Random thoughts

It's about 6:15 in the morning and Zac's schedule tell us that he's supposed to wake up around 7:00am. So I thought I'd type a quick one today. I have so many things to share, so instead of trying to tie it all together with a wonderful coherent blog entry, I'll just use a "bullet point" format.

- Zac is amazing. Katie and I are 100% sold out in love with our son. There have been absolutely NO thoughts of "this is hard" or "I'm not sure I can do this". I've never felt more sure about anything in my life. Zachary Pavel is my son. Case closed.

- Kelli asked how big is he? The answer is not very. He's 2 1/2 and he's wearing 18 to 24 month clothes.... and they seem to be alittle big. Actually, they fit well around the middle, but seem to be long. This is the exact opposite of our first two kids. Hallie and Jake are long and skinny. Zac appears short and stout. He has extremely "thick" hands in my opinion. I'm convinced that he's going to be a powerlifter... or a line backer.... or something.

- He loves books and puzzles. We've brought a handful of toys, but these seem to be the biggest hit so far. He's quite amazing with the puzzles. I've been very impressed with how fast he picks up on things. He has NO interest in Play-doh.

- He is talking a lot. He was very soft spoken on day 1, but day 2 seems to be different. There are times where he talks about a mile a minute. And, of course, it's all in Russian - so we have no idea what he's trying to tell us. Sometimes, he'll grab our hand to get our attention and point to something and start going off in Russian. We simply smile and say "Da". That seems to be good enough to satisfy him.

- He got pretty nervous at bath time again last night. Upon my announcement of bathtime, he began to cry but this time instead of running away from us, he ran to me for security. That was pretty awesome. I told him "Do not to worry, Pasha. It's OK. I am here" (Nee-vahl Noisya Pasha. So-Hah-Rah-Sho Ya-Stah-Boi) Those words alone seemed to calm him down. Katie got in the bath with him this time. In the end, he had a lot of fun.

- We popped in a Baby Einstein movie right before bedtime. I think the main reason we did this was simply to see if he would like them or not. (We're already anticipating the 12 hour flight home from Moscow) To our surprise, he loved it. I would have thought that perhaps he's never watched tv before and it wouldn't make sense to him. Or perhaps, his attention isn't refined yet. Or whatever. We put in the "baby wordsmith" DVD and it was awesome to watch him. He sat on my lap and Katie pulled out the video camera. The DVD began saying words like "Dog" and then showing pictures of a dog. Zac began to repeat back "DOG!" (with great enthusiasm) The cutest part is his little Russian accent. He has no problem saying words in English (and is already using some English words - ball, good, duck) but it definately has a Russian flair to it. Very very cute. Don't worry, we're not a big TV watching family. We don't plan on teaching him English via the DVD. We just thought it would be fun to see how he reacts.

So in conclusion. Things are going awesome. I head back to Kemerovo today to get his Russian passport. Katie and Zac will stay here for the day. I'm not happy about leaving him for the day, but I suppose it's the only way that we'll be able to come home. Tomorrow we head back to Moscow.