Disneyland Day 2

We had our character breakfast today at Goofy's Kitchen. Andrei had a blast, but as you might expect with so much going on he didn't really eat very much. That was fine since we gave him some Cheerios later to make sure he at least had enough energy for the day. A nice thing about his age is that they don't charge you for the breakfast buffet. With everything else being expensive here at Disneyland that is indeed a nice "gimmie".

The funny thing about the characters stopping by for a visit is that Andrei was literally in love with Goofy and Pluto but didn't want anything to do with the "live people" characters (the princesses, etc.). Both Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother stopped by our table and sat down with Andrei for a few words and snapshots. But he was like "Who are you broads? The name on the restaurant is Goofy's Kitchen, so bring him on!"

Goofy as you can tell in these shots was clearly who he wanted to see. We think he just views the characters that merely dress up (like the princesses) as just regular people and doesn't get the fact that they are characters. Whereas the people dressed up head to toe in a suit (like Goofy or Minnie Mouse) are real characters (to him at least).




Oh, and the way we got him "prepared" for the characters was to have him watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel. Not my favorite in terms child programming, but it has all the characters and he instantly recognized the whole gang walking around Disneyland. It's not a big deal but it was just sort of nice that he didn't run away screaming at the site of a 6 foot tall Pluto. In fact, when we saw Minnie Mouse today he reached over and gave her a kiss on the nose.

We did more rides and he got to run around Mickey's ToonTown which is ideal for the toddler crowd. The rides were more of the little kid variety today (since we hit Pirates and the Haunted Mansion yesterday). It's just fascinating to watch him throughout a ride like Pinnochio. It's actually one of the array of books that Stef can choose from for her bedtime stories. So he basically knows the tale. But just seeing his face as he looks at the animatronic Jimminy Cricket or Pinnochio as if they are one of the seven wonders of the world is just priceless.



He gets a bit over-stimulated if he hits too many rides in a row and we're trying to manage that, not to mention trying to avoid too many pure sugar treats (thankfully he views Cheerios as mana from heaven so we carry a ziploc bag full of them during every outing). But a sucker every now and then is a nice treat. I just wish he'd get better at giving me a real smile when I say "smile" and as I posted before the "say cheese" also provides mixed results come picture taking time. Most of the shots I have on this trip are with a face that looks like he's back in Siberia or something. So shots like this are as good as gold.



But we are (happily) surprised at how much fun he is having and how good he's doing. Oh sure, there are a few tantrums about having to go back into the stroller every now and then. But we keep telling him "if you want to go on more rides we have to drive in the cart to get there." Which is what we call going in the stroller. Of course Andrei has been home only 5 months so there is a huge learning curve we are going through as parents. And there's nothing like a tantrum to have you say "Well, we're not going to try that approach again!" But we're getting there. He's having a ball and we're having a ball with him.

Disneyland Day 1

Sorry to coin the Disney phrase but it has been a magical day. But of course we're with a 2-year old and he did his part to remind us that even magical days have a few temper tantrums.

Even with the surprise of the event Stef got us well prepared the night before and so we actually left earlier in the morning than we had planned. As a result we made it to L.A. well before any rush hour traffic (just normal L.A. traffic which is bad enough believe me).

Andrei did pretty well in the car for such a long trip. We stopped at good old Kettleman City for lunch which is almost exactly the halfway point but after being stuck in the car for 3 hours he was none too happy to return and let us know in his special way (i.e., temper tantrum). Just as we hit the outskirts of L.A. proper he settled in for a nap. It was a pretty short one, just 30 minutes but it seemed to help out his attitude and once we hit Anaheim he was pretty cheerful.

As Stef did the checking in Andrei and I walked thru the lobby. We're staying at the Grand Californian which is a pretty nice hotel inside Disneyland. Expensive for what you get, but nice, but hey, it's Disneyland everything is expensive for what you get. There was a guy playing a grand piano and Andrei was captivated by this. Once we got to our rooms he was running back and forth and it was pretty evident he was ready to burn off some energy. So being that we arrived so early we decided to hit the park this afternoon (our original plan was to just walk thru Downtown Disney and hit the parks tomorrow).

As we enter Disneyland (with Andrei's head scanning the landscape back and forth) we see Goofy with an incredibly short line so we figure "Hey, let's give it a shot and see how he reacts to the 7 foot tall live character". In a word, we're amazed. As you can see from the shots, he throws his arms wide apart to give him a big hug. I couldn't even get a picture of Andrei's face because he kept hugging Goofy.





We then decided to hit a couple of rides. To start we decided to see just how fearless our little guy is, so it was off to the Haunted Mansion. I was holding him at first (before you enter the little cars) and he did give a little jump but that was only because the teenagers behind us gave out some hellacious screams at the usual part where the lights go out before you enter the main building. But he was great throughout the ride, waving "Hi" and "Bye bye" to the ghosts.

As we exited the ride we asked him "Was that fun?" and his response was one of his best pronounced words currently, "More." So obviously he wasn't too scared. But next we hit the Winnie the Pooh ride and of course his bedroom is Pooh themed and one of his most loved stuff animals is Pooh. Needless to say the ride put him on could nine.

Next came Pirates of the Caribbean which was a hit for both child and mother since the ride now features Jonny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow throughout. I couldn't tell who had a bigger smile on their face looking at the characters in the ride, Stef or Andrei.

We then just meandered through the park for awhile having a few snacks along the way. We also did the Buzz Lightyear ride which was hilarious because Andrei figured out that the knob on the car made it twirl around and while Stef and I tried to score points (if you don't know the ride has these laser guns that you shoot at objects and score points) he kept spinning the car around which really hampered our score.

Overall he was mesmerized by it all and we didn't want to over do it on the first day so we headed back to the hotel. But he got a good 3 1/2 hours of Disneyland for the first day and is sleeping pretty well as I write this. Tomorrow we have a character breakfast (a restaurant where the characters come by the table to say hi) and then we're going to let him run around Mickey's Toon Town which we understand is Toddler Mecca. After that we'll try to get in a few more rides before nap time.



And yes, that is his new Mickey Mouse which as you can see is instantly gaining a very special position in the pecking order since he's getting ready to put in on our bed next to Elmo. Mickey should be very flattered indeed.

It is interesting to see, and we've heard this from many people which is why we tried Haunted Mansion first, that 2-year olds don't yet fear things like scary rides and so you can actually take them on just about anything. And sure enough Andrei was fine throughout. The funny part of the Pirates ride was that he was more interested in seeing the animals than the pirates. At that one scene with the pigs and the pirate sitting in the mud, Andrei makes his "oink" sound while pointing his finger at the moving figures.

Birthday Surprise

For Andrei's 2nd birthday we were thinking about having our first family vacation. You know, the "Are we there yet" kind, but thankfully his language skills aren't good enough to say that yet. We're still going to have a regular birthday party. Or at least a 2-year old's party which is really more of an adult party with some kids around. We don't think Andrei needs a full blown kids party yet. He's only 2, so he really won't get it.

But we did want to do something special. And Andrei's B-Day happens to also be right around Mother's Day. And, of course, this is Stef's very first Mother's Day (talk about two major events). Thus I wanted to have something very special and fun for her as well. Something that we could all share. So I worked out a very secret and very special trip for us to Disneyland. And as I type this Stef and I are getting ready for tomorrow's 6 hour drive down south to Anaheim. The minivan is already loaded with the key items (plenty of toys, Elmo videos, and other minor stuff like luggage). Tomorrow we'll just finish off with snacks, etc.

I actually grew up in L.A. and have probably been to Disneyland at least 50 times. And both Stef and I are...well not huge...but pretty big Disney fans and have been there several times together. But this is what we will consider our first real visit since we get to have a kid along and not look like these two older people playing at being young. Again, we love Disneyland and have been there many times together but I always felt a bit uncomfortable with the whole "adults at Disneyland" thing.

So here's the plan. We're hitting the road right after breakfast, a 6'ish hour drive (thank God for the minivan's DVD player) and then Disneyland till Friday. It's sure to be a blast and we're all pretty excited about it. It will certainly be very interesting for us to see Disneyland through Andrei's eyes. We have a character breakfast lined up but everything else (rides, etc.) is all going to be on a play-it-by-ear basis. Whatever he seems to want to do, we'll give it a go. But based on Andrei's personality we're pretty sure he's going to be excited to do everything all at the same time.

1st Post Placement Report

For those not familiar with international adoption most countries require the adopting families to provide periodic updates on how the child is doing after the adoption. For some strange reason some people get upset that they have to do this. Personally, we're more than happy to show anyone and everyone how well Andrei is doing.

I mentioned in my blog the Russian government also uses these post-placement reports to discipline adoption agencies. If agencies are late or missing these reports, the Russians can (and do) pull the agency's accreditation. If you're unlucky enough to be with an agency and this happen, you're stuck (sometimes having starting all over at added expense with another agency).

This is yet another reason we've taken the approach of doing absolutely everything by the book for our post-placement report. Reminding everyone involved (our home-study agency mainly) of the new specific rules and requirements Russia has. I'm sure they think we're nuts since they do them all the time, but we wanted to make sure our report was done exactly as the Russians want it done. Also our placement agency was totally honest and up front with us and did everything you could expect them to under some pretty tough circumstances. No person or company is perfect, but we were happy with they way they treated us. During the accreditation mess last year, they were one of the first seven to regain accreditation. It's my belief that they did so because of their extremely ethical practices and their adherence to Russian law. And we wanted to help them keep that reputation intact.

So our case worker (the same woman who did our home-study report) came to visit us and see how Andrei is doing. Because we live in California and our placement agency is in Minnesota we use a different agency here in CA to do our home-study. They are also responsible for creating the post-placement reports forwarding them our placement agency (who then submits them to the Russian government).

Andrei was his usual happy self during the visit. He kept running back and forth between Stef and myself playing away while our social worker asked a bunch of questions. She asked just normal stuff: How have you been discipling Andrei?, Has he met the rest of the family?, What activities does he do?, How is this language skills developing?, etc. etc. etc.

Andrei is a bit shy with new people so he stayed pretty close to us which was fine because we think it also showed how well he's bonded with us. That was shown perfectly at the end of the visit. We asked him to give a hug to Natalie (our social worker) and he did but only for about 3 seconds before he reached back away from her wanting to have Mommy hold him. Keep in mind the bonding is still going on but it feels good to know we're his parents and that he views us as special (well, us and Elmo, but at least we're in there somewhere).

Photo Op

So it's getting to be that Andrei will try to say just about any word you ask him to. You say "You say it" to just about anything and he'll give it a try. And depending on the word, it can come out with some pretty decent pronounciation.

When I say pretty good I mean that we can understand it and be able to translate it to other adults. So it means that his vocabulary is skyrocketing to, and this is really only a guess, well over a hundred words. There are a number of words in which his pronounciation is good enough for any adult to understand, and one of them is "Cheese".

Now where this is going is that we've been having a tough time getting Andrei to smile for photos. Usually he just squints at the camera when we ask him to smile. Well, we figured, that since he can say "cheese" pretty well, maybe we should start getting him to "Say Cheese" to the camera.

The results are a bit mixed. Here's a shot with Andrei saying "Cheese".