D+1: Attack and Counterattack

What the heck, I started with a military comparison yesterday, so why not today.

As you read yesterday we successfully hit the beaches of parenthood (yes, this is going to be hokey, but you really are going to have to work with me here). The evening found an uneven peace. We did not sleep much, not through any mischief of the boys but through mere circumstances. We had no crib so Liam slept in our bed with me and, of course, I could not sleep out of paranoia because of the fact he was not sleeping in a crib and I was worried about him. Terri slept (hahahaha) on the couch because Aidan apparently would roll off the bed, repeatedly—no harm, no foul though.

The morning brought a counterattack on the united front of Terri and Steve. Even though Aidan has been used to going on the garshock while at the orphanage he has now used it as an opportunity to scream bloody murder—you would swear the boy lost an arm in a combine accident or something. So basically the morning got off to a crapper, because of the crapper. Sadly, this would be an issue throughout the day.

But Liam has come into his own at this point. He has developed so much more, even past the last days in the baby house. He is soooooo happy (most of the time) and very playful and has great eye contact with you. He has such a personality now. This has also led to some jealousy from Aidan. You can tell he is none too happy with this development.

There were some snafus today that made the day more stressful than it needed to be, and made Terri and I a little more snappy towards one another. We had asked to be picked up at 11:00AM so we could take the boys out for a hot meal on their schedule to keep consistency for them—and do a little souvenir shopping. Yes, we did a lot of souvenir shopping before, but we know a lot of people who want goodies. Due to problems that only seem to happen to us, there were phone problems at the apartment that kept us from getting Anya’s call to tell us were going to be late. They were picking up the boys’ new birth certificates. All this added up to the boys not getting their lunch when regularly scheduled. Liam even fell asleep before getting a proper lunch, which made us feel horrible. We decided to give Aidan lunch as he was getting very hungry. And here is a note for you: we bought these soups here in Ust that prepare in five minutes. Terri will tell you that they make Campbell’s look like a twelve course meal. This stuff is mainly broth with just a dash of rice. When Anya and Bulat finally arrived I think Terri and I were at our breaking points with each other. We were especially upset about Aidan’s garshock trauma. We decided that Anya and Bulat should come back after the boys napped and we would look for souvenirs and take them out for a nice warm dinner, instead. Food is one of those things you feel so helpless about here because you know what you would like to feed the boys at home but here you know nothing of the quality of brands, or the instructions to prepare and many times what you want to give the boys here doesn’t even exist. I think Anya and Bulat saw that this was getting to us, because they were incredibly helpful on the afternoon trip. Bulat went out of his way to entertain Aidan. Liam apparently has no problem with getting in the car and he was incredibly fascinated with everything. Aidan was still nervous about riding in the car. Dinner worked out nicely, both boys enjoyed borscht, bread and apple juice—in fact, Aidan was a little piggy…

…which was reflected in his diaper when we were at home a couple of hours later. In an act of revenge seldom seen, he left us a nice present in his diaper that would rival any pollutant in Ust and may quite possible leave this apartment building uninhabitable for generations to came. Terri called him the Toxic Avenger (we know it wasn’t really revenge, but we got a good laugh out of the coincidence of the earlier garshok battle and the nasty diaper). After taking this dump of epic proportion, Aidan was in quite a good mood—so much so it was hard to settle him down. Eventually we got both boys settled in for the night. So here I am, sitting on the couch blogging and having a Baltika No. 9, and Terri is trying to get some much-needed rest.

It has been a trying day for everyone I must admit but it is all very much worth it. The boys are great and making great strides every day. They will be great kids, especially when we can get them back into a regular home environment with some routine. And to Terri, I can only apologize for the snippiness. But as she said at dinner, we are a family and nothing will come between that. Right now they are both asleep, in fact, I am watching Liam right now and he is so peaceful and they are ours—yes it is worth it.