March 17, Happy St. Patricks Day!

Our first full day of visitation proved to be much easier than yesterday. Granted, it started out a little difficult. Julia cried for the first 10 or 15 minutes, as she seemed scared. We decided to take her back into the play room with the other babies and then she seemed to relax. So, we spent a good hour right in the middle of the 10 other babies in the room (ages 6 months to 12 months). Ethan played with the mini basketball with the other babies and put on quite a show. Julia was in my arms the entire time and every couple of minutes, he was touch her foot, her leg etc...Gradually she warmed up to him and let him hold her for a couple of minutes. That was a huge success. Unfortunately these babies in the baby house never see men, so it is common for them to be scared of the dads when they first start visiting. Towards the end of the visit we were able to get her to laugh by tickling her. That mad my heart so happy, I have long wondered what her smile would look like and it was just perfect. And man on man, she has a belly laugh! About half way through the visit they brought the snacks out for the babies, applesauce and cookies and bread mixed in milk. I spoon fed that to her, she is quite the eater. We were able to kindly talk them into letting us remove her sweater, which is why she has a tank top on in the picture that says “Hawaii Forum”, and she is a chubby little thing. Let’s see, what else can I add, she does crawl and is in the process of getting her four front teeth (2 on top, 2 on bottom). She takes a pacifier, and her hair is quite a bit blonder than I had thought originally. We are thankful for a good first day of bonding and look forward to seeing her tomorrow!
As to everything else, we had a great day with Caleb. He is over jet lag, and slept his normal 12 hours last night; we on the other hand woke up at 5am. We went on a fun walk this morning in the ice and snow. There has to be at least 3 inches of ice on the sidewalks here. There are men everywhere chipping the ice with shovels and then a big digger (I don’t know what kind) comes and picks up the ice chips to clear the sidewalks. We went to a coffee shop on our walk this morning and the gentleman behind the counter was practicing his English on Ethan and asked us why we were in Petro, Ethan told him he was building roads…He then asked which ones, Ethan said “Big ones…”. Funny. For those of you who don’t know a lot of locals do not agree with international adoption, thinking we adopt children for their organs. Outrageous. We spent some time playing basketball and Caleb slept for 3 and ½ hours this afternoon while we were visiting Julia. Till tomorrow.
P.S. Who told Caleb that ladybugs live in his nose? He has had his finger in his nose a lot on this trip and I have asked him why and he says “Getting the Ladybugs” ???