Visiting Gigi, Paul and Donna in Winter Park

Robbie, Michele, and Morgan visited Paul, Donna, and Gigi in Orlando, September 3, 2007. Here are some pictures:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/rga/4A387a

New video from March 2007 in Kostanai

Compilation from Robertson Adams on Vimeo.
New video from March 2007 in Kostanai (9 min. 30 sec.)

Morgan Crawls

Morgan's foot has a pink cast with a black sock on it

Morgan's foot has a pink cast with a black sock on it

Originally uploaded by Robertson Adams

Minus One!

We had a little surgery today at Miami Children's Hospital to remove an extra toe that Morgan was born with. She's at the hospital tonight for observation (with Dad & Mom too) and will go home in the morning with a bright pink fiberglass cast on her foot that goes from just below her knee to her (now 5) toes on the left foot. Her doctor says she'll be able to tap dance and kick box again in a few days. Until then, it's Codeine.

One!

Morgan was happy to have a birthday party with Nana, Lee, Bob, Phyllis, plus Bill W. and Katie and Nikki also dropping by for good wishes. Michele made a yummy cake (white cake with red and blue gumdrops in it) on Sunday morning and it went well with burgers and hot dogs.

She got a new handmade outfit and a baby doll with a crib, from Nana; a monkey backpack with a safety cord plus an activity center for the car from Grandpa Bob ; a Snoopy puppy on wheels and a hip pink outfit from Phyllis; and a set of roll-around cars and a mini lawn chair from Mom and Dad. Benjamin and Jacob sent some scrumptious personalized towels that she can use for bath time.

After that, she went to have a birthday visit with Dr. Trujillo, her pediatrician. His nurse took blood, and gave her 3 vaccine shots, so Morgan had a rough day and came home sore and tired. Ouch! She did, however, earn the coveted blue and gold vaccine forms which allows her to continue at day care for another year. After August 20, she'll graduate from the infants section at Riviera Child Care Center up to the Toddlers group. We're proud of her!

The doctor also said she's growing fast. On May 31 she was 29 inches long, and now on Aug. 7 she's already 31 inches (and 24 lbs. at both visits). That puts her in the 95th percentile for her age among girls. Almost time for those 18-24m size jeans!

Morgan's saying a lot of "da-da-da-da" lately, but her most common phrase is when something falls or is dropped - she says "uh-oh." She also points at several things and calls them "bah," including flowers, books, the paddle fan and the piano.

Happy Birthday Morgan!

Originally uploaded by Robertson Adams

0.980821918 years and counting

Morgan's got one week to go until she turns one so it's probably a good time for a blog update. She's growing rapidly and her personality has new sparkle to it every day.

She's just gotten over a flu and gone back to school this week; she had suffered a fever, cough and other annoyances and was sent home on Wednesday. She stayed home with Michele on Thursday and Friday with me, and today she was SO happy to be back in class with her friends Eric and Caitlin. She has been spending one day a week in the toddlers class so she acclimates to the increased activity, and next week or perhaps shortly after, she will graduate up to that group.

Around the house she's learned to crawl so fast that she can get around as fast as Michele or I can walk. So we've had to block the stairs and the kitchen entrances, and we're toddler-proofing the house. Michele had an inspired idea to convert the area under the stairs to a play room, and the results are great. She goes and plays in her area without prompting since her doggie ("doh doh") lives there now.

We took her to a pool party at Sage and Jae's house last weekend, and she loved playing in the water with Mommy and Daddy. She clearly likes the other girls and was watching them as if all the action centered around herself. She splashed around in an inflated chair as if she were in the bathtub, and almost, almost propelled herself around the shallow end. She crawled around the pool deck recklessly near the water and will definitely need swim lessons sooner rather than later.

We took Morgan on her first road trip. She didn't appreciate being in the car seat for the 2-hours each way to Naples, but she loved playing with Grandma and Grandpa, and going on a little cruise for Grandpa's birthday. We had a great time dining at a dockside restaurant for lunch - Morgan got lots of attention and fried snacks.

Kostanai by ne_marks - June 2007

kostanay
Originally uploaded by ne_markes

We miss beautiful, friendly Kostanai, and Morgan's caregivers at Delphin and especially auntie Zhanat in Kostanai.

Happy First Father's Day

Originally uploaded by Robertson Adams

Torso-locomotion

This week, Morgan breezed through her first taste of the International Baccalaureate track (just kidding) at Riviera Child Care Center. Each day opened with emotional drama -- but by Friday, she had adjusted. Caregiver Millie reported that Morgan clapped her hands, smiled during a piano number, ate all her fish sticks and played with both Eric and Caitlin.

Morgan hadn't been crawling a lot, but after her first day at school she came home and was slithering all around our tiled living room. We think she's learning from her classmates. So, Saturday Mom took her up to the mall at Sawgrass and got her some long-pants outfits so she'd be better prepared for torso-locomotion.

Today (Sunday) we went to Sage and Jae's house for a pool party and BBQ, which was incredible fun for Morgan. She had a blast in the pool and loved watching the other children play with brightly colored float toys. In the pool, we also played with Jordan and Angelina and Liam and Kai. By the way Cris and Claire make great burgers and their South Miami house is awesome. Stay tuned, there may be some great photos to come from this party when pro photographer Sarah Preston e-mails them to me.

It was also incredible fun for daddy, who remembered playing in various pools with his own father by using posh hotels, the Granada Country Club, and the Venetian Pool as if they were our backyard (until we got a cool pool of our own.)

Pre Pre Pre School

Tomorrow Morgan will start daycare at Riviera Child Care Center, and we've heard nothing but praise for infant caregiver May and her profesional team of baby ticklers.

Morgan clocked in at the doctor's at 21 pounds -- for the third month in a row. She has tried and failed three times to get a urinalysis going because the sticky plastic thingy just won't work on her, but the three stool samples Daddy had to collect left his head spinning. Still need an MRI, X-rays, blood tests, and more bologna than you could find in an elementary school lunch room.

Morgan sometimes won't open her mouth when we try to feed her now - she is asserting her detachment according to the books. She won't sleep on command either, which led to kvetching in the household until a book recommended by Uncle Doug helped Mommy win, and Daddy now lets Morgan scream and turn purple before he picks her up.

There are so many kids under five in the Riviera Church youth group - Dillan, Dustin, Kai, Liam, John, James, Aidan, Jae and Jakk (plus Morgan) - that Daddy is pretty sure he's going to need a larger vehicle to help get them all camping in 10 years.

And here's a BIG shout out to Nicholas Wolfe, who turned 1 yesterday. He's the brainy hunk with whom Morgan spent the first 8 months of her life sharing a crib, and smart money says they won't make it difficult to reunite frequently. Welcome to Boston, dude, be sure you try the microbrew beer someday, even if it really was better back in Kostanai. (Hi to Flo for helping sobbing Nan on the plane!)

Morgan gets dunked

Morgan was baptized Sunday by Rev. Dr. Laurie Kraus with help from Leah, who represented the congregation in the ceremony.

Hi to my friends in Kostanai

Hi I just wanted to say "privet" to my friends in Kostanai at the Delphin. Mom and Dad just took me to the beach today and I had fun (that is, after I saw other kids having fun and figured out this complex concept). I've been very busy learning to crawl and learning to eat new foods. This week I also visited the Riviera Child Care Center where I'll be learning lots more with new friends starting June 3rd. -- Morgan Adams

First week at home

Morgan has been feeling fine. Last night she slept from 8:30 pm all the way until 7 am without even asking for her pacifier once! She was out like a light. Morgan and I took Michele out to pizza at "Blu Pizzeria" in South Miami, where Morgan had pasta and sauce (a stage 3 jar) and some fruit mush.

Today (Saturday) we took her to Target and bought a new car seat because the one we had before is for children age 3 and up; it didn't fit her well at all. Now Michele has taken her to Homestead to Peggy's house, for a "ladies tea" lunch. I'm using the time to work on Knight work that has fallen behind this week. There's an important web deadline coming up and I have to finish by Monday.

Tomorrow, we'll be taking her to church with us for the first time. She'll meet some other children for the first time, who might grow up to be friends.

And Tuesday we'll be taking her back to Dr. Hector Trujillo (3rd visit), whom we like a lot so far. If her breathing has less crud in it, then he can finally make a proper physical exam of her. With that in mind, we're using the nebulizer regularly now to treat whatever virus is hiding in there.

This week she went out to Target many many times for various things - lots of food, and cute clothes. We found footy pajamas at The Children's Place that fit perfectly; thanks to Nan and her sister Florence for suggesting to shop there for such a hard to find thing.

We're home at last

Since the last posting, we've flown from Almaty back through Frankfurt to New York, and Morgan has become a U.S. citizen. We spent Mother's Day weekend with Uncle Doug and Aunt Alexa in their apartment near Columbia University Teacher's College, and Uncle Jon and Aunt Karen at a brunch on upper Broadway at Le Monde cafe with cousins Benjamin and Jacob. Then, we flew home to Miami (exhausted and cranky!) to a reception hosted by Nana and Lee, with Grandpa Bob, Grandpa David, Grandma Carol and Aunt Phyllis. (The chocolate ice cream cake deserves recognition too, it was so yummy.)

Fortunately Morgan adjusted to her new surroundings almost immediately, and has been sleeping well and eating well, though she's not drinking as much formula as we'd hoped she would.

Parenting is going well. Morgan will not sleep when we want her to - so we have to use tricks like sugaring her up, taking her for a walk in the stroller, and letting her have a little sugar crash when we need her to be asleep. Hopefully this will eventually result in a sleep pattern we can live with. Last night she went down at 7:30 pm and woke up at 1 am; then had trouble sleeping until 4 am when I finally got her to sleep by letting her fall asleep on me. Michele rescued me at 6 for her breakfast and walk, so that I could finally sleep a little.

Developments we've noticed in just the last few days:

• She's making choices, such as pointing at the bottle or the yogurt cup, while eating so we know what she wants more of.


• She's picking up Cheerios with two fingers, but it's not a pincer grip - she licks her fingers and then adheres the cereal to her hand with spit to get it to her mouth.


• She's much more verbal every day - saying ma ma and da da, but randomly.


• More attached than ever to the two blue Gund 'Spunky' dogs that Cousin Kristie and Uncle Blair gave her.

Morgan will have a baptism soon. It's Sunday, May 27th and if you're reading this and wish to come, it's at Riviera Presbyterian Church during regular worship at 11 am. Refreshments to follow.

First night in her new crib

First night in her new crib
Originally uploaded by Robertson Adams.

Morgan slept soundly the first night in hew new crib. (It was the second night that she got up repeatedly and we discovered she had a high fever.)

Arrival at JFK

Greeted by Doug and Alexa at JFK on May 12, 2007 after connecting in Frankfurt.

Morgan's very first blog entry:

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All done and ready to return to the U.S.

It’s Friday afternoon and our hotel room is darkened as Michele is catching up on sleep. She got very ill last night after eating something funny in a Korean restaurant – though I had exactly the same order as she, and didn’t get sick at all. Hopefully (likely) she’ll be feeling well enough before we have to fly early Saturday AM out of the Almaty Airport - about eight hours from now.

Morgan is lively and giggling, blowing raspberries and entertaining herself with gurgles in her crib. We haven’t quite found the right balance of fruit juice and sugary yogurt vs. starchy rice cereal and mush, so she’s either high and bouncing off the walls, or grumpy and sleepy much of the time. Naps are very hard to schedule between the important trips about town.

Yesterday, we went to the SOS Services medical clinic and Morgan got a checkup and HIV test required by the U.S. Embassy. She’s healthy of course, but it turns out that every possible medical problem on her original medical records was either self-contradictory or just fabricated (the incentive to fabricate medical problems stems from the way that baby houses are funded and the arcane rules by which babies are eligible to be put up for international adoption).

We met a couple of interesting people at breakfast in the hotel. Austin is an adoptive father and lawyer from New Orleans and will be taking home baby Merina; Grove and Jennifer are from New Mexico and are taking home baby Pavel – and like me, they work for nonprofits; and JoAnne is returning Sunday to Buffalo with new son Nicholas. We also enjoyed meeting Chan Park, a professor from Ohio doing a 2-week educational exchange on the Korean diaspora that are in Kazakhstan – over 200,000 were relocated involuntarily from Russia in the 1950s to farm wheat.

Having accomplished the last major bit of business this afternoon – a trip to the heavily fortified and guarded U.S. Embassy to pick up Morgan’s Kazakh passport with U.S. visa stamps, medical records and an “instantly valid upon arrival” U.S. citizenship document – we are now about 12 hours from departure. We thought about registering her to vote liberal, too, but she’s too young – darn!

It’s a huge relief that there have been really no surprises on this trip, and we must again thank the fine work of Libby, Dina, and Zhanat of MAPS; Oleg in Almaty and Efrat at Lifelink in Miami.

Morgan can’t wait to come drool on her new family, and in about 36 hours from now we’ll get the first chance to do that!