Little Victories...

So we're catching up during naptime...posts will get shorter and not proofread...we're thankful if they end up even semi-coherent...2 toddlers have us a bit scattered.

Madison slept through the first night until 7:15 when she rolled out of  bed onto myra.  she actually just looked at myra and smiled, i think glad that myra was still there!.   jonathon however woke up at 230 and 330 crying but Joe easily had him back asleep in 10 minutes.  At 4:30 he woke up and just would not go back to sleep.  He tends to rock himself a lot, and sometimes just his head side to side but we think this is typical orphanage behavior, they have always had to rock themselves to sleep.  He was in a weird place, and scared.  Myra took over at about 6am and got him to sleep only shortly before madison fell on them!  All in all they did better than i would have if soeone plucked me from my home and took me to a place i had never seen, with people i didn't know and who couldnt understand me, and I had no idea what the heck they were saying.

they had some oatmeal, 1/2 strawberry bar, and bread will jelly on it for breakfast.  jonathon ate it all, madison maybe half.  we're thankful for the apartment so we can eat in.  joe gets to do all the food prep because madison cannot be left in a room without myra and if the kids see food in the kitchen they need to eat it right away and breakdown if they can't.    Sippy cups were still a no-go.  They are too used to regular cups but we are trying.  Jonathon still has a major breakdown when the food is gone and if he sees food.  So we have been put on an effective diet plan where we don't eat all day until they are asleep at naptime or evening. 

We gave them a snack mid-morning (I think yogurt and bread, peaches, and juice) and then went for about an hour walk to the grassy mall area where they walked around a bit and loved seeing/chasing the birds.  We stopped at Pizza Roma on the way back and ordered a chicken pizza and shopska salad to go.  They did ok on the 10 minute wait and then each ate a piece of pizza and peaches,  (we tried eating a piece while feeding them and it was ok this time as long as it was gone before theirs).  Our lunchtime victory was our ability to get them BOTH tricked into trying their sippy cups (without the one-way valve put in it)!  We're on our way.

Then it was naptime which is always a struggle.  Takes us about an hour or so to get them calmed down, Jonathon especially.  He is just always hyper and Joe needs to actually (gently) restrain him and rub his back for a while.  he screams for awhile but eventually he gives in.  we hate restraining him but otherwise he does a lot of violent rocking and just can't calm down.  Naptime was our shower time and some food, Joe went to get groceries.  It was glorious!  Madison woke up about 3:30 but Jonathon just kept sleeping (he needed it after the night he had) but we finally woke him up (he was getting restless anyway afraid of how bedtime would go).

We were supposed to have our medical appointments at 3:30pm but they called and said they would not be until the next morning.  So we spent the rest of the day playing as a family.


They had an afternoon snack with some pasta and bread (they LOVE bread).  Tried to give them some ham pieces but they both hated the texture.  They had a fit at the end of snacktime but a little playtime soothed them.  Our victory that afternoon was Madison taking Joes hand to walk into the other room with Jonathon.  Shes usually a bit fearful still but hopefully this is a sign she'll one day be a Daddys girl.  Our other victory is Jonathon finally not screaming during diaper changes, he actually  smiles now.


We gave them pasta for dinner (Bulgarians make a GOOD pasta sauce) and peas.  Madison wasn't a huge fan of the peas but loved the pasta.  Jonathon loved it all.  BUT our victory here was that NEITHER of their finished their meal!  Joe knew he put a lot on their plate but didnt expect for them to actually regulate themselves based on hunger.  Wonderful to see.


Unfortunately that victory was marred by bathtime which was  truly awful experience and they screamed so much.  Myra even had her bathing suit on and was in the tub, along with some toys.  That was no help.  We made it quick and then got them out wrapped in towels and went out to watch some Animal Planet.  They were soo amazed by the TV, it was so adorable.  Unfortunately we didn't think about our DVDs not be compatible here.  Staying naked in the towels was a good idea, until Madison pees down her leg and starts to bawl....diaper time!.  Next we think try playtime in the bath time with no water.


We tried for bedtime at 8:45pm (they were playing with each until  then).  Lots and lots of screams and them trying to play.  We gave up about 9:45pm and brought them back out to the living room but kept it with some mood lighting.  They played a bit and then we got some warm milk and went back to the bedroom.  They drank the milk from the sippy cups (still no valve) but then still would not sleep.  Jonathon was doing so much moving/rocking and joe restrained him again (feeling bad).  he finally went to sleep but madison was the difficult one this time.  she just wasn't having any sleep. joe went to leave the room (heck, his job was done and myra is usually the one who gets to leave first!) but madison starting screaming (victory?).  So he came back, laid in the room (but not near her she doesnt like that...he just had to be in the room).  By about 11:15pm she finally went to sleep.  Finally...dinnertime!  Starving, we got ourselves some pasta, exhausted, and just cleaned up the house.  We got things ready for tomorrow morning because we knew it would take time to get everyone ready by 9am.


We'll try to post some pictures soon...