The Cluttered Pantry

To be certain it has been a blur. If that amazingly kind judge in Chita hadn’t waived the ten day wait we would have only been home for a couple of days.

The routine is, well, routine. Bed time, wake time, snack time, lunch time, nap time, bath time, diner time…. All relatively predictable.

What is never predictable are things like how many words Zhanna will suddenly add to her new English vocabulary. Very important additions in the past two weeks include “more juice/milk”, “be nice”(which she is now saying to Elena about pet interactions), “rosie/apoleon” (the puppies who have gone from sources of terror to sources of comfort-she asks where they are almost as she wakes up), “bless you”, “wow” (especially when peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with no crust appear on a plate), “lola” (the dog from next door who barks and scares Elena-as in “NO LOLA”, “shoes”, “cool” (includes a thumbs up), “peace” (includes an attempt at two fingers up)

It blows us away how quickly she is replacing words- counting in English has started and letters too.

Elena has a tiny tiny voice (unless she’s screaching with crazy delight at something.) she will say more please, and bye bye and juice etc but mostly she let’s Zhanna speak for her.

In the middle of this past week we experienced a moment right out of a movie script. During the girls afternoon nap I let the pups outside in the back yard, when I let them back in Rosie trotted up to me with a kitten in her mouth! Yes, an actual kitten. At first I thought she had hurt it or worse, but after basically running up the stairs to the studio with a handful of kitten wrapped in a baby bib (I don’t know, I just grabbed for something on the counter and that is what I came up with) mark and I checked out the smallest kitten I have ever seen and found nothing wrong other than the terror of having a puppy carrying it around. We looked for the mommy cat and any signs of other kittens but found nothing and the weather was getting awful outside. . Ok, now what?! Our house is already a zoo with the two dogs and three cats and two children. The last thing we need is some more responsibility. And surely the last thing this tiny scared kitten needs is to be “loved” by the girls who are currently showing affection to the full grown cats by pulling whiskers and smothering them with full body hugs. Then it hit us, big brother, Jordan has been talking about wanting a kitten for his new apartment. An overnight stay at the vet for testing and a trip to Petsmart later and “Matza Ball” has a new home.

Sometimes I think our lives would make for a pretty good sitcom. Other times? I’m certain of it…

Back in the day to day we continue to find other unpredictable things, especially which foods the girls will eat. It eludes us since there isn’t a real pattern. Both girls continue to devour peas and carrots, green beans and sweet potatoes. Malt-o-meal is a big hit and so are scrambled eggs. But the home made sugar cookies were turned down with the same face you’d make if I handed you a plate of poo. Chicken and hot dogs are considered “kaka” and spat out with disdain. But tonight Zhanna ate 3 ounces of poached salmon. And the other day she slurped down cream of tomato soup so fast that it was awe inspiring. They both will drink only small amounts of the whole milk their tiny bodies need so much of, so we are hiding it in the “mush”, in the eggs, in the sweet potatoes, in the tomoto soup etc. They guzzle apple juice, and even the scary “first juice” for infants made of carrots and apple or bannana carrot (it has half the sugar of the apple juice and also vitamin D)

The TB test were read on Thursday, both girls showed no response to the special test given them since they had been vaccinated with the live BCG vaccine in Russia (often children adopted from Russia are given the stronger test by well meaning pediatricians which results in antibiotic treatments as a precaution). We are really fortunate to have a team if International Adoption Specialists at the University of Chicago Children’s hospital. (only 6 blocks away from the house).

So with that hurdle behind us we are on to dealing with Zhanna having to take medicine for an internal parasite, and poor thing has made it clear that it tastes awful- she swallows it all anyway with no more than some kind words of encouragement. 12 more days of that 3 times a day then we should be through with the yucky stuff.

We spend a fair amount of time each day picking out tights and shoes to go with the dresses the girls pick out each day. Zhanna would wear her fur lined boots to bed if we’d let her and she has found that even pajamas with feet will fit in them. She’s a trendsetter to be sure!

Mark and I are doing our best to navigate the white water rapids of toddlerhood. The not wanting to share thing and Elena tossing herself on the floor when unhappy is pretty eye opening (to the fact that their tiny bodies contain a world of emotion and plans and energy all bundled up and ready to spring out at a moments notice.)

But the girls continue to play together and run to us with hugs and pretend food and bath time has turned into a whole event of water play that includes mommy and daddy in bathing suits so we can join in. Zhanna gets so sad when we stop the water and dry off that we have to bribe her with baby lotion and extra time in the frog hood towels.

So, in a nutshell- Life is good, exausting, messy and chaotic. We wouldn’t trade any moment of it for anything!

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