Well...today was a fine day. Iliya had come to bed with us at some point during the night, and even though I was tired, I went ahead & got up with Nathan around 6:30. I ended up laying back down on the couch when Nathan left for work around 7:15. I dozed off and next thing I know, there is a child, crying from my bedroom. I looked at the clock, and it was 9:15. Can you believe this? My child slept until nine-fifteen this morning! I think that may've been the most glorious 2 hours of sleep I've ever gotten!

Anyway, we got up, ate breakfast and played for a little while. I let time slip up on me because I got a shower an hour later than I'd originally planned...but we had a couple errands to run before lunch & naptime, so I got ready for our departure.

We ran the infamous stool samples by the lab & got them squared away, and then we went to T@rget to get a few essentials. We were a little late, getting home for lunchtime, but as soon as we got back to the house, we grabbed a bite & laid down for a nap. Iliya's naptime has transitioned from me rocking him asleep - to me rocking him mostly asleep & then laying him on our bed (it is too light in his room for him to sleep in his bed, plus, traffic is really noisy during the day) - to me laying him down on our bed and staying with him till he falls asleep.

He slept for TWO solid hours today. I guess he must be sleepy! Or going through a growth spurt!

While he took a nap, I cleaned up a little and worked on his "Family" poster for daycare. Everyone else in his class has a poster about their family, and when we were visiting last week, his teacher gave me a blank piece of posterboard to do his. I had planned on doing it a little sooner, and do a really fancy job on it (you know - first child syndrome!!) and have it ready for Open House tonight. So...it didn't turn out so fancy, but I thought it turned out kinda cute, even if it was a quick job during naptime!

(edit to say - because my youngest brother asked - aunt sarah gets her own picture because she's the one of our immediate families that is not pictured in the airport pics!)

So...as I mentioned, tonight was Open House. I know I've mentioned it before, but I am going back to work in a few weeks, and Iliya will be in the UA Children's Program. I was so ecstatic to learn that he had gotten into the program - it is seconds away from me, and I will be able to check in at any time. I've done a little worrying over how well he would do - without me being there - so we are going to transition to fulltime daycare over the course of a couple weeks.

So back to Open House. The way it was planned to work is parents would meet, while children were in the classroom with their teachers (keep in mind, most of the kids have already started daycare) and then parents would go to their children and meet/greet with the teachers. I originally thought Nathan would be home for it so we could double-team Iliya (one of us stay in his classroom w/ him and the other be in the meeting). Then we realized that N couldn't be home in time to come to the meeting, so I felt like I was in a quandry over what to do. I absolutely refused to leave a screaming child with his teacher on open house night while I sat in a meeting.

I called upon my sister-in-law (aunt kiki) who graciously said that she would be happy to watch Iliya for a little bit, if I needed her to, while I went to the meeting. Then I talked to the director of the program, who said to bring Iliya on (she hadn't been there when I took him to meet everyone, and she wanted to meet him!) - if he stayed in the classroom with his teacher, great...if not, then he could just come in the meeting with me.

So I decided to try it out. Why not go ahead & start the transition with about 15-20 minutes away from mommy, while she's in a meeting? We got to the center...I took Iliya to his classroom, handed off his "Family" poster...and he wanted to get down. He ran to the center of the room, took inventory, and then ran back to me, smiling. He then allowed the teacher to lead him away to see what all was in the room. I left, at that point, and went to the meeting - having told the teacher to please just bring him to me, if he got upset.

The meeting ended up being a quick "housekeeping" talk from the director, followed by moving from station to station, picking up handbooks, information, and signing up for parent involvement things. It ended up taking right at 20 minutes - I was talking to a friend, and I looked up to see Iliya coming through the door with his teacher. He had tears in his eyes, and she said that he played really well, and then he realized I wasn't there. She thought something might've scared/startled him, and he started crying.

So we made it for 20 minutes without me! But it makes me feel very good that he did cry for me. As a sidenote, I think it helped that there were refreshments. The teacher said that she brought out the cookies & Iliya was on them like an ant on sugar. Bless his little food-loving heart.

At the risk of sounding self-absorbed, I will say that my child seems to charm everyone he meets. He's very friendly (without being overly - i.e., unsafely - friendly) and just seems to love people. He's also just so cute, with his little chubby cheeks and sweet smile. The number one question I got asked tonight, was about his language -whether or not he speaks Russian or English & how that transition is going. I don't know if he verbalizes in Russian, still, though I doubt it. I have no clue if he still understands Russian - but I know that he understands a lot of English, and is picking up new words everyday. Signing has helped tremendously, to bridge a lot of gaps in communication. And yes, he is definitely learning animal sounds (right now, we know bunny, elephant, cow, dog, cat, monkey and bear - and johnathan, you'll just have to wait to hear what a bunny says. i'm not ruining the surprise!).

When we got home, as soon as we pulled into the garage, Iliya started saying "da-da! da-da! da-da!" Nathan was waiting for us & once Iliya was out of his carseat, he ran at Nathan at full speed and just babbled at him. I guess he was telling his dad about his day - it's precious to watch them interact.

We ate dinner, and then the boys played in the floor:

And before bed, Iliya was playing with his castle shape sorter. He puts the people in his mouth & blows them out (probably not something we should encourage, but it's pretty funny). I caught a great action shot.

And finally, bedtime. It took Iliya an HOUR to get to sleep tonight. There are a number of things that could've contributed to this. First, he could've been overstimulated - though he wasn't acting like he was. Or, his tummy could've just been hurting, because he doesn't get cookies on a regular basis (and from what I understand, he got quite a few this evening!).

Or, I have to wonder if an environment with so many children brings back some memory of the baby home. I have no idea what sorts of (or how much) memory he has of his life in Russia. But I have to think that he has something there; afterall, it's only just over a month after leaving the baby home for the last time. So maybe there was a little sadness or homesickness there (his cries were definitely either sadness and/or pain). I don' t know, but all I could do was hold him tight and assure him - the best I could - that everything was going to be okay.

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And on that note, I will close for tonight. Several have asked if I've given thought to redesigning the blog, or thinking of a new name for it. I don't believe that I will actually change blog addresses...but I have been thinking of moving toward a new design. I just haven't gotten the time or bravery to work on that (or ask for help on working on that - because I'm just plain dumb when it comes to this stuff). But rest assured, now that our family has officially grown, the design will be changing. When, or how, I'm not sure.

Goodnight to one and all.