Wow, is he cute. :) Our little bug. When Roman's in a good mood, the world smiles with him. When he's cranky, the world gets frustrated with him.

We had an eventful trip, which details will eventually be forthcoming in journal or website form. We arrived home Thursday and are now attempting to get Roman onto an Eastern Standard Time versus Ekaterinburg, Russia time. So far we have succeeded in getting him to sleep anywhere between 6:30 - 8pm until around 2am, where he then wakes up and thinks it is daytime and time to eat and play. Tonight we're going to attempt the "go ahead, cry all night" routine. Because we can't get him into the habit of getting up at 2am.

We went for our first walk yesterday afternoon up and down the block. He likes to be moving or held. Stop the stroller, and oh my gosh - the drama! He's great with "crocodile tears" where he's yelling just to yell. Today I am getting a little stir-crazy and thinking if he's in a good mood, my mom and I will take him out to the mall. It's chilly outside but we could cruise the mall. He needs some socks with treads on the bottom. Mama needs to see something different than bright plastic for a few minutes!

The cats are adjusting fairly well. First day they were really upset, and they are still sleeping on our bed more often and longer than they used to. But they inch closer and closer to Roman every day, they just don't like the sudden movements. Roman was very gentle in grabbing Merry's tail by surprise this morning, and got a thrill and big giggle out of it.

We have attempted 2 baths, neither very fun. He dislikes water based on orphanage habits of hosing them off in cold water to clean them. So we will have to have patience and ease him into it. The diaper changes, which before were like we were pulling his fingernails or something, has become pretty normal. As long as we give him a little stuffed animal to giggle at and pet, he's content.

So we haven't had time to really absorb what has happened... our time has been taken up with "Does he need changing? I think he's hungry. Maybe he's getting sick? Will you watch him for a second?"