Day...I seriously don't even know right now. (January 11, 2012)

Dear AJ,

Well, Little Darling- Daddy and I have finally made it to the other side of sleeplessness and horrible snotting colds. We saw you again for the first time in 4 or 5 days, on January 7- Christmas Day in Ukraine.

We were very much afraid that you would be afraid of us again and not remember who we were. Just the opposite really. You have been showing us more and more of your HUGE personality everyday. Laughing and smiling at us. Jabbering away to us- happily filling us in on all of your smiley secrets. You are very ticklish and we are learning all of your sweet tickle spots. You like it when Daddy reads the book, Are You My Mother? but always start to get a frowny face when we read, That's When I'm Happy. You don't like it when we say Mama and Papa, it has so far, just made you cry. (Really makes me wonder what has been told to you in regards to those two words.) So, we only call ourselves, Mommy and Daddy.

We've brought you some watered down apple juice to try- it's become clear to us that you are being spoon fed your liquids. I've tried to give you sips with a cup and am trying a bottle now. You're not digging either one. We have snuck you in a little bit of chocolate muffin and yesterday, a vanilla muffin. Both of which, you were more than delighted to have nibbles of.

You have a fond attachment to your big brother's LeapFrog puppy, Scout. You have grown in leaps and bounds from just staring at it, not even trying to touch it, to squeezing it, biting it, chewing on it, smiling at it, and smiling to yourself when you make it sing and light up. So proud of yourself- and we are so very proud of you! You're at the point now, that when you are brought to us, you will stare at Daddy's backpack until we get him out. We love that.

We work on stretching out your legs and hips everyday. You seem to enjoy doing some range of motion exercises and having your hamstrings and calves massaged. Your little ankles are moving better too now. You are very strong and love showing us how big and strong you are everyday. You like to sit on the floor between my legs and stretch forward to grab your feet. I let go of you every time, and there you sit- completely unassisted.

At today's visit (Jan 11)- you were stretched out on the couch with Daddy lying beside you. I was working with your legs and hips, while you laughed and merrily jib jabbered away. Daddy and I kept telling you how silly silly silly silly you were....you came back with a big smile, shaking your head from side to side saying, "Illy illy illy illy illy illy!" It was completely awesome. You were in quite the talkative mood until two other families came into the small visitation room. When they came in, you grew very quiet. You stopped looking up at us as much. You stopped smiling, except for a couple tiny ones here and there. You stopped talking to us. You stopped laughing. I don't know if it was just too much going on then with all of the other activity and you were getting a bit uneasy with it all, or what it was exactly. Maybe getting a tad overstimulated with the little girls running around. I guess it may be something we'll have to be careful with when we get you home, for a little while anyway.
When the two families left and before another family came in, you started to emerge once again from your frail little shell. I looked at your dumpling face and said, "There you are!" You cooed at me and smiled.

Here are some photos and a video clip from over the last 4 days.
 http://youtu.be/NqjqwZD4ubo

Unfortunately, we did not get a picture of you from yesterday. The nanny brought you to us wearing a pepto bismol pink stocking hat, complete with flowers to match the pink and purple snowsuit you were stuffed into. (not to mention the too small footie jammies, tights, 2 pairs of wool socks, and not one, not two, but THREE shirts under the jammies.) We had to call the facilitator to translate for us because being dressed in a snowsuit and such, we wondered if you were leaving or had just come back from somewhere. (Daddy and I waited in the visitation room for an hour for you to be brought in to us- which was very strange and truth be known- made us very anxious.) But, uh...no. This is just how you were dressed for the day- girlie snowsuit and all. I think we are finally being trusted a bit. We were asked to bring you back to your groupa by ourselves when we were done with our visit. We were pretty excited to see where you spend your days and nights. But, alas...the nanny came back for you before we were done, so you had to go with her. Today, we got the opportunity to at least see where your groupa was and made it only steps away from the door, but interception by way of nanny occurred before we made it to goal. Dang. Better luck next time.

See you in the morning Sweet Love. To the moon and back,

Mommy and Daddy