Happy birthday, Daddy!

Bryan turns 34 today, and I bet if you asked him last year if he would be spending his next birthday in Eastern Europe, in a place where he didn't speak the language, for an undetermined amount of time, culminating in the adoption of another Maddex boy, he would have laughed til he was breathless!

Oh, how our lives twist and turn!!

Today we got up early as per Bryan's request, and made it to McDonald's for breakfast, which it turns out that indeed they do serve it, we just missed it on Sunday, I guess.  An Egg McMuffin and a Sausage McMuffin plus 2 hashbrowns later, we were ready to go visit Danila.  Sidenote:  they use sunflower oil for frying here.  I think it's probably healthier (just a tad!) and also tastes better!

Dedushka was visiting Danila before we arrived, but as soon as we walked through the gates, he ran to us.  Dedushka shook our hands and said his goodbyes, and left his grandchild in our care.  We know it's important to have time alone with Danila to bond with him...but it is incredibly sad to watch these goodbyes with his birth family, because we all know that they are limited.  Such a strange mix of emotions in my heart, and I'm sure in theirs, as well.

He was bundled all up in a little pink jacket and curduroy pants.  It is chilly this morning- we did the math and figured out that it is 64 degrees F today.  That's a big change from the upper 80s that we've had lately.  We went from Danila playing in nothing but his underwear and a pair of crocs, to jacket, long sleeve shirt, cords, and socks and sandals in 3 days!

We tried a puzzle- 36 pieces, that was a bit too hard.  We need to find one bigger than the baby/toddler stage and smaller than the 6 year old stage.  He did, however, enjoy putting all the pieces into the box and then dumping them all out again.  Bryan's words, "Okay, you and Chase will get along just fine."

We played ball for a little, lined up all the plastic animals again and colored a happy birthday message for Daddy.  It seemed like he had less energy today than usual...as evidenced by the way he laid down on the floor and started sucking his thumb!!  Yes, folks...we have our first Maddex thumb-sucker in the HOWSE!!  Thumb suckers always make me repeat Shel Silverstein's Thumb Sucker poem in my head :)


Oh the thumb-sucker's thumb
May look wrinkled and wet
And withered, and white as the snow,
But the taste of a thumb
Is the sweetest taste yet
(as only we thumb suckers know)


I have to admit, tired Danila is awfully sweet.  He sat in our laps, and we sang some songs...and then we got out the secret weapon:  the android phone.  He loves Bubble Popper, just like all his brothers, and played that quietly with us for quite a while.  The cutest thing was that he kept using too much pressure to pop the bubbles with his finger, so we'd hold his finger and help him.  Then he'd try it himself, only to decide that he liked it better when we helped, so he'd put his little pointer finger out on one hand, and grab one of our hands with the other and put them together.  


We took our sweet boy back to his groupa, where he joined his friends walking inside for lunch.  He really does well following directions and being in a routine.  Under the circumstances, he really is in a good place, where he has lots of good role models in his peers (he is in a groupa for very healthy, relatively high functioning kids, which is NOT the norm for a child with Ds), and nannies and doctors who really do care for him...not to mention almost daily visits from his family members to encourage such great communication skills and his ability to form attachments to the special people in his life.  

So we leave our boy in the care of others for another day, but know that zaftra (tomorrow) will come soon enough...