Rex Is Four

Last week we celebrated Rex's fourth birthday.  I can hardly believe how fast our little boy is growing up.

Rex's birthday fun started at school where it happened to be swim day.  His teachers took him down the big slide for the first time and he loved it.  He wanted more and more and went down the slide at least eight times, smiling from ear to ear.

Is this the same little boy that just over a year ago
screamed bloody murder at every bath time?

For the afternoon snack time at school, I sent in a GFDF chocolate brownie cake and fresh fruit.  The colors of the fruit represent the Armenian flag.  Maybe it's needless to say that the platter came home completely empty.

Rex got to wear the birthday button and the birthday crown and then promptly took it off.

For more birthday festivities, we went out to eat with a small group of family.  Rex behaved great at the restaurant.  All he asked was to sit with his handsome daddy.

Afterward, we went to a bounce place where everyone had a blast.

I made some Rice Krispies treats balls as favors for Rex's cousins who joined us for our little outing.

The last birthday hurrah was my re-creation of Rex's favorite pizza, Dewey's Green Lantern.  I made a GF crust and used a GFDF cheese substitute.  All other ingredients remained the same: pesto, mushrooms, minced garlic, marinara, and artichokes.  And yes, this was a big hit with my not-so-little little guy.

And here he is, our beautiful, curious, determined, hard-working, joyful, beloved four-year-old son.

"And your certain good looks are just one teensy part of the you-ness galore of your mind and your heart. This is the essence of what you're about, the true who of you within and throughout." - Marianne Richmond

"And your certain good looks are just one teensy part

of the you-ness galore of your mind and your heart.

This is the essence of what you're about,

the true who of you within and throughout."

- Marianne Richmond

A Little Helper's Tale

The scene: Martini kitchen on Monday afternoon.

"You want me to do what?
You do know about child labor laws, right, Mama?"

"Okay, fine, I'll do it."

"Hmm, this is pretty fun."

"Whew, and I'm spent."

P.S. The pretty skirt Emilia is wearing was knitted for her by our talented friend Katherine.

IAC 242/243/244 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 242 which was held on January 9, 2013:

1) Greek dossier from October 2008 referred a female child aged 4 years and 4 months

2) Cyprus dossier from February 2009 referred a female child aged 8 years

3) Spanish dossier from October 2009 referred a female child aged 2 years and 3 months

4) Danish dossier from November 2009 referred a female child aged 2 years and 8 months

5) Norwegian dossier from November 2009 referred a male child aged 2 years

6) Dutch dossier from December 2009 referred a male child aged 2 years and 5 months

7) US dossier from December 2009 referred a female child aged 3 years and 9 months

8) French dossier from December 2009 referred a female child aged 2 years and 8 months

9) Spanish dossier from December 2009 referred a female child aged 2 years and 11 months

10) Italian dossier from January 2010 referred a male child aged 5 years and 4 months

11) French/German dossier from January 2010 referred a male child aged 6 years and 5 months

12) French dossier from February 2010 referred a male child aged 2 years and 3 months

13) Spanish dossier from February 2010 referred a male child aged 6 years with features in health status

14) Italian dossier from August 2010 referred sisters aged 5 years and 5 months & 7 years and 5 months

15) Irish dossier from September 2010 referred a male child aged 3 years and 5 months with features in health status and a family history

16) Italian dossier from September 2010 referred a male child aged 8 years and 2 months

17) Italian dossier from July 2011 referred a male child aged 8 years and 2 months

18) Italian dossier from January 2012 referred a male child aged 8 years and 6 months

19) US dossier from December 2012 referred two waiting children (#1604 & #1623) with profiles on the MOJ site

20) US dossier from December 2012 referred a waiting child (#962) with a profile on the MOJ site


The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 243 which was held on January 17, 2013:

1) Cyprus dossier from December 2008 referred a female child aged 3 years and 9 months

2) Cyprus dossier from October 2009 referred a male child aged 2 years

3) Dutch dossier from December 2009 referred twin sisters aged 2 years and 11 months

4) US dossier from January 2010 referred a female child aged 2 years and 1 month

5) German dossier from January 2010 referred a female child aged 3 years and 5 months

6) German dossier from January 2010 referred a male child aged 4 years

7) Italian dossier from September 2010 referred a female child aged 9 years and 10 months

8) US dossier from October 2010 referred a female child aged 2 years and 9 months with features in health status

9) Italian dossier from July 2011 referred a male child aged 8 years and 6 months


The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 244 which was held on January 24, 2013:

1) Greek dossier from August 2008 referred a male child aged 3 years and 6 months

2) Spanish dossier from February 2010 referred a male child aged 4 years and 6 months

3) Spanish dossier from February 2010 referred a male child aged 5 years and 8 months

4) Spanish dossier from February 2010 referred a male child aged 5 years and 2 months

5) Spanish dossier from February 2010 referred a female child aged 3 years and 1 months

6) Norwegian dossier from February 2010 referred a male child aged 3 years and 6 months

7) Dutch dossier from February 2010 referred a male child aged 2 years and 8 months

8) Italian dossier from December 2012 referred brothers aged 7 years and 10 months & 9 years and 10 months

9) Italian dossier from January 2013 referred a waiting child (#1823) with a profile on the MOJ site

10) Italian dossier from January 2013 referred a male child aged 8 years and 3 months with features in health status

11) US dossier from January 2013 referred a waiting child (#1569) with a profile on the MOJ site

12) US dossier from January 2013 referred a waiting child (#696) with a profile on the MOJ site

13) US dossier from January 2013 referred a waiting child (#1861) with a profile on the MOJ site

GFDF Lunchbox

What does a GFDF lunchbox contain?  Pretty much the same stuff as any other lunch box minus the gluten and dairy.  Today Rex has a hummus sandwich, a homemade blueberry muffin, sesame rice crackers, half a banana, some almonds, and a raspberry almond milk yogurt along with a bottle of frozen apple juice and water mix that serves as a cooling element until lunch time.

It really seems that this diet has propelled Rex into a growth spurt.  Maybe it's all the protein he now accepts (beans, beef, chicken, soy) or maybe it's just the fact that his body can focus on something other than fighting itself now and properly absorb the nutrients offered.  Emilia was catching up to Rex in height, but he's now almost a full head taller than her again.  Last week, he outgrew a pair of jeans in every direction that I know he wore comfortably earlier this year.  Hurray for growing and being healthy!

Special Olympics Young Athletes

Shortly after Christmas we found out that there's a new program for young kids offered by our local Special Olympics.  It takes place at a gym about 15 minutes from our home and is completely free.  So, we decided to check it out and have now been taking the kids to it each Saturday morning for the last six weeks.

Some sessions are really great for the wee Martinis.  They particularly enjoy the gross motor activities, like the obstacle course, and participate with assistance.  Other times, like today, Rex spends the whole time throwing a tantrum to avoid the tasks and Emilia wants to do nothing but walk on the balance beam.  It's hit and miss and we're never really sure until we walk into the gym.  Fortunately, the staff and volunteers there are very understanding.

Fun with the giant parachute

Practicing to roll over

Who just popped out of that tent tube?

Working on somersaults

The program runs through April and we will continue attending whenever possible.  We think it's important for the kids to be exposed to different environments and activities even though it is sometimes difficult for them.  We can tell that they are learning there because both now do better at home with certain gross motor tasks, so that's encouraging.

Busy Week

Whew, this has been a busy week.  I am glad it's over and we have another day off tomorrow.

On Monday I was running a Valentine's bake sale fundraiser at Rex's school.  We had about twelve different treats, anything from homemade bread to puppy chow to chocolate hearts, prepared by parents and therapists.  Even though we only ran the sale for a few hours, we made over $140 which will be used to buy classroom supplies and equipment.  I made peach cobblers and nutter butter balls.

Nutter Butter Balls cooling

On Tuesday night we had an all parent meeting at Rex's school. It was important to attend as a lot of information about summer camp was shared.  I had been waiting for these details to make plans for Rex.  It looks like Rex will go to summer camp for about seven weeks and receive some OT, ABA and hopefully speech therapy there though it will be less than what is offered during the school year.  The kids will swim twice a day, go on nature walks, visit the playgrounds on the premises, have a daily circle/story time and a daily craft/sensory activity.

I think Wednesday was a normal day.  Emilia had speech therapy in the morning and then I made some Valentine's for Rex's friends and therapists in the afternoon.

Heart-shaped GFDF jelly beans

On Thursday Emilia had a check-up at cardiology.  Her vitals, including the EKG, look very good and she is cleared for another six months with no meds and no restrictions.  She topped the scale at 25.3 pounds, up over two pounds from August.  She is almost in the 5th percentile.  Emilia will have another echo in the fall.  Her VSD is so small that the doctors believe she could live with it into old age.  However, it is its position within the heart that sometimes causes problems for the surrounding structures, like the aorta, so that's what they want to keep a close eye on.  It's possible that Emilia may never need surgery or not for a long time, but no guarantees.  I am thankful for another six months reprieve which was great news for my own heart on Valentine's Day.

On Friday Craig had the day off, so we ran a bunch of errands in the morning.  We hit Whole Foods, Lowes, Sams Club, the car wash, Hobby Lobby, and Once Upon A Child in about four hours.  We were home in time for lunch and while Emilia napped, Craig and I gathered tax documents and organized paperwork that had accumulated over the last year or so.  I am so relieved that this job is done.  Now, on to filing our taxes.

On Saturday we made our weekly grocery run, took the kids to their Special Olympics gym group (I have a separate post about that coming up), and then worked on some tasks around the house.  I don't know how it happens, but the state of the downstairs goes from reasonable to a tornado hit in a matter of hours sometimes.

Our living room on Saturday evening.
Can you handle the truth?

Today, I spent the morning cleaning, cooking, and baking.  I started off with a little experiment: Would the kids eat quinoa flakes cooked in water and topped with a little buttery spread and brown sugar?  The answer is yes, so I am happy to have a protein-rich GFDF oatmeal alternative now to serve for breakfast.  Since Rex's birthday is coming up, I have been experimenting with GFDF desserts and this morning I made a flourless chocolate cake which is definitely a winner (oh yes, we already tasted it).  Paired with some fresh berries, I now know what I will send into school for Rex's birthday party.  Then I cooked up some GFDF meatballs (no soy sauce this time) to go with our spaghetti dinner this evening and made some GFDF banana chocolate chip pancakes for brunch.  So yummy - fellow moms of Armenian children, wish you could have been here to share this meal.  After our naps, we took the kids to a local bounce place for a few hours just to give them a nice work-out.  It was a lot of fun for everyone.

Both kids could go up (see them?) ...

... and down this slide unassisted.

And now two of the four of us are ready for bed... I won't disclose which two. 

More News from MOJ

The Bulgarian MOJ recently remodeled its website and added some further new information regarding international adoptions.  The Ministry has now released a list of confirmed adopters through December 31, 2011, showing 767 active, registered dossiers still waiting for referrals.  This number is completely in line with previous estimates I have given on this blog and through private emails.

Eighty-seven of these active dossiers specifically request the referral of a girl or a girl as part of a sibling group.  Eleven dossiers request a boy or a boy as a part of a sibling group.  Fifty-eight dossiers are asking for a child up to only 24 months of age.  There are eight dossiers which request children with a maximum age parameter of less than 24 months.  Those dossiers are from Ireland, Greece and Spain.

Meanwhile, we know from the list of 395 children adopted from Bulgaria in 2012 that only two of them were born in 2011 and only 39 in 2010 which shows that the frequency of children coming home at under 36 months of age is just over 10%.  In addition, the list highlights that most of these very young referrals have special needs.  One of the children born in 2011 was known to have a birth mother with syphilis and was referred to a family who registered in 2008.  The other has a heart defect and two close biological relatives diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was referred to a family registered in 2011.  Of the children born in 2010, only six were considered healthy by MOJ and three were registered waiting children.  The remaining 30 kids had at least one, often multiple health conditions including vision problems, syphilis, reflux, heart defects, anemia, limb differences, prematurity, microcephaly, epilepsy, asthma, cleft lip/palate, Down Syndrome, hypotrophy, Kippel-Feil Syndrome, urinary conditions, motor disorders, facial malformations, borderline intelligence as well as family histories of mental retardation, personality disorders, and birth mothers known to have used alcohol and/or drugs during pregnancy.

Based, on MOJ registration numbers, I venture to guess that there were approximately 1000 additional dossiers registered between January and December 2012, a certain percentage of which will already have received referrals.  Nonetheless, if you are about to submit a dossier to MOJ, you can expect to have around 1500 dossiers ahead of you in terms of their chronological registration dates.

Again, I hope this information is helpful for families preparing or updating home studies/dossiers and setting age, gender and health parameters for the child(ren) they wish to adopt.  I think it's safe to say that the wait for healthy Bulgarian toddlers is now at least three years from dossier registration.