Pictures

My sister informed me today that just blogging about Artem is not going to cure her daily Artem fix; she needs pictures. I aim to please so here are a few pictures to hold you over for the day.

Artem and Bella are fast becoming friends and Artem has even enjoyed Bella's toys on occasion. Yuck!

For whatever reason, Artem went to bed last night without a fuss. I got him dressed for bed and Randy joined us in the nursery and I rocked Artem while Randy read him two books. After he left I rocked him to sleep and put him in his crib. He let out a little cry and that was it. He fell right to sleep. This morning he woke up at 6:00 am and fussed a bit but I told Randy to let him have a minute to fall back asleep since we could hear him yawning on the monitor and within a minute or so he fell back asleep and slept until 7:20. He woke up a whole new boy. Usually he is very cranky in the mornings and there is lots of crying and fit throwing until we can get some food in him but this morning he happily played with his Leap Frog Fridge Phonics and babbled until we got breakfast made and fed him. He even took a bath this morning without all the crying and drama. He didn't exactly jump in, but he only cried a little bit so we are making progress.

We went up to my school today to meet some of the staff, no children yet, and to sign some paperwork for Artem to get health insurance. He was friendly to everyone he met but stayed tight to mom and dad. He definitely knows who mom and dad are and won't leave us when meeting new people. His attachment to us is going really well so far. He really impressed the ladies with his surf shirt!

Before I left for our last trip I made a double batch of beef chowder and froze it so we would have easy meals when we got home from Russia. It's my mom's recipe and is a) easy and b) super delicious. I heated some up for Artem for his lunch today and as you can see by the pictures, he loved it!

On our nightly walk tonight we went to our friend Kim's house and Artem met her little girls and played on their new swing set. He spent a long time swinging in the baby swing and was so happy and content to be outside swinging. We have to get a baby swing put up for him because he really enjoys swinging.

I got my rocking chair out for Artem and put it next to Randy's recliner. He figured out how to get into it and rocks himself back and forth. It's really cute to see him rock and so special that it is the same chair I used when I was his age.

Bedtime tonight went well again. I got him dressed for bed and put him on my lap in the rocking chair and read him a story. He laid quietly and listened to the book and when I was finished I turned him to snuggle me and rocked him to sleep. No crying! Once I got him to sleep I put him in his crib and I tried the "Super Nanny" technique and immediately sat down next to the crib and looked at the floor. I wanted to convey to Artem that I was there and wasn't leaving him. It worked, no crying or fussing at all. I didn't look at him but peeked at him through my hair that was falling around my face and I could see he was looking at me and falling asleep and would open his eyes up every few minutes and look at me and then he finally fell asleep. That lasted about 3 or 4 minutes and then he was sound asleep and I walked out. Two nights in a row of no crying at bedtime. Hopefully we are turning a corner with sleep time.