We woke up on time—shock! We put his second present in my bag, along with bubbles and gifts for the orphanage workers. We brought them salt water taffy (since we live at the beach), Hersey’s chocolate and Bath and Body Works lotion.
I got up the nerve to pick him up and set him in my lap. He didn’t cry, I was relieved. We stood up and took a few pics. I played some of the games I do with Joseph. I made a sound and bent my knees while holding him so we dropped a little. For the first time that morning he was trying not to smile—my small victory. When I stopped this little game he started making the noise so I would start again. He started talking to us and opening his eyes wide and gasp looking around. We would gasp with him and exaggerate pretending to look for things. He loved it and played along.
We arrived at the orphanage. This time they asked us to park in the back and walk around instead of going to the front gate. We walked past the front where we could see little bodies sitting at little tables eating their breakfast. That’s the first time we could hear or see other kids. We have no interaction with the other children at the orphanage. We stay in the playroom and they always bring the little guy to us! For future reference, I’m going call him Little B!
He had a late start that morning so we had time to set out his new present for him, the trucks and his blanket. He came in and was a little whiney and grumpy. Again, he took a while to warm up to us and looked for his caregiver for the first little while. This is ok with me because it hopefully shows he is capable of attaching to us. That is always a concern when dealing with kiddos in orphanages.
He opened his present which was a play dough set. He wasn’t super into it so we moved on to the trucks. He loves throwing things. We showed him his photo book. He liked to listen to me crinkle the pages and he moved the rings around on the edge of it. It has pictures of our family and him in it. All of the people at the orphanage comment on how the girls look like twins and how beautiful they are...almost the exact words every single time!
About 10:00 am they brought him a mashed up banana as a snack. I was able to feed it to him. I would find out at lunch he was fully capable of using a spoon, but he loved the attention and wouldn’t used the spoon as long as I was holding him. In conversation, they mentioned when he came he was a fat baby! It’s nice to learn little things like that since we never knew him at that age.
It was a beautiful day, we went outside where they have little swings. They are like low small metal bench swings. So I sat with him in my lap and would swing. If I stopped for long he would rock so I would start again. He liked playing with my phone camera and would pull it to his forehead, then pull it away and laugh at himself. He did NOT like the Snapchat filters, especially the dog one with the tongue coming out, so we went back to the camera pretty quick.
We walked him around the entire courtyard and you could tell he was getting tired. We went to swing a little. He liked to have his arm thrown over my arm and lean way back into me. He seemed so content. He started getting sleepy so we took him inside to keep him alert until lunch. Kev held him for a little bit and played with him and a stuffed duck. He loved throwing the duck down and making Kevin pick it up.
He says a few words and phrases. He says duck, there, fall down (whenever he threw the duck), let’s go (when he crawled back to the door wanting to go back outside) and they taught him Momma! Our translator is confident he knows more because he talks a good bit but unfortunately she is only fluent in Bulgarian not baby Bulgarian, ha! We tease her about that.
They brought lunch in a little early because he was tired and he got so excited—like really, really excited. He started doing what we used to call “power surging” when the girls did it. He would shake and bounce in excitement. I watched him eat mostly by himself with a little help.
So here’s the food. If only I could get the girls to eat like this. They puréed beets, carrots and tomatoes and mixed that in with cut up meat and egg. He especially loved the purée, apparently he likes beets. He will probably be the only one in the fam that likes them other than my mom and i believe my mother-in-law. He had what they called gazpacho soup, but this was yogurt based and had tomatoes and cucumbers in it. He had some bread and a cup of orange juice. Everything including the juice was served in small metal bowls and he ate with a metal spoon.
He started falling asleep sitting up. Poor little kid was worn out. I showed them the clothes I brought so I could leave his birthday shirt with him for tomorrow. I wasn’t sure what else would fit him. When I showed the clothes, he perked up and stuck his leg out. She told me that’s what he does when he wants to put on clothes. She said I could change him tomorrow before his little party and after his visa picture.
We set up our Skype calls for the future and we happily avoided the 5:30 am our time which was the first option they gave us because it is right after his lunchtime their time! We were able to work out after nap time, so we will talk once a week at 8:30 am our time.
They took him to his room. When we were leaving we heard him crying. They said he didn’t want to leave!
In all honesty, today was a little weird. I know my girls from head to toe, inside and out, feelings, opinions, likes, dislikes. I know so little about Little B. I want to learn more about him, but it’s going to take time and that won’t really happen until we get home. Also, there are a solid two years I will never know about. The time for us being able to beginning learning is still a little ways away.
Today Little B would sometimes take deep breaths. I couldn’t tell if it was from being content, impatient or both. I like to think it was from contentment, but my deep breaths right now are definitely from impatience. Such is the story of my life and this blog! I am continuing to learn patience and what it’s like to have no control.
This afternoon we drove to the Black Sea and visited a resort area called Nessebar. It was beautiful. Tomorrow afternoon we go to Plovdiv to pick up his MRI results. Plovdiv is said to be one of the oldest cities in Europe! We are seeing a lot of Bulgaria major cities which is nice since we can only visit the baby orphanage in the morning.
Tomorrow is Little B’s birthday. He will be 2!
Comments