Wednesday

I'm so grateful for all of Dondi's photos if for no other reason than it's the only way I can remember what's happened each day! ;)

For example, I forgot that this morning was when Krassi had his first bath with mommy. ;) You can't tell from the photo necessarily, but he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. His baba told us back in March that he loves his baths, but there are so many different factors - much larger tub (he usually got his bath in what was essentially a laundry sink), different person, and thus different methods...But Dondi encouraged me to go for it, sharing how much her son with CP enjoyed his baths because of the relief it gave his muscles. The bath was a nice reprieve for him - he had seemed really comfortable with us today until we were coming back from breakfast and I think reality of the change he's going through hit him again, and the whimpering really started up, turning rapidly into full fledged crying with real tears. The bath ended up being just what we needed.

 After the bath we took a walk. He seems to really enjoy these times. We like them, too. It gives him some relief from the intensity of being with us and only us ALL of the time. While he's still with us and hearing our voices, he's also hearing the more familiar sound of the Bulgarian language around him, and he seems to find comfort in that. He seems to be quite an intelligent boy, and he absolutely knows that these people who he's with don't know how to talk right. ;)

Owen is really taken with the Roman ruins, and wanted to walk back past them again. This time as we crossed the street we took advantage of the underground crossing (the one with the "nicer" ramps that are at least possible to navigate) and came out a different way, and found that there are what appear to be restored ruins integrated with the underground crossing! Very neat.

Hi, Dondi! Now everyone knows you really were in Bulgaria! ;)

 After lunch (a chicken/carrot/something baby food combo given to us by the orphanage and prunes that we had purchased at the market for Krassi, and 1 lv. pizza slices for the rest of us) we headed back to the hotel for some down time. We are in the room with the balcony and the curving roofs on the top floor.

Here are my boys wearing matching socks again. ;) When I first saw this photo I smiled at the red striped socks, and then looked at my boys' legs and got all teary. Owen is a small boy for 8 years old (though quite fit, I must add - probably because he knows how to WORK!) but he looks like a monster next to his older brother. I don't expect Krassi's legs will ever be as sturdy and muscular as Owen's because of his CP, but I am very excited for the day when there is some more meat on those bones!

Once again we had Krassi take a rest at what is supposedly his nap time, and once again he didn't sleep, but just lay whimpering in his bed. Today we got him out after only an hour, and spent some time snuggling on the bed. Part of this is that I am so very exhausted that I could hardly think, so it was nice to just be close to him, but not actively trying to engage with him. After a bit of restful time together I fed him his afternoon snack. He's been taking some chocolate Pediasure from the spoon today, and we combined that with the rest of his prunes to encourage some movement. ;) One really funny part of the afternoon was when Krassi was trying to "tickle" Owen. Dondi's been tickling Owen to get him to laugh because of the way Krassi responds to Owen's laughter, and it was so funny to see him trying to tickle Owen himself and to see his response when Owen laughed. Owen really hammed it up, too. Krassi's not the best tickler yet, but he sure got some good incentive to keep trying today!

In the late afternoon I was able to facetime with Matt and the younger three, which was just delightful. Reuben looked so delighted to see me, and I heard Rinnah comment, "Rinnah's mommy!" We tried having Krassi sit with us, but he was very agitated, and eventually worked up nearly to tears again, so Dondi took him and laid him back down on the big bed. Over the next half hour he passed some gas, which we're attributing the discomfort to. He's got to be filling up in there!

At supper he once again ate like a pro - this time some "3rd foods" lasagna baby food that I'd brought from home - lots more chunks in it than most of what we've been giving him, and a lot thicker, and he did great at first, but them seemed uncomfortable again, so I slowed down on the food and periodically gave him either Pediasure or baby fruit thinned with water (liquids, liquids!) For a while I thought I was going to have to take my meal upstairs with him, but he managed to settle down a bit and make it through our eating of our meal.

Evenings have always been our best times with him. He's kind of sleepy, and so relaxed, and we've gotten some really sweet smiles. After last night's success with massaging his legs I decided to try again tonight, and again it was a hit. He particularly loves having his feet rubbed. ;) He's got such soft, fleshy feet - feels like all of the fat that's missing on the rest of him is pooled in the soles of those feet. ;) Dondi's experience matches my theory, that they simply have not been used, so have no calluses built up on them.

By far the best part of today, though, was hearing my son laugh!!! We've seen lots of smiles, and once or twice a sound of contentment, but we were actually getting giggles out of this boy tonight! Is this not the most beautiful picture! We got smiles back in March, but momentary fleeting ones that we had to capture out of video. Tonight we had ample opportunities to catch smiles on still shots because they were frequent and long lasting. Isn't he beautiful wearing that smile! I am so excited for this boy to learn what it is to be safe and to be loved. He's getting a taste of it here, and it seems like he's thinking it's going to be something that works for him.