Goodbye Bulgaria!

We leave today! Thank God! All three of us get to go home together! I thought I would put together a Likes and Dislikes list to commemorate our goodbye....

Things I Like about my time in Bulgaria:

1. The history!
2. The random Roman artifacts laying around the city.
3. The buildings and architecture!
4. The driving... it is so fast. I believe I was born to drive in Europe, Canada can't handle me.
5. The luxury for cheap!
6. Cheap Taxis.
7. Cheap alcohol. 
8. The hospitality of people.
9. The shoes! 
10. The fashions, particularly jumpers.
11. The weather has been awesome! 
12. Most people here speak a little bit of English! It makes it a lot easier on us English-only speakers!

Things I Dislike about my time in Bulgaria:

1. The standard of waiting tables. Horrible. They don't check on you. They don't bring your bill. They take forever. Food comes out at different times!
2. The uneven and un-kept sidewalks.
3. Graffiti everywhere. 
4. How the poor are soooo poor. That sounds weird. But it is true. The homeless in Vancouver are poor but there are things in place to help them and make sure they get food and sometimes shelter. The poor here don't have any safe guards. They wanted our left over food. A Vancouver homeless person would never do that. This is a big place that Bulgaria could step up. 
5. The food. Some of it tastes quite delicious but it is so different. I have not had a normal bowel movement since I've been here... both extremes.
6. The orphanage system. My views on this are obviously apparent already. 
7. How EVERYONE chain smokes here. Seriously, how are they all not dying of cancer?
8. The lack of recycling and water conservation. One of their main exports is mineral water and everyone drinks it here so there is SO much glass and plastic bottles wasted!
9. How this is a very child-unfriendly country. Not much for little kids to do, no kids menus or crayons in restaurants, and I only saw a handful of local kids at all! 

Being here with Sofie really was the right choice. Her having our undivided attention has been pretty invaluable. I think it will really go a long way on this attachment journey. She has come so far this week with us too! She already understands the signs for 'more', 'all done' and 'food'. She cries WAY less while eating, mainly because we aren't force feeding her and she is now able go communicate when she wants more or she is all done! She will still go to random people but she definitely recognizes Jon and I and will choose who she wants to hold her and when. She loves tickles and getting a reaction from us when she rolls herself off the bed and we run to catch her. She LOVES baths... to much. I swear she said "mama" in the bath today too! Not sure she completely understands what it means though. She loves music, dancing and interacting with people. I am so beyond excited to get home to where I am comfortable and where I can be with BOTH of my girls but I have really appreciated what I have learned and experienced while in Bulgaria. I am so thankful to this country for giving us such a precious, wonderful child!

We are off now! Pray for an uneventful trip, with no tantrums from Mommy, Daddy or Sofie and pray that Sofie eats well and we have enough cereal for her to last the trip... it will be cutting it close!

PS - My sister is going through a hard time today. The girl she works for got really sick all of the sudden, was put on life support and has chosen to be taken off today. She's had many medical issues throughout her life and was tired. It doesn't look like she will make it. She is very young and very loved by many. Pray for peace for everyone. It will be a day of extreme's for Sessa... meeting her niece tonight, after possibly losing one of her dear friends the same day.

The End - Aug 12 & 13

Yesterday was a getting-things-done-because-we-are-leaving-in-two-sleeps-day! We had to find gifts for all the wonderful people who have watched our child for these last two weeks. There is LOTS of clothes stores here but I wasn't about to buy clothes for every one, plus the clothes fit really small apparently. There are a few jewelry stores around but they are all kind of cheap jewelry, like the kind you'd find at Claire's or Ardene's in the mall in BC.

After breakfast Jon and I headed out to Anido one last time. We owed Alex a little more money that we didn't have on us the day before. We said our goodbyes then continued on our shopping ventures. Sofie was a little fussy and tends to make shopping more difficult in the best of times so I went to the mall alone and Jon went back to the hotel with Sofie. This was a much less stressful approach. I was able to look and decide with out the pressures of a whining baby and husband! I found some little treasures I think :)

Sofie got a little ridiculous in the afternoon because she had only slept for about 15 minutes. We had planned to go look for an icon at the Cathedral together, but Sofie had other plans. We made it too the lobby where we sat down and offered her food, again, which she didn't really want. She didn't really want anything... or she wanted everything, not sure which. Jon went on to the Cathedral alone and I stayed in the lobby waiting  and entertaining our babe. I did get to enjoy a chocolate mouse and rum and coke while we waited though!

Jon had his own adventure. As he was passing through the market in front of the Cathedral, he stopped to look at a possible gift for someone. The owner of the little stand grabbed him and started yelling at him in Bulgarian. Apparently, he didn't want Jon to touch the treasure. Not sure if he thought Jon was going to steal it or break it, but he should be allowed to touch if he is interested in buying it, right? Anyway, since he was shaken up from the encounter he ended up going the wrong direction back and took a lot longer to get back to us... giving me time to justify my treat :)

We didn't go out as far as we were planning for dinner. Although Sofie had calmed down a little bit, she was no where near her happy self yet. We stayed close to home and went to one of our regular restaurants for dinner. After Skyping with Livi we attempted to put Sofie to bed... That took an epic hour and a half. She finally fell asleep on the floor and we moved her to the bed. Jon and I watched Tosh.O on You Tube until much to late then settled in for a long peaceful sleep :)

Sofie slept in until 9am on the 13th! Yay! After brunch we went for a little walk in the park behind our hotel. We tried to get Sofie to play on the play ground but there were a lot of kids and she really didn't know what to do. So we went to sit by the fountain and took a little walk. When we came back to our room we all had a two hour nap! Go Sofie! Thank you!

Hanging out by the fountain. 

The beautiful fountain behind our hotel in front of the National Theater.

Mommy and her baby!

"What are you looking at?"

"Our" beautiful park!

Random statues every where. This one didn't make sense to me. 

Gettin' her groove on and waking up with some pop music videos. 

I hate rap, random girls singing and gyrating, and Justin Beiber. 

We took it easy in the afternoon. I think Jon and I are just really done being here and very excited to get home tomorrow! We went for dinner, came back to the hotel for Skyping and baths, then bed time. Sofie was not going to bed tonight. Maybe she could pick up on our excitement? Anyway... finally and 9:45pm Jon slung her and went for laps around the park. Finally success! I finished packing while he was out and now just have to check in for our flights tomorrow!

Happy Birthday To Me - Aug 11

Today was my birthday. I am 29 years old. One more year left and I'm 30! Saying it out loud sounds old but I still feel like I'm in my early 20's and don't know what I'm doing half the time.

The day started out by Jon letting me sleep in a little bit... until it was his turn. When I got up I fed Sofie and gave her a bath because she still had food in her hair from the day before. I finally got Jon up to go shopping for gifts for everyone back home. It's been a little difficult to shop here. There are so many stores but nothing that seems very quality and they are all kind of the same. Maybe I'm just being to picky. We went to the flea market in front of the Alexander Nevski Cathedral. There is some hand made arts and crafts there but mostly WWII memorabilia. Do you want a compass with a swastika on it? That's where to get it! Lots of communist stuff too. We found a few little gems in the market. Sofie napped in the sling most of this time, which was fine with us! Two days in a row! Hooray! 

Daddy's turn with his sling!

We made our way to the Anido office to take them out to lunch as a thank you for everything. Lunch was a lot of fun. Neli, the President of the Anido, Alex, our contact for Anido, and Nasko, our translator came with us. We learned a lot! Apparently, when Alex had gone to the orphanage to get video of Sofie for us, he had to wear a mask because of apparent germs from the outside. Poor Sofie must have been scared of this weird masked man with a video camera! Also, on our first visit to the orphanage, we were not supposed to be allowed to take pictures of Sofie. Nasko kept this from us though and just handled it. He told the staff that since Sofie is our legal child we most certainly we allowed! Thank-you Nasko! Those first pictures of meeting Sofie are so special to us and to our family and friends! Apparently there was some problems with the previous director of the orphanage too, but Alex didn't go in to detail about it, so I don't know what that all meant.

We loved getting to know the three of them and really felt their genuine joy for what they do. It isn't just their job. They really believe in the well-being of these orphans. Alex, especially, is so caring towards kids and Sofie. He is always wanting to play with her and hold her. His wife and him had some fertility problems and even did IVF a few times. IVF finally worked and they got there little girl they were hoping for! Although he hasn't adopted I think he has a real appreciation for these kids and understands what a lot of the adoptive parents have been through. Neli is also a lawyer and is on the board of people who are revamping the Bulgarian child protection laws. She seems to really have a passion for plight of the under privileged children in Bulgaria. She was quite interested in learning what kind of supports and services we will be utilizing once we were back in Canada. Nasko is just a really kind and humble man. He has one son, about the same age as my girls, so he related and played well with Sofie. 

Our goodbye lunch! 

Left to Right - Neli, Me, Sofie, Jon, Alex, Nasko

 Sofie did so well with our big morning out so we decided to take it easy in the hotel room for the afternoon. We played, cuddled and Skyped with Livi! We found a bottle of wine on our bar too with a birthday card from the hotel! Fancy Schmancy! After we took notice of how much money we had left Jon said I could get a massage for my birthday in the spa downstairs! Since the massages are so cheap here ($35 Canadian for a full body massage in a 5 star hotel!), he threw in a facial! Right after Skyping with Livi, I got to enjoy an hour and a half of pampering! It felt so nice. I love how open Europeans are with their bodies too. They don't think it is a big deal. The girl did leave while I was undressing but then just took off the towel that was draped on me and left half my butt showing for most of it. Then when I was dressing to change rooms for the facial the new girl walked in, she did apologize, but then just stood there waiting with the door open :) That would never happen in Canada! I could do with out some of the sexual art in the coffee stops over here, but a little nudity never hurt anyone! Lets face it, we all like to be naked!

 My birthday present from the hotel!

I returned from my massage to find my baby sleeping! Jon had a really easy time putting her to bed with out me! I was so thankful for that. I love this co-parenting thing :) We opened the wine and lay down to watch a few episodes of Hell's Kitchen we've been missing while we've been here. We got to bed a little late but all in all, a really fabulous birthday!

Still Here - Aug 9 & 10

Tuesday was started on the heals of a really bad night for Sofie. She woke up a few times crying and woke up early. So Jon and I took turns napping in the morning. We all just hung out in the air conditioned room too. It was apparently 38 degrees outside. Sofie, of course didn't nap today either so we headed out for some lunch around 12:30pm. I was very hungry by that point!

Sofie was, as usual, smiles and giggles, although she hadn't been wanting to be held as much. She is probably just really over stimulated and not sure how to process everything. I literally can not wait to get home with her.  She did really impress us with her verbal abilities today! We've really only heard "aaaahhhh's" from her but today she whipped out a few "bababa's" and even a few "mamama's"! I'm not sure I can get too excited to think that she is associating me to those "mama's". She showed some preferential treatment to me today too! She wanted me to carry her instead of Jon a few times and when I was napping she kept coming over to see if I was awake yet. It melts my heart a little... She's only been with us 5 full days!

After lunch we ventured over to the National Archaeological Museum. Incredible place. There were so many Roman artifacts, as well as Thracian artifacts, and the oldest piece of bone with expressions drawn on it in Europe. It dated back over 1.1 million years ago! The also had pots and tools dating back to 3-6 million years before Christ! Crazy! I wasn't supposed to snap pictures but I snuck in a few...

4th-6th Century family portraits!

An old Roman tomb.

The old mosaic floor from the St. Sofia Apse.

An old tomb and stones hanging outside the Museum.

In the evening we Skyped with Livi again we headed out for dinner. We knew this was pushing Sofie's schedule a bit but we thought with her sleeping in we could get away with it. We barely did... We went to a cute little Moroccan place with some really good food. A stray cat made an appearance and Sofie surprised us with being really scared of it, even from far away. Uh oh... we have a cat. I'm not sure if she's ever seen one or if she's had a bad experience with one. I hope she gets over it quickly. She fell asleep during the walk home and it was a really easy transition to bed! Yay!

 Pretty restaurant.

Kisses!

Ewww! No tongue Sofie!

Quite pleased with herself.

We thought Wednesday was going to start off really early. Sofie woke up at 6:30am. I put her on the floor because she was tossing and turning and kicking us, she is the CRAZIEST sleeper I have ever seen. She promptly lay down on the floor and fell asleep for another 3 hours! Hooray! Mommy and Daddy were definitely thankful. We paid the price a little bit because she woke up hungry. When she gets over hungry she cries... okay, she usually cries when it comes to food, but she cries more when she is over hungry then doesn't want anything. We coaxed a few bites in to her, enough to satisfy her we thought, then went downstairs for our own brunch. I offered her some more food there but she only wanted Daddy's bread and kept stuffing the whole thing in her mouth. When we got back up to the room I tried offering her some more food and she ate a lot more! Maybe the restaurant was too stimulating. 

We decided to venture out to a big toy store in search of Livi's requested 'Tiger', some pants for Sofie that don't fall down, and some more baby food. We had hoped to go to the Zoo today but it was pouring! When we got back We thought Sofie was ready for a nap, but of course we were wrong :) So, Jon and I lay down while she quietly walked around the bed. Eventually, she fell asleep on the floor again! Yay for nap time! It is quite a late nap so I don't know what this will mean for bed time later but I guess every day is an adventure with Sofie! I should really wake her up though... it is 5 pm here!

Oh, I forgot to mention that I emailed the Embassy today and heard back that Sofie's Visa is approved and getting couriered to us today! That means it should get here by tomorrow or Friday! Thanks for all the prayers! I'm SO excited for all of us to get home together! 

Just a few pictures from dinner tonight too....

 Trouble...

Double Trouble!

* Side note: A few people have been asking about Sofie's size. Right now she is the top of a 12 month old and the waist of a 9 month old... I think she is too tall for 9 month pants though. Not sure yet. We are getting by with 12 month size bottoms that have the elastic in the waist that I can tighten though. She can get by with some 18 month stuff but only if it fits small. So, basically, if you are planning to give her anything she could immediately use some 12 month end of summer/early fall clothes but we are hoping to fatten her up to an 18 month size for winter! *

7 Years - Aug 8

Today is Jon and mine's 7 year wedding anniversary! It is so weird to think that I am old enough to have been married for 7 years. It might as well be 30! Okay, maybe not. But I feel pretty blessed to have been able to spend 7 years with such a wonderful man! No "itch" yet ;)

10 Things I Love About Jon and Our Marriage:

1. I love that we are so different. I know this probably falls under "things I hate about our marriage" but being so different balances us.
2. I love the Sex... Yup, I just said it :)
3. I love Jon's hugs.
4. I love how much I have learned from Jon and continue learning.
5. I love how we are both COMPLETELY on the same page when it comes to raising our kids and expanding our family.
6. I love how geeky he is... but don't tell him that!
7. I love how trust worthy Jon is as a husband and man.
8. I love how giving he is. Not just to the needy or charities, but he doesn't take stock of who gives or does more with any of his relationships and is always willing to go the extra mile for those he loves.
9. I love how well he listens. I don't mean in a taking orders kind of way, but in a really hearing what I have to say kind of way. (When it counts anyway.... 7 years does plug the ears a little sometimes!)
10. Most of all, I love how he loves me so completely. I don't always quite understand him, or get where he is coming from but I know that no matter what is going on, he loves me and I am blessed.

So, today was a little bit of a different kind of anniversary than if we had been at home in Canada. We didn't get to go out alone to celebrate each other making it 7 years with the other one. We had Sofie of course! Honestly, we barely remembered that it was our anniversary. We are kind of running on empty over here but we are okay. We have really been there for each other through this whole past week and barely even snapped at each other... which tends to happen when we are tired and stressed. We are trying to be there for Sofie and give her all that she needs from us. We are taking turns when we need them and figuring each others cues out before we need to even ask. I'm amazed how well we are handling things actually. To top off the stress, I am still sick. Last night was the worst. My whole body was heaving but there was nothing left to get out of me. Not a pleasant feeling. During the day I seem to be able to cope though. I happened to find a English speaking pharmacist who gave me some pills. Not sure what I'm taking but I'm not in the bathroom every 20 minutes tonight :)

Sofie is an angel. She is quite possibly the easiest three year old to take care of or parent that I have ever met... except when it is time to eat or drink or go to bed. She is definitely displaying some 'being from an institution' behavior and sensory issues. She rocks on her back when she is bored... but surprisingly not when she is trying to go to sleep. She cries through out every meal. We bought some baby food and pablum that we are mixing with the formula we bought. She has been eating well but cries on and off through out it. She doesn't like things in her mouth although we are starting to see her exploring with that a little. Today she actually had her toes in her mouth and has been putting the rubber teether brush in there a lot too! She won't drink. We have been watering down a lot of the food and sneaking the liquid in that way but it's been a struggle. We bought two different kinds of sippy cups, have tried numerous adult cups and water bottles. She refuses to entertain the idea of a straw of bottle nipple in her mouth too. Bed time tonight sucked. She cried on and off for an hour and a half. Not just crying either... she tantrummed. If she falls asleep on us in our sling, bed time is not an issue. But if she is not ready for the sling or bed it is an ordeal. I'm hoping this gets better quickly at home. She needs a routine I think.

Otherwise, today was a good day! We went to the St. Sofia church. The oldest church in Sofia. It was really neat to see. Sofie was doing really well this morning so we ventured off to the Ladies Market, which was mostly a lot of fruits and veggies and knock off clothing. Sofie fell asleep in the sling while we were walking and slept for about an hour. First nap since the first day! Yay! We walked back and passed lots of interesting tourist spots...

The stone that sealed the entrance the the 4th Century crypt 

beneath the St. Sofia Church.

 

 Inside the St. Sofia. The bricks date back to the 6th century

 The old Turkish baths. The building is being restored now.

 Mineral springs. People line up for hours some days to fill their jugs up! 

We thought we'd get a refreshing drink but the water was really hot!

 Changing of the Guards at the Presidency. 

I missed the shot of them high marching.

We stayed in our hotel room during the really hot part of the day and went out again for our Anniversary dinner! The first meal I'd eaten all day because of the sickness the night before! It was delicious! We ended the day with a bath and showers for Mommy and Daddy before our epic night routine. Then Jon treated us to a room service snack and dessert while watching Paris Hilton's BFF on TV. It was the only English show on besides financial news! All in all, a pretty memorable 7th anniversary! Looking forward to 70 more!

Hanging out on a 20 century old pillar!

Happy Anniversary Mommy and Daddy!

Gotchya! - Aug 4

Today was our "Gotchya!" Day! I was so excited. Sofie is ours! Completely ours! No more orphanage! No more rotating caregivers! No more crying with no one able to help! Just family and love! How awesome!

We got to the orphanage around 10:30 am and met Alex, our main contact from Anido, who was also going to be our translator for the day. We had a brief meeting with the Director again to go over some of the last details. It whirled by quickly. I didn't really know what was going on. I just wanted to get my baby and get out of there. It wasn't that it was a terrible place. The staff were all very kind, a little on the strict side, but gentle and caring. Of course I do believe that orphanages and institutions are systemically flawed, I also now believe that Sofie received the best care they knew how and were able to provide. I just wanted to be settled in a nice hotel with her and able to relax.

The Director gave us a diary of when Sofie accomplished different developmental milestones and it even has a trace of her hand in it at 1 year old. Navsco is going to translate it for us! Some of the pages have little flowers drawn in it by the staff too :) I believe Sofie was really loved. We were also given a little book with 23 pictures in it of Sofie from when she was 2 months old to blowing out the candles on her 3rd birthday! The birthday one made me really happy. We were celebrating her that same day! I'll scan them all in when we get home. We signed some papers saying we had received the child, we gave our suitcases of clothes, lotions, and candy, gave the presents for the staff and Director then we were off! A few staff members came to take a look at us but no one really stuck around. I did get one picture of the entrance with Sofie and a staff. I don't think she was a regular caregiver though. Maybe she was a Doctor?

Saying goodbye.

We had a long car ride to Sofia. Alex was not nearly as aggressive a driver as the first one we had. Sofie fell asleep almost immediately and slept the entire way there. The car seat laws are not nearly as strict here as in Canada. We had her in a car seat that Anido provided but I doubt it would pass any Canadian tests. Alex said I could take her out if I wanted and I wouldn't need a car seat for taxi rides with Sofie... I guess "when in Rome, do what the Romans do!" We are not planning to use a taxi very often, only to get to the mall once and the Zoo. Otherwise our hotel is central to everything.

Where are you taking me?

Up until now, Jon and I have been coping with some pretty sketchy hotels. The first one was nice but in a sketchy part of town, really far away from everything. The second one in Plovdiv, was right in the middle of the square where all the shopping and restaurants were but it was bad, like Ivanhoe in Vancouver bad. I was so uncomfortable and sick too. We needed to book our hotel for when we were back in Sofia with Sofie and did some looking around. In the end, location and luxury won out. I really just wanted to be comfortable so we sprung for the nicest hotel in the center of town. It has a walking park right outside and a playground. The room is insanely huge with couches and a front entry room! We got a really good deal on it from Expedia but every time we tell some one we are staying there, there eyes get all big. We were planning on $70-$80 a night while we were here but this is costing us just over $100. This room typically costs $325 a night. Thank you Expedia! The first hotel was right on budget but we saved a bundle with the second one, only paying $35 a night. We decided this was my birthday present :) This room is so worth it. Sofie has room to explore with out getting in to too much. She can sleep in bed while I blog at the desk and Jon reads on the couch! Okay, enough justifying my extra expense :)

Checking out her new stomping grounds :)

Settling in with Daddy.

Play time!

We are already learning a lot about Sofie. She is so calm and quiet. She generally only cries when she eats. This is looking like it is going to be our biggest hurdle. She clenches, grinds and clicks her teeth and jaw continuously but doesn't really chew food. I think she is really delayed orally. We have only heard her say "ahhhh's" so far too. I don't think they let her put things in her mouth to stimulate her oral development so we've been playing at it a little today... not with huge success. The only thing she has really let me get in there is my finger once or twice. She doesn't like eating. They basically had to force feed her at the orphanage, from what we could see, and she cried on and off through out it. I don't like this approach but she is so skinny, I know she needs to eat. We brought some formula with us but she won't take the bottle yet, and drinking anything from a cup is hit or miss for her. We are going to try and find a suitable sippy cup. She can't use a straw yet either... we tried. I think the plan of action, until we can talk to some professionals back home, is to try give her 5 smaller meals instead of the three she is used to so she can continually have something in her stomach. Any advice with this is appreciated! I never had this problem with Livi!

We gave Sofie her first bath today. I didn't see any tubs at the orphanage, only shower rooms with buckets. She didn't love it, but she didn't hate it. I went in with her and I think that is why she didn't completely hate it. We got lots of skin to skin contact which I don't think she's ever had before either. Staff always had their uniforms. She clung to me but let me wash her and even smiled once or twice. She didn't venture away from me at all though. She has a bad bum rash which we were told was from the antibiotics she was given when she was sick last week. I can't really get a good look at it because the cream they were using has turned her skin all purple. I think it is the same as thrush medicine. I thought thrush was a yeast infection that babies could get on their mouths. I've also heard of babies getting yeast infections on their vagina's but not their bums. I'm thinking it is more likely that with her diarrhea her bum was irritated from the bm's and wiping. They wanted to send me home with some but I assured them I had some cream. I'm going to trust Arbonne in this case more than purple dye. We gave her lots of naked bum time after her bath too, another thing I don't think she's ever had. She kept trying to touch her bum :)

After settling in to our hotel room a bath and dinner, we started doing the round of Skype with everyone! Everyone was very excited to see her :) Livi kept looking at her and trying to talk to her. It was really cute. I asked Livi if she thought was should bring Sofie home and she matter-of-factly said "yup." I'm so looking forward to settling in at home with my two baby girls :)

Wearing Sofie out and about! Everyone kept staring at us.

Baby wearing is not in fashion here :)

Sofie was so tired by the end of everything, but despite it all she wouldn't fall asleep in our bed. We got a king bed so we could co-sleep while we were here. She was tired, still, and kept yawning, but 40 minutes in to Jon and I each taking turns lying down with her she was still awake. I decided to try and put her in my sling again, since she has been enjoying it so much. 10 minutes of me swaying her in my sling, she was out. I loved that. I'm not sure I want this to be a continual thing for the next year or anything, but I'm totally willing to do that each night for a few months :) Just look at the results...

Bulgaria - July 31

With all the excitement of settling down I suddenly couldn't sleep, despite not having slept more than 3 hours in the past 27. Since it was 7am in Bulgaria and the Hotel was serving breakfast, I decided to go and fill my growling stomach. It was well worth my efforts... Scrambled and boiled eggs, sausage, bacon, a cold cuts platter, a cheese platter, three types of yogurt, including Greek yogurt which is delicious, croissants and jam, two other types of bread, two types of cereal, juice, coffee and tea. All levels of delicious.

I slept well after that. Too well. We had only meant to sleep until noon at the latest but I didn't wake up until 2pm. Oops. That mistake really messed with my jet lag too. I only slept for 3 hours the next night then too :( Although, maybe it wasn't the jet lag, maybe it was my excitement for seeing Sofie!

Once we finally woke up we walked a few blocks to do some sight seeing. We first stopped at a sushi place for some lunch. It was the only place that we could find that was open on a Sunday and would either accept Euro's or credit card since we hadn't changed our money yet.

 Alexandar Nevsky Cathedral

After our tummy's were satisfied, we went to Alexandar Nevsky Cathedral. It is “only” 200ish years old but amazing. It is an Orthodox Cathedral, not Catholic as many of us westerners might assume. We are in Eastern Europe remember :) I actually got a little choked up with the awe of it all. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside though :( There was also what used to be a crypt under the Cathedral, which has been turned in to a museum of icon's. One piece dated back to the 4^th century.

Over the front doors. We weren't allowed pictures inside.

An icon of St. Nick in the crypt.

We did a little more looking around that day, a lot of walking and headed back to the room for some more, or less sleep. We get to meet Sofie tomorrow!

Travel - July 29-31

I some how left my baby. Like I said, it was the hardest thing I have ever done. I held it together for most of the trip to the airport. I only quietly cried once in the car. As we were walking to the security check though I could feel the tears coming. I just started bawling. I had hoped I would be able to keep Livi from seeing me cry but that plan was an epic failure. I was able to talk to her with out heaving though! I kissed her and hugged her, told her how much fun she was going to have, told her how safe she was and that Mommy and Daddy would be back in two weeks! I tried to sound excited but she was confused with all the tears. Even Jon got choked up. He “says” he didn't shed a tear though. My sister's helped save the experience for her though. They got really excited for her and had her waving and shouting how much she loved us through security. It made me cry more but I could hear that she was having fun.

We got through security extremely quick so we grabbed some comfort food/alcohol at Milestones to cope! We actually did need to eat dinner. Our plane was on time and we started boarding around 8:15pm. I've never been on such a big plane and have never actually seen a first class with my own eyes. It was a weird feeling being herded through the luxury seating like second class citizens. It reminded me of Titanic for some reason...

The flight itself was fine. I actually managed to get about 2-3 hours of sleep. I'm not sure what quality that sleep was and it only came with the help of a Gravol pill and two ibuprofens for my cankle pains. My feet ended up swelling a bit, despite my best efforts to move around and stay hydrated... I have a sneaking suspicion the salt infused plane food was what pushed them over the edge. We had a little turbulence over the ocean but nothing that deployed the air masks. I was so uncomfortable through most of it. The staff were not the friendliest people in the world either. I suspected they were on their last flight of their stint and crabby from their long shifts. In fact, most of the English people we ran in to today were not overly pleasant. One bus driver we had yelled at the entire bus for someone accidentally holding the call button down... We actually think it was Jon but we didn't want to call attention to that fact after that.

We had decided to skip any excursion into London because we were both so tired, we weren't sure if we had enough time to go in to the heart of London and we hadn't researched it very well because it wasn't one of my priorities for this trip. But, as we were walking through the dreary halls of Heathrow Airport I happened to ask an attendant where we could spend our 9 hour layover. She encouraged us to “jot down to Windsor castle”. She was actually quite helpful and does not fit in the same category of the English people I was talking about earlier. She gave us specific instructions for which bus to take and assured us Windsor Castle was quite close to Heathrow. We decided to go for it. I mean, when are we ever going to be in London again?!

Windsor Castle

The bus took about 30 min to get to Windsor and was quite a pretty drive. I couldn't get enough of all the brick houses, town homes and bridges. It was like I was in a movie... Well, I've only seen them in the movies :) Unfortunately, when we got to the castle it had just closed. Apparently, everything touristy closes early in England on a Saturday. It was the same problem we had run in to when I was looking in to going to Westminster Abbey during the layover. There was still tons of stuff to look at and do... Like the Thames river! Famous in lots of literature and where we were you could frequently see the Eton boys sculling. There is a large touristy shopping area there with cute shops and yummy looking food. We went to the King and the Castle Pub (I think that's what it was called). It was a beautiful old building with real wood, broken stone, a tree in the middle of it's patio and hanging flower baskets everywhere. Jon got his mandatory pint of Guiness and I had the deliciously cliched Fish n' Chips! (Thanks Leanna and David!)

At Thames River

Guiness

Dinner!

We got back to the airport with more than enough time to catch our flight and found a Gordon Ramsay restaurant!!! Gordon Ramsay Plane Food. Neither of us was hungry but this restaurant was a must! I was so excited. We decided to go for dessert and coffee. Jon had Gordon's Chocolate Pecan Brownie with Vanilla Ice cream and I, of course, had his Lemon Creme Brulee. Do you like how I'm calling “G” by his first name now? We now have a relationship so it is okay to be so informal. Let me tell you... this dessert is definitely the highlight of our trip so far! I took more pictures of the food than of the Castle! The maitre'd saw me taking pictures and came over to make sure everything was okay. He was worried something was wrong with the food and I was a food critic or something and was going to write about it :) I assured him we were just tourists who had crushes on Gordon Ramsay. Then when he found out we were from Vancouver he told us to take as many pictures as I like because he saw what angry Canadians can do over just a hockey game! He was quite funny actually.

No creme brulee will ever be the same for me.

Tea with my own personal honey pot!

A few hours later we flew out to Sofia. We were exhausted and did not get very much sleep the whole trip. I think in the 27 hours we were in transit, I slept maybe 3 hours and Jon only got 1 or 2. Thankfully, we had arranged for our hotel to pick us up at 4am and take us directly to our room. After quickly saying hi to Livi on Skype and taking a shower we tried to get some sleep.

2011 Vacation Pt. 2

We enjoyed one of the best vacations in recent memory and not just because we started it off with the most amazing news :) This week was the first time we really got to enjoy the property in Summerland for a substantial amount of time since Dad died. The first year the wound was still too raw and the second year we went up with friends and the weather was terrible. This year we went up alone, we were at peace and had pretty decent weather!

Within five minutes of getting to the lake, Livi was naked and in the water. 

She loved it so much there. She thought it was so funny that we encouraged her to pee in the lake! When she finally tried, she couldn't go for a few minutes... stage fright? When I asked her at the end of our trip what her favorite part of camping was, she answered "Peeing in the lake!"  That's my girl!

I bought sugary cereal from a box for her to carry on the tradition my mom started!

We camped at the property from Monday to Friday. Most of the time was pretty decent weather in the mid twenties with partial sun and clouds. I think next year we are going to try to go closer to August so we get the really hot weather. We stayed in the tent trailer so we had slightly better accommodations than tenting... although bed times still sucked for Livi! She finally fell asleep at 10pm the first night and 9:30pm all the other nights. Jon and I tried to sleep in the tiny bed together the first night but between the shortness of the mattress and the joints poking at me it was not a good fit. I took Livi's bed and Jon shared the other bed with Livi. We were all much more comfortable. It was good that Livi was sharing a bed with some one the last night because with the clear sky it was freezing cold!

The first full day we were there we ventured in to Penticton so Jon could peruse his favorite book store and we could all enjoy our favorite cafe, The Gypsy Dream Cafe. It is seriously delicious. We also spent some time at the camp site, on the dock, eating smores and watching Livi play catch with the dogs who live at the cabin! She really needs a dog one of these years :)

Livi LOVED the Baba Ganouj at The Dream Cafe... so did Mommy and Daddy!

Chillaxin' on the dock :)

The wind was making waves which was making the floating dock wobbly!

Never to young for chores!

Smores! Yummy! Livi actually didn't love the smores together. 

She'd rather eat the chocolate, marshmallow, cookie separate. 

Wednesday morning we went to visit Jon's Grandparents from his Dad's side. This visit was a colossal disappointment. I know I should be understanding and have grace because they are old and from a different era but honestly should that be an excuse for such inappropriate attitudes, responses, and beliefs? With out going in to too much detail, upon hearing that we legally have a second child and made them great-grandparents again they (mainly Jon's Grandma) did not give any congratulations but seemed to try and talk us out of it, said it was not worth it and too big a commitment, doted on Livi and said they only wanted more birth children from us. We only see them once a year but I am having a really hard time even entertaining the idea of seeing them again, let alone introducing them to Sofie. 

In order to salvage part of Wednesday, Livi and I went on a date to Summerland Sweets 

for ice cream and I got to do a fruit wine tasting. Fun!

Putting our feet up after a long day!

We always seem to get a family picture on the dock, and this year was no exception! 

This is the first family picture where there is legally four of us! 

Now if only we could just get the fourth one in the picture :)

My little angel... 

who may have gotten away with way too much while on vacation and wasn't quite an angel :)

Cuddling up with Daddy after getting cold in the water.

Ewww... Livi thought the dog "getting her wet" was so funny. 

She played with this girl every night for hours! 

Topless sunbathing!

Thursday was the warmest and sunniest day out of the week... so what do you do when you are at a private beach on a sunny day? Topless sunbathing of course! Livi and I also went exploring up the hill to the vineyard before nap time. After naps we all went in to Penticton again so Jon could make one last stop at the book store and I could do a little more window shopping. Then we went to the playground that is on the boardwalk. Livi had such a blast the entire week. I loved seeing how happy she was!

Monkeying around!

Friday morning we packed everything up and went for our annual brunch at Santorini's. We used to always go there as a family with Dad whenever we were there together. We have unconsciously continued the tradition. This trip was so wonderful for so many reasons. Jon had a much needed 4 hour nap one day, Livi had so much to explore and learn and play with, and I just loved seeing how happy everyone was. Next year we will have two little girls with us! Can't wait!

Breakfast at Santorini's