Silly Silly

Got some cute photos of my little speed monkey. He got a Mr. Potato Head for his birthday but insists on wearing the glasses (or wathez) himself. He was also helping me with laundry and decided to put David's shirt on. He's being creative with the many rainy days here, we're doing a lot of indoor playing...

He's been getting up earlier, talking at 6:30 and 7 am, although there will be a morning here and there where he'll sleep until 8:00. He's been kind to us on the weekends. :) Not really looking forward to the time change since it jumps back! He's still teething, we're assuming. He's gnawing on ice, drooling and sticking his fingers in the back of his mouth. We've noticed the bloody drool has returned too. It's time for a dentist appointment anyway so we set one up just to make sure things are going as they ought. That's all for now! TFL!

6 Months Post Placement Visit

I can't believe it but last night we had our first 'post placement' visit. Russia requires reports at 6 months, 12, 24 and 36 months. This was our first and it went well. We have the best social worker! Now all we have to do is get the report, have it apostilled and sent off to the agency. It will all get sent to Russia after that. Jack is doing so well, we couldn't wait to share it with them. He's basically night and day from when we first picked him up from the orphanage. I feel so blessed to have him in our lives. It's still tough at times but God knew what He was doing when He paired Jack up with us. Yay God!

Thanks to Robin E. for giving us this Elmo chair. It's hard to get a good pic of Jack sitting in it because he jumps around so much, but he loves his chair!

Jack turns TWO!

Well, actually not until the middle of this week but we celebrated with family and friends this past Saturday. We are blessed to have so many of both our families in the area. (We missed you Stephen, Joanna, Bella, Luca, Ava and Lila!) Everyone joined in on the fun and we had a wonderful time. Jack loved having his good friends, aunts, uncles, both sets of grandparents and even his great uncle's family over to his house for fun games and gifts. Everyone indulged me with wearing party hats, playing a game and eating corndogs. Thanks!

Nonno and Nonna (Italian for grandpa and grandma -Michele's parents), and
Traci and Rob, all showing off their party hatsDinner Time! Corn Dogs are fun!CAKE!
Jack doesn't have any one particular interest but he's very interested in cars and likes to make the animals sounds, so I put the 2 thoughts together. I decided to go ahead and do an individual cake for Jack since he didn't get to dig into one when he turned One. He didn't 'dig' into the cake but just delicately put his finger into the icing and licked it. Even after showing him and inserting his hand, he kind of looked confused! PRESENTS!

Thanks again to everyone for making this birthday very special, for Jack and for us!

Swing Set and more potty notes

In honor of Jack's upcoming birthday, we've been looking for a used swing/activity set. We found one tonight and picked it up and I can't wait to see the look on Jack's face when he sees it in his own backyard! (image from seller) Turns out to be the exact same one he played on with his cousins up north. Didn't do that on purpose but at least I know it will work for him!
On another note, today was a momentous occasion when Jack did #2 in the potty this afternoon after his nap. Then, right before his nightly bath, he went #1!!! Woohoo! Our little boy is growing up! *sniff*

Walking home from the grocery store, he wanted to push the stroller... "feese"

Fun faces

At the party Jack was making a new face that made everyone laugh. In trying to capture that picture I came up with a few others. Enjoy!
This one's my favorite!!! He smiles for pictures now!

Week of firsts

There have been so many new things this week. (For Jack and for me). I know I'm not remembering them all but here are the ones I can think of now:

• Makes new funny faces (none of which we have had the opportunity to get on camera!)
• First play date (thanks Robin and Eli for playing with us and for the cool toys!)
• First noticeable cold (congested cough, but didn't act too sick - he's much better now)
• First 4 months together (the 28th marked 4 months since Gotcha day)
• Walking through stores (we normally walk to the store's front doors and get right into a cart since Jack likes to 'touch' everything - the last few stores we went to we actually walked around for a while before Jack went into the cart. He has done fairly well!)
• Learned the applicable meaning of Walk, No, Come, Oh no, Fast, Help, and many more. He's also gotten better at multiple word phrases like "there he is". He's also ending the words better, like Ro'b' and such.
• Took off his shorts on his own (I think this has something to do with the new potty routine. He's never really been interested in pulling off any clothes, other than his shoes and socks, but this time he wanted to look at his diaper.)
• First time swimming in a pool (thanks Rob and Traci for letting us play in your pool!)
• First time getting poo all over crib (Jack fell asleep in his car seat with his dress clothes on. He woke up while we were undressing him and we decided he could just sleep in his crib without shorts... unfortunately he wouldn't go back to sleep, talking and singing and saying things like ka ka. Finally, he made enough noise that David went in there only to find poo on the side wall of the crib and on the sheets. Lucky us. The funny thing is that it was this week that I had some sort of premonition this would happen...)

• For me, it was a first creating edible characters for a cake. See my personal blog for pictures. This was also connected to another first - first time I set my oven on fire... not to worry, the fire trucks weren't needed, all is well. :)

Potty?

Well, Jack is almost two now. :( We're moving right along with language and comprehension, obeying, sitting still for more than 1 second, recognizing people like his cousins and other family, playing well on the playground and with others, and... sitting on the potty? :) He's not 'done' anything on there yet but we found that he totally understands you are supposed to sit there, so we've started to incorporate it in our routine. We tried this when we first got back from Russia as this was a part of his daily routine there but Jack was too freaked out to sit and so we let it go. He says Potty all the time, but hasn't connected it with the act of going potty and that's cool. At least he's not fighting it, or afraid. Now if we could only get the timing just right....
We're having a bunch of great times together and things are going well. He loves to imitate us and it's hysterical to see the things he comes up with. Though, it's often hard to watch him shake his hands in the air holding a fork packed with food on it, just because we're talking with our hands... I wash the floor quite often needless to say. :) Ahh, the joy.

Whirlwind Weekend Trip

I have been trying to plan a trip to visit my brother and his family in Pennsylvania. They were expecting their 4th child the end of July and it worked out for us to go this past weekend, though it could only be a quick trip since David's vacation time hasn't come around yet. We left early, early on Saturday and got back late, late on Monday. Turns out, as we were in the air on Saturday, Stephen and Joanna were on their way to the hospital. Little Lila Elise decided to come early so when we arrived we couldn't find anyone to pick us up. I called the number I had in my cell phone and Stephen answered saying "oh you didn't get my message". Needless to say, things didn't go as planned, but we still had a really nice time with the family. Joanna's sister picked us up and drove us to Stephen's house where Joanna's parents were taking care of the kids. They left a little before lunch and we became parents of 4! Well, their oldest was a huge help since she was very informed and very anxious to help us with her little brother and sister.

Jack and Ava pushing Luca around in the car Jack was very fond of - Jack actually pushed Luca on his own once, he's one tough kid!

Stephen came home during their afternoon nap and when everyone was awake we all took a ride to the hospital to meet the new baby! 4 car seats in a mini van, David in the front seat and Stephen driving - so where did I sit? Floating in between the 4 children! It was funny! The kids kept asking me why I was sitting there.

Looking out the hospital room window

going home from the hospital, Jack wanted to hold Bella's hand

Jack did great in the airports and on the plane too. I was worried he would have a bad memory of it but nope! We used his car seat which was such a huge lifesaver. Jack did so extremely well with his new cousins. They are 4, 3 and 2 so he fit right in. It was so cool to see him interact with them. 2 year olds aren't known for playing well with others and he was typical but not mean. By Monday he did seem to want to instigate their 2 year old who also coincidentally wanted the toy Jack would happen to have at the moment. All the kids seemed sad to see him go and that was so cute.

Jack loved the big swings at the park near their house. He did great!

Here's a thank you to Joanna and Stephen for letting us stay with you and for feeding us! We had a great time! A big thank you to David's brother and sister-in-law for watching our dog - again, and for giving him a much needed hair cut. I picked Chilly up on Tuesday and when seeing Chilly after his nap Jack said "uh-oh" and tried to pet his back. I really think he thought Chilly had a boo boo because his hair was almost gone! Too funny!

Home for 3 months

Today marks 3 months since landing back in the United States. It's been a wild ride and life is actually starting to feel somewhat normal. Jack has made considerable strides in the past 3 months, starting with his speech and language comprehension. He's settling down just a little bit and is a pleasant child most of the time. :) I can't believe how time has flown and yet how if feels so much longer than it has been.
As I mentioned in another post, it was great to experience a moment with him in the store where he wanted a hug from me when another woman was talking to him. Lately, after saying to hello to people, while still looking at them he points to me and says "mamma". Then he looks at me and smiles! I love it! I love him!

© 2009 - photo is not allowed to be copied or used in any way

Jack turns 22

... months, that is. The way time is flying, I don't think 22 years is too far away. :(
He's doing great! I've been getting lots of hugs lately, which is awesome! When we're at the store, and he's in the shopping cart, he says hello to everyone who is in the vicinity. Basically he's friends with everyone and when they turn away, or we ride off, he says 'bye' and waves. At first I wondered if he knew I was different than everyone else. Yesterday's trip gave me a huge relief. We were standing in line and I was near the register at the end of the cart with Jack in the seat facing the woman behind us. I was putting stuff on the counter when I turned around to check on him and how he was interacting with the older woman. He was leaning back toward me, smiling and wanting a big hug. Seems he was a little embarrassed by the woman, who was very nice, and wanted to prove something to her. She then said "he wants me to know who his mommy is". The woman had no idea how wonderful her words were. Can you believe my emotions at that moment! My eyes are watering as I'm writing this. How awesome! Jack is my little boy and (most of the time) I'm his mommy! Woohoo!

Another week gone by

I still have a hard time grasping how fast the time goes by. I woke up this morning thinking "it's Friday again - already!" I like Fridays for the same reason a lot of people do - it leads to the weekend - and that means we have all day to spend with David. :) But at the same time, that means time is escaping! How little time we've had with Jack when looking at the scope of his life. We've missed almost 19 months of his life and now 2 months have gone by like a breeze. He's growing, maturing, learning, coming out of his shell more and more. The days are busy because Jack is busy, and it can be hard sometimes, and I think that may contribute to the speed of things. Journaling will help me when looking back, along with our photos and videos and that's at least a small comfort. He's our little man and we love him so much!

Mowing Lawn and Missing Tallahassee

pictures shown were used for Uncle Mark's birthday card | Happy Birthday Uncle Mark!

OK, so I really don't miss Tallahassee. :) As I was driving to church last night I realized it has been a while since my last drive up there. I was talking with a friend about how it's hard to believe we're on this side of the adoption process. So much paperwork (and still more for a while yet), so much time spent waiting and preparing, and now we're through the wait and have been on the other side for about 2 months now. Amazing. Looking back, it all feels like a dream. Were we really in Russia? Did we really spend a month there? Wow!
Jack has been feeling much better since taking a second round of antibiotics. As I've mentioned before, he continues to pick up words and to me it's amazing. He imitates everything we do, even the things we don't know we're doing. I often see him reenacting things I've done to either Chilly or even Jack and it's like looking in a mirror. I often think "so that's how I look!" It's really fun most of the time. He's picked up the 'f' sound and says FAn and also says 'oFf' to the dog. He tells Chilly to GO now since Chilly is after Jack's food scraps all the time. :)
Tuesday I decided to try to help David out by mowing our back yard. With all the rain it's been growing pretty fast and there isn't much time to mow both the front and the back yards. Jack was awake so I was trying to figure out what to do with him. Should I put him on the back porch - too many things for him to get into... Should I leave him in the play yard out there - too easy to get out of. I ended up with the bright idea of putting him in the side sling we used a couple of times in Russia and pushed the mower with him on my hip... well, it didn't work very well and he kept sliding down and down and wouldn't hold on and he cried from about half way through. It was definitely a work out since I had to run at times to make him laugh! (It's a push lawn mower so no automatic help!) In the end the lawn was cut and Jack got out his toy lawn mower and tried to redo my work. Kids!

6 weeks home and 21 months old

How time flies. Jack had turned 19 months two days after our court date and here we are - another 2 months later. Things are going extremely well, except for a pesky parasite problem. Jack, like many other orphanage children in Russia, had Giardia, an intestinal parasite common even here in America. He's on a second round of antibiotics because his symptoms came back again. Unfortunately, David and I also have the bug and so we're all going to be on antibiotics together to prevent passing it around. I'm baffled how this happened with how vigilant I've been with washing but hopefully we'll be rid of it once and for all.

Jack has been picking up words all over the place, repeating them almost immediately. We were at the doctor's office when they gave him a sticker and he repeated the word almost perfectly. (He also did the sign for "thank you" and it looked like he was blowing them a kiss and it made them ooo and aaah over him - he's a playa) It's weird though, the more words he learns the more he forgets the first few. For example, he used to say Shoes all the time, but since learning how to say Socks, he doesn't say Shoes anymore. It's been fun watching him grow and learn and explore (though the exploring gets him into trouble sometimes... )

One more thing, Jack loves bath time and lately he loves to (for whatever reason) stick his mouth into the water. He then comes up and looks at daddy and does the sign for 'yummy' that he learned from my parents. (index finger pointing to the cheek dimple area and hand rotating back and forth). Here he came up with a beard full of bubbles after doing that. Silly....

Within Week 6

We've gotten into the sixth week at home with Jack and things are really rollin' now. Jack has started picking up words everywhere. At first everything was either a cah (car), a daw (dog) or papa (even mama was papa) and even though I'm still papa, now Jack has more than 25 words he can mutter. Granted, most of them only we can understand and several words sound like other words, but at least he's getting the jist of speaking the language! He's also starting to understand how to play with toys the way they were intended to be played with. Up until this week we had to really get in there and show him a ton of stuff - totally understandable but very exhausting as his attention span lasted all of (literally) 2 seconds. This week he's started understanding the point of books and has spent a bunch of time going through pages and "reading" through it. It's still a work in progress but it's progress and we are thrilled. Jack jabbers constantly and decides all the time that he wants to pray... (hopefully he's praying for us!) He'll squint his eyes and want to take our hands and then says "stuff" some of which sounds like 'Jesus'!
Jack turns 21 months next Tuesday. Time is really going fast. Before we know it we'll be planning his birthday party!

Saturday in the dirt

We've had a wonderful day today. This morning David gave me an early Mothers Day gift, a fiction novel by Ted Dekker, one of my favorite authors and then we went to the bookstore for some more things! This afternoon David and Jack worked in the backyard doing some much needed landscaping work. David said Jack did great, rolling around in the dirt, playing with the plants, and just plain getting dirty! Well, here's a picture to prove it!
He also thought getting into the garbage can and having David roll him around in it was fun too! Crazy boy!
After a tough week for Jack physically, (teething, slight cold) it's great to see him excited about being outside! Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!

Shhhhh....

Jack and I were in Kohls the other day and we heard several children around, some hollering, some crying, etc. At first Jack imitated one by making a grunting noise with some volume. I just said "really?" and then moved on. A while later we were a little closer to a boy who looked to be about Jack's age. He was crying and I overheard his mother say he didn't want to be in the shopping cart seat. Jack looked at me, looked back at the boy, put his finger to his lips and said, "SHHHHHH". Yep, so polite my boy can be. :o