Fog, a shovel, and a cookie

Today began with a blanket of fog everywhere! We weren’t able to see a thing, except for the cars that we were passing at 60 miles per hour on a two-way road. So, I guess the only weather left to experience would be snow…please, please let it snow! Upon arrival at the baby home, our translator told us that we were going to get Bradyn’s passport picture taken today. She told the caregivers to prepare him for going outside, which meant several layers of clothing, a coat, a hat, and snow boots. (Keep in mind his feet never touched the ground, nor was there any snow considering it was 50 degrees outside). In addition to the many layers of clothing, his ensemble consisted of a plastic toy shovel in one hand and a zwieback cookie that was about the size of my arm in his other hand. Today’s visit was a difficult one for him. He wasn’t too happy to be leaving the baby home, even though we only had to walk 2 blocks to get his picture. Trying to get his picture was another feat in itself…he cried big crocodile tears the whole time. He didn’t want me to set him down in the chair, so I had to try and hide behind him so that I wouldn’t be in the picture. Despite the tears, his passport picture is awfully cute! Then we made the trek back to the baby home, where we tried to take off his coat, but we had to take the shovel and the cookie out of his hands…he didn’t like that. More crocodile tears. He didn’t want to be set down or held while sitting down…he only wanted Mommy to stand and hold him close. Every person that walked in to the room would set him off into fear and whimpering again upon which he would cling even tighter. The encouraging thing is that he clings to us, but our hearts break knowing that he is having a hard time understanding what is happening to him. The rest of our visit was spent rocking and soothing him, definitely no interest in playing. When it was time to go, we were able to go into the entry of his room and ask his caregivers some questions about his schedule, foods, naps, etc. While we were there, several little ones had to come and see who we were and say hello. Bradyn was upset when we returned him to the room, but he managed to go through his typical routine and walked over to sit on the bench where they take their shoes off. While he was heading over to the bench, he dropped the enormous cookie that he never took a bite of and quickly picked it up. He is so very precious. We learned that we will be returning again tomorrow and again on Wednesday…which we are so excited that we will have consistent days of seeing him. Our worry is that Wednesday will be the last time we see him before we pick him up the following Tuesday and that will be a long stretch of time. We know that final day will be full of tears. Now I’m off to take a bath and soak my arm muscles! So looking forward to tomorrow!