Well, even after my mom goes home tomorrow, my blogging might be a bit slow. Why? Because my computer is being fixed AGAIN. Looks like another bad hard drive. I just had it replaced this summer. Frustrating. It will be Tuesday before I have it back.

Yesterday we had our appointments at the International Adoption Clinic at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City. If you are considering going to the IA clinic there, GO. They were so wonderful. All the nurses came in and gawked over the kids. The doctor spent over and hour, maybe an hour and a half with us. He was totally present, talking to me, interacting with the kids, etc. We are having tons of tests run, and we must wait for the results. Most of them will be in by the end of next week. I have some concerns, nothing major, but I am glad that we will be getting some answers. From everything the doctor could tell in his examination, they are both healthy. Ilya is in the 50th percentile for height and weight and Lena in the 3rd. I was very glad my mom was there for the appointments too. I had never been to Children’s Mercy before, so we had to figure out where to go. And entertaining kids at a 3-hour doctor’s appointment is not easy!

Things are still challenging much of the time. This has been Ilya’s week to be difficult, it seems like. Today, we picked some stuff up for Aaron’s work, drove it over to the office. Well, Aaron took it inside and I had to go the bathroom, so I went with him. I guess Ilya started crying and trying to get out of his carseat when I left (my mom was with them). When I got back in the car, he was fine, but he quickly got upset again, when I tightened the harness on his carseat a bit. I thought would calm down when Aaron got in the car. Well, Aaron turned around and said “Ilya!” (like he was excited to see him) and Ilya totally melted down.

He has just been off this week, maybe because of the change of my mom being here (although he does seem to really like her). He has had plenty of moments where he has stopped communicating and gotten upset when we don’t respond. Like at dinner, he will just point into the kitchen, instead of asking us for more. Or last night, he asked Aaron for more and when Aaron picked up Ilya’s bowl, he started screaming. Wait, what? You just said you wanted more and I was going to get you more? It has been almost constant this week. Crying one minute and laughing the next.

Lena and my mom really like each other, so that is good. The other day, I hopped out of the car for a minute to run in somewhere and Lena got upset with just my mom and Ilya in the car. This surprised me, that she is attached to me enough to get upset about that! It was a nice surprise. She really does like my mom a lot, probably because my mom makes sure Lena is always laughing and smiling.

I am going to miss my mom when she goes home! It is so nice to have another adult around. It makes everything a lot easier. Even when it’s 3 adults to 2 kids, it’s still so much easier. One person to make dinner, one to hang out with the kid who is playing nicely and one to sit with the kid who is melting down.