8 Wonderful days have passed

As the title of this blog is suggesting - 8 wonderful days have passed since we met our little boy. We cannot be happier!!! The transformation from day 1 is dramatic and it seems that we've known him a lot longer than 8 days.

A good part of each day is taken up by driving back and forth and visiting him twice a day. The one day we didn't get to visit him in the evening, I cried at home... I want to take him home as soon as we officially can. And every day it's harder and harder to leave him there.

He is picking up on our affection and is giving us hugs and wants to be held. You can definitely tell these poor kids have not been kissed and hugged a lot if at all. Whenever I hold and kiss him for long time - he freezes and listens to what I am doing. We will make up on the last 2.5 years of missed love for sure. He is also showing a little bit of protection and jealousy over his mama and papa. Today, when another boy entered their dressing area - he promptly told him to go away and shut the door. He did not want to share his mama with anyone.

We spend most of the time outside since the weather lately has been nice. He runs and falls a lot, but never cries. Sometimes he waits for us to pick him up, but gets back up and continues running. I'll have a ton of laundry to do at home with this bunny. We enjoy learning his personality a lot, and although we can't really discipline him - we still try to be parents and tell him what he cannot do. He is testing us once in a while and looks at what we're going to do if he tries to go somewhere he is not allowed.

Everyone notices how much he adores his papa. There are not many men around them and the ones they see - they call uncle (dyadya). Everywhere we go, he tells papa to go with him. And if he sees Ruslan going somewhere - he starts to get worried. At first he was calling Ruslan "dyadya" and we'd tell him it's not "dyadya" - it's papa. The next day he'd forget and say "dyadya" and then promptly correct himself with papa afterwards. Now it's always papa and he even calls me papa sometimes rather than mama - I guess he gets in the moment.... So every visit is a joy for us and for him of course. Nannies say he knows when we're coming and is very excited to let everyone know we're coming.

We were hoping for a court this week, but SDA did not issue their approval until yesterday, so our court is scheduled for Monday, April 21st. That's one of my niece's b-day. Happy B-day Irina!!!

After court, we will have to wait 10 days to pick up the official court decree. We then will be able to start on the new birth certificate and passport. Thanks for all the comments and thoughts. And here are some pictures to end the post...


Walking together with daddy


We're trying out a new hat


Getting measurements so mama can go shopping - what a challenge measuring was... he thought it was a toy and kept saying "otdai, moy" - give me, mine