On The Road Again...

We are 99% packed and ready to leave for our trip to UAE tomorrow. I am excited but very nervous. I've had several "talks" with Artem and told him that I needed him to be a good boy at the airport and I need him to sleep on the plane for more than a half hour. He shakes his head "yes" and says, "airplane, night night". I'd like to think he understands me, but it might be wishful thinking on my part. When Randy left to go back to Abu Dhabi a few weeks ago, Artem would ask about him and I would tell him, "Daddy's in Abu Dhabi." Artem would nod his head "yes" and say, "Airplane" and I'd tell him, "you are right, daddy flew to AD on an airplane." It must be sinking in b/c I've been packing for two days now and Artem will help me put stuff in the suitcase and I'll say, "We have to take this to Abu Dhabi" and he responds with a head nod and says, "Dada". We are excited to see daddy again and he's very happy we are finally going overseas to be with him. I'm sad to leave our house and Bella but I'm looking forward to going to UAE especially with so many people speaking highly of the area and I know that Bella is in good hands here at our house with Randy's aunt.


Artem's attachment to me has finally taken a major step forward and I'm hoping this will help me on our trip. I left Artem at the house today with Randy's aunt while I had my hair done and he got very upset and started to cry when I left. Finally!!! In the past he's always been so ambivalent about my leaving and when I return he runs away from me and if I do get close to him he hits me and acts out. Today he came to me and I held him and rocked him in the rocking chair and he kept hugging me tight around my neck and kissing me over and over again. I finally got a positive reaction when I returned home.

With this new found attachment I've also started to see a very clingy little boy and he insists on holding my hand wherever we go. On our morning walks he wants to hold my hand while I push him in the stroller. We walk over 2 miles a day, up and down hills so it's no easy task pushing the buggy with one hand while the other hand is over the top of the buggy holding Artem's hand. He does this any where we go, whether it's on our daily walk or at Walmart while he's sitting in the buggy. He also started insisting that I feed him his food and hold his sippy cup for him while he drinks. I have no idea where this is coming from, hopefully it's just a phase as it's getting a little tiring taking care of Velcro boy all by myself. Randy joked with me and said, "Well you wanted him to be attached to you didn't you?"


Warning: Stop reading here if you are squeamish. Potty training, where do I start? Artem is still very excited to be potty training. In the past Artem would come running yelling, "kaka" and we'd run to the bathroom only for him to smile sweetly and tell me he's all done as soon as he sits down. I got the bright idea that after he went potty in his diaper I would dump it in the toilet so he could see what it "should" look like. After that he would come running immediately after going potty in his diaper and he would yell, "kaka, potty" so I knew he had made the connection that poop goes in the potty but he just couldn't get the timing down. I decided to take potty training to the next level and buy him a big boy potty from Target but the shape of the rim, completely round, didn't work out for Artem and his boy parts kept popping out over the splash guard, so I bought him the Baby Bjorn potty and it is a perfect fit. He still has yet to produce anything on the potty but his timing is getting closer and closer everyday. Tonight he told me he needed to go potty so we ran in, got comfortable on the throne, and sang our ABC's and EVERY SINGLE line of Wheels on the Bus that I could think of, and he finally gave up and said, "all done." Less than one minute later he came running to me saying he needed to go potty, but this time his presence came with an odor. If only I had waited one more minute. Again, the brilliant thought comes over me to empty the contents of his diaper into the big boy potty so he could see what it should look like. I took his diaper off and saw a little "pebble" in the diaper and told him, "false alarm" and proceeded to dump it in the potty. In a split second the thought came to me, "how can one little pebble cause so much smell?" and it was at that moment that I noticed something out of the corner of my eye...the cause for the smell. Apparently it was still hanging tight to Artem's behind when I stripped the diaper off but quickly fell onto the floor. I let out a loud scream of horror, which startled Artem and he stepped back and put his bare foot smack dab into the pile!! Gross!! Brilliant idea Susan! I swear this motherhood gig has a pretty steep learning curve sometimes.

And with that lovely little story, I'll say goodnight and the next time I blog we'll be reunited with Randy! Check back in a few days, I promise lots of pictures.