48 hours until court... and move to Warsaw!

Some photos of Hayden and the latest Lightning McQueen fan...

48 hours left in Czestochowa!! Woo Hoo!! Actually, the last week hasn’t been that bad. The weather has been brilliant all but a couple of days, and we’ve walked and taken the train all over town. We bought Hayden a soccer ball last Thursday after the soccer game, and he “plays” with Daddy every morning and evening in the park. If we could keep him on the grass, this would be wildly successful… however, he ventures onto the stone paths and his knees stay pretty beat up as a result. BUT, he loves it and is actually getting to be pretty good at the dribbling. The soccer game last week was a nice diversion – Hayden lasted almost an hour, which might be a record, and Paulina was pretty content for most of that time as well. They had riot police in full gear (see photos) surrounding the visitors’ stands… and there were police everywhere around the stadium in general. It reminded me of an Aggie game – a bunch of guys all yelling in unison – of course, we couldn’t understand a word but some of the tunes were familiar (Oh my Darlin’ Clementine, etc). Anyway, it was fun and I think Hayden is hooked.

Paulina will take 3-4 steps by herself as of yesterday… we had been a little lazy on the PT the last few days so she’d started resisting any standing or walking, wanting just to be carried. We picked it back up on Saturday and by yesterday evening she was very excited about it again and would “walk” back and forth between us. I am trying to break the thumb-sucking… the therapist said this was ok to try. I brought a couple of pacifiers and am trying to get her to use them instead of her thumbs. The damage is probably already done to her teeth – she and all the other kids from her room have calluses on both thumbs and both top and bottom front teeth are separated and make a “v” outward from all the thumb-sucking. It’s a self-soothing mechanism, and given that, she’s actually letting go of it easily. She sort of uses the pacifier, but isn’t completely sold on it. We are up to 3 feedings daily with the spoon (2 sweet, 1 veggie – this one is unpleasant). AND, Tom even got her to hold her bottle last night (sort of, she at least would touch it and leave her hands on it, wouldn’t hold the weight of the bottle with them). She is still very, very easy as far as 1 year olds are concerned.

We have court at either 12 or 12:40pm on Wednesday (we have 1 appt and the Florida family has the other). And will drive immediately thereafter to Warsaw and “move in” to the new apartment. It’s a 2 bedroom (woo hoo!!) with internet IN the apartment. On Thursday we meet with the lawyer and notary to get some docs done before Tom leaves, then US Embassy so Tom can appear before leaving, then grocery shopping because Friday is a national holiday and “everything” will be closed.

We’re going to check into changing Tom’s ticket to depart on Sunday instead. It may be cost-prohibitive at this point, but it would be really helpful. Hayden is doing well, but it will be really hard for him (and me) from the time Tom leaves (5am Saturday morning) until Dad arrives (5pm Sunday afternoon). If we can’t do it, Magda will arrange for a “nurse” to help me with Paulina Saturday and Sunday so Hayden can get out and romp around a bit. We have decided to send him home with Dad on Sept 2 – Dad sacrificed his first class seat on his trip home so Hayden could fly with him – we are so grateful for this. Hayden is doing well all things considered, but is getting homesick and 4 full weeks without his Daddy would be too hard on both of them. So… everyone please send all your good karma and prayers to my dad, Papaw, on the 2nd! It’s his first time flying with a toddler in a number of years. Hayden is pretty good in general on the flights – but we’ve only had overnights until now. The flight home is essentially all day – they leave Warsaw at 6am and have to change planes in Amsterdam, then get home to Houston that afternoon. If he can get Hayden on the KLM flight to Houston, he’s home free! Hayden should crash for at least 4-5 hours after getting up so early.

We miss everyone so much – I wish Maddie and Roxy could read, because we miss them terribly :-) We did get a little puppy therapy yesterday at our local café – an elderly yellow lab was very cooperative and let Hayden love on him for a good 10 minutes (and us too). Hayden then got to play with the neighbor’s bichon frise in our parking lot. So, it was a good night…