3 months old!

Happy 3 months to my sweet Samuel.  He is getting so big and is starting to look so much like his big brother.  Samuel's eyes are still blue and I'm hoping they stay that way.  Other than that, he looks very similar to Matthew. Especially when he sleeps. So sweet.

I have had so many people recently tell me what a good baby he is.  I know this to be true.  He is so calm and so easy, it's actually a little scary.  He does not cry.  Really.  Even in the morning, sometimes I will go in to his room to wake him up and feed him and he'll be awake, all swaddled nice and tight, just looking around.  Then I have to wonder, "how long has he been awake?"  He fusses (and I wouldn't even call it crying) when he wants his binky or if he's really hungry (which doesn't happen very often since I feed him on schedule instead of waiting for him to ask for it.)  We can put him down on his mat or in his chair and he'll sit there and look around and kick his legs and coo for an hour. I feel like I neglect him sometimes because it's so easy to put him down and forget about him in favor of the screaming, shrieking, running, busy, mischievous toddler.

He hardly sleeps during the day, especially considering he is only 3 months old.  He sleeps in spurts at day care for probably a total of like 2 hours.  He might take an hour nap in the evening. So maybe he'll sleep for 3 hours total during the day.  Then at night he'll sleep for...well...I don't really know how long because I usually have to wake him up to start the day so i can go to work.  I think he'd probably sleep for between 10 and 11 hours.  I am thinking of trying to feed him bigger feedings during the day so I can cut out one feeding and put him to bed earlier.  He currently eats 5 times a day. I feel like 4 times is a little few for 3 months, but maybe it will work.

Not really sure how much he weighs now since we don't go to the doctor till 4 months, but I think he weights about 12.5 lbs since i tried to weigh him on our scale at home.

He talks a lot, making cute little cooing sounds. ;He gives small little squeals and is experimenting with "aahhh."  Matthew was never so talkative.  Samuel also has very little interest in rolling from his tummy to his back.  He just lays on his mat like a sack of potatoes.  He doesn't even lift his head or push up.  It's very funny, really. When he's on his back he is so active and will sometimes turn to his side.  And he can hold his head up well and put some weight on his legs pretty well, too.  But apparently tummy time is not so appealing.

Samuel often has a very concerned look on his face.  It's just how he always looks if he's just checking out the world.  We think it's very cute. But we are a little biased.

I could not be more in love with this wonderful son God has given us.  Tim and I were talking last night that perhaps the reason Samuel is so easy is because by the time he is a year (hopefully) we will have a (potentially) needy little girl who is not that much older than him.  Perhaps Samuel's temperment is going to be what prevents us from checking ourselves into the psych ward. We love you, Samuel Christopher!

Gymnastics

We've had Matthew enrolled in gymnastics since about September.  He loves it and it has been so fun to watch his skills and interests change as he has gotten older.  This morning he kept asking me to take pictures of him during different activities.  Thought I'd post some on here Matthew loves to jump on the trampoline, flip on the bar, walk on the beam, jump off the vault, and do somersaults. . 

Pool Adventures

We belong to the best pool.  It's really more like a mini waterpark for kids.  There are a ton of slides, including a tunnel type slide that spirals, and a lot of things that spray, squirt, and dump water for the kids to play with.  (There are also super steep slides for adults...)  And the baby pool is really fun, too, with some mini slides and other fun equipment.  Matthew has so much fun at the pool and really loves all the water slides.  Of course, I can't get any pictures of him going down the bigger slides because I'm certain my camera would get wet.  There is a giant bucket (and I mean, giant) that dumps water over the play area every minute or so. It's impossible to play on the equipment without getting dumped on. I will say, that's a bit annoying.

Yesterday was Samuel's first time at the pool where he was awake.  He enjoyed sitting in the water with his dad.  We are looking forward to spending a lot of time at the pool this summer!  I am so thankful Matthew is fearless in the water, and even more thankful that a lot of the pool here is so shallow that Matthew can stand.  There is only one area that's to deep for him to stand, and that's not the area with the slides, which is helpful.  We're going to have to watch him when we go to Florida. He's going to run and jump in the pool faster than we can catch him.  We have him in swim lessons for the second summer, but of course he's not really capable of swimming by himself yet.

Waiting...

It has been so long since I gave an adoption update. I thought I would use some downtime during my call day to do it.

The reason I haven't said much is there isn't much to say.  Let's see.  Everyone asks when we will get our daughter.  We still don't know. Basically, when we sent in our dossier (which is basically the docs that register us with Russia) they said that for a young, healthy, girl, we should expect to wait 6-9 months for the first trip.  They told us at the time that this was usually a longer time period than what normally happened. In fact, when I was talking with the international coordinator at our agency (Building Blocks) she said that the longest they have had a family wait recently for a young girl was 7 months.  BUT...this was all before things in Russia slowed down due to political hesitancy with international adoptions. The crazy woman who adopted a boy without fully understanding the consequences of him having grown up in an orphanage and sent him back to Russia alone, with a note, has royally screwed up everything for the hundreds, if not thousands, of willing, excited, and realistic families who are trying to bring him a child to love.  Meanwhile there are thousands of kids in horrible orphanages who stays there are being needlessly prolonged. But, unfortunately, my opinion doesn't matter. Since then, things have slowed down.  Andrea, the international coordinator at Building Blocks said that things are moving, by more slowly.  However, she also said she expected our referral to still be in the 6-9 month time frame.  I don't know how she could possibly know that.  Maybe she does or maybe she is just trying to make me feel better.  I am more inclined to believe the latter, but I am hopeful that she is right.

We are coming up on 5 months of waiting. So we will see.  Tim and I are both hopeful we will get a call in August or September, but again, we just have no idea.  My life is definitely crazy enough now and I am enjoying having 2 kids, so I am not necessarily sitting around every moment in agony waiting to add another child to my family.  However, I have begun to anticipate our daughter and I do hope they call in the next few months. I cannot imagine the torture that this waiting period must be for families who have no children and are waiting for an adopted child.

The other news is that Russia recently changed their laws (who said they could do that?) and they now require 3, one week trips to Russia instead of 2 trips, one longer and one shorter.  We are less than thrilled with this change because we are going to have to spend thousands and thousands (and thousands?) of dollars more to buy plane tickets for a third trip not to mention all those painful hours sitting on planes.  We are still trying to figure out what to do with the kids during these trips.  We are not allowed to bring the kids into the orphanage, so if we bring them (or even just Samuel) we require very generous babysitters to join us on our international excursion.  I am definitely planning on bringing the whole family for the last trip, when we pick her up, and I'd like to bring Samuel for the first trip, also, since I will most definitely still be nursing him.  But a billion hours on a plane is a lot for me, let alone my infant or my (very) active 2 1/2 year old or 3 year old.

So that's all for now. We are planning on going to a picnic in the northern part of Ohio that our adoption agency holds in a few weeks.  We are hoping to meet a lot of families who have adopted from Russia (and more importantly meet their children).  We sure could use some stories, advice, and some first hand look at the kids that have been adopted. We are excited for our mini vacation (swimming, playgrounds, and a trip to the zoo!)  We will have more to say after the trip.