Feeding Frenzy & Photographs

Today, I got to feed our baby. After spending 2 years reading other family's travel journals I felt prepared to do my job. Sort of. We were told yesterday that we would move our schedule up a half hour so we'd be able to feed her when she normally eats. Aliya wasn't able to join us today but her sister, Asia (pronounced Uh-see-ya)came along for the fun.

We met in a different room this morning for feeding time... it was a little room that connected to the babies' playroom. At first they told me I had to wash my hands... but then they changed their minds. (Must have been the sparkling radiance from my shower this morning!) So, during that brief period of confusion I got to take a quick peak inside the playroom! (So sneaky, I know!) They use this room for feeding, playing, changing babies, etc. and I believe the babies' sleeping quarters are in an adjacent room around the corner. There were a couple of cribs, some comfy chairs for the caregivers, and several squealing babies from what I could tell. Tom made the observation that while we were there, when the babies got a little louder, the music on the radio in that room got turned up a little louder. Very effective and we had some jammin' music to feed Nadia/Emily by! ;-)

They brought Nadia/Emily out to me dressed in the clothes we brought for her this morning and then the caregiver went back in to get a tray that contained a huge bowl of Cream of Wheat with a regular-sized metal teaspoon and a big tea cup filled with lukewarm tea. There was also a bib and a dish rag on the tray. I didn't know if I was supposed to go ahead and feed her or if I was to wait for instructions but Asia said I should just go ahead.



What ensued was pure chaos of the sweetest kind. Man, can this kid eat! First off, the portion was enough to fill a grown man... let alone the fact that I have every reason to believe this is not her first meal of the day. This is 2nd breakfast for her! Not only did she love the stuff, but if I didn't shovel it in fast enough she wasn't afraid to let me know. Oh, and forget about high chairs and sippy cups and rubber covered safety spoons, we're talking hard-core feeding at it's finest.

I held her on my lap while I fed her and attempted to hold her hand down and hold onto the bowl and the spoon all the while trying to get the loaded spoon into her mouth and not her nose, eyes and ears. We were a little bumpy at first but once we got the system down, we were off to the races! Here's a video of the event for your pure amusement! (Oh yeah, it wasn't until we were 2/3 of the way through the bowl that someone came out and suggested that I tuck her roaming hand under my arm so she wasn't trying to grab the spoon!)





And, when it was all said and done I only had a tiny bit of cereal on me and the masterpiece that I had made of Nadia/Emily's face was easily wiped off with the dishcloth.

Now it was onto the tea. Again, no sippy cups or bottles for this tough Russian girl. At 8 mos. old she's just as grown up as the Queen of England. Well, sort of. She needs a little assistance getting the tea cup to her face and hasn't quite mastered the elegant pinky finger in the air technique but this kid can chug a cup of tea! I thought she was doing really well and really didn't end up with too much of a leaky chin until the caregiver came back out to see how we were doing. She said we could also try feeding her the tea with a spoon. Are you kidding? This kid loves her tea so much and was way too impatient for this technique... so it was back to drinking out of a cup like a big girl for her!



We came out of it unscathed!

After mealtime it was off to the music room. We were told that the photographer was coming today to take pictures of Nadia/Emily for her passport. Great just what we needed... she just finished stuffing herself and we had to try to keep her clean until after the pictures were taken. This was fun. I thought for sure we'd get a lot of spit up but it really wasn't so bad. After seeing how much she had just eaten we couldn't keep ourselves from holding a rag under her mouth all morning. We're such dorks. Fortunately, the photographer showed up after only about 15 minutes and took several pictures of a very full Nadia. I'm pretty sure she didn't smile in any of them although we tried. She wasn't crying either, she was just stuffed and content... all was well with the world.



Here's another picture taken from today... just a close-up for you to enjoy since I didn't have my camera handy during the passport photoshoot. Here's Nadia/Emily just being her doggone cute self. She didn't have to work too hard for this one. (Note the spit rag ready at the chin! This was taken just prior to the passport photos! hehehe)



Have a happy Monday! We'll see you on the flip side!
We love you and miss you all!
Tom and Jenni
jhypes@treca.org

Again, please post comments so we can add them to Emily's book down the road!