Journey To My Little Russian Princess: April 2009

Here are some recent pictures of Tatiana, hanging out at the house.

There is also one taken with one of her favorite cousins, Katie who lives just down the street.

We have been very busy over the past few weeks getting adjusted to a new routine and trying very hard to get a little someone to take naps and go to sleep at night. I have to say, the nap thing is still not going well. This is the main reason for the delay in posts. Sleep at night also comes with a fight which doesn't leave much alone time for Mama. Tatiana just hates going to bed. She fights and fights until she is just exhausted. I usually get her down by about 8 or 830pm, but that is usually with no nap. She gets up at about 730 or 8am. She was sleeping through the night until about 10 days ago, now she frequently awakens in the night and has a really hard time going back to sleep if she even thinks I might sneak out of the room. I have had to camp out in her room a few nights just so I can get some sleep too! I have been trying everything I can think of to get her to relax and not be afraid of the dark and her room. She now has a Hello Kitty CD player that we rock to sleep by playing lullabies , a night light and a new toy that's like a glow worm only its a sea horse that also plays lullabies and its belly lites up when you push it. (This does help sometimes when she wakes up in the middle of the night to calm herself down and fall asleep).

Aside from the sleep issues, most every thing else that is going on is pretty typical 2-3 year old behavior. Screaming temper tantrums when we don't get our way. Saying No! Not listening to Mommy when she says No don't touch. Having to touch 5 more times and get into trouble. Everything is Mine, mine, mine.. (you know what I'm talking about don't you! Especially those of you with 2 year olds.)

For the most part Tatiana is a really good kid. She is very funny (as you can see in some of the pictures)! She loves to laugh and clown around. She is very talkative! She is picking up English right and left. She Mimics everything we say to her and everything we do. The teenage girls at church just taught her thumbs up. She also loves to do High 5! And when she's coughing from drinking too fast, my sister tells her "hands up harry". So now every time she coughs, her arms go up in the air and we laugh.

We went and got all her lab draws done last week and are now awaiting the results. Poor baby! I really dreaded doing this and getting all the recommended tests done, but knew it was a good idea. Tatiana was a real trooper. Had to get poked three times to get all the blood that they needed. She cried the first poke and so did I, though I was trying to hide my face from her. The last two pokes she didn't make a peep and held real still. She was so good. I even got her to pee in the cup.

Speaking of potty...yes she is potty trained. We did have a few accidents this last week, Three at night and one during the day, but for the most part she has done extremely well. I couldn't ask for better with that. I am still amazed.

Food....we did have major eating issues to begin with. I thought she was going to only eat yogurt and bananas and cheerios for a long time. I was getting really worried, cause she is still petite for her age and needs to eat better. I am happy to report that miss picky has finally given in and is trying new things. Hurray!!! She now eats chicken, hamburger out of the bun, hot dogs, french fries of course, soups (loves beef barley), cheese sticks, grapes, apples. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were a hit today for the first time. Oh, also some pastas and spaghetti. Thank goodness, because pasta is my favorite meal! So, I think we are definitely getting there with the food. When she likes something, she also eats quite a bit for a little girl.

Here she is eating her favorite breakfast. Bananas in her cheerios and milk.

This week I had to go back to work. Yesterday was my first day back. I had such horrible mixed feelings. It was nice to be back around adults, but I really hated leaving Tia at home as well. Half way through the day I was ready to go home, but my job does not afford the luxury of just leaving as I am a nurse in the hospital. Can't abandon my patients! I made it through my 12 hour shift, and my daughter did fine at home too. My very good friend Lisa , has graciously agreed to stay with Tia at the house when I work, and now she works opposite days of me, so Tia can get good care at home without having to do daycare. She (Tia) is not ready to be away from Mama or someone that she really knows yet.

That just about catches us up to date. Just need to figure out how to get my pictures into a slide show so I can put more on blogger without downloading one at at time.

Thank you again to everyone for all of your support while I was in Russia, and continued support while we are home. I will continue to blog. Hopefully will find more time to keep up regularly and not have so long in between posts.

Bye for tonight!

Shannon