Trouble in Paradise

So today Mr M got into the toilet...it's a good thing that they say that the toilet bowl has less germs than a dirty dishrag but the thought makes me gag...last week he got into the toilet paper, now that was fun, don't ask me why it bugs me so much that my rolls aren't perfectly rolled anymore:)
The sibs are also noticing each other way more, like, since your playing with that toy, it's now my favorite toy and guess who's going to get it from you. Unfortunately, for poor Phoebe, since M is more coordinated with his muscles, he often leaves Phoebe in tears...
So while it is snowing outside today on April 26th, we've been cooped up in the house. Mr M discovered his old jump-n-go, it was the cutest thing, he took it out on the floor and then tried to get into in...he started crying in frustration that it wasn't working until I put it up on the door again and away he went! Best 29.99 we've spent in toys. I'm going to try to get some of these pictures in action , but if I don't, you'll hopefully like the ones I posted. Thanks to Andrea, I've found a new tool to play with!! And even though my kids get into trouble, it's paradise to have them!!!
My favorite position...practicing to be a model..hope not says mom!
Love my jump n go!
By the way, Mom, I can sit up now all by myself...
These photos were taken for a fundraiser...
if you think I do this all the time I don't, it's Terry's fault anyway:)
It's mine...
B=No, it's mine!!
See, I told you it was mine!

Family Foto FUN!!

My car got loaded suddenly!
Lolo and Phoebe
Don't like rice cereal part 1
Being a Grandma is a joy!
Rebecca, my sis, and P
It's actually warm out!
At Nickelodean Indoor Theme Park MOA
Are you sure this ride won't make me sick?
Phoebe and her Lola
Happy 3rd Birthday Alex!!
So, it's been a busy week with family here and birthday celebrations and taxes, and still being sick, can you believe it? This Tokmok crud was hard to shake, John and I finally got rid of the hacking cough, and now poor Michael has it. Keeps him up at nite as well as me...poor baby, first missing his momma, then the canker sores, and now this croupy cough...we can't wait until we all get reasonably healthy again. It was nice to have my folks here to help hold these babies just while coordinating life and trying to get back to some sort of schedule...maybe in a few months? Oh well, enjoy these pics. We went to the mall one day as it was a cold rainy day...

Why you shouldn't get pics when you are sick...

Ask me how I really feel about this...

We had our appointment, and John was home so we thought we would go ahead and try...
It was disasterous!! Today we are laughing because absolutely none of the photos they took had us all looking somewhat decent. Someone was always having a tough time or funny look. It would only work if we cropped parts out and pieced them together, but that doesn't make for a good family photo. So I cropped out some great shots of some of us from the whole photo and only put one of poor sick Phoebe up in her real state of affairs-there were absolutely no good ones in a family shot. If I put some of those up they might not let us adopt again...needless to say, we might have to go back when Phoebe feels better and when her eyes don't get puffed up from crying...I'd have to say she cried almost the whole time we were there no matter what we tried, bottle, kisses, silly faces, dog licks, even Michael went and gave her a big kiss and a pat on the back(where was the photographer when THAT happened?).
At least someone's laughing!
Mikey and Mom, uncanny similarities...

They are starting their own language and are starting to interact with each other, yeah!! That's one good thing coming out of being sick together.
As far as the photos go at least the photographer was really nice and understanding, John said that was wasted hours he'd never get back again...although we are getting a good laugh out of the photo CD:)
Sydney gave up exhausted,one of the better pics but still ungivable albeit realistic...
pep talk from Daddy...
P's best shot of the day-it'll have to do for her 6 month pic...

We're Still Sick & Sleep deprived!

So our little peanut got a fever tonight...I picked her up after picking up the photos from the camera we left at the orphanage, thanks Jamie(oops the check is in the mail) and she felt hot. We have one of those cute talking thermometers you put on the forehead of your kid, Michael loves it! His read normal at 97.3 -YEAH and Phoebe's read 99.6! So just to check, good old nurse I used to be I whip out the rectal thermometer. Uh oh!!! 103.0 degrees! Tylenol and to bed she gets. Of course now I'm worried.
I hate having just a little knowledge and thinking of all the things that could go wrong but most likely won't...she's restless tonight and so is Momma. We're all supposed to get our family pics taken and her 6 months photos tomorrow...we shall see...

Life with 2 and one being sick!

Feeding time!!
Okay, just when I thought I was getting it down pretty well, both napping staggered so I could get them bathed at different times, fed at the same time(kind of but just for the picture), my poor M gets the coxsackie A virus(remember those canker sores you used to get) and has not slept nor ate very much for the last 2 days!!! Ouch!!! I knew something was up, he wasn't sleeping his usual 11-12 hours, and everytime he ate or wanted his bottle he just lost it!!! (What a great time to wean him off his bottle though, we didn't before because we knew we would be leaving for Phoebe) The big hint was giving him some oranges which he just loves(wrong, wrong thing to give a person with canker sores) and he wailed and I saw those nasty little white bumps in his mouth:( Poor baby. He might be teething & getting his first year molars also, we can only hope.
The great thing about having a doctor daddy was he got some medicine to help him, of course, he wouldn't just believe me but was able to see with a flashlight when our poor baby was wailing the white bumps on his tonsils-double ouch!!! The bad news is he said 5-7 days. Don't know if I can handle the lack of sleep, of course I am still jetlagged, getting up at 330 am, but I think my sleep deprivation will cure it.
on my walker!
I can go zoom, zooom!!
M showing Phoebe the ropes...
Happy in my corner!
So, being a mommy of 2 has not been the most pleasant experience thus far. Especially when one feels really nasty and the other needs your attention because she is so new. I have had help, yeah(from Kathy, Ruth, and Deb), meals coming our way(, and my parents arrive on Monday, whew!! What a blessing it is however to have a baby who is pretty independent, and very advanced for her age. We are hoping that Phoebe was the carrier so we don't need to repeat this next week, but God has provided for that just in case:)
Crawling at home...
Kathy & Phoebe

Life at home and Jetlag

Okay, day 2, I crashed at 330 pm after a morning of grocery shopping and going to Costco. We have hardly any food in the house and I didn't have much to make supper quickly so we divided and conquered. I took the lightweight girl shopping with me, M had Daddy time and John was wonderful enough to let me sleep and try to get rid of my cold. Poor baby, now he has the Tokmok crud:( I just woke up at 830 pm to put my Michael to bed and relieved John of his shift duties...I'm going to put up a few picks of our babies, add the photos to the Home Sweet Home post, wake up Phoebes and hopefully we can go down for the night...
Phoebe & her Big "sister" cousin
Bath Beauties, M loves it, P screams through the whole thing!
I know I'm supposed to fit in 3-6 months but it's still a little big!
Waiting for my photo shoot I'm going to race my big brother!
Tazzie loves Phoebe, she's not so sure!
Michael forgave me, it's wonderful. We went to dinner with our Stahl family last night and he went to Mommy without a fuss!! Yeah!!!

HOME SWEET HOME!

We are happy to say that all went well and we arrived home safely at 330 pm CST!!! We were able to get the baby bassinet both legs of our journey, even though KLM couldn't tell us that for some reason, but it was great!! I'll be posting pictures later on today(hopefully-guess who's camera battery died again)so check later for updates to this post:)They're here:)

I'm up at 3 am CST because my little boy woke screaming at about 1245 am and proceeded to wake up Phoebe who decided she wanted to stay up for a bit. John got up and gave her a bottle, I comforted Mikey who went back to sleep, and then brought Phoebe downstairs. The boys are snoozing:) at the right time schedule. I was able to get her to go back to sleep in the bassinet downstairs and proceeded to get on the computer. Now I'm the only one up...

Anyway, we sat next to a Kazakhstan adoptive family and they were bringing home Lincoln who is 11 1/2 months. They were in Kazakhstan 62 days!!! Yikes!!! Although they did say the region they were in was much cheaper and better to breath in than Almaty. The poor little guy developed the "runs" 3 times they ran to the bathroom as it was coming out his pants, onto his legs, onto their clothes, it was tough going for them....they were running out of clean clothes, diapers, and still had an 8 hour flight left to Boston after a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam. Phoebe was great, her bowels are the peanut butter consistency, the healthy formula kind!!! We loved the enfamil formula, it set our kids right!! The great thing is that Amsterdam Schipshol airport has a wonderful Baby Lounge!! It's free and one of the formula companies sponsored it. It had these wonderful circular cubbies that had curtains around them, soft lighting, and a baby crib to boot!! It was really comfortable and nonsmoky, and Phoebe got to play and roll around & crawl in the safe crib while I had a Big Mac and John had a cappaccino. It was really comforting to us. The other family was also able to regroup, clean up their mess, and found diapers for sale at the drugstore!! Love the Dutch people. I'll have to say that they were the most gracious about our babies, there had to be 8 babies on that flight and not once did they put up a fuss for us, they loved our children and were sooo willing to help. It is huge contrast to Northwest airlines where we felt very unwelcome and a bother to the flight attendants. Sorry Jo, we know you are not that way but unfortunately the coworkers we ran into were...we were appalled and saddened by their unfriendliness!
KLM Bassinet
Dutch Flight Attendant
Amsterdam Baby Lounge Crib
Relaxing in the baby lounge
NWA Bassinet, a cardboard box!
Are we there yet?
We cleared US customs without a hitch, with a bit of a mystery. The official there told us that Phoebe was a new American citizen, which we understood was not the case because we only did one trip, and certainly Michael was not upon landing. However, we weren't going to argue so we'll see what happens in the next 6 weeks! Hopefully they changed the law in 2008?
We said goodbye to our travelling buddies the Hallaways, and hugged them all goodbye... made me sad... but then we were pleasantly surprised by a waiting friend, Tim, dad of Anara from Hilary's Blog! Tim does work based in Mpls and he was flying home, it was sooo wonderful to see him and we were sooo greatful! Phoebe had to greet him with a Hello and I need to touch your face:) He got to fly home with the Hallaways:)
My sister and 3 of her kids picked us up at the airport, they were so cute, the youngest daugther Emma said, I get to be a big sister!! And her older sister of course corrected her with "we get to be Big Cousins" It was sooo sweet. They loved our little Peanut and kept staring at her. They drove us to the Honda dealer where we picked up our new van, what a fun deal!
Oooh, Aaaah!
We got home to a quiet, clean, home complete with flood free basement(we were worried because they got 5-6 inches of snow on Monday and it melted within 24 hours-our water table is really high and we are built in clay soil)!!! Thanks to Melany our housesitter who took care of it for us!! A crockpot meal was cooking and good welcome home notes!! The Stahl's called while I was in the shower and said they were at the Dundas Exit(1 1/2 away from home)- I flew out of the shower to go greet my little boy and pups!! I had tears running down my eyes as I went to hug him-reaction was one I was prepared for, he looked at Terry and started to fuss. John came and he smiled a big smile for his Daddy!!! It was so wonderful. The dogs were happy clams. Michael is a little mad at me for leaving him for so long, do I blame him? But it still hurts a little. He warmed up to me during our shared meal. When it came time to leave, he fussed a little at Terry leaving but stayed within my arms and I kissed him into a big smile. He went to bed without a fuss and I went to bed with him at 8 pm.

Brother and Sister!

First Family photo minus furbabies
So now I'm up doing our Kyrgyzstan registration thing-copying the needed documents while I write! All done, just need to pop it in the post today. I am so thankful to God for the gift of our baby girl Phoebe, taking care of our son during our time away, all of our friends who prayed for us and read our blog during our travels, it meant so much to us!! Thanks again to our wonderful agency who took care of us in country, getting our daughter to us in 4 1/2 months from time of referral, that is simply amazing, you guys are the best!!! We will miss our travelling friends, it is such a great experience to go in a group!
Getting to know you...

I'll keep posting on the at home antics of having 2 under 2!! It's going to be crazy for awhile.
Don't tell me what to do:)

We have our visas and we are heading home!!!

In front of the conuslate with our Visas!
Woohoo! All went well at the consulate and little Phoebe is now a US permanent resident. Just one question, how old was she? Other than that is was sign 3 forms and pay for our visa and get instructions on the packet we had. Someday I would like to know why it takes the family 2 trips for the child to be a US citizen immediately upon landing, do you think we would change our minds once we had her in the states after all we’ve gone through? How blessed we are to have our child in hand however and to enfold her into our loving arms. It is the most wonderful feeling to have a new baby in the family, it makes us want to go back for more!! There were a ton of adoptive parents there both from Kyrgyz but mostly from Kazak, after hearing how long the Kaz adoptions had to stay I can’t say much about how long we were here.
We had wanted to catch a glimpse of the Olympic torch but it conflicted with our appointment at the Embassy. As we were picking up our visas we saw some of the consulate workers peeking out the window to see the entourage.
China Olympic torch bearer
Excited for the Parade
Parade Route
We were able to move the Hallaway family into our hotel, I now understand why they couldn’t put them up the other nite. All the fuss over the Olympics and I think most of them stayed at our hotel. What we don’t understand is why the Kazzhol, even though they had reservations through the 3rd of April this week, told them they no longer had reservations the night of the 2nd. That is not good PR. Thank God they were able to get in here but it took a bit of fuss.
Altogether at the Intercontinental
Tomorrow am we have to get up at 4 am, take the hotel shuttle to the airport and leave Kaz Lord willing at 720 am. I can hardly wait. I’ll have to say it was harder the second time around, all we really wanted to do was go home after we had her. There wasn’t anything that new that was worth staying around for. And our hearts aches for our son whom we’ve missed tremendously not to mention our puppies. For now we are headed to down to the Asian Café for a celebratory dinner! Don't forget to scroll down for a post I just published before the short story that you may have missed!
Phoebe too excited to go home!
Can't I ride in the plane?
WE need to rescue our son:)