One Month Home and 100th Post!

It's hard to believe that we've only been home a month. Without sounding cliche' it seems like Artem has been with us forever and I mean that in a good way. All the waiting and frustrating paper chasing was all worth it. I still remember the reserved, quiet little boy we met in February that wouldn't let me put him down and didn't want to walk or crawl around the room we visited him in. The first couple of days that he was with us in the apartment, he wouldn't walk or crawl, just sit on the rug. Once he started standing up and walking, he wouldn't leave the edge of the rug. He acted like he wanted to but would stop as soon as he got to the edge of the carpet. Now that he's been home with us for a month, he has come alive. He is so happy, jabbers up a storm, gets into EVERYTHING, and has no problem running around our house having a great time. What a blessing we have been given!

Remember our troubles we had with Artem during bath time in Russia? Those are a thing of the past. Little man loves his bath time now! Everyone said it would get better and it did. Now our battle is keeping him from using his bath toys to drink his bathwater.



Unlike when we first met him, Artem is now willing to try everything we put in front of him and of course every son of a pilot MUST have his own plane to ride on. Artem wasn't too sure about his plane at first but he quickly got the hang of it. I'm not sure who had more fun, Artem or daddy!

The number one thing I hear from people about Artem is how happy he is. He wakes up happy and stays happy throughout the day, except when he's hungry, but occasionally he has his moments and can be a regular crabby britches. Thankfully happy Artem outnumbers cranky Artem. But for those of you that have never seen this side of him, I give you Crabby Britches...

Even when he's crabby, he's still pretty stinking cute! Every nap time and bedtime we do snuggle time where I rock him to sleep, sing to him, and kiss his forehead and nose. Sometimes he gets wiggly on me and tries to get down but I tell him, "it's night night time" and keep holding him close to me so we can continue to work on attachment. The past few naps and nights he has not wiggled at all and settles in really good and stares straight at me while I sing to him. Tonight he got wiggly and I thought "oh no, let's not go backwards here" but he kept wiggling towards me and I finally let go of him so he could adjust and he came right up to my face and gave me an open mouth kiss on the lips and then laid back down into my arms. Could he have melted his mama's heart anymore? What a great month it has been!