Updates...finally

Things are getting better around here a little at a time. Andrik still likes to pitch a good fit or two just to keep us on our toes, but the full blown on the floor kicking and screaming meltdowns are starting to ease up. He still doesn't like to be told "no" but at least he walks into the other room now to do his screaming. His current drama spot is Randy's recliner. He cries as he's walking over, throws himself onto the seat of the recliner, slams his hands down and buries his face in the seat and cries; but he saves just enough energy to look up at us every few minutes to see if we are still paying attention.

Dinner time is 99% peaceful and normal. He isn't slapping food away and refusing to try the foods we serve. He eats everything we put in front of him and has started accepting us telling him that dinner is over. In the beginning he would scream and meltdown when we took him away from the food, even with his stomach and sides bulging from the amount he had consumed, but now we show him the empty bowl or empty yogurt cup and he seems to understand. We still let him keep a Cheerio filled snack cup with him all day so he knows food is always available.

The boy still sleeps solid through the night. God has blessed me with two great sleepers. But Andrik is still sleeping 13-14 hours a night which sounds like a blessing but Randy has been taking Artem to and from school for me so Andrik can sleep in and get a long nap. Next week Randy returns to work so Andrik won't be able to sleep in until 9:00 a.m. on Tues, Wed, and Thursday and will also have short naps on those days since I have to get Artem from PreK at 2:15. We may pay dearly in the afternoons on those days.

Andrik saw his pediatrician last week and had lots of blood work done and was also tested for intestinal parasites. The parasite tests came back negative and all his blood work was normal except for his thyroid level. It was slightly elevated and the doctor said he wasn't really concerned since everything else came back completely normal. Today we met with a pediatric urologist. Stop reading if you don't want to hear talk of circumcision. Many times Russian orphan's medical files are filled with exaggerated or non-existent medical problems to make them eligible for international adoption. We saw that Andrik had "recurring UTI's" on his medical report and figured that was one of the fluff pieces on his report. Male orphans are not typically circumcised when they are in the baby home and this was the case for both Artem and Andrik. We had Artem circumcised when he came home from Russia and the procedure the doctor performed was very quick and almost 100% pain free for Artem. It went really well and we planned on having Andrik circumcised using the same procedure after he had been home awhile. The first night we had him in Moscow we gave him a bath and when we went to clean down there, we couldn't get the skin to retract. We didn't want to hurt him and let it go to try again the next day with no luck. After a few days of not being able to get the skin to retract we started putting two and two together and figured out that his recurring UTI's were probably caused because he couldn't get cleaned. Andrik had to see Dr. Boris for his US Embassy medical before we could leave Moscow and we told Dr. Boris about the problem. He explained that the boys aren't typically cleaned the right way and we were just going to have to put a little muscle behind it and get it opened up. Neither Randy nor I were comfortable with doing that but before we could say, "Ouch", Dr. Boris had the skin pulled back and Andrik let out a good scream. Poor boy is practically "fused" together because things haven't been cared for properly for two years. So back to today, his urologist labels him with "congenital phimosis" and wants to get him in ASAP to get this taken care of and her next surgical opening is Monday, which happens to be Andrik's 2nd birthday. So the poor boy is getting circumcised on his birthday. That ought to be something good he can hold over our heads down the road.

Back to less painful news, Andrik is picking up on English really fast! He still does great with sign language and is regularly verbally saying, "mama", "please", "shoes", "no", "more", "up", and is trying so hard to say "juice" and "milk". He sings constantly and even though we can't understand what he is saying, he sings the same Russian song all the time and throughout the song taps his hands on his knees so it must be a song he sang in the baby home. He's also started shaking his finger at his and telling us, "No, no, no!" We don't say that to him so I'm not sure where he gets it from but it's really funny to see him do it.

Unfortunately Artem and Andrik aren't interacting much like I had hoped they would. A normal day for the boys would not see them doing anything together except Artem screaming, "Nyet!" or "Get out of my room!". They merely co-exist. Let me clarify that; Artem co-exists with Andrik and really can't be bothered by Andrik, but yesterday the boys played chase through the house for about two minutes and it gave me a small glimmer of hope that Artem will start to see that Andrik is not that bad and could be a great playmate if he gave him a chance.

We received Andrik's social security card in the mail today. There is a block on the Embassy paperwork form that asks for the government to send a social security card to the house. I heard about people getting the social security card sent to their house rather than going in person to apply for the number but didn't know the exact spot to mark on the form. I found it on the Embassy paperwork and checked the block hoping it would work and it did! One less thing we have to apply for. Next thing we are waiting for is his certificate of citizenship so we can complete his recognition of foreign adoption which will allow him to get a Texas birth certificate.

I think that about sums it up for now. I'll leave you with a few pictures of my baby. His eyes just make me melt!