Could have been the vaporub... but I'm pretty sure it wasn't

Binky - $20
Chibu-rash-ka (or just rachka) - 4500 Rub and a plane ride home from Russia to sing lulabies
night light - $5
lullabye music CD - $12
Having your fiercely independent, easy going, resiliant little 3 year old Russian cry out for you because he's sick and needs his Mama... priceless

We've been home almost 2 months (weird to say but true???) and it had to happen sometime.  I got sick.  Not just the sort of, "I've got the sniffles but it's not slowing me down" sort of sick - the sort that kicks you in the butt, cleans the stuffing out, takes your name and number and promises to come back for your kid sort of sick.  And it did.  My Mother and Father in law planned a really nice "welcome to the family" BBQ so that everyone could meet the little Russian and I was the one under the weather - until this morning.  Corbin woke with a nose full of "sneaky boogies" but his perpetual good mood wasn't impacted in the least.  We wrapped up after breakfast and made our way back to the city armed with 10 free passes to the amusement park for his cousins 8th birthday party - thankfully no one had to pay the $30 entry price - thanks Stacey W., Country 105 and Chorus entertainment!!! We dropped the tickets off and came home to re-group and assess if going back for an abreviated "happy birthday" to the twins could be managed.  He didn't seem to be slowed down at all so at 4 we arrived back with a wagon full of treats ready to row, fly, toot, BOING!, splash, and squeal... 
Then, the stuffing stealer made his promised return.  Corbin fought sleep on the 10 minute drive home, peed in his car seat (by the way, there are NO instructions on how to remove the "washable liner" from an Eddie Bauer Car seat but with some engineering, tenacity, creativity and cursing it DOES come out nicely and went back in more easily than I thought), ate a HUGE dinner and headed to bed.... which lasted until the quiet sobs of  "Mama... help... Mama... need you" came from his room.  When I picked him up from his sweaty slumber, the quiet sobs turned desperate and he clung to me and begged me 'stay Mama - stay - peas..."  For those of you with bio kids or who brought home babies, this moment may not resonate much... but for someone bringing home a boy who mostly needs me to tie his shoes, teach him to catch, cheer him on for kicking the ball in the goal, pick him up when he tips over on his bike and put a bandaid on his skinned knee... this was a BIG one.  We vapo-rubbed, tyleonol'd, had an icecream snack (and 2 yogurt tubes??? for the boy who doesn't always eat???) and some "Chai" before rocking my baby to sleep in the chair downstairs wrapped in his binkie and cuddled with "Rachka".  In the moonlight I watched his sleepy eyes finally close and his little chest labor to rise and fall as he relaxed into my arms.  I cherished every time he'd peek through a half open eyelid to check if I was still there and wondered if anyone had ever rocked him to sleep or held him when he was sick?  He spent 18 months in his birth family and 18 months "in the system" between the baby hospital and eventually the orphanage... He deserved to be held and loved - he's simply to precious and sweet and loving to have been left to cry alone (aren't they all?)
Could have been the Vapo rub that stung my eyes and made me misty... but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. 

Finally new photos

Like sands through the hourglass... so are the days of our lives (thinly veiled reference to the soap operas I'm occasionally catching after a 15 year hiatus given the interruption by that damn thing called working!).  Time is passing and Corbin (if this is possible?) gets cuter every day.  I have officially had to eradicate all funn-i-isms that are not repeat worthy because as it was humorous for the fist while (he'd parrot them back and then quickly forget) but now... not so much.  I'll refrain from sharing exactly what he sung in chorus for about half an hour after eating yesterday but it started out as a way for me to lighten the "please please please eat" chant when I off the cuff referred to Liverwurst as something even less flattering (if that is possible???).  I just about snorted coffee out my nose when he started up with it and then quickly had to replace it with a close sounding more acceptable description - so now, it's "liver-yuck" or "Vile-stuff" Anyway, he hasn't said it today so I hope it's gone but let me apologise in advance if something pops out later. 
Corbins language continues to explode. All that's left is malinki, I-ya, the occasional Di...the rest is all English.  Well, we are both off for a nap.  He doesn't need one - I do.  I feel like I'm coming down with a cold and before the road trip next week, I better nip this in the bud. 

This and that

6 weeks home already.  I realized tonight how very little Russian exists in either my or Corbins conversations now.  The odd word pops out but English is dominant - there is no more "pu-pat-za Mama?" or "couchit Da?" or "I Ya Peet Sok" - the most common Russian is "I ya" which I am certain is I want to but is now followed by the thing he "wants to" in English. I also stoped to think that I no longer feel compelled to explain things to him in Russian but without the words that I did know (a BIG shout out to Theresa Kelleher and her Russian for adoptive parents CD - simply couldn't have made it without it!).  Last night my in laws came over to visit (and fix a few things here and there for me) and as they were leaving I asked Corbin who gave him the new toy he was playing with.  I wasn't sure that he would understand and the long pause suggested I could be right but just as I was going to fill in the blank for him he quzzically looked at me and said, "D-yeah Dushka and Bahbushka... oh yes (which is how he ends many statements lol).  Corbin's receptive English is incredible - I think he gets pretty much everything I say to him.  His vocabulary has exploded to include 90% of the words in the one bed time book we read (the others I often skip over) and of the 90% he is right probably 85% of the time on them.  The ones that make me smile the most are when he sees a smart car and he announces, "Small (which comes out more like Schmall) car mama!" and how excited he gets when he sees that stupid "Chicken Tuesday" Taco commercial on TV... he yells CHICKEN!!! for about 10 minutes (thank you Old El Passo!).  Corbin has met some new friends recently and is facinated by Mel and Dwaynes little guy who has just come home from Ethiopia.  We all spent the last 5 days together and tonight when I was putting Corbin to bed we talked about where he keeps his love when he sleeps... he learned about where his heart is and that Love is there.  We started talking about the people in our life that we love - listing them off and saying their love is in his heart - he quickly announced that Baby Mushi is in his heart... melted again.  Having friends here for awhile gave Corbin the opportunity to try out his voice announcing "MINE" over everything including me - which is so amazing to hear.  Today I gave him a new toy to play with so that I could vacuume - it's a little tiny tent with various farm animals inside - when I came into the room he had stowed himself away inside this little tiny thing - peeking out the top with his little smile.  Other cute stuff? He found a button at the playground yesterday and when I said it's a button he became very concerned that his belly button had somehow fallen off.  Well, we fixed that up.  Dyeh dushka gave him a little tool box with an "electric drill" - he re-installed his belly button and life goes happily on.  This week was very busy and very fun except for one very big dark cloud hanging over a friend waiting to bring her son home that suddenly began to hail.  I wish and hope and pray nothing more than little baby "A" comes home to pop pop because I quite frankly think that she as a single Mama has the super powers of 4 full time parents and the love of an army for the lucky little boy.  If you've got room at the end of your good thoughts / prayers / hopes list, could you throw one on for pop pop?
I have new pictures... but I also have a new computer... and the two aren't talking - so this might take a minute or two!