Sunday

Today was long and full as all days have been so far. :) We visited Patrick this morning for 1 1/2 hours. He cried a little but showed more interest in what we brought and even took a little water out of the bottle I brought. He still likes to be held the whole time which is very tiring. Tomorrow I think we will let him cry it out a little and set him on the floor. He was mostly content and we had our first smile today. The caregiver gave him 2 cookies with poppyseeds on them. He ate all of it but first tried to lick the poppyseed off. :) Most of the children have not seen many men so he still regards Andrew from a distance but didn't cry when Andrew stood up near him today. So we are making baby steps. It's an adjustment for all of us. We've been told that Patrick is independent and shy around large number of people - he just seems shy in general. We can tell he is a good eater...Mommy can especially with holding him so much; she should have been diligently lifting weights to prepare for this. It's been too cold to take him outside but should warm up after tomorrow. He is absolutely adorable and we cannot wait for him to make the connection that we are his parents. We think he will be our sensitive one.

We visited Calvin this evening. He is one of the happiest children I've ever met. He was glad to see us and went almost straight to Daddy while we were waiting to go in the playroom. Today he was showing off his ability to crawl, throw a ball, stack cups, walk around furniture, and laugh! He laughed so much when we put him up in the air and he would indicate he wanted more. He loved throwing the ball and is really good at throwing and catching. We were able to get a better view of his cleft today and it is only on the right side but is a bit more severe than we thought - this changes nothing in our mind. :) His cleft lip separates when he smiles and is so adorable! His eyes dance all the time - I would love to know what's going on in his little head. You can tell when he is really concentrating because he drools more; I brought a bib for him today. He threw a little tantrum for the last 1/2 hour we were there but did not cry at all. Instead, he threw himself backwards and hit his head on the floor. The first time, I thought it looked willful but I didn't know for sure; the 2nd time I partially caught him and definitely realized something was wrong. We aren't sure if it's his reaction to change, over-stimulation, hunger, testing us? Anyway, we will keep an eye on it. He is delightful.

We enjoyed spending time with the other families here (there are 5 total) playing cards this afternoon. Today was one of the new mom's birthday so those of us that arrived on friday went out for dinner at another hotel. It was pretty good. We had a vegetarian pizza. We also ventured out for a shopping trip and lunch about 1 mile away. We were able to get more diapers which we need to take to the baby house each day (5/child/day). I was pretty much out of diapers. The original ones I purchased were too big for Calvin but fine for Patrick.

So, we are off to bed - I guess it's lunch time at home. Hope you all have a wonderful Lord's Day - ours has been very different then our norm.

NOTE: For all you fantasy footballers we are able to keep up and plan to crush you from Kaz! :)