Alex finally gets to ride in the car

Monday we REALLY became parents! We had the morning to ourselves and then off to the Baby House to pick up Alex. We brought new clothes to put him in (they were slightly too big) and then he was ready to go see big brother.


Next we drove to the Children's Village to visit Ethan. Alex was so excited to drive in the car and had a huge smile the entire ride. When we got to the Children's Village Ethan was so excited to show off his house to Alex and to show off his little brother to the other kids he lives with. Ethan immediately took on the big brother role and walked around the house with his arm around Alex. It was one of the sweetest, cutest moments between brothers. Later on, of course, they started fighting about toys, but in that moment it was like heaven :) After spending some time there we then took Alex home to our Petro apt. He was excited to be in the car again and kept asking about his "doma," which means home but when he actually saw the door to the stairwell he freaked out. He clearly did not like the look of this place, nor do we really, but once we got him inside the apt. he calmed down. We let him explore the place a bit and then we made dinner. Dinner went pretty well but he didn't eat much and we had to bribe him with candy to eat half a piece of broccoli. What is it with kids and vegetables? lol ;) After dinner it was time to go to bed and that went pretty well until we accidentally (we didn't know how to say goodnight in Russian) told Alex that Papa was leaving and he burst into tears. We quickly remedied that with a lot of "Papa ne paka," and big hugs and kisses. "Paka" is what you say when you are leaving, we meant it in the sense that Papa was leaving the room, but he took it as Papa was leaving forever. So, lesson learned and we have figured out how to say goodnight instead of goodbye.

Last little bit of our first day as parents, which we know many of you will appreciate, we are very very sleepy. Alex woke up at 6am yelling because he didn't know where he was. He calmed down pretty quickly when he saw us but then he was wide awake and didn't want to go back to sleep. So, for everyone who knows how much we like to sleep in, you can be assured that we will be sleeping in no longer. As one of the other adoptive parents here said to us, "Welcome to the world of parenthood." All in all, it went pretty well and we are so glad to have custody of Alex while we are waiting in this appeal period.

Below is a video of Alex's first night home. Of course, the 4-year-old loves the TV....