The photo album

Guatemala Pickup Trip

Family photos

Well, so much for this being a travel blog! We didn't have in-room internet access in Antigua and updating was just logistically too hard.

Anyway, we're home now and settling in. Bobby now seems to have adjusted to us completely and his personality has come out. He's still not a smiley little boy, but he does smile and even giggle with some effort on our part.

His night sleeping is starting to straighten out. Last night, he fell asleep before 9:00pm and we didn't hear a peep until 10:00am this morning! Now, we just have to get naps working again.

Feeding is a challenge too. We moved him back to formula because 6 bottles of milk/cereal per day seemed like way too much. We've cut back to 3 bottles of formula and added more solid food. It appears he never had finger-type foods, because he didn't know what to do with the Goldfish I offered him! I had to break it up into crumbs and feed them to him. It took about a day for him to get the hang of it. Now, he's chomping Cheerios like a champ. He has 10 teeth, including 4 molars. So, we should have him eating steak in no time. ;-)

His doctor appointment is tomorrow, and I'm very interested in hearing what the doctor thinks of his development. I'm concerned of course. He's 15 months, but doesn't walk and doesn't make any sounds except "Mmmmm" when he's eating. I'm sure that with the change in environment, he'll catch up quickly, but it will be nice to hear a professional say that. I'm also interested in what the pediatrician has to say about his boyhood. The foster mom told us of problems with him peeing and infections and the doctpr in Guatemala said he needed to be circumsized. But, I've seen no sign of anything wrong at all.

Working on online photo albums .... Stay tuned.

First Meltdown

Mine, that is. Not Bobby's. He's just a laid-back content little guy. He does prefer to do his sleeping in the morning instead of at night though!

Oh, Allison is fine. She took a few hour nap yesterday afternoon and then said she felt better. She was still a little quiet and pale, but she ate a good dinner and slept well last night. She's her normal self this morning. She's doing very well getting used to having a brother. She asked once if we like him better than her, but seems to put up with him just fine.

Anyway, back to my meltdown. It's amazing how quickly I forgot what it's like to have a baby around again. The physical stuff, carrying a squirmy 22 pounder around, walking the floors trying to get him to sleep, the lack of sleep itself, and I just lost it last night. Dissolved into tears for a good 5 minutes. Bob took over and got him to sleep. He also got up with him at 2:30am and got him back to sleep without a bottle. He is my hero! Anyway, today I'm very well rested and good to go again.

Besides the 2:30 wake up, he woke up again at 5:30, but went right back to sleep when I gave him his pillow and a few pats on the back. He woke up again at 7:00 and threw up. I picked him up out of the crib, and he puked again all over me. What fun. But he went right back to sleep until nearly 9:00. He's napping now.

We'll head to the pool again when he wakes up.

Embassy day

Well, it's over. Our visa was approved and we can pick it up tomorrow. It was rather anti-climatic after all the waiting. In fact, Bobby slept through the whole thing. It was rather like a trip to the DMV, with the exception of the armed guards and having to pass through metal detectors. We were in and out in about 2 hours.

We didn't have a great night last night. Bobby's regular bed time is 10:30. Obviously that will have to change soon! It was about 12:30 before we finally got him to sleep and then he woke up about 2:30 and wanted to play. Bob and I tag-teamed and I finally got him back to sleep at almost 4:00. Our wake-up call for our embassy appointment was at 5:30. Needless to say, we're all dragging.

After the embassy, we came back to the hotel and went to the pool. The we went for a walk around the neighborhood looking for somewhere to eat lunch. We ended up at McDonalds.

Unfortunately, Allison isn't feeling well. She started feeling bad while we were out walking. After trying, and mostly failing, to eat lunch, she lost it all in her bed. Poor little thing. She's now sleeping in our bed. Hopefully, she'll feel better after a good nap.

Not too many photos today yet.

Better late than never

That 11:00 thing? They were just teasin'. They didn't arrive until 6:00!!! It was a very long and stressful day. But he's here now and all is right in my world.

We had a nice dinner with our foster mom and her daughter. It was bittersweet. They love him so much and were so sad to see him go. But they really got a kick out of seeing him with Allison.

Allison is loving the role of big sister. She won't leave his side. She does try to jump in all the photos though and it's cute now, but we'll have to work on some jealousy issues.

Anyway, I know everyone is waiting on the photos. We don't have any family photos yet, but here are a few others.

We're here!

Whew, it's been a long day. But we're here and all settled in. Bobby is supposed to be brought to us sometime around 11:00am tomorrow. I can't wait!

We'll soon be on our way

I created a new blog to make it easier to deal with photos. I always run into permission problems with the one hosted on my site.

We are leaving at the crack of dawn on Sunday. Actually, it's earlier than that. We're planning on being on the road at 3:00am.