Calvin and Silas

We are home and a family of SEVEN! It's been a long time coming (15 months!) to bring Calvin and Silas home, but now that they are here - it feels so natural to everyone. Anna has been the best big sister EVER - doing her best to keep both boys smiling and happy. Iryna took a bath with Calvin and ever since then she is obsessed with him - telling me that he is her "friend". So sweet. Keith calls both boys "Calvin Silas", ha ha. 

Like all adoptions, there is an adjustment period. I know that we're still in that and will be for a while, but it has been so smooth. I remember how tough it was with the twins when they came home and this is much easier, thus far. We are still getting to know the boys, of course, and learning their personalities better. We are frustrated with the insurance situation. The boys cannot be seen until May 1st. I was really eager to get in and get everything moving, but if we were to see a pediatric cardiologist right now, we'd have to pay something like $100 per visit plus 20% of each visit cost. We certainly cannot afford that right now, much less 20% of a heart surgery. This has been my only complaint with TRICARE, our military insurance. For now we are just praying that both Silas and Calvin's hearts will be strong and healthy until we can get them in to see the doctor. We would ask for your prayers on this as well. God has certainly watched over these boys so far and I know that he can make them strong enough to be okay until May. 

Silas: he is quite the class clown. He makes us laugh everyday and is so cute that it's hard to ever be upset with him. Tyler jokes that he could get away with murder...I am starting to realize that he is a two year old and not older than that. It's been 8 years since I had a two year old, although, Keith is mentally 2-3 years old. He is always on the go, loves to explore, and is very curious about everything. He is fascinated with Maggie (our dog) and Jasper (our cat) and comes very close to them, which scares Maggie away. At every meal, he will eat most of the food and then reach out for me to hold him. It is precious - I love snuggling him up. He is pretty small - wears 2T in shirts and 12mos-18mos in pants. He poops a lot. Every time he eats something, he poops. It's strange to have someone who goes so often compared with Keith who needs miralax 3x a day to go. He is in size 2 diapers - tiny! He falls out of his bed every nap and every night. We need to get a bed rail for his toddler bed. We finally got a gate - hooray! - so he cannot roam around the house at will. He has been swimming twice. He did better the first day and was more scared the second. He loves being around his family and is babbling a lot. My struggle with Silas is that he will not drink. And consequently, he doesn't pee in his diaper. He poops often, though, which doesn't make much sense to me. I have to force him to take down water, juice, pediasure, and milk. I hate having to do it - but he has to drink, right? It's so fun to see a little one toddling around the house. I love it.

Calvin: he is a cuddle bug. This kid could snuggle with Tyler or me all day long and never tire of it. He is frequently coming up to us for snuggle or play time. He is learning English rapidly by repeating words and he loves the Baby Einstein and Signing Times videos. We have had him taking a nap in the middle of the day - the orphanage said that he napped - but then he was waking up at 5am and playing. Yesterday we let him skip the nap and he woke up at 6:30am this morning - MUCH BETTER! Calvin is 100% potty trained - he is even wiping himself, too, and doesn't need a diaper at night. Last night when we were cleaning up the playroom - it was a disaster zone - Calvin was a pro at helping to clean up. I guess we've been so used to Iryna - who becomes stressed and whines and doesn't want to clean - or Keith - who moves very slowly and generally plays more than cleans. AND the idea of cleaning up moved past the language barrier and he understood what needed to be done and did it cheerfully. That was SO nice to see. My struggle with Calvin is that he is emotionally weak. He cries a lot. If he bumps into something, doesn't get his way, or disobeys & has to stand in Time Out, he wails and wails. He is also very jealous of our attention. If he sees the other children getting our attention, especially Silas, he butts in and vies for us to look at him, too. Calvin is terrified of the swimming pool. Terrified. And he is a total ham in front of the camera. He is a good boy. He wants to do what is right and I love that. Plus he's adorable. We gave him a haircut (sorry, mom!) and I spiked it yesterday - so cute!

Some pictures from the apartment in Russia. 

We had brought silly string and decided to play with it on the last day before we left, but it made a huge mess and was very, very wet. And the boys did NOT enjoy it like we thought they would. 

Airport!

Since we were bumped to the next flight, we were given vouchers to eat anywhere in the airport and we ate at Chili's. You can see the fatigue on Tyler's face, right?

The children fared better than we did on the trip. Look at this smile!

The morning after we got home. The boys were ecstatic about the play room and rightfully so. 

Scripture time with Daddy before bed. He is so good to read to them every night.

First day in the pool. Silas was okay and Calvin hadn't lost his balance yet - which made him cry the rest of the time he was in the pool. 

Me carrying Calvin around the pool, trying to get him used to it instead of wailing.

My 3 middle kids!

Watching Baby Einstein.

Movie and popcorn!

With all our snuggling with Calvin and Silas, Keith has been more vocal about him getting his fair share, too. And rightfully so.