Funny Walmart Story

On our last visit to Walmart, we had just run out of Cheerios to snack on so I knew I didn't have much time left. I was hurrying through the produce section trying to pick up our last few items. I put a bag of onions into the cart and for some reason Dasha decided that she had to have them. But I didn't want to give them to her because I was pretty sure they were going to get thrown across the store since that's usually what happens when we are out of Cheerios and patience. So she starts screaming at the top of her lungs "die, die, die," which any good Russian adoptive parent knows is just "gimme, gimme, gimme". Unfortunately, the shoppers at Walmart didn't know that and I found quite a few people staring at us probably thinking that I had a demon-possessed two year old telling me to die! Hmm, maybe throwing onions wouldn't have been so bad!

Home Three Weeks, Settling In

Dasha loves to clean, I have never seen a two year old who loved to clean so much and is actually good at it! Here she is with my Swiffer mop, wearing her favorite purple hat (I had to wait until nap time to take the hat off, she cried everytime I tried to take it off!). Her great-grandma has since made her a tiny Swiffer of her own so we can clean together! This past weekend we took Dasha to the mall for her 1st American haircut. She did so well, sitting still for the stylist to cut her hair! Another cool thing, the stylist is an adoptive parent himself!
Dasha loves her "fluffy" outfit, I think it makes her look like a little Easter "chick".
The teacher in me is proud to say that Dasha loves to read books. Here she is sitting in her book basket before bedtime.
We're settling into a routine now and I can honestly say that I can't imagine not having her here with us. What in the world did we do with all that free time we used to have! It's going to be so hard to go to work and take her to the babysitter! I feel like we are just getting started on all that we need to do together to bond and grow as a family. At least summer is not too far off, two sweet months at home with our baby!

My, How Time Flies!

I can't believe we've been home for two weeks already (only two more weeks til I have to go back to work, awww...I really don't want to go back so soon). Dasha's sleeping a little better now (and therefore so are we), we've put an inflatable mattress in her room and we take turns sleeping in there at night. She still wakes up but not as often and she doesn't scream anymore. I wonder if she's just afraid of being alone at night, she's been sleeping with lots of people in the room for the last two years. I guess it would be really scary to suddenly be all by yourself in the dark in a strange place.

I'm posting a few more pictures now that we've set up our new computer. Am hoping to get some new ones from since we got home downloaded soon, so these are still pictures from while we were in Russia.

Here's one of Dasha and Papa playing on the little ice slide.

This one is of Dasha in the closet in our room at the Renaissance in Moscow. She loved to drag all of her toys and the hotel magazines in there and just sit and play.