Slowing Things Down a Bit!

We've tried to slow things down a bit this week. We learned from our mistakes lastweek that just like all the adoption paperwork told us, Yulia will get easily overstimulated! Of course, Mom and Pop are easily overstimulated and TIRED as well!

Big news this week was our trip to the oral surgeon. Yulia is going to have oral surgery the Thursday after Thanksgiving. Her mouth seems to be her biggest problem. She'll be put under general anesthesia and have at least 3 teeth pulled and at least 5 cavities filled. The general dentist doesn't want her to have a bad experience in his chair since she wouldn't be able to communicate pain or they couldn't explain the processes to her. So, we're just going to knock her out! Of course, Mom is a little worried about this because we don't know what her reaction will be to anesthesia and we'll have a hard time explaining the process to her. We're going to use the two Russian girls at church to try and explain the process without scaring her.

Of course, Mom and Pop love to be knocked out and drugged up, but it's a little different when it's your child!



Yulia continues to make good progress at school and socially. Some things we've learned about her:

1. She loves to eat.(She's still partial to fruit, meat and potatoes, but is venturing out every now and then. Seems to be taking a shine to spicy food!)
2. She loves to go to the Sonic.(Wonder why????)
3. She loves to eat.(She loves "cheeeeken") Any time she sees a KFC ad on television or the bird- word is mentioned, she jumps to attention. Paul thinks she'll love Thanksgiving. We're just going to tell her it's a big cheeeeken.
4. She is happy 97% of the time and loves life.
5. She loves to eat.
6. No problem getting her to bed. But, she's up with the chickens(or cheeeekens....ready to go and expects everyone else to be right there with her.)
7. She loves to eat.
8. She loves to go shopping(Especially Target. Wonder why???)
9. She loves to eat.
10.She's very hard headed and set in her ways.
11.She loves to eat.
12.She loves people and thinks everyone loves her.
13.She loves to eat.
14.She loves to sing and dance. The movie o' the week is "Annie." She'll just break into song at any time singing "Tomorrow, Tomorrow..." Of course, Mom sings right a long.
15.She loves to eat.
16. She's learning the abc's, days of the week and months by song. Thanks to Paige Preston and her mom for the month song. If you'd like to hear it in person, just give us a call and she'll be happy to share. She's not shy AT ALL!
17. She loves to eat.
18. She loves to go to church. (There are 3 girls there who speak Russian)
19.She loves to eat.
20.She continues to be VERY MUCH into fashion and how her hair looks. Sometims she looks at Mom like, "You're going to wear that?" and Mom has given up trying to dress her because she's got her own fashion-sense. Of course, Mom does require that things match before leaving the house.(Yulia often has to be reminded that Mom was "best dressed" in high school and has to live up to that prestigious title)
21.She loves to eat.
22.She loves company, so anytime anyone would like to visit us in lovely Missouri, COME ON UP!!!
23.She loves to eat.
24.She loves to cheer AGAINST the Longhorns and the Dallas Cowboys.(Yes, we're thinking of sending her back to Russia!). She just loves to mess with our heads. If we cheer, she boos and vice-versa.
25.She loves to eat.
26.She can't believe that Kitty Babuska is Paul's mom. It's very difficult for her to understand that Pop actually has a mom! She'll get to meet her Thanksgiving!

Pop and Mom are doing well. Pop continues to work too many hours at work and home. He's currently doing the garage in true Paul Barry(anal) style. Our neighbor is going to start work on finishing out our basement soon. Mom is now working 4 days a week which is exhausting, but she was getting bored otherwise. Working 4 days a week is stressful when you're trying to get all of those trips in to go to Sonic and Target!

Hope everyone has a lovely week,

Love, Karen, Paul and Yulia