Its been long time since I did not blog, and this is because we have been busy, some of us busy with working, others with learning to read and write and others with day care, monkeys, potty training and bugging big brothers. We celebrated Daddy`s birthday, Valentine`s day, Mother`s day (March 8 - in Europe) and most important one year since Meetcha` day! It is so hard to imagine how was our life like one year ago and how everything has changed ever since we met them...
Our most important update is Gabi`s surgery, on February 11, the same day with Daddy`s birthday. We are so grateful everything went well and I can say from all my heart, Gabi was very well taken care of. Not only he had one of the top ophtalmologists specialized in ptosis, but the professionalism and kindness of everybody who took care of him made us feel like he was really in very good hands. I am happy we did not do the surgery right away, since we were able to explain him what and why everything is going to happen. We made a deal for a visit to Toys R Us for the day after. When we arrived at the hospital, he was welcomed by a big red car he was able to drive in the hallway, he was given a beautiful pajama with with Tom and Jerry and in no time we were called for surgery. We waited maybe 20 minutes in a room with other children, watching Nemo.
A nice lady brought him to the operating room, she asked him whats his favorite flavor - and with chocolate smelling anesthetic - he felt asleep in no time. No pain, no cry, no stress. The surgery started right in time - 8:00 am and it lasted for 2 hours.
The post-op experience, I dont even want to remember. With certitude, it was very painful for all of us, but he was very brave and recovered pretty fast. His eyes were very swollen, he was not able to tolerate light for several days, and even when he was in pain, he was not at all a wynner.
Everything is going great since then. He had a psycho-educational evaluation in Romanian and English and surprisingly he was more confortable in Romanian. At 5 yrs and 7 months, he scored an age equivalent of 6.5 yrs in math, 6.3 yrs in problem solvings, 6.0 in reading, 6.0 in time, money and measurements, 6.2 yrs in decoding and 5.6 yrs in comprehension. His speach and language were the only problem and he qualifies for speach and laguage therapy, but unfortunately it will take several months to get the services. However, his math skills were very flattering for his mom, who has a BD in Physics and Math. Needless to say, he is again and forever the Mommy`s Boy!
And lets not forget Yulia`s newest and the most frequently used additions to her vocabulary: "I can do it!!" "Let me do it!" "Why?" and of course, everything is about... Yulia`s. Yulia`s daddy, Yulia`s mommy, Yulia`s monkey (she has a collection of 5 monkeys black, white, purple, pink and blue), Yulia`s Gabi, Yulia`s DVDs, Yulia`s books, Yuli`s bed, Yulia`s milk, Yulia`s toys and I can go on and on and on.....She says "Love you", too.
Happy Eastern to all our friends!
He can really make me smile, this little funny boy. And he really likes to talk, with no R, in 3 languages (sounds like "Sto is asta?"), but lately, with better and better English ....
1.
He is an artist. And I am his muse. He brought home a picture with my name on it: "BAIA MAMA": Look, mommy, I drew a long, grey snake. He looks like you.
2.
He is still asking for permissions. "Mommy, I love Emma. Can she come to sleep with me tomorrow?"
3. He knows everything about our family chain, and most important, he knows his father: - "Mommy, please scratch my back, if you scratch it, I will scratch Yulia`s back"....
- And Yulia?
- "Yulia will scratch Max`s back".....
- and Max?
- "Max will scratch tata`s back".....
- and tata?
- "tata will just sit there"......
4. He knows his limits...- Gabi, would you like to have an other sister or brother?
- Noooooo way. I have enough.
5. He likes to take care of himself. Prevention! Prevention! Prevention! - Mommy, I think I need some Tylenol. My ear pain is coming soon.
6.He is intuitive- Mommy, look! This clock is counting.... Is 9:10. soon it will be 10:11 and after, 11:12... How funny.
7. He`s got a big heart. Very generous little boy.- Mommy, when I will grow up, I will buy you a pizza.
8. He has clear future plans.- "How old is Max?"
- 7
- "I knew he is older than me"
- How come?
- "I saw him giving tata (daddy) a hug. He is bigger than me, because 7 is bigger than 5. 7 listens more than 5. When I will be 7, I will listen to you. Not now.... You have to wait, OK?"...
9. He doesn`t like non-sense. May all those who dont listen to their children, just eat, wash, teeth brush, then ...hush! - Mommy, I dont like tata because he is is not listenning to me. He did not let me watch TV today. He has to go to sleep early today.
10. He is a brave heart.- We have to go to the doctor because my eyes are broken. The doctor will repair the eyes. I will not cry.
11. He is a real dandy.- Mommy, please tell daddy to take Yulia and Max to the park, so we can close the door and dance. Just me and you.
11. He is a quick decisions maker. He remembers he was in "his other house" with other children, and then, one day, mommy and daddy came there and brought him candies....
- And?
- And they said "Hi Five!" to me.
- And you?
- I said "Hi Five!" and came to my new home. On the airplane. With Yulia and Mommy.
(aka Mama Snake)And, this is how I look like, after 8 months of motherhood. Can`t you see the smile on my face?...
We had a wonderful holiday season. First, Yulia, the Sun Flower, Gabi, the Monkey and Max, the Ladybug celebrated their first Halloween together.
We spent a quite, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend in Rhode Island with our friends. Gabi fell in love with his new girlfriend, Emma, he was trying to still kisses from her. We (over)cooked a turkey, we barbecued, we walked on the beach and visited couple of the Newport Mansions. It continued with a Thanksgiving party at PS 24 where children learnt how to make butter and share it. Joy in Gabi`s eyes when he saw me entering the room “She is my mamma!”. Tears, I was able to hold when children made a list with things they are thankful for and Gabi wrote correctly spelled: “To mom, dad and Yulia!”. Completely not expectable (especially since I think I am under estimating his English knowledge, I did not even imagine he can completely understand what was he suppose to write on the big list.
The stories about Santa, the Christmas songs and the joy of the first Christmas tree followed. We built a gingerbread house at the school Christmas party. Our hands were full of chocolate! I got a little embarrassed by the other moms, when I did not know how chocolate icing looks like and Gabi told everybody he never ate marshmallows.
We were patiently waiting for Santa, day by day. Christmas lights, joys and significant less need for time outs. “Where is he now?” “What does he usually like to eat?” “Is he going to be hungry when he will come to our house?” “I will make sure I will leave some ice cream for him and … carrots for the reindeers”. “Do you think he will come?” “Please tell him that Gabi was a good boy, better than Yulia”. First play in the snow, first snow balls and first snowman. Christmas shopping. A not so quite dinner in four. Sarmale (traditional stuffed cabbage with sour cream) and Romanian sweet bread for Christmas evening. Santa came earlier this year because he heard they have been very good and since he has to visit so many children in the world, he stopped by first at the Baia Family. (Actually, I had to work the Christmas day and I just wanted to witness their big joy). Screaming and jumps and lots of gifts unwrapping. Max was hiding in the other room, seeming obviously disturbed by too much noise and no good place for snorring. The biggest surprise was not the big remote control red car, he was asking for so long time, not even the spider man on a motorcycle, but a cute 5 $ red watch, Mommy Santa found on the last minute at Target. Also, a huggable big plush Teddy bear and a truly talkative Elmo, who knows exactly how to give hugs to Yulia and make her laugh.
And then, the next day, the miracle has happened. The real Santa Claus (Mr. Bob, our neighbor) knocked on the door. Gabi, noticed him first and very excited said “Hi Santa, please come in!” But immediately Yulia got very scared from the loud Ho!Ho!Ho! and started to scream “Mammaaaa!, Tataaaa!” And then, her best friend Max came to help, he got really furious and he did not care at all that Santa came with more toys. So daddy had to catch Max and close him in an other room until Santa left in a big rush few more toys and ran away fast…. Hopefully he will come again next year too…
Best wishes from our family to yours. May we have a year full of Peace, Joys, Faith, and Love. May our families and friends be healthy and happy and may all our wishes come true. May we always believe in Santa, and may we never stop dreaming and never lose hope.
“We can cut all the flowers, but we can not keep spring from coming”.
Pablo Neruda
PS. We are very proud parents. Our dangerous girl, Yulia – whose parents are from the land of Transylvania, by the way - decided that biting is not a good thing to do. There was no need for big punishments. Time outs worked perfectly for her (no longer than 1-2 minutes at a time). She understands perfectly whenever she does something wrong and now, is enough just to mention about time out and she will stop doing it. She talks a lot, speaks few short sentences already, she says “go away” “give me milk” “stop it”, “Oh my God!” “Sleep, Teddy!”, "Give five", “Good Night” and of course, “I love you!”. She is still very stubborn and has a very strong, well determined, funny personality.
Gabi loves kindergarden and the teacher and his friends love him at school. He can count up to 100, and we are learning to add numbers and read books. He started to write few words like he, she, it, and, the, cat, pig and car. He and myself are enjoying Dr Seuss books. He still has some speech problems. I was advised to wait for 6 months of adjustment, but we are waiting for a speech evaluation. He has not had night terrors in a while. His surgery is scheduled for February 11. His vision is not yet affected, but unfortunately, he has a very severe form of ptosis and the surgery might need to be done in several steps and it will not be completely corrected until when he will be 18 when he will need to sign consent for the type of surgery he needs.
