Paci shmacy

I think it may be possible that Jacob will be my first child to not take a pacifier. He is a thumb sucker but I had hoped to turn him on to the paci for a number of reasons: temporarily it is a more healthy form of oral stimulation for him, sucking (bottle and pacifier) helps develop the oral muscles for speech and can help lessen the need for speech therapy in orphans, if he learns to use it correctly it will be a great way to help him settle after over stimulation, and in the long run it can be taken away where a thumb cannot.

Right now, as a form of self-stimulation he grinds his front teeth. And as a way to sooth himself to sleep he bites his thumb while sucking it. The first day we picked him up he had some funny green stuff on an open sore on his thumb. It was likely some type of ointment to either deter his sucking or heal the wound.

Since offering the paci and having 4 bottles each day his tooth grinding happens far less and his thumb seems to be healing. So even if he does not replace the thumb with the pacifier I am still hoping he will accept it as a frequent substitute.

It sure is cute to watch him "play" with the pacifier and seem to have no clue what to do with it. A Krinke baby who is not madly in love with their paci would be strange...

If I had known

Packing for this trip was difficult for me. I am the ultimate planner and wanted to be sure we had everything we "needed". But packing "light" was also a priority. All in all we have a suitcase, garment bag, umbrella stroller, and 2 backpacks. Things I would have done differently had I known:

I would not have packed:
-the small blanket I thought we might need for his bed or for extra bundling: Not only is he well bundled, I carry him in the front pack and he is like a little space heater.
-the sleep sack I thought he might need for bedtime: our room is down right cozy. Russians keep the indoors very warm.
-more than 2 burp cloths (I packed 4). I was thinking he would be spitting up with the change in food. Spit up is easily handled with wipes.
-more than 2 bibs (I packed 4): turns out these are easy to wash in the tub and the heated drying rack thing in every Russian hotel room works really well.
-little mittens for my boy: he's so bundled there's nothing to put mittens on.
-I haven't decided yet if I would bring the umbrella stroller if I had it to do again. He is small enough, and it is cold enough, that I prefer to carry him in the front pack. But I am assuming I will be glad I have the stroller in the airport.

I wish I would have packed:
-small trash bags: for stinky diapers and because every room here at the Peking only has 1 small trash can. How am I supposed to make that work?
-cold medicine
-water proof boots: the snow is not an issue. But when the snow melts the puddles are unavoidable. I'm assuming in a couple weeks this will be less of an issue as it gets colder, but I wont be here to enjoy it.
-one ziploc bag of laundry detergent. We'll be doing some laundry in the tub later today with what we think might be detergent from the local store. Fingers crossed.
-a little more formula. They have Similac here, but we are not using Similac. It will be close, but I think we'll make it to New York before running out. This boy loves him some warm milk.
-travel size dish detergent: I assumed I could buy some here, and we did. But they do not have small containers here so I'll either be throwing it away or trying to pack it into our already full suitcase.
-hand creme (I know mom, I know)

I am SO glad I have:
-A full size container of wipes
-access to as many huggies diapers as needed. I assumed it would be many, but the new diet is requiring more than I would have guessed. Glad they are at the local store.
-a wash cloth for me and a wash cloth for him. The wind is making his eyes a little crusty and the towels here are not exactly soft.
-a handkerchief: the face tissue here is like sandpaper (the toilet paper is too, but that's another story)
-lip balm
-abundant snacks for him and us: the weather has been nasty and the restaurant in the hotel is crazy expensive. Glad to have something to tide us over and keep Jay busy.


All in all I am pretty happy with what I packed. Still would have been nice to know though.

A skunk in our closet!!

Happy Halloween from Russia!

Greetings from Moscow

Here we are in Moscow. So now what?

Actually today has been plenty busy. After having breakfast at the hotel we had a visit from Mikhail to prepare our embassy paperwork. Highlights of our talk: we have heard before that we do not wait in line at the embassy. Mikhail explained this to us no less than 3 times just to be clear, "No matter what line you see, go to the front and show paper, woman will stop helping current customer and take care of you first." Okay. Interesting tid bit #2: One of the court documents we present tomorrow at the embassy lists Jacob as an "inmate". Brad laughed and said there should be a better word since an inmate would be in prison but Mikhail said "inmate" is a good description for an orphan. The document actually says in Russian and English "inmate". We've been chuckling about our little "inmate" all day. Mommy and Daddy to the rescue!

After Mikahil left we quickly discovered our room was just too small for the 3 of us and decided to upgrade our accommodations. Best decision ever. If you ever have the opportunity to stay at the Pekin Hotel in Moscow, definitely pay for the suite.

I finally found Jacob's melting point this morning after changing rooms and trying to put him down for his nap. In Tver he had let me rock him to sleep and seemed to welcome the snuggles. After breakfast in a wild restaurant with TVs, music, lights, and a ton of people, an in-room visit from Mikhail, and a room change all before morning nap, he'd had enough. I finally heard his real cry and for the first time he wanted me to get the heck out of the room so he could get himself to sleep. Once I left he cried about 30 seconds then rocked himself while sucking his thumb and passed out. Poor baby was just overdone. It's nice to know he can cry though.

While Jacob slept I unpacked and Brad went to the store. He found a subway on the way back and was quite pleased to present his "trophy" lunch when he returned.

Jacob woke up from his nap feeling like a new person and happily played until his next nap time. After nap we might take a short walk outside if there is no rain just for a change of pace. But other than that the rest of the evening should be very quiet. We've got to get this boy rested and settled before our embassy adventure tomorrow.

 

 

It's a good thing he's cute: he'll fit right in at home.

So long Tver

We are sad to leave Tver for the last time. Thrilled because it means our boy is finally coming home, but sad to think we wont be back.  We have absolutely LOVED our experiences in Tver.

Today was a bit of a whirlwind. It started off like all the others... except this time there was a precious boy with us. He has been, yet again, wonderful. We enjoyed skyping with the fam first thing this morning. My favorite part was hearing Drew exclaim, "That's my baby!" the moment Jacob was in view.

 

 

We then had some breakfast and played the morning away. After Jay's morning nap and lunch we went out to Milanos for our last meal in Tver. Jacob loved being outside again. The sun peeked out a few times while we were walking. And, aside from the slippery ice and wind, it was a very pleasant walk.

 

 

 

 

On a side note: I thought ducks were supposed to fly south for the winter? Maybe not Russian ducks? Or maybe the ducks know its not winter yet... even though it's freezing...

 



 

Brad was picked up at about 2:45 to go get Jacob's passport. We were all supposed to go but Jay had just gone down for his afternoon nap and we hated to wake him. Fortunately our driver was interested in him getting a longer nap too (before we made the LONG drive to Moscow) and let Jay and I stay behind.

Then it was time. We woke Jacob up and piled into Serge's van, waved "Paka" to Olga, and set off for Moscow. We were anticipating about a 3 1/2-4 hour ride. Foolish Americans. Traffic into Moscow is nothing like the Los Angeles speedways. The best part of the whole ride was when Serge got tired of the traffic, put the van in park, and got out for a smoke break. We were on the inside lane and the traffic going out of Moscow was clipping along at normal freeway speed. But there was our driver, standing on the double yellow line having a cigarette.

After the 4th hour Jacob got a little tired of being held. All in all he probably fussed about 5 minutes the entire 6 hour ride (both times he was hungry). But Brad and I were loosing our cool. Traffic is just not our thing. Not to mention Brad going more than 2 hours without a meal is unheard of. So just imagine what happens after 6 hours. But we survived and happily made our way to our room at about 8:40.

Our driver, Sergey.

 

We had been told the doctor would come to examine Jacob for our embassy appointment... at 11:30pm. Fantastic. So we got him settled into bed and tried to get a little rest before the visit. A little before 11 we heard a soft knock on the door and opened it to find a big (wide not tall) man with fogged up glasses and long hair. He came in, turned all the lights on, took out his medical equipment, took five minutes to fill out a couple papers, took our money, and then put all the examining tools back in his bag and said, "No need to wake baby." Well okay then, thank you.

Jacob can apparently sleep through a marching band and fireworks show, so we turned the lights back off, climbed into bed, and join him in dream land.

Gotcha!

Introducing: Jacob Mikhail Joel Krinke

 

 

After the most amazing day imaginable I am wondering if this is real. Our son is the happiest baby on earth. Everything is just one exciting adventure to him. He has taken the day's events without so much as a hiccup. It is as though he has always been ours.

 

He played, laughed and giggled the entire ride to Tver. Thanks big sisters and bro for the tag blanket, it was a hit!

 

 

We played for over an hour before nap time. Happiest kid ever.

He made a little noise going down for his nap, but then slept so long I had to wake him up for his dinner.

 

 

He took his first "mama-ba" like a pro. He fussed when the milk was gone until he realized I also had a big bowl of food for him.

 

 

He got to go out for dinner with us and LOVED being outside. It's like he's seeing everything for the first time (which he pretty much is).

 

 

He plowed through his snack while we ate our dinner and was the best baby ever (did I mention he is happy?). There was a little boy about age 6 at the table across from us. Jay could not keep his eyes off him. He's most likely never seen a child over age three before. He was fascinated. He was also fascinated with the dissolvable puffs we offered him.

 

 

After some more playtime in our room it was bath time. I wasn't sure how this one would go. But, of course, he was great. Happy as could be to play with his cups and let me wash him.



I thought that especially since we took him out to dinner he would burn out and melt down at some point. But instead he soaked up his full-body massage, guzzled down his bottle and fell asleep on my shoulder while I was burping him. Haven't heard a peep since.

 

Is this kid for real?

Adventures with flat family: Day 2

We got the snow we had hoped for:

The couple we had lunch with today that live in Tver said this is the first snow storm of the season. If we had come last week we would have missed it.

We took the "kids" to the river:

 

You probably noticed they had a wardrobe change. We could'nt be seen taking our "children" out in the snow in shorts and t-shirts.

I learned to walk in high heels in the snow on the way to church:

We took a picture of the "kids" at church:

 

And on the trolley (the senior missionary couple taught us how to use the public transportation):

And then we had lunch with the senior missionary couple at thier town house in Tver after church. It was a lovely day in the snow.

 

 

Only one more sleep!!

 

cold

I have a cold.

How could this happen? There is no worse time to have a cold. "Hello, son, I'm so glad I get to take you with me today. We are going to have an incredible adventure together. Oh, and by the way, here are some germs to get you started on the right foot." Urgh! I suspected it was coming so I bought $10 worth of emergen-C at the San Fran airport on our way out. That 10 bucks didn't go as far as I would have hoped for little packets of vitamin powder, but that's how they get ya. Despite my efforts, even the vita-boost couldn't combat the 30+ hours of travel and fatigue. So, here I am, sounding like Fran Drescher.

Moscow had a lovely layer of about 2 inches of snow. Just enough to cover the ground and a dusting on the trees. Tver has less snow but the forecast shows 7 inches tomorrow. It is amazing how quickly the weather has changed here. The day temp in Tver has dropped 40 degrees in just over 30 days since our last trip. And the wind makes it mighty chilly. Now I can understand babies bundled in snow suits (as opposed to our last trip when we were in short sleeves and our son looked like the kid from A Christmas Story). But it's funny, none of the babies have mittens on. The Russian people seem to be the ultimate baby-bundlers yet tonight I did not see one child with mittens on. And my hands were numb inside my jacket with gloves. Hmm...

We were told today our week would look like this:
Sunday we have "off." (we plan to go to church and hopefully see the city of Tver blanketed in snow)
Monday we go to the notary and submit Jacob's passport at the passport office before going to his orphanage to pick him up. Gotcha Day!!
Tuesday we might receive his passport back and be able to go to Moscow. If not we will do that Wednesday.
If we are in Moscow Wednesday morning the doctor will come and we will take care of Embassy paperwork and then have our appointment at the consulate Thursday. If the passport is not done Tuesday everything gets moved back a day.
So depending on that passport we might have a "free" day Friday to sight see. Either way we will have plenty of time to see the touristy stuff after our appointments. ;)

Can't wait to hold my boy. Prayers he does not get my cold...

Adventures with flat family

The "flat" Krinke children have had an adventurous trip to Russia:

Settling into bed in San Francisco

Having breakfast at 5am in the San Francisco airport

Playing cards on the flight to New York

 

Sleeping on the flight to Moscow

 

And finally arriving at our hotel in Tver. The "flat" children were wiped out from the travel and had to rest on the couch in our room.

 

 

We are here, we are settled, we are safe. More updates to come...

Tired

I admit it. I actually believed preparing to bring home a one-year old would be easier than preparing to give birth. I secretly smirked to myself when thinking how "easy" it would be to "just" pack a suitcase. I imagined myself well rested and full of sunshine. I thought it would be so nice to be "myself" right up to the day we grabbed our little boy and never had to let go. No achy back and hips. No swollen hands and feet. No wrestling with the watermelon attached to my mid-section every night in bed. No fatigue from carrying around 35 extra pounds 24/7. And, of course, no labor!

But reality is setting in a bit here. I am not well rested. I can hardly settle my excitement long enough to force my eyelids shut at night. My to-do list seems to keep getting longer rather than shorter. And it seems any time I am able to settle into my pillow and begin to drift, that's when a new epiphany strikes me or I am suddenly jolted back to awareness of everything that must be done before we leave.

During the last week of my pregnancy with Drew I was immensely uncomfortable. He was wreaking havoc on my been-through-this-twice-already body and I was ready to do jumping jacks hoping it might cause him to just fall out. Today I have an all too familiar ache that reminds me of that last week before Drew's delivery. I want to just get there all ready. I'm tired of not sleeping. I'm tired of preparing. I'm tired of thinking.

The world seems to have begun to spin around me. While Drew was at preschool today I thought I would blow through my to-do list like wildfire. But instead I found myself wandering from room to room trying to remember why I had just walked in there. I couldn't focus to save my life. All I can think about is the fact that in two short days we will finally leave for the last time. In two short days there will be nothing left on the to-do list. In two short days we will leave our 3 children and return a week later to 4.

I thought it would be different adopting a baby. It's not. It's the same. The same emotion, the same love, the same worry, the same effort, the same devotion. I can't wait for this day to finally get here, just like all the others.

"Building the cribbie"

This video was taken 6 months ago on April 4, 2012.

 

And this video was taken tonight, October 18, 2012.

What a glorious and wonderful evening. It makes me want to squeeze my small people.