Thursday, June 18th But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. -Isaiah 41:31 So we may not be "soaring" just yet, but we are "running" forward with improvements. Isn't prayer wonderful? Today is honestly the first day in the past 2 weeks that John and I have actually "liked" our new son. He has had many quite likable moments since waking (hungry) at 7a.m. No changing the sheets and bedspread since Scott did consent last night to wearing a pull-up (even one with princess' on it) to bed. He only pulled out the ice cream out of the freezer once today and didn't fall apart when I let him know that he needed to eat the food on his plate. He stayed in the nursery at the Y for 50 minutes and did fine. Played with Campbell and Lucas at the pool and actually interacted with them. It finally seems to register with him that there is a reason I am telling him not to do something (ie. squirt mom in the face) and he is stopping himself with a bit of pouting but no meltdown. The calmly spoken, "you will sit in the chair if you do that," worked today. He was like a sponge today on learning colors and pointed out "same, same" to lots of different colors. He's not always correct (I can't name a single color in Russian) but he at least knows the English words of many different colors.

Scott was worn out by 6pm and seemed completely content in lying on top of John and having his bag rubbed. He fell asleep on the ottoman and John and I opted to let him sleep and enjoy a candlelight dinner (though brief) in the dining room - just the two of us! Tomorrow we add Brady and Cooper to the mix and I am optimistic that things will be much better than before they left.