March 22, 2009

Hello. We are winding down Sunday night here in Petro. Our time with Julia continues to improve with each passing day. Every visit she becomes more relaxed. She does have a cold, though today she seemed less snotty than yesterday. She was incredibly active today, crawling all over the music room, pulling up, standing on her own for a second or two. Ethan and I just looked at each other with the same look, like, whoa, we are going to be parents of two very busy children! What fun…what little rest we are going to have for the next several years.    She loves to be held by me and for Ethan to play with her. When she is in my arms she will look at him and start to clap, that means she is want him to come tickle her. She is also eating Gerber Graduates puffs like there is no tomorrow. I caught Ethan eating them today….he got a good scolding. I feel like we need to ration them…the two containers needs to last at least three more weeks until Ethan comes back for court. We had a little drama today because Ethan walked into the baby room…apparently the baby room is on quarantine lockdown because some of the babies are sick with the cold. Our interpreter and the caretaker had words. The way people communicate with each other and the lack of southern "manners" amazes me still. There are no smiles; there is no polite conversation, no acts that we consider in the states common courtesy. We wonder if it is a result of their communist history, culture, or their religious views. Likely, it is a combination of all these factors that lead to their way of life that is so drastically different from the south.

We have immersed ourselves some into the culture. Yesterday we went to an art museum and to the bowling alley. Both were fun, the bowling alley was more like a disco hangout where people sat around and ate and drank, listening to techno music in a room where there were five bowling lanes. Ethan walked into the bathroom and there were two men kissing. Don't worry; Caleb was asleep at the "new home" with the babysitter. Ethan ate liver hot pockets and I had fries. Tonight our travel partners are coming over again to play cards. That helps a lot! Oh, and more importantly we now have DSL. This has changed our lives!

Caleb is doing as well as can be expected. Last night he slept from 6p to 9a. He keeps asking for "kids". I think he really misses playing with his cousins and friends. He was able to see his Pop Pop and Pippa via Skype yesterday, he managed to try to play hide and seek with them. Feeding him is challenging, as all we have to cook with is an electric tea kettle. Tonight Ethan made him peanut butter grits; yeah we are trying to get creative. Luckily he thought it was the best thing ever and ate it up. He will not eat sandwiches which are our staple at home; because he keeps saying the bread is "broken". Every day we let him look at the pictures we have taken during our visit and he looks at Julia and says "Baby Sista". Oh, and we have included in the pictures Caleb's first self photo...it is the close up of his teeth J