Luca & Alia (the parentheses of our morning)

Our last outing to Cedar Lake this summer.

We just finished Skyping with Luca. We speak with him and my mom almost every day at 7 a.m. our time and 8 p.m. their time. He has just gotten out of the tub and is running around in all his naked glory sometimes. How did PAPs do this before Skype? I know there is always the phone, but it helps so much to see his face. Our conversations are pretty disjointed as he bounces around the room moving from one topic to the next while experimenting with the webcam - he likes to put his face really, really close to the camera and go "lalalalalalala." He likes to show us Mathilda, one of our cats, the only one who will let him pick her up. This morning he showed me one of his old bath toys - a water pump. One morning, he asked if Alia was awake and if he could see her. That got me kind of teary because he asked and I wish she was here. It doesn't really matter what is said or seen on these calls - just having a little Luca time feeds my soul.

It will be a long, long time before I will tire of his incessant chatter after returning home. It will be a long, long time before I tire of anything.

He is doing well. I think the first week was pretty tough for both my mom and Luca. He would cry because he missed us and take it out on my mom. One morning he told her she wasn't spreading the jam on his pancakes correctly . . . in fact, she "wasn't doing anything right." There were a few times that we called and he cried and didn't want to talk to us. That was probably the worst for me, but I totally understand. We are not there and he was sad.

But, now, he is in a routine and my mom has figured out how to do most everything "right." They have been very busy. In addition to having his regular 3 pancakes every morning :), he is going to kindergarten all day (8:20-2:45). He says he has a new friend - Elizabeth who has 2 ponytails (he says pony like the aunt from "The Pony Remark" episode of Seinfeld). He doesn't like working on his journal because he doesn't have the freedom he had in Pre-K where he could draw anything he wanted. He has to draw pictures of himself only. Last week he went to his friend Isabelle's house for a play date. I think he likes Melissa, Isabelle's mom, just as much as Isabelle. Luca and my mom went to visit Jean, my mother-in-law at her house in Hermann, MO, this past weekend. There he watched Over the Hedge, played with his Uncle Jeff, ate homemade macaroni and cheese and went on golf cart rides.

This week, he may see our friends Laura and Mariola (do you see a theme here with preferred friends?). He is also going to Grown-Up's Night Out at our Science Center. My step-father will probably visit as well.

Neighbors have checked in on my mom to see how she is doing. I am sure I am forgetting other wonderful acts of kindness. There have been so many. International adoption is really a group effort of people near and far - of strangers, friends & family. It is quite amazing, actually.

It's Luca in the early morning and Alia in the late morning - then, we wait for the next day. We are still in that liminal state - an in-between place with both our kids.