from their baby homes. Here is a look back on the day we became a family -- getting the children dressed to go, Anna's long car ride back to the city to pick up her new brother, getting to know each other better and our first night-night.

Quiet Time

Anna and Alexander take some quiet time, however brief, for a story. It's not at all difficult to convince Anna to cozy up to a book. Her brother's attention span is a bit shorter, but if he sees his sister lying down with a book he's got to do it, also. I was just surprised she allowed him to plop his pillow down on her legs.

Little Helpers

Now that the weather is getting warmer, we've allowed the children onto the deck (even though they're too big to fit through the posts it still makes me a bit nervous). I have to say the children are good at putting away their toys before nap or bedtime but that's about the only sort of cleaning/tidying they'd done. One day last week, however, they got their first taste with the broom and dustpan, as we attempted to sweep away birdseed which drops down to the floor every time the birds land for lunch. As you can see, Anna likes to boss Alexander around, though he's no pushover. She's directing him on how to properly do his job.

Making Breakfast

I let Anna help me make breakfast last weekend. She did a great job of beating eggs and buttering toast (which actually was a cuter photo but not a very ladylike position for her so I declined to post it). She loved learning how to cook and was a very good little assistant in the kitchen. Lately, I've been trying to give her more freedom around the apartment (I usually keep our bedroom door and the main bathroom door closed, and we also have baby gates entering the kitchen and their own room. She's probably "suffered" in this area simply because her younger brother is not quite as ready to have free rein of the place).

Developmental Test Update

Following up on the children's developmental tests: Turns out Anna is the only one who qualifies for any kind of assistance, and that is in speech/language. We'll meet with a speech therapist soon and lay out a plan. I believe she will come to our place once a week to work with Anna. While Anna's obviously far ahead of her brother in picking up the English language, she is older (3 in late August) and more is expected of her as compared to her peers. I'm a bit surprised that Alexander doesn't qualify since many of his words (binky, for example) are really hard to understand and, in fact, don't sound like real words at all. If he's not starting to put together two words more by the time he turns 2 (early July), then we might have him reevaluated. I'm told the speech therapist can advise me on this since she'll be able to observe him simply by being here to work with Anna. I'm excited that we can get any assistance to help Anna learn and catch up or exceed where she should be. I'm sure Anna will enjoy it, as she is so eager to learn and loves to read books and play "school" with me. And, she's excited about going to preschool next year. We even got to meet one of her teachers the other day, as we ran into her at a store.

Hat Chic

Anna loves to put on mommy's hats. Here she is in two recent photos playing in my winter head gear. Alexander is inspecting the scarf to see if he wants to try and snatch it from his sister.

On another note, the four school district professionals (language, occupational therapist, physical therapist and a teacher) showed up at our place at 8:30 this morning to test the kiddies on their development. The children seemed very interested in interacting with them, so I'm sure they got a few brownie points for that. I pretty much sat in the background and often answered the pros' questions and watched the children as they were simultaneaously being tested. The professionals were very nice and efficient and were complimentary of the children. The language lady said she thought it looked like they would qualify for some "help" in her specialty area and that she would call me later today with the results (so I wouldn't be sitting on pins and needles until they come back next Wednesday with the official results). It's about 3 p.m. here now. I haven't heard from her and wouldn't be at all surprised if I don't today since the entire school system later underwent a bit of an upheaval after a fake report of a person with a gun on one of the high school campuses. Lockdowns of all the city's schools, evacuations and closures ensued. Maybe we'll find out tomorrow.

P.S. Despite the fact that she will likely qualify for some help with her language, Anna really is coming along in both comprehension and expression. Last week I asked if I could cradle her and hold her like a baby. She said "Uh, Buddy baby. Anna big girl. Buddy one. Anna two." (She often refers to Alexander as Buddy, instead of Brother, though she is now also saying Alah for Alex.) How cute is that?

The Family

Here we are Sunday at church. I tried to give Anna's new dress a dressier touch for Easter by making a crinoline slip to pouf it out. It was a bit much but doable for the hour or so. I'll rip it out so the dress can be used for more everyday wear (plus I noticed it itched her back). I'm all about versatility. By the way, the children sat with us in "big church" (as we called it when we were kids) throughout the entire service. We were planning to let them participate in the children's time with the pastor, usually held toward the beginning of the service, and then go back into the nursery. But since it was Easter they didn't have the children's time. We debated what to do and figured we'd see how it went, fully prepared to get up in the middle of the service to take them to the nursery. But there was no need, as they were quite good. Only a few "shhhs" necessary. But we won't be making a habit of it.

The Hunt

The children found all the eggs hidden by the Easter bunny.

What Did The Bunny Leave?

Some pictures from Easter morning. Anna and Alexander delight in their goodies from the bunny.

Getting Ready For The Easter Bunny

On Saturday afternoon we dyed eggs and stickered them up for the Easter bunny to hide. I discovered that the children got the most participation in the stickering part. I let them help place eggs in the dye but I pretty much removed them for drying. The cups were so full and there was so much jerky movement that I'm very lucky none spilled.

Children, Meet Peter Cottontail

The kids finally got to meet the Easter Bunny yesterday. They'd been hearing so much about him and were eager to sit on his lap. Anna keeps saying "bunny come" in her cute little girl voice. I can hear them awake from their nap now, so we're about to dye eggs for the bunny to hide.

Baking Easter Cookies

The children love to help me out with stuff. Here they are helping to bake Easter cookies. Of course the baking of the cookies was done entirely for their benefit anyway. As you can see, I got lazy and bought the prefab cookies complete with a bunny face. Alexander got tired of taking turns with the spatula and decided to speed up the process by dumping cookies onto the baking stone and table. They barley missed the floor.

Yesterday, a social worker came over to our house to interview us for our first post-placement report due April 24, which will be six months since we adopted the children. Russia requires four of these reports from adoptive families. In addition to the report due at 6 months, others will be required at 1 year, 2 years and 3 years. Even though Anna and Alexander are legally our daughter and son now, this is the Russian officials' way of trying to assure themselves that their children are being well taken care of. Not that there’s anything they can do about it except halt other families from adopting in the future or lay down much more stringent requirements, which they have done. I think they have put so much emphasis on these reports because of some negative publicity about a few abusive adoptive parents. It's so important for us to cooperate because adoption agencies can be held accountable by the Russian government and be penalized or lose their accreditation to facilitate adoptions over there. Anyway, it's really not a big deal. The social worker was very nice and visited with us for about an hour and we talked about how the children are doing and all that. We'll also be sending 6-10 photos of the children to go along with the report. Almost six months already. Wow.