Saturday, February 9th

Bonding Day 4

Again this morning huge smile as the caregiver handed him to me. During our visit Lincoln was really sleepy and just not feeling very well. His nose was not running as much today so maybe he is getting better. He really just wanted to cuddle or lay on the floor. He had little interest in playing. We did get a couple smiles and giggles from him. His cold is still bothering him and his teeth. Today it looked like two more had broken through on top. I know more are coming because he is either sucking on his bottom lip or his fingers all the time. Eric blew bubbles for him today. I think he would have enjoyed them more if he felt better. It was cute, he watch them fall down to the floor and pop, then he got this look on his face like where did they go? We found out today he has a bit of a jealous side. Eric started to blow bubbles for Gabriel to watch and Lincoln looked at Eric then to Gabriel and burst into tears. We are going to need to work on sharing. We feed Lincoln a yogurt cottage cheese sort of thing today. Boy did he love that. He started crying when it was gone. His cries last for about 2 seconds then he is over it. Just enough to let us know he wasn’t happy with whatever happened. It was the first sweet thing he has ever eaten. The food they give them is all pretty plain from what we understand.

Between visits today we were planning on going to visit Christy and Zahri but we had to switch it to this evening because our driver had another family to take care of. We went back to our hotel room and I was able to get you all caught up on the week while Eric played his video game. It was a pretty relaxing afternoon. Tonight we will visit Christy and Zahri for a couple hours. Eric and I got brave today and ventured out on foot. We were told many times that we could walk to the downtown area where the mall and restaurants are but it is so cold here so we kept having our driver take us back and forth. Since they kept telling us that we decided today to venture out just to see where some of the walking paths go. It took us 3 minutes to walk to the restaurant we ate dinner at last night. We were shocked it was so close. It takes longer in the car to drive between the two places. I guess since it so close we can walk occasionally. It is just so cold here. We can’t afford to get sick. If we do we will not be allowed to visit Lincoln.

Our afternoon visit went well. Lincoln was feeling a little better than in the morning. We have a new family in our play room now. So that was pretty distracting for him. Lincoln just sits and looks around and stares at everyone. He is very interested in knowing about everything that is happening. When we arrive for our afternoon visits the caregivers bring us a yogurt drink for Lincoln in a tea cup. Watching him drink from the cup is sad. We hold it and pretty much pour it down his throat. A lot of it goes down his chin so he misses out on getting his full portion. Today the caregiver took his bottle out of our diaper bag and told us to put the drink in his bottle for him. We had asked yesterday if we could do that and were told no. So we were very happy today when they said yes he can drink it from the bottle. At least now we know he gets the full portion. Plus we are also allowed to give him juice in the afternoons. He loves the apple juice.

I have to say I am so relieved to see how happy Lincoln is when he is with his caregiver. It is very obvious how much love there is between the two of them.

After our afternoon visit today we were taken and shown a couple more places we could go to, to buy food mainly. We bought some BBQ chicken and took it over to Christy’s and Zahri’s for one last visit before they leave on Monday. Z was showing off her dancing skills and her flexibility. She can do a split. These babies all seem be pretty flexible. Lincoln looks like he is doing a split sometimes.