10/27/04-Mary Jo heads home...

Our morning had a sad note as Mary Jo started her long journey home. She will be missed very much by all of us. I know she will miss us, but she definitely needed to get out of Kazakhstan. Plans for the family vacation in Karaganda in 5 years have definitely been vetoed. She will be doing a reverse of her trip here, first stopping in Almaty then catching a flight (at 4 AM) to Frankfurt. From Frankfurt she is off to Chicago and then to Pittsburgh. I am sure her first stop when she gets home will be to her precious shower where she will take her first shower in almost a month that does not have a brown tint.

The remainder of the day was just Dad, Gma and the kids. Dad took a quick trip to the store for some water, which allowed Gma to continue her bonding. Apparently, Gma has a new boyfriend, whose name is Jack McGrath. Jack was in an incredible mood all day. He has learned two things in the last couple days – how to give himself his bottle and how to wave – often at the same time. The only mistake we made today was that we were having so much fun with him that we forgot to give him his afternoon nap. We tried to give him a nap in the morning, but he just refused to go to sleep. We think he will be a one nap child and it will be in the early afternoon. Without his nap, he started to breakdown around 4 PM. He held out until 5:30 when he fell asleep on the mat drinking his bottle.

Gracie is definitely getting better. She took a two full bottles of formula and a bottle of grape juice, plus she at food twice today which is a lot more than she has eaten in the past week. Her mom will be very happy. We even have a video of Gma feeding her to prove it. She was also more chipper today and, at times, played on her own. She still is very attached to me and wants to be held all the time. Actually, not just held, but held and walked around. There is something about movement that makes her happy. We want to break her of this (because her dad is getting old and will not be able hold her all day), but we are working in this gradually. Gma thinks it is a security thing as she is trying to adjust to life out of the orphanage and I am her main connection to that. Our main concern right now is getting her well and eating, so I will carry her, but we will work to get her to sit on her own more. Grace is definitely a two nap child and still went to sleep at 5:30 with Jack. This kid does sleep a lot. Gma said a doctor once told her that is when kids are growing. We can only hope this is true.

The only other news from today is that we think Gracie has her father’s love of musicals. Gma had the idea that it would be good to have some music in the room so we put in the Sound of Music DVD in the computer. At times, Gracie sat there and was fascinated by the movie and seemed to like the music. She definitely like when her dad danced to the music with her.

We have a lot of pictures today since we’ve been lax recently. We also have some videos for you. Hopefully you will enjoy them. Gma is doing well, though she is very tired. She is still trying to adjust to sleeping here. This being a good day, I am finding that the good days are just as tiring as the bad days, but they are not as emotionally exhausting.


Today’s Pictures
Video 1 – A short video showing Jack taking a bottle all by himself.
Video 2 – Proof for Gracie’s Mom that she is eating well. Sorry for the loud music in the background. I didn’t realize it would be so loud. It is our favorite song though.