Visit #8: The boy LOVES the toothbrush...

Friday, September 30, 2011 Visiting Day #8

Raspberries anyone??

Brian and I hit the jackpot last night! We found an extra blanket in the closet. Fuzziest, warmest blanket ever! As a result, I had the best sleep I’ve had in a while. And, I actually woke up before the alarm clock. Hooray!

Same old story. Got up, got dressed, went downstairs, drove to the institution. It’s definitely a rote routine at this point. Kind of boring really.

We spent the day in “the little room” again. Meany nurse was actually nice today and came in to check on us even. That was nice.

Sterling tried a new snack today! Bananas. I’m not sure he’s ever had one. I WISH we would have gotten a video of that snack because it really was priceless. I had to help him with the eating though. We first tried to give him half of it but he got so excited with his first bite (which was WAY too big) he dropped the half we had given him. So, I had to keep the rest in the peel and hold it while he took bites. We both had to try to keep his hands down because he would try to grab for it each bite (to stick the whole thing in his mouth!) After each bite he would just grin – big smile. Super cute. Bananas are a hit.

Then we played. Sterling found a hole near the baseboards. He really didn’t like it there. He tried to fill it in with his animals.

Climbing monster....

We also played with the slinky, the bumble ball, and the stuffed animals. He LOVES that fox!  He doesn’t like bubbles. I think he is actually scared of them. L When I blew bubbles today he ran to Daddy. Oh well.

What are you doing???

I don't think I like this...

Peace out! Where's daddy?

I LOVE this picture!

The big hit for today was the toothbrush! I took the toothbrush so that I could just introduce him to it. I also wanted to give his teeth a little brushing. They needed it. I wasn’t sure how it would go over but seeing as how he loves to put things in his mouth I thought all would be well. What I didn’t imagine was the pure GLEE from the toothbrush. I think the videos say it all. We will need another toothbrush though - one for him to hold and one for me to brush his teeth with. I love this giggle. The one video ends with him just screaming in delight. (When he is really excited he just screams. Sometimes – he just screams to scream.) (He also throws his head back when he laughs which is too cute for words.)

We hung out for about an hour and fifteen minutes and then we headed back. We had Alexei drop us off a McDonald’s on the way home and we had lunch (yuck) and coffee. It is still cold here. Today when we got up it was 6*. And the biggest surprise – people are STILL ordering ice cream like there is no tomorrow. WAY TOO COLD for me to eat ice cream. (I don’t really like it anyway but still.)

We will not see Sterling again until Monday. It is supposed to be rainy and yucky tomorrow and we learned that the institution runs on a skeleton crew on the weekend. It was rough on them when we went last weekend. So, we won’t be back until Monday. Then, Tuesday is COURT! Still praying hard for a positive court decision!

Enjoy the pictures from today!

Visit #7 (And more cold rain...)

Thursday, September 29, 2011
Visiting Day #7

We woke up to another cold and rainy day. It was gray, dreary and bleak; but, we had already told Alexei to pick us up this morning. We begrudgingly got out of bed, got dressed and headed downstairs. Alexei was there waiting.

The other day at the institution, our backpacks got dirty. Nothing really exciting, they had just been put down in some dirt. Well, we ended up tracking some dirt into Alexei’s car. Suffice it to say, our bags are not allowed in the car anymore. They go into the trunk. I realized today as we put our bags in the trunk he had laid down garbage bags in the back of the trunk to protect it from the dirt. I find this utterly amusing. It’s ok if, whilst in the course of driving like a bat out of Hades, you crumple your car into non-existence; but all of Hades will freeze over if a little dirt gets in the car. ;) I fear for my life EVERY TIME we get into that vehicle (BTW – people who know me well…it is a CAR. A tiny CAR…it’s a little VW…SHOCKING I even get into it to begin with!) but it’s fine to not wear seatbelts and drive like a maniac possibly maiming yourself and others while most certainly getting blood in the car…but dirt….<GASP>! OH NO!

My sarcasm is in full effect today…J

On the way to the institution we drive through cornfield, after cornfield, after cornfield after….well, you get the idea. It is very common for mental institutions to be tucked away in the middle of nowhere. Well, this definitely hold true for Sterling. These are some shots taken from the window of the car today (at who knows what speed)…imagine this is all you see for 45 minutes…

And then we know we getting close when we see the sign for the village (and our speed slows dramatically – yay!) Then we pass this stuff (also blurry – I told you he slows down…not he drives the limit):

All to get to our son. Who lives down this gravel road.

Because it was raining out we were stuck inside. And meany nurse was back. Going on in Russian about it being too cold outside and we could sit in the little room. Which we were expecting and trust me – we didn’t want to be outside. But she repeated it several times for us. Just in case we missed it the first few.

I talk about this little room. Here are some pictures of “the little room.” We measured it today – just for you. For those of you who don’t know us personally, Brian is 6’1”. He can nearly touch the sides of the room with his arms outstretched. The room is a little less than 8 feet wide. Brian then measured it’s length – 18 feet.

In “the little room” we have:

 a couch:

a table:

and chairs:

Sterling hates this room. He made a break for it today. I SO wish I had gotten that on video. It was hilarious. Luckily no one was on the other side of the door or they would have been whacked. He sent that door flying open!

 Speaking of being whacked by something – every time we go the boy has new bruises or marks on him. Today he had a HUGE goose egg on his head. And I mean huge. You might be able to see it in some of the pictures (maybe not – all of the pictures today are horrible – all are blurry). He also had a new bruise on his jaw. He is definitely rough and tumble. And he is one heck of a climber. He’s got climbing down. I’m sure this is how he got his bruises. J He's also still learning to stand from a sit so I'm sure that doesn't help either!

 Enough back story and on with the pictures! Again they didn’t turn out so great (we will blame the lighting) and none of them is particularly great. But, it’s what we have! Same old story today! Snack, play, snack, play. There is obviously no taking walks on days like today and I think that contributes to his behaviors in the room. Which, by the way were MUCH better today. He even looked at books with us today! J We are visiting tomorrow and aren’t sure about Saturday just yet. Keep praying – we have court on Tuesday!

Enjoy!