Day One as a Family

For all of our family and friends that want or need a good laugh. We wish (and we’re sure you do too) you all could have been flies on our shoulders today. It was quite the experience. We are going to tell you. The day began with us being so excited about seeing the two new additions to our family. We got up around 6:30, got dressed and headed down to eat breakfast. It was great timing because our new friends and Heather and Justin Overstreet were heading down to eat breakfast too so they joined us. We all ate a great breakfast and we both got picked up to go around 9:00 and headed our separate ways. Now the fun begins. We gave our oldest son some Dramamine for the hour and a half trip to the baby home. We had to pick up Irina at her home though which was about 20 minutes out of our way. Irina now has joined us and we are on our way. About half way there our son gets sick suddenly. We guess we did not give him the medicine soon enough. Eric is scrambling in the back to get a bag and throws it to Becky who is sitting next tohim but she is not quick enough and he ends up throwing up on his brand new coat! She does at least catch the next three hurls! Alec the driver pulled over so Irina could take his coat and clean it off outside. She kept saying “No worries, it happens all the time, he be OK, lay him down in seat!” Yeah right, no worries for her! Alec and Irina get back in the car and we are off again. We finally get to the baby home without anymore excitement and we are taken back to change the kids clothes. It was awesome because we got to go back to their room and take pictures and video. Our daughter came running to Eric and jumped in his arms! Our oldest son was really excited to see them both but their was so much going on in the room we don’t think the two little ones knew what was up except they were going with their new parents. All our youngest son kept saying was Mama & Papa. It was so great to hear. We took the kids to Tatiana’s office to sign some papers and then Becky had to take our oldest to see the doctor because he had a bad cough. While Becky was in with the doctor Eric was alone with the little ones. Our youngest kept saying “peesit, peesit”, which is potty. Eric hustled down the steps with both of them and of course the door was locked and Eric couldn’t get in. He was frantically waiting for the person in the bathroom to get done so he could get him in there. The door opened and Eric burst in. He had to yank our sons sweatpants and long underwear off, unsnap his shirt and pull down his pullup while telling our daughter to stay right there “we will be right out” (she doesn’t know English though!) At that point Becky comes down with our oldest because he has to go potty and is doing the potty dance. The door was locked and our daughter comes running out of the office next to the bathroom so Becky figures Eric is in the bathroom. She finally knocks and tells him to open up because our oldest had to go, not knowing that Eric has our youngest son standing on the toilet, his hands on the back of the toilet bowl, Eric holding our youngest sons stuff so pee doesn’t go everywhere and you know the youngest can’t stop midstream so our oldest has to wait! Eric finally unlocks the door, hands the youngest out and takes our oldest (thank God he can go on his own) but he could hardly get his pants down quick enough! Eric came out sweating as though he had run a ten mile marathon. He thought that would be the last time he sweated for the day but he was sooooo wrong! We finally all pile in the van and head back to the Vlad Inn. Thank goodness the two little ones don’t get carsick. Eric rode with the two little ones in the very back so that our oldest could lay down on the middle seat next to Becky. Our daughter was quiet as a mouse on the ride home, our youngest was excited and looking all over the place until he fell asleep and our oldest could not keep his eyes off both of them. We thought all was going well until we got into the room…..here we go!!! Our youngest says he has to peesit again so Eric does the same thing all over again! Here he is standing on the toilet, hands on the back and Eric holding his stuff. He is having some difficulty this time, maybe some stage fright (new place you know!). In walks our oldest son to put his fire out saying peesit. At that point, Eric takes our youngest, puts him on the counter in the bathroom with his pants down and everything hanging out. Our oldest is peeing at this point, not paying attention and hitting everything but the toilet! Eric is sweating again, hoping at this point that our youngest doesn’t let loose with our toothbrush and other toiletries right there. Everything turned out OK but the floor was a little wet (welcome to having boys!). We quickly learned that our sweet angel girl had the devil in her! Becky took the little ones down to get some water in the pitcher, they were both bouncing off the walls and our little girl was punching everything that moved or didn’t move. There is a blow up penguin and reindeer in the front lobby and she was treating them like punching bags! All the other families were looking at her like “glad that isn’t my child”! We quickly walked back to the room and she was running around like a screaming banshee. We were looking at each other like what did we get into and what happened to the sweet little girl we met a couple of months ago. Becky finally took her by herself out to the front lobby again. Heather and Justin were sitting out there and it was like Jeckyll and Hyde. She was as sweet as could be and wanted to crawl on Becky’s lap and cuddle! As soon as we got back to the room though the banshee was unleashed again and got the whole gang all going. We had three wild animals on the loose. Heather came down to visit, she knocked but we couldn’t hear over all the screaming so she quietly went back to the lobby. We think our oldest is rethinking the whole wanting to be with his brother and sister thing. He is very protective of his little brother which is so sweet. Someone has to protect him from his sister! We finally rounded the troops up and went back out to the lobby. They all enjoyed being around the other kids and played very well with all of them. Eric was on potty duty the whole time because every 10 minutes our youngest was saying peesit but would never go. It was very sweet, while we were sitting out their they all piled on Becky’s lap and drank their water and had a good time playing with each other and their toys. We were getting concerned about it but when Becky took them back to their room and put him on the toilet (this is the best part, Eric bought a seat to fit on top of our toilet but it was to big so we had to put it on backwards and the kids have to sit backwards facing the back of the toilet to go potty) he went just fine. Maybe this is how they did it at the baby home. Whatever works but he has to potty a lot and if one is not going the other one is. Becky decides to put them all in the bath because our oldest wants to take a bath. At first the little ones did not want to get in but once they saw our oldest In there they were good to go. All was well until the splashing and standing up and diving in started. Becky finally had to pull the plug and take them out. By the time Eric came back to the room Becky was sweating her butt off (who needs a treadmill!) and the kids were running around naked! It was like a party at the mini playboy mansion! We finally got their jammies on, their medicine given and some pictures taken. When it was time to go to bed they all calmed down very well. Eric got in bed with the girl, Becky got in bed with our oldest and we put our youngest on the crib mattress in the middle of the beds. When we turned off the lights our youngest was still talking to his bear. We think since he had to put himself to sleep everynight he just talked until he finally fell asleep. Becky finally took him into the other room and held him until he fell asleep (this was for him and for her). It is nice to have a little one. It took about 20 minutes and everyone was asleep so we took the computer, opened a bottle of wine and started writing this message so everyone could have a good laugh and hear how the first day went. We know you all thought we were crazy for adopting three children at once and we can’t say that didn’t cross our minds sometime this evening but when we see all three of them sleeping we know we did the right thing. It had been a GREAT day and tomorrow is another day as a family.