Huge Milestone!

Today was a great day!  We hit a huge milestone regarding behavior here!  We went the entire day with no fits and no timeouts!  Dasha had a wonderful day.  She played, she was pleasant, and she overall just had a great day!

First Ped. Visit

Today we went to the Pediatrician to get started on immunizations and to get our referral for an audiologist and an ultrasound for her kidney.  Poor kid had to get 3 shots and man she screamed.  She also had an ear infection.  So now she is on 4 different medications and supplements.  Fun times.   we will go back in 6 weeks for a 2nd round of shots, and then 6 weeks after that for the final round and she will be caught up then.  Some shots she doesn't need due to her age, but I feel so bad for her.  Camden was a little jealous of all the attention that Dasha has been getting so while we were at Target waiting on her prescription we went back to the toy dept. and I got him a hot wheel.  Hot Wheels take care of almost everything. 

I have found a great option for getting out and keeping the kids with me.  A friend of mine is doing a small group every other week at McDonald's and the kids get to play in the play place while we talk.  The only dilemma last night was Dasha freaked out at the very top of the play place, and it is super hard trying to get up there and get her!  Fun times crawling around up there.  She had a much better time in the toddler area.  So I get to talk to other adults, and still keep her around but she is not hanging on me.  I have had to start blocking her off from the kitchen while I am cooking dinner because she literally hangs on my leg while I am cooking and I am constantly knocking her down because she will be right behind me and I step back and boom.  She is not happy about that, but she is getting better about it. 

Results of our IA visit

Happy 200th Post!

So we got the results of Dasha's blood and stool samples today.  She tested negative for all things yucky in the stool sample, but they want us to do 2 more samples for parasites on different days because I guess parasites can be tricky that way.  We will do those through our pediatrician. 

Her blood word came back and all is well except she is Vitamin D deficient, no surprise, Calcium Deficient, again no surprise, and Iron Deficient, little surprise there.  So now she is on Vitamin D supplements, she takes 1 Tums a day for calcium, and an iron supplement twice a day until the end of March.  Then we get to go draw her blood again to see if that helped any.  Maybe that explains why she is so restless at night, she tosses and turns and moves from one end of the bed to the other all night long.  She won't stay covered up either.  Randy makes fun of me for what I dress her in at night to keep her warm.  We keep our house pretty cold anyways, but at night it goes down to 60, so I got her in the skin tight fall/spring PJ's and then I put a pair of footie PJ's on over the top of that.  But hey, she is warm in the mornings when I get her up! 

We go to our Pediatrician on Friday to start immunizations, and to get a referral so that we can go get an ultrasound of her remaining kidney.  We are going to go to Children's Mercy for that.  Hopefully I can get that scheduled on a day that Randy has off, and Camden has school.  What do you think the chances of that are!?! 

Thanks everyone who commented on my last post, I just had a horrible day was feeling sorry for myself.  I always told myself that since Camden was so easy as a baby/toddler that my next kid was going to be a lot tougher, well I was right.  :-) 

Question

This is a selfish post.  I need to get out!  I need a break.  I am sometimes alone with the kids 4-5 days straight alone and I am going crazy.  I am thinking about doing a bible study once a week which would require me to leave the kids in the nursery for 2 hours.  Camden no issue.  Dasha on the other hand, I have left her for our church service the past 2 Sundays, it's 1 hour.  She is just too restless to not be a distraction during the service.  Unfortunately she lets me know her displeasure after church all too well.  In fact today was horrendous, she screamed for almost an hour in a fit.  It was about all I could handle. She is fine for the nursery workers, it's when we get home that she let's loose.  So the question is, when did you leave your kids, babysitter, church nursery, do you even think this is a good idea? 

On a positive note, here are some fun pictures.

 She took him down!

 Don't ask, I said "Smile!"  This is what I got!

  Again, the same thing!

One Month Home and First Haircut

So today marks one month home for us as a family.  Things are slowly falling into place and getting better everyday.  Today we ventured out to get Dasha's first haircut.  Her hair was really pretty long but she had a mullet and her hair was not healthy at all.  It is very thin and fine, so I decided to cut it all off and start from scratch.  We went to a fun place that we took Camden to for his first haircut.  They do a whole package, before picture, after picture, they put the hair in a little baggie and they get a certificate.  Now I am not one of those camera toting moms who takes a picture every time they turn around, I am horrible about taking pictures period but I did remember the camera today!

 Before

 Not a peep out of her!

 Enjoying sitting in her airplane!

 New view of the back

Cute little bob



Certificate Of Citizenship

It arrived in the mail on Friday.  The normal step next would be to send it off to get Dasha's Social Security number, but the way Randy's insurance is set up, we had 30 days from the time that the adoption was finalized to get her on his insurance, our adoption was finalized on Dec. 13th.  So when we got home he called to add her to his insurance.  They asked for her social security number, and he explained that she didn't have one yet.  So they told him that they have to have a social security number to add her and he had 30 days period or we would have to wait for open enrollment next October!  So I think we were home for 3 days and we packed the kids up and went to the Social Security office with all our paperwork.  We got an awesome lady who set up Dasha's file and said that as soon as the USCIS approved all her paperwork that we handed over at immigration she would immediately file for her number.  We got her number last week so we were in the green for insurance!  The hoops we have to jump through!  But with her kidney issue in the past we couldn't let her go without insurance.

The days are steadily getting better everyday.  The kids are playing better and better everyday, and though Randy has been gone A LOT, it is getting better on me every day also.  Some days I do have to say I am so happy that bed time comes, but every day is becoming more and more joyful.

Dasha's behavior has drastically improved also.  She still tests her limits, which any toddler will do, but when she is corrected, and is in her "time in", she quits crying after a few minutes, where as when we came home sometimes she went 15-20 minutes at a time.  Her eye contact has improved so much also during these times.  When she has a time in I cradle her in my arms and hold her close and hold her feet, she kicks, and she has to look at me.  She does not turn her head and look away any more when she is angry at me.  After every time in she has to give me a hug and a kiss and then she always has a huge grin on her face.

Her words are growing we got
Hi
Bye Bye,
Nigh, Nigh
Ball
Her version of Camden, na, nan
go
no
up
Mama
Dada
thank you

she signs
more
eat
please
thank you
up
we are working on drink

The talking is still mostly on her terms, but knows that if she wants to get on our laps she has to say up, and she loves to go Bye, Bye!

We sit on the potty about 4 times a day, and usually make the chair play music, and sometimes we get a little extra in the potty, that is not pleasant to clean out!  She gives no indication of the #2 business, Camden was a full show of red face, grunting, so I would use the big toilet for those jobs!

Her little mug shot! Though I was not happy the mail man folded the envelope!

Visit to the IA Doctor

So Tuesday we loaded up the car and headed up to Minnesota for Dasha's IA doctor appt.  A regular drive would of been right at about 6 hours and 15 minutes.  It took us 8.5 hours!  But we stopped twice at rest stops etc.  We also stopped in Des Moines to see my cousin who was in a bad car accident the day we got back in the country.  She broke her neck and is in a halo.  She is like a sister to me and it was so good to see her and see that she was okay.  We made it to Minneapolis and checked into a wonderful hotel.  Funny story, when we got our referral, we applied for a Marriott rewards card where we got 50,000 free points, but since we had only two weeks between trips we weren't credited our points in time to use in Russia.  So we have all these points, so we got a great room in Minneapolis for free!

We then headed out to dinner, and got home and put two very tired kids to bed.  Dasha did not like the new environment, and really cried, but we got her calmed down and to sleep and we had a good nights sleep.  The next morning we got up and ate a wonderful breakfast and then loaded up to go to the University of Minnesota.  We got there, got checked in and within 5 minutes we were headed back.  They weighed Dasha, she was 23.6 lbs, 28%ile almost gained 2 pounds in a month and was 32 inches, 32%ile she has grown an inch since we have gotten back.  Crazy!

We gave the nurse the history that we knew, and then we met the nurse practictioner that I have been emailing back and forth with, gave over our wonderful stool sample and then they said Dr. Howard would be in shortly.  She was in so fast it was insane, she was WONDERFUL!!!!!  She was very hands on, and she spent almost 2 hours with us.  Talking, and answering questions, and then they brought in an OT to evaluate Dasha, and they did some skills with her, gave us some suggestions, and then they observed her run.  That has been my biggest concern, see Dasha runs with her legs straight, so she swings them out to the side when she runs.  So they went and got a PT to observe her and we were told that we should get her evaluated at home, she needs some work on that.

Overall I was super impressed with the whole process.  They were so nice and kind and it was more like friends meeting than a doctors appt.  Finally the last part was the blood draw.  I made Randy take her in and I stayed out in the waiting room with Camden.  I guess they tried in her right arm and couldn't get into her vein well, so they had to move to her left arm.  They got a good vein in her left arm and took all the blood they need.  They then did the TB prick and we were on our way.  They have a few things for us to do here.  We need to get an ultrasound of her kidney, they didn't think our insurance would cover it if they did it, and tomorrow I have to take Dasha in and get her TB test read.  Then I need to get her into our pedetrician and start catching her up on her vaccinations. 

After the appt. we went to the Mall of America and let Camden loose in the amusement park, he had a BLAST!  We took Dasha on one ride, and she did NOT like it, so we didn't try any others.  She was just happy running around.  Camden's favorite was the log jam ride, he rode it twice.  We left around 2 and made it home at 8:30.  The kids were exhaused, and Randy had to work today.  So it was a very quick trip, but I highly recommend anyone who is remotely close to Minnesota to go there for their IA appt.  We most likely will go back for her 6 month follow up.   

Someone enjoyed her first Chocolate Chip Cookie

Photos from the orphanage

I left 2 disposable cameras for the care takers to take pictures of Dasha.  One camera was good, the other they forgot to turn on the flash.

Christmas and Sleep

Well we are up to 5 nights in a row that Dasha has slept through the night.  But it seems that we are reverting on naps.  She sleeps for 30 minutes and wakes screaming, and so on, so now during nap time I am constantly going in and quieting her.  The secret, I think, for night time was keeping the door open to her room.  Since we started doing that, no 4 am wake-up calls.  Let me tell you it makes my disposition much better with 8 hours of sleep at night. 

The kids are having a hard time with sharing, equal on both sides, though Dasha is an instigator.  Camden has all of his "valuable" toys up in his room, but the common toys, Camden will be playing with something and she will just come and snatch it from him.  Camden, being an only child, does not fight back, but immediately cries and then she runs from him.  So I am constantly intervening with toys.  Though today was a great break-through, they played for over an hour together with no fighting, no screaming, and no fits!

Christmas pictures below.