A short tribute for my dad

One year ago today my dad passed away.  He had been in the hospital for almost 6 months and while we knew he would not be coming home, we kept up hope that he would at least come out of the hospital.
 
So here I sit one year later half a world away from home, getting ready to go to court next week and start preparations to bring my new little daughter home and into our family.  Not a day goes by that I don't miss my dad and think of him in some way.  I talk about him to Ciera to give her memories of him and to help keep the memories she has of him alive for her.  It makes me so very sad to know that my 2nd daughter will not get a chance to meet her poppa.  While we don't have lots of pictures of Ciera with poppa, T will have none.
 
My dad knew of my plans for a 2nd child and while he worried (dad was always a worrier) of how I would manage on my own, I know he was supportive.
 
My new daughter is named to honour him and I hope that somehow we can bring his memory alive for her too even though she will never meet him or have him hold her.  This picture is my dad and Ciera the day we arrived home, it was the first time he held her. 
 
thanks again for everything dad, we love you and we miss you.
 
 

An ordinary day

Today was just an ordinary day for us here…..except I think the lovely lady who cooks for us is psychic!   Yesterday at lunch, we were chatting (the couple who lunches with us and I) about our meals, and they mentioned they had eaten cabbage rolls the night before.  I said "really? cabbage rolls, huh we have not had those yet, I'd like some of those".  Today we walked in for lunch and what had she made?  Yes…..yummy home made cabbage rolls!!   Weird or what…..hmmm maybe tomorrow we should talk about chocolate cheesecake and see what happens J

 

Mr. Baby is finally completely back to her old self but I have discovered something about her, actually I think it's new,…she HATES being told no and having something taken away from her/stopped from doing something.  That was a full on go on that today, she wailed, complete with tears, the few times that I did that today.  It was almost comical.  Her legs are so much stronger now, she can hold herself up fully with straight legs and feet flat on the ground, with me holding her upright of course.   In the play room one of the therapists saw her doing that and came over and put her down on her hands and knees and showed her how to pull herself up on a wall ladder and in my head I'm thinking "I don't want you to teach her that, I want her to learn it when she gets home, please don't help her".  She has almost got her knees into the crawling action now, it amazes me daily how much she has changed in 6 weeks, it is incredible to see on a daily basis.  Today she almost put her arms out to be picked up, I put my arms in her crib to get her and just held them back a little and one little arm started to come up, I praised her heavily for that.

 

It was a bit cooler today, but still not bad, and it was drizzly so we had to stay inside all day (yuck), hoping tomorrow is better and we can get back outside.

 

After we left the baby house today we met up with Oxana, another of the translators whom I knew from the last trip here.  Together we went to the art studio that we also went to 4 years ago.  The husband of one of the Dr.'s at the baby house is an artist and I wanted to get a couple more paintings.  It was so hard deciding, they were all so beautiful.  I let Ciera pick out one for herself for her room, she wavered between 2 but finally decided.  She wanted both but I told her she had to pick one!  He is a wonderful artist and is currently working on doing wax figures for a new museum that is going to open here.  There were a couple of "heads" there that he is working on and they are pretty darn realistic, and he said they were not even done yet.  I'd like to see them when they are complete.  I learnt a bit more about Karaganda history while I was there, a bit of the dark side, I will have to read up on that part more.   

 

After that we had a quiet night at home, Ciera did about an hour of school work.   She complains about starting it but once she gets going she keeps wanting to do more, which right now is good as we have fallen a bit behind (sorry Mrs. Gillard and Mrs. Keeping) and have to catch her up before we get home.  We only brought 5 weeks worth and will have been gone 7 by the time we get home so she will still be 2 weeks behind but that's not so bad considering what she has gained by being here.

 

When we were out with Oxana this afternoon, Ciera was showing her pictures on the camera and kept saying "my sister this", "my sister that" and Oxana commented on how she accentuates "my sister", she's very possessive of her already.  I had initially been a bit concerned that almost 5 years between them might mean they won't have a good bond, but that concern is long gone now.  The bond is cemented there.

 

Picture today:

-       it was a slow picture day but I like this one.  Little sister looking up at big sister on the ladder.

 

A few of you have mentioned you think you know who Mr. Baby is as you were here prior to me.  As you know pictures of your child before you met them are priceless and always appreciated.  So of you have some please send me an email, or just send me one if you just want me to confirm or deny who she is before you send me a whole bunch of a child who is not mine!!  Any thoughts or observations about her also would be very much appreciated.  Thanks so much.

 

For those who will be travelling after me, I do regularly take pictures of the other children in the room and I will be most happy to share any pictures that have your child in them and I will also share any observations and moments with them.  I have grown to love all these little ones, they al have such unique personalities. I do hope they all find loving homes soon, be it back with their birth families or new forever families.

Bath Day!!!

This morning, just after all the babies had finished their breakfast, I heard one of the caretakers say "mama, mama" and I knew she was talking to me as right now I am the only mama there!  Irina said, "she wants to know if you want to give Mr. Baby a bath" (ok she used her name!).  I said "ok" so off we went into the back room where she had filled a baby tub with water.  I put my hand in and normally there is no way I would have put a baby in water that hot and I said so and the caretaker put her hand in and waved me off, apparently it's the temperature they always use, even Ciera thought it hot.  I tried to put Mr. Baby in and she must have thought it hot too as she tried to pull her legs out but the caretaker slid her in.  She LOVES her baths (seems like we will be having many long baths at our house in the future!), she got her hair washed, all soaped up and was laughing and smiling for the whole event.  Between the caretaker, Ciera and myself she got all cleaned up.  We got her out of the tub into a blanket, dried her off and then the caretaker slathered cream on her, on my gosh she smelt so good, I could have just eaten her up.   Irina was the photographer for the event and did a great job!!!

 

Other than that it was an uneventful day, it was another glorious day here…sunny and 15C or so, and apparently that's the forecast for the rest of the week which is as far as we get a forecast for.  You will not hear any complaints from me about this weather!!  We were even told today "take your babies outside".

 

Ciera brought her Halloween loot bag to the babyhouse this morning and continued to hand out candy to Irina, the caretakers and to Dr. L.  Dr. L tried to tell her to keep it but Ciera insisted she take it, so she did.  The less Ciera has the better, although she did not have much but it's enough.  One of the treats was very tasty watermelon flavoured marshmallow.  You know those marshmallow bananas?  Same thing only watermelon flavoured!!

 

When I went to put Mr. Baby in her crib this afternoon, I opened the door and did a double take….there was a baby already in her crib!  I went further in to see who it was and it was little A who's crib is beside hers. I wondered for a second if they had changed cribs, then I went out and motioned to one of the caretakers to come in and I pointed and laughed, she laughed too and called in the other caretaker to see!  I guess one of them was rather tired this afternoon to put little A in the wrong crib.

 

We are having a chill evening here, we got home from the BH, had our snack and Ciera said "can I watch tv?", I said "sure" and she has been laying on the bed for 2 hours now, and I did check and she is awake.  We've been pretty much doing something everyday lately after the babyhouse so today I figured we could both use some down time, and each of us some alone awake time.  I took advantage of this time to do the dishes, read, talk for a few minutes on the phone (uninterrupted by Ciera), download my pictures from my camera and write this!  Looks like I have the evening free now to watch a movie.

 

Today's Pictures:

-       bath time!

-       Mr. Baby cuddling with her soft toy blanket.  As we are leaving in 2 weeks I wanted to leave something with her for the time we are gone, so I started to leave this with her yesterday, she seems to like it.

-       Ciera outside in the BH play ground burning off some sugar

-       Two peas in a pod, they have definitely bonded, it's a bit scary how similar they are, I'm in big trouble with these two in a couple of years J

-       Just for you Sara here's a picture of my new boots, I hope you are not too disappointed that they are not stilettos!!!