Last Monday was a day of firsts and lasts...both bringing on a multitude of emotions.
Jon and I religiously go to the dentist every 4 months and Kristina has been in tow each time for the last 3 years. She is known on a first name basis by everyone in the office. During the last few visits, they have let her sit in the exam chair in prep for today -- her first dental appointment. At first, Kristina was saying "
no -- I don't need my teeth cleaned today" but it didn't take much before our little girl jumped into the chair and opened her mouth super wide.
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"Hey, this is a comfy chair!"
We figured we were off to a good start... |
Daddy and I were there as the mini paparazzi. We were
so proud of our little one who passed her first appointment with flying colors!
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| Dental Hygenist, Nora, was surprised to see how Kristina brushes her teeth all by herself! |
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| Kristina and Nora flash the pearly whites. No cavities! |
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| Dr. S's turn to check out Kristina. "Looks like you'll be seeing an Orthodontist in the future." Sigh... |
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Agita speaks Russian, but Kristina doesn't remember any words
(except Sebaka [dog] and Koshka [cat] occasionally) |
After leaving the Dentist's office, we returned home to finish cleaning up the house for our next appointment: Theresa, the Social Worker! How can this be? Time for our fourth and
FINAL Post Placement Report (PPR) to be submitted to Russia --
whoo-hoo!
Theresa arrived promptly at 3pm and we talked for about 90 minutes. It's not a stressful interview ~ simply a formality of meeting and catching up with all of Kristina's milestones, activities, plans for Kindergarten in the fall, challenges, etc.
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| Theresa has seen Kristina grow up over the last 2 1/2 years of Post-Placement Report meetings! |
We really like Theresa --- she's professional yet super cool. Afterall, how many Social Workers would come into your house and ask to see your snake?
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| Meet Mambo, our 15-year old (?) Ball Python! |
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| I snapped a surprise photo of Theresa reading one of her favorite childhood stories to Kristina. |
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Kristina and Mambo "waving" good-bye to Theresa.
No more official visits...unless Russia changes its mind! |
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| Kristina's getting Mambo to play some Hopscotch! |
Now all I have to do is go through the thousands of photos of Kristina over the last year and submit only 6 to accompany the PPR! Here's a few in the running taken in the last few weeks of March:
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| Taken at the 2nd Annual FedEx Picnic - loves having her face painted! |
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| Such a ham for the camera, even early in the morning when arriving at school. |
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| My little Lucky Charm after celebrating St. Patrick's Day at school. |
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| First day of spring: 38 degrees! |
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| First Spring Rain (a rare occurrence in So. California these days). |
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| Moments after this photo was taken, Kristina was on her way to Nana and Grampa's house for a few hours while we cleaned up the house to prepare for our PPR meeting. The rain wasn't the only thing flowing at the time; Kristina's tears of not wanting to leave us left us with a heavy heart... |
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| Kristina's our little monkey -- loves to climb, swing, jump! |
Can you see why we have such a dilemma of choosing only 6 photos from the last 12 months?! Such a problem to have... :)
