Diane and Ciera on the move

Today was moving day for us, we moved to the apaartment across the street from the babyhouse.  Our driver Sergey managed to fit 2 large suitcases, 1 hockey bag, one carryon, one stroller, Ciera and I and 2 backpacks and himself into his car…what an amazing guy!  Not only that he lugged three 50 pound bags down 5 flights of stairs and then up 5 at the new place and did not seem to break a sweat.  The new place is great and I have finally been able to unpack instead of living out of suitcases.  It's large (2 bedrooms but Ciera is still sleeping in bed with me, that's gonna be a hard habit to break for her when we come home!) and Irina (the woman who cooks for this apartment) is an AMAZING cook and she is a very sweet woman….except that today's soup was mushroom….ugh…I have to remember to tell her that we don't eat those yucky things!

 

Things at the babyhouse as going well, Mr Baby was happy to see us and really wailed when I put her down for her 4:00 nap, Ciera did not want to leave her and was standing by her crib holding her hand, she said "I don't want to see her cry" I had to nudge her out of the room.  There are some very funny babies in this room, most of them are around 12 months so all have very unique persoanalities….one little one in her walked just sat next to us for both visits, she had such a serious look on her face so I kept tickling her to make her laugh.  This afternoon Ciera had the portable DVD player out, my effort to keep her from bugging me for 2 hours straight, and one little guy was totally fascinated with it as was Mr Baby, it was like she was in a hypnotic trance.   Funny ,at home Ciera can keep herself entertained for hours on end, but 5 minutes at the babyhouse and she's bugging me about something…I know it's her way of saying not to pay so much attention to the baby but it's certainly not like Ciera is lacking in attention….she has the other 20 hours of the day.

 

The caregivers I have met so far in this room are all so sweet and also quite funny, one of them was dancing around to the music yesterday afternoon, they seem so much more relaxed than the caregivers in room 9.   This afternoon they were pulling out photo albums that people had sent them to see which of the caregivers I knew and if I knew any of the kids (I didn't).

 

At lunch Ciera and I went to pick up some odds and ends for groceries, it never ceases to amaze me how many different flavors of juice they have here….I think I just drank ½ a carton of Green Apple juice (sorry Linda!), it is sooooo good!  I was quite excited the other night when in our fridge appeared a bag of milk…we tasted it and it was almost North American tasting, so I wrote down all the info on it so I could buy it again.  I picked some up today and tonight was so looking forward to my glass of milk, I opened the bag and poured….what came out was the consistency of cake batter, apparently I bought the wrong milk. It was way too sweet and thick.

 

The other yummy treats we find here are about a million different flavours of yogurt…and oh my gosh…the yogurt here is so good.  Ciera and I are eating about 3 a day each, it makes up for our lack of milk!  There is also a tasty treat that is in the yogurt section but is apparently with some sort of cheese, it has jam on the bottom and is oh so good.   The breads and pastries here are also oh so very good, none of this mass produced stuff.

 

After we left the baby house today we came and got our stroller and went for a long walk across the big park to Uym to get a few pictures printed out.   I was surprised that I totally remembered the way thru the park, but did not take the short cut as I was unsure and didn't want to get stuck out there in the dark!  I so needed the long walk and I think it may help me to finally sleep through the night.   Also needed it to help burn off some of the calories I'm eating!! Ciera walked a good ways of the way back and so I think between that and her 2 trips to the playground today she's tired, she was asleep less than 5 minutes after I left the room and now I'm heading there myself...I was literally knodding off as I waited for the screen to open!!!

 

I'll leave you today with a parting shot of Ciera…..yes she will hate me for this when she is older.  I'm warming up lunch today when I hear "mommy look at this" and I turn around to see her…in a baby walker!!

Baby on the move

Thank you for your comments and support, it is greatly appreciated!!

 

To answer some questions:

 

• Yes, I am calm about all this, I think part of it is having been exactly here before....I know the babyhouse, the routine, the people and the city and I am very comfortable here and with it all.  The other part might be the incredible stress of the 10 days prior to travel trying to pull it all together in 10 days, after that this is the easy part.  Part of it is also Ciera's easy transition into all this, she has amazed me with her acceptance of everything.  Oh and I am very pleased to report we have found some milk that is VERY close to North American taste so we both had HUGE glasses of milk with dinner last night!!!
• I have not been given any medical info yet on Mr. Baby so I would like to at least have an assessment prior to officially proceeding

 

After we arrived at the baby house this morning, I was told that Mr. Baby was moving to room 4 today.  Ciera was quite excited as she was in room 4 when we met and she had been asking to see it.   Mr. Baby's crib is just in front of the one Ciera had been in, I thought it was the same one so I checked back on pictures and it's close but not quite!

 

There are different caregivers there now, however the ones there now are just as sweet as the others.   Mr. Baby was happy to see us again today and we were rewarded with lots of smiles and giggles, but when she is tired you know it…she gets cranky but really who doesn't!

 

The room has changed a bit since we were there last, new paint, a new mural on the wall and the little 8 x 10 room is now about a 4x4 room with 2 easy chairs and a small table so we hang out in the big room with the other babies.

 

There are 8 other babies in our room, that's not including Mr. Baby and a little boy who is bonding with his mom from Spain.   I know very little Spanish…ok none really except what I know from watching Dora and that won't get me far.  She knows a little bit of English so somehow we manage to communicate.  After lunch 5 of the babies were placed in walkers and it was a free for all, it was like baby bumper cars.  There were 2 little ones fascinated with Ciera and they kept wheeling over to see her and she would quickly move her stuff so they didn't run it over.  One little guy wheeled over and while I was talking to him he reached down and pulled the teething keys away from Mr. Baby and this little guy had quite the grip on them.  I have made a mental note when I come back for my second trip that I am going to bring a bunch of sets of these same teething keys as the babies seem to really love them.

 

Ciera has had some moments of regression and we have had a few talks about it, I keep reminding her that I still love her just as much and that I have enough love for 2 daughters.   Even though she will always be my baby she does not need to act like one, I know it's normal but there have been moments when it's irritating as all get out!!!

 

Last night in an effort to finally get into a normal sleeping pattern again I forced myself to stay up until **gasp** 10:30 (at home I am rarely asleep before midnight) and thought this would help me to sleep until at least 6:00.   So when I woke up and looked at the clock I was sadly surprised…it was 2:00AM….I fought it for an hour and gave up, came into the living room, turned on the light and read a book until 5:00 when I forced myself to lie down and I eventually fell back to sleep (on the couch).  When Ciera woke up at 7:45 somehow she knew where to find me! 

 

Ciera seems to be winning her cold battle, I'm pretty stuffed up today and moved into the Cold FX, I've never tried it before but I bought a big bottle to bring with me, I'll let you know how it works.  It seems that many of the babies have some type of chest congestion (including Mr. Baby) so it's inevitable that we will get something.

 

We are/were supposed to move to the other apartment today, the woman who looks after that apartment gave me the lowdown of everything there when we were there for lunch today.  When the woman who makes our dinners here just brought us ours she asked what we needed to have re-stocked, hmmm.   Not to mention that our driver did not say his usual "9:30 tomorrow" when we got out of the car …..so I will talk to my coordinator later this evening to see when we are moving.   If it's not tonight I need to know who is picking us up tomorrow!!   I have not unpacked as it made no sense to unpack to have to re-pack so I keep digging though bags looking for stuff….ah well.

 

That's it for now…paka paka!!

Settling into the routine

Ok, so I'm now going to post to the blog via email, the thing is I cannot see where the pictures are being placed as I can even view my blog right now due to the method my which I am connecting to the internet.  So no comments on bad picture placement please!
 
This post should catch me up to today!!
 

We have settled into our routine…up at 8:00…downstairs to meet our driver at 9:30, at the babyhouse for 10:00, get Mr. Baby up and changed and fed, then she spits up her juice on my pants, we get cleaned up and hang around in room 9 for a bit.  On an aside here….there is a very cute little girl in this room, we'll call her D, she must be about 11-12 months and she is not shy at all, she keeps walking over and taking our photo album and looks at the pictures and today she had Ciera cornered, Ciera just kept backing away from her and D kept poking at Ciera's shirt, it was quite funny.  Then D picked up this little play cell phone and held it up to her ear…I laughed, here is a child who I assume has been here for while and I guess from the odd occasion of seeing people do this she knows what to do with it!   Anyhow, after we have hung out in room 9 for awhile we head downstairs to a big central room, spread out our blanket and hang out, at 12:00 we pack up head back upstairs, change Mr. Baby's diaper (and yes Ciera is helping even though she said she would not change diapers!).  Ciera is helping feed her and give her bottles and is doing a pretty darn good job at this big sister thing!

 

For lunch we head across the street to the apt across from the BH and have lunch with the other families who are here with my coordinator, which as of the end of today I believe will now just be me!!  Then just before 2:00 we head back over to the babyhouse, Mr. Baby gets up from her nap, changed her diaper, feed her and head back downstairs.  At 4:00 we head back up and then out to meet our drive who brings us back to our apt.

 

Ciera is half asleep in the car but refuses to take a nap, so we hang out, have dinner and tonight we watched Nickeldeon in Russian, she may be fluent by the time we come home!!  She does not seem to mind that she has no idea what they are saying.  I was cuddling with her and I fell asleep, I woke up and she was almost asleep so I said time for bed? She said yes and was asleep in 5 minutes.

 

We both appear to be fighting colds, and hopefully we win.  Quite a few of the babies we have seen at the BH also have colds and Mr. Baby appears to have some chest congestion today also, so we are drinking lots of water, taking our vitamins and getting sleep!

 

As yesterday was Sunday we only have one visit, in the morning, so I asked our driver to pick us up at 5:00 instead of 12:00.  It was a beautiful and almost warm day so we wandered around a bit, and headed down the street to the Cosmonaut Hotel where we had been told there was an indoor pool and free Wi-Fi in the bar.   It is a beautiful hotel, the pool area is gorgeous, Ciera loves to swim and has been asking if we can go swimming.  We can buy a one month membership to the pool for about $240.00US, or we can pay each time we go approx $44.00US, it seems rather high to me, but perhaps the girls there and I did not quite understand each other, we just want to use the pool not work out.  Although with all the eating I'm doing working out might not be a bad idea!! It's about a 10 minute walk from the apt we will be moving to, so I have it under consideration.

 

Mr. Baby was more smiley today and we had her laughing and giggling, she thought it to be terribly funny when she would lay on the floor and Ciera would lean over her and Ciera's hair would tickle her face!  She got a fistful a few times but Ciera said it was ok if she pulled it. It was cool and rainy today so we did not get to go outside.  She really is fascinated with Ciera, I'm guessing she has only ever seen adults and other babies.  If Ciera is behind me she will turn and twist her head and body to see Ciera.   Both times that I placed her back in her crib today for her nap she really started to wail, while sad to hear her it is good as it means she is enjoying her time with us, and she smiled as soon as she saw us this afternoon.  We are the good time people!!!

 

Today I was testing Mr. Baby's motor skills, she can roll from her back to her tummy, and going from her tummy to her back is a bit tricky, she gets part way and then poof she just rolls over from the momentum.  On her tummy she rocks back and forth a bit, but no real effort to crawl.  Holding her up with her feet on the floor she seemed to be enjoying bouncing up and down.   She does sit up on her own pretty well but does topple over at times.  Her two front bottom teeth have broken through and she really enjoys chomping away on toys!!!  She was also pretty chatty today.

 

Well that's it for now….I'm heading off to bed before I fall asleep on the computer!!

 

Night all!

 

Sorry I could not resist posting this one picture, I love the happiness on Ciera's face!!!

 

Off to a late start to day 2

to clarify we were ready on time, we had been told our driver would knock on our door at 9:30 to take us to the BH, so we were ready to go at 9:25 it was then 9:30….9:35, 9:40, 9:45, 9:50 the doorbell rings….our driver very apologetic the door to the building was closed and he does not know the code to get in so he had to wait for someone to come out.   No harm, it's a Saturday and traffic was not too bad so we made it there by 10:05, we met our translator, Irina and headed upstairs to Mr. Baby's room.  Yes I know it's bad calling her Mr. Baby, but that is what Ciera wanted to name the baby so I have named her that for the purposes of blogging for the meantime.  Her name will not be Mr. Baby forever!

 

By the time we got there she already had eaten her breakfast, they asked me if I brought diapers…um yes but I don't think they will fit!  Having been told before I left home that she was 9 months I bought size 2 diapers, I pulled them out and everyone laughed…she wears a size 4 diaper, a size 2 would not fit at all!  So they diapered her up in size 4 and I gave them my size 2's.  We are the only family visiting in our room, so we just hung out there on a padded bench, the floor is not carpeted and even though I have a blanket to place on the floor I know they will not want her to be on the cold floor.  Ciera was enthralled by her and kept giving her different toys to play with, poor kid must have been overwhelmed.  Her eyes kept following Ciera around. At noon we went to the apt across the street for lunch (yumm…home made soup!!!), the bank and to buy diapers! Then we headed back for our 2-4 visit.  I was VERY surprised when they said I could take her outside.  It was a gorgeous day, we were quite warm in jeans and long sleeved t-shirts, poor Mr Baby had on a sleeper, socks, a sweater and a hat.  She seemed fine with being outside so I am assuming she had been taken out over the summer.  Ciera got to play on the playground equipment which was great as it kept her busy and tired her out and I got to see what's it's like holding a baby and helping Ciera do stuff.   It was not bad, although I had to keep switching arms as 9 kilos (19.8 pounds) of dead weight starts to get heavy!  We went back in for 4:00 and out day was over.

 

We got home and dinner was waiting for us, Ciera was hungry so we ate.  We had water (which we did not in the morning) so I took advantage of that and we both had showers and put on our jammies….all by 6:00PM!! We were in bed and asleep by 9:00 and I had a blissful 4.5 hours uninterrupted sleep until Ciera fell out of bed at 1:30, it took until about 2:00AM to calm her down and then we slept until 8:00!!  Ciera did not even remember this in the morning.

 

I found today to be interesting with Ciera, normally she is quite quiet and reserved around people she does not know, but today she was not.  One of the Dr's who was there 4 years ago came in (same one as yesterday) and I asked if she remembered Ciera, she said yes.  I have a picture of them from when Ciera was a baby and I said I'd like another, so Ciera went over to her and the Dr. picked her up and Ciera was laughing and smiled for the picture!!!  She was also playing with our translator and talking a mile a minute the whole time we were there.  My take on it is that she feels totally comfortable there, I figure if the smell invokes memories for me (and I was only there for 3 weeks) then it must invoke memories (good) for her to as she lived there for almost a year.  So far so good with Ciera and with Mr. Baby!!!

we're here...

First off...if anyone can tell me how to have blogger display in English rather than Russian it would be a great help...please email me at ddavies61@hotmail.com with the instructions!  Either that or if someone could send me some English screen shots at least then I'd have a good guess of where things are....starting with how to do a new post once I am veiwing the blog!
 
I'm sure there is an easy way to do it, I'm just too darn tired to figure it out and my Russian is sorely lacking!
 
So for now I will be blogging by email, and I'm not sure if pictures come thru that way....we'll find out!
 
I'm a few days behind in blogging so please forgive me.....the jet lag, time difference, keeping 2 kids entertained for 4 hours and one for the other 20 is a wee bit tiring, last night Ciera and I were both asleep by 9:00 and looks like tonight will be the same!  I will catch up on the blog over the next couple days.
 

We have arrived safe and sound.  The journey was not all that bad…..Ciera watched tv until about midnight on the plane and then only slept until 4:00 when she declared that sleeping on airplanes was not that comfortable (we had the aisle and window in a 2 seat row, so it was pretty cramped. It was a very full flight.   I slept a bit off and on.  The connection in Frankfurt was great, we only sat at the new gate for about 45 minutes, and I had the agent move us to an empty 4 seater row so we could stretch out and sleep, this flight was nowhere neat full, and you have to LOVE Lufthansa .   Real cutlery,  2 major snacks and a dinner, Ciera's kid meal left a lot to be desired though it seemed like a baby meal, pureed veggies and no meat.  So she ate ½ of mine.  Then I made her lay down and sleep and she got in another 3 hours and I got in another couple.   Went thru the proper departing part in Almaty, got thru customs, got our luggage and the guy from the "hotel" was waiting for us.   He basically just pushed the luggage cart over to the hotel and then we checked in and got our room.  It's the same place I stayed at on my way back to Karaganda to pick up Ciera but this time I knew to ask for a room with an attached bath.  So while we didn't sleep, ok ..I cat napped…we were able to just hang out, Ciera did Lego and then we both took showers, and were ready to leave at 5:00AM.   The same man took us back to the airport and you have to like travelling with a child in a stroller, I got pulled from the line and right to an attendant to check in!!  Our luggage was overweight as I thought but it was I think about $50 to get it on the plane…the legal way! 

 

I had forgotten how beautiful it is on the runway in Almaty, it took my breath away when I saw the mountains.  Funny I was calm the whole way here, but I saw the mountains and I got all teary eyed.

 

 

My sister would have freaked with the plane, it was a 50 person prop plane but new, leather seats and comfy.   Ciera slept the whole 2 hours and I slept about an hour, what a smooth ride it was.  As we were in a prop plane we flew lower than a jet would and the scenery was amazing as we flew over the steppes. 

 

Ciera was totally out of it when we landed, got her sweatshirt on her (hood down) and was telling her she had to walk off the plane when a gentleman reached up took our bag down and told me to go, so I did!  Off the plane the gentleman with him reached over and out Ciera's hood up saying "it's cold out".  They helped me all the way to the terminal and even told some people on the bus to the terminal to move so I could sit with Ciera.

 

In the terminal someone else went a got a cart for me and we caught sight of Marina waiting for us outside of the baggage place. Once outside Marina gave me a huge welcoming hug.  She asked if we wanted to go to the babyhouse now and then to the apartment to eat and sleep or eat and nap first and then go to the BH at 2:00.  I asked Ciera what she wanted to do as I didn't want to take her to the BH if she was going to be a mess, she was so groggy and tired.  She said she wanted to go to the BH, so we headed there. 

  

Karaganda has changed in the past 4 years, lots of new growth, quite a number of very large new houses. But the familiarity of it all feels good.  They painted the fence outside the BH it's no longer green it's now red and purple.   We went in the back door and the familiar smell hit me, it's so reassuring.  It's nice to be so far away from home but for it to be so familiar.   Marina had asked me on the way there what Ciera's name had been and I told her.   The director is different but the head Dr (I think that's her role) is still the same and Marina told her who Ciera was and her face lit up and she reached out to Ciera and tickled her,  that was the first time this morning that Ciera even smiled, let alone laugh.   After she left I asked Ciera if she remembered the baby house, she looked solemn and said yes, I don't know if she really does or just from pictures, but I'm sure the smell invokes some memories.

 

Then someone came in with the baby, I had been told she is plumpy and plumpy is right!!!  For now we will refer to her as Mr. Baby (seeing as that is what Ciera wanted to call her!).  Holy chubby face, she weighs 9 kilos, they laughed and said almost as much as Ciera?  Yep almost!! In fact, they said she is overweight, and that once she starts walking and moving around she will slim out.  I held her and she was not scared at all, she kept staring at Ciera, she seemed fascinated by her.  For 9 kilos though she felt light,  she is short in height though (well maybe not for 8 months, I'll have to check the growth charts) as when they first walked in with her I thought "wow she's so tiny". We only spent about 5 minutes with her, and then we left to come to the apt.  She has dark hair (the little she has) and dark eyes and Ciera asked why she and the baby had the same checks!  She is a pretty cute baby!  We will go back tomorrow for 10:00 and spend some time with her, hopefully get her medical info.  I asked Ciera what she thought and she said "why didn't you say baby this is your sister Ciera"  So I guess barring anything really bad on her medical, I will say yes.  We will be doing the same 10-12 and 2-4 routine which is good.  The clothes I bought will fit but the few diapers I brought I don't think will and I have no tenge on me now to go out and buy some (I used it for the hotel and breakfast at the airport this morning).

 

We are staying in an apt in Stepnoy until Tuesday when we will move to the apt across from the BH, where we will stay for the rest of our time here.  That will make things simpler, we can walk to the BH, downtown, to a huge park, and lots of other places.

 

We drove back from the BH thru downtown, lots of new buildings in downtown, looking forward to doing some exploring!!!

 

At the apt we had some Rice Krispies (which by the way travel very nicley in a Tupperware cereal container filled to the top!) with milk and Ciera was very diplomatic "this milk is interesting…" will try to find some that tastes more North American like. Although we both had a strawberry yogurt drink at airport this morning and it was darn tasty!!!

 

We are just waiting for the cook to bring us our lunch and then I think we will have a little walk outside and then dinner and bed and hopefully into the routine for tomorrow.

 

Ciera wants to play with all the new stuff that is in the suitcases and I keep telling her that we have 5 weeks she does not have to play with everything today!!!  

 

Not sure if the picture will post this way but if it does it's Ciera and I at Pearson just about to board our flight to Frankfurt!

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

We are almost off......

In less than 24 hours Ciera and I will be airborne!

The past 11 days have been a roller coaster, my emotions are all over the map.

So the dog is at his "sleepover", the cat and house sitters are all arranged, the laundry is done, some stuff is organized, the lawn has been mowed, I have about a million notes on my kitchen counter, the banks have been called to notify them I will be overseas.....now all I need to do is finish up some work (for work) and actually put our stuff in suitcases, and then do a last minute cleanup of the house!

Packing for me is easy...packing for Ciera for 5 weeks is a bit boggling. Movies, school work, books, art stuff, her flotilla of fish for sleeping with, games, puzzles, some food (Rice Krispies), oh right and she actually needs some clothes.

I can't believe my next post will be from Karaganda!!!!

LOI

Three teeny tiny little letters.....who would ever believe they would have such a life altering emotional response! Yes I got my LOI!!!! For those who don't know, LOI stand for Letter of Invitation, this is the what adoptive parents for Kazakhstan anxiously await, this is what allows us to enter the country and the babyhouse/orphanage to meet our children.

My call came on Saturday morning at 10:18, I was actually at the bank getting some unrelated stuff from my safe deposit box when my cell phone rang, I didn't even glance at it I just let it go to voice mail while I finished up. I glanced at Ciera's birth certificate in my box and thought...hmm, I wonder if I will need this for anything...nope I can get it later if I need it. I locked up and left the bank. Out in the car I pulled out my phone and saw the call I had missed was from my agency, not overly concerning as I had left a message on Friday. I listened to the message "you need to call us urgently"...oh crap that can't be good I thought. So I called and heard, your LOI has been issued and they want you there on the 24th or 25th. WHAT??? That's 2 weeks from today.....yikes.....she had more to say but quite frankly I think I only processed about 1/3 of it, but did manage to hear "oh and we need a copy of Ciera's birth certificate" darn good thing I had not left the bank parking lot yet! I headed back in and got asked "you're back already?" "yes I need one more thing...oh and can you make a copy of it for me", thankfully they did.

I left there and made a couple of shaky calls and went to pick Ciera up from dance, I started to tear up as I told her "you know how we have been waiting to to to Kazakhstan? We are going to go in 2 weeks" and you know what my sweet little girl said "do they have jelly beans there?" HUH? Not quite the response I was thinking I'd get, she seemed rather underwhelmed, I though well it has been a long haul for her so maybe she's just thinking "yeah I'll believe it when I see it".

For the Kazakhstan visa you need a passport picture...I had to go to 4 places to get it..Costco ....no sorry we have too many orders to fill today, we can do it tomorrow (no thanks), off to Blacks...sorry our printer is broken (don't you have more than one you do print pictures as a business), off to Zellers....sorry no photo studio here.....Walmart...yes!!! At the dear price of $19.98...how is it Costco can do them for $6.99??? Doesn't matter, I need it let's just do it.

Fast forward to Monday...at breakfast Ciera mentions "hey we didn't have a party at daycare when I started kindergarten" ok fair enough "ok you know what, on your last day before we head to Kazakhstan we can take in ice cream for you to celebrate".

I spent Monday stressing getting my visa applications filled out, and getting all the various copies of things I needed. Stressing how to get my $$'s from my agency (where they hold them in trust) to me, to get to the bank and change it into what I need. Fortunately it all came together thanks to some creative thinking on several peoples parts. If anyone ever needs to do an adoption loan, I have a wonderful person at National Bank, even though I did my loan well over a year ago...she went out of her way to help me yesterday, she is truly amazing, if anyone wants her name let me know (she works in the GTA).

I head off to Fed Ex and pick Ciera up on the way to make sure I picked her up by 6:00, I walk into daycare and meet up with K , she tells me how excited Ciera is, I said "really??" apparently Ciera is telling everyone we are having a celebration for the baby and everyone can come!!! I guess it took 48 hours to process!! Ciera came out of her class and said "I need to run upstairs to tell Miss M something", so I followed her and I hear Ciera saying "we are going to Kazastan to meet our baby!".

We made it into FedEx, where the poor woman behind the counter had to tell me 3 times how I had to fill out the form for the return envelope....then when I handed it in and walked outside, I started to cry...I really wanted to just sob but I didn't want to scare Ciera. It was a combination of ok that all worked out and holy bananas this is really happening.

Needless to say yesterday and today I have been bombarded with questions from Ciera, but sadly today I had to tell her that the baby won't be living with us when we are there, nor will the baby be coming home with us, she was quite sad and I reminded her that it was the same as when I met her, and that we will see the baby lots during the day....apparently satisfied with that the next thing was "can we go swimming when we are there?", you have to love how kids think!!!

I am now in wait mode again...waiting to hear that my visa will/is/has been issued so that I can then madly scramble to book flights.

Why do I keep having to remind myself to breathe?!!!

I can't get married!!!

Not that there is anyone on the horizon but if you know someone, you know tall, handsome, dark, single, rich.....oh sorry I got distracted!!

Months ago out of the blue Ciera told me "you can't get married" I responded with "what if I want to?", only to be told "you can't", when I asked why, she just said "'cause you can't". Tonight on the way home we were having a conversation about family and she asked who my mom was (nana) and who my dad was (poppa), then I hear "that's not fair... how come you have a mom and a dad and I don't" (this was said with ALOT of attitude), so I thought "aha here is my chance to get the married thing in" I quickly responded "well if I got married you would have a mom and a dad" and from the back seat I heard "oookaaaay" (again with attitude!).

I thought wow she's changed her mind (not that I would let her rule this if there was an actual option at hand, but I would appreciate her acceptance!) and I excitedly said "really?! I can get married?" and my hopes were dashed when Ciera said "no it's ok, I'll just have a mom"......sigh foiled again.

It's vacation time!

Last week Ciera and I, along with my sister Linda (Auntie Dada) spent a wonderful 5 days camping in Niagara. Even though our campsite was pretty much on the QEW we had a fabulous time.


Ciera building with our firewood, a future engineer or architect perhaps?



As a salute of sorts to Ciera's love of fish we went to Marineland and had a great time, Ciera surprised me by asking to go on a ride which I thought would be too much for her...it's a big boat that swings back and forth and then turns around and back. There was no chance I was going on with her (I don't do back and forths very well!) and Linda wanted to go on it so Ciera insisted even though we must have asked her a dozen times "are you sure?" so on she went...oh my gosh she laughed the whole time, she LOVED it!!



Ciera and Auntie Dada are in the 3rd row from the left








Ciera and mom on the roller coaster !!! She wanted the front row...











Feeding the deer the cream cone from it's food was funny!





We also spent a day at Crystal Beach (my new favorite Ontario beach), a day in Niagara Falls, New York where they have a small Aquarium (Ciera quite liked it and ended up with a new fish, Nemo) and shopping! Then we spent our last day at Zooz (Safarii Niagara)



Ciera is a fish!!!










Odd tan lines!? Also proof for when she is 15 that she did used to like to be close to me!!!






The weather was near perfect, except for the 2 torrential downpours on Wednesday night where I found I had not waterproofed the tent quite as well as I thought I had...there were a couple of "small" leaks. During the 2nd downpour Ciera and I were trapped in the tent, Linda was in the dining shelter with the food and the wine (I think she had the better location!!), it rained so hard and so fast we had to build a plank way to avoid the small lake that separated the tent and the dining shelter.

But all in all we had a great time and Ciera was sad to come home "can we go camping again tomorrow?"