HoHoHo Meddy Kissmiss

Good gosh, it’s been a whirlwind since last time I wrote. It all started with my friend Carson coming for a visit. She left her kids at home in Florida (a first) and spent the whole time playing grandma to Rinat. She brought a ton of gifts and every time I turned around, she was giving him candy and cookies. He of course adores her and still talks about the choochoo she gave him. After that came a visit from my friend Eileen. She, her husband, and two kids (ages 5 years and 20 months) stayed with us for a few days and the kids had fun just hanging out. And so did the grown ups. The next week we went out of town for the week and we went to not one but two Thanksgiving dinners in two different cities. Then a week off (but, sadly, I was sick and didn’t get to enjoy having time to relax). Then off to Richmond for my SIL’s graduation from nurse practitioner school. And now, of course, here we are at Christmas. Yikes! I feel like I have run a marathon. Rinat has taken things pretty much in stride except for the fact that he is no longer willing to let me sleep through the night when he is anyplace but tucked into his own little bed. He woke up at least 4 times a night when we were out of town with an all time high of 7 times in Richmond. Ugh. But, even being completely sleep deprived, we have had time to fit in lots of fun stuff along the way. We’ve had trip to the zoo (of course), the natural history museum, a first ride on the carousel, the Baltimore aquarium where he got his new fave animal ‘sea lion’ from Auntie Ann and is still talking about the dolphin show, cooked a Thanksgiving of our own here at our house with Ann and MattMatt, a ride on Santa’s train at the mall, a photo op on Santa’s lap, and, for me, a couple more preschool open houses. And speaking of Santa, I can’t even tell you how excited his is about ‘HoHoHo” coming. Did I mention that we wrote a letter to Santa a month or so ago asking for a train? Well he mentions it constantly. We got a dusting of snow about a week ago and Rin was so excited and he was saying “HoHo, Mama, HoHo!” Sadly, I had to tell him it’s not quite time for HoHo to come yet. I’m really amazed at how much he understands how it all works already. We went to visit Santa when we were in Richmond and I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go so I did a lot of preparing him and telling him what to expect. Well, he did great. He wasn’t a bit scared and just sat there on Santa’s lap like a big boy and let us take photos. I think he enjoyed the HoHo Bear that they gave him best and he still sleeps with it. I have been playing Christmas music a lot lately while we are hanging around the house and he has started trying to sing it. It started with “Fooootee Maaaan” (Frosty the Snowman) that he loves because we have a Frosty movie that he likes to watch. Then I realized that he was playing while singing “Saaadda Baaaybee” (Santa Baby). But my favorite is the “Dindle Bews, Dindle Bews” at the top of his lungs in the back seat of the car as we were driving home from getting fingerprinted at CIS today. Oh, and then there is the very annoying “HoHoHo Meddy Kissmiss” that he shrieks periodically while I am on the phone or trying to talk to the mailman. He’s definitely two and wanting as much attention as possible (being fawned over by family and friends constantly for the last month doesn’t help). He is quickly turning into the textbook two year old. His new phrase is ‘NatNat self’ because he wants to do everything himself. And oh boy the tantrums- he will stamp foot or fall onto the floor screaming when I say no. But I don’t have enough patience to put up with it so I just put him in the other room and tell him to let me know when he’s all done. And he actually does it- it’s amazing. He comes back once he’s no longer screaming and says “All done, Mama”. I mean, really. I never expected it to actually work. But he is mostly a really sweet boy. He loves his cars and lines them all up in a row, lies down on the floor and kicks his little legs, asks me to lie down next to him, and says “Oooo, neat!”- and then thanks me for all of them- “Dat do Mama choochoo, Dat do Mama pupul toe tuck, Dat do Mama white cah, Dat do Mama dump tuck…” I love it. Then he puts them in the little basket I gave him to carry them in and takes them off to line them up somewhere else. No matter how crazy he drives me sometimes, all he has to do is flash that little smile and I melt once again. What a sweetie. Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and bring in 2009 with a bang. I’m sure we’ll be in bed by 9:30 J -m

Cutest Mouse EVER!

Hi Everyone- I always tell myself that I will not let so much time pass without posting. So much happens that I want to document but I just don’t get to it somehow. So, again, this will be a long one. Forgive me and enjoy my random thoughts and declarations of adoration for our little one. So, right now, I am watching the Amazing Race on TV who is traveling to Almaty, Kazakhstan on this episode. It is so weird to see the babushkas, clothes and faces that remind me of the place that our boy comes from. I know it’s strange, but it makes me feel kind of homesick somehow. I also find myself looking around us wherever we are in DC for the same. Today at the zoo, I heard a man speaking Russian and immediately spun around so I could see if it was someone who looked like Rin or like any of the other people in KStan. And I looked at the faces of the people visiting the Kazakhstan horses there and wonder if they, too have a connection to that part of the world. That’s just another reason that I love DC- all of the different people with a connection to places all over the world. And it makes me even more anxious to get to Kaz again before to long. But more about what is going on with that at the end of this post. Let me start with our little mouse. He had an absolute blast on Halloween. The day before HDay, we had baked cupcakes to take to the park for a Halloween party there and so he was just about bouncing off the walls with excitement the next morning- he knew it was a special day and he was eager to get it started. He was absolutely terrible all morning but I can’t really blame him. It’s hard to wait when you are not quite 2 years old! And when he woke up from nap, he raced over to his little costume and started trying to put it on himself. He was totally into the whole idea of dressing up. He thought that the whiskers were absolutely the best part and keeps trying to get my to paint them on him again just for fun. He basically ran all of the way to the park saying “SQUEEK! SQUEEK!” while Peter and I ran behind him with the cupcakes trying to keep up with our little scampering mouse. We ended up trick-or-treating at a few of the houses on our block after the park and it was more than enough for a little tyke who didn’t really get it yet. Just wait until next year though- he’ll be unstoppable in his quest for candy. Although, I think our guy is a pretty good eater. I think it stems from the fact that I have him hooked on cooking. He carries around one of my pots with some dry pasta in it and ‘cooks’. He asks for specific things like the potato masher or the cupcake tin to make it a little more authentic. And he really does help me cook sometimes. When we made the Halloween cupcakes he counted out 2 eggs, helped stir the batter, put the papers in the cups, told me which ones needed more batter, told me when the timer went off, and helped put decorations on top. He gets so excited about it that he jumps up and down yelling “Cooking, Mama! Cooking!” I don’t think Peter likes the idea, but I really want to get him a kitchen for him to play in. But I am really enjoying not cooking on our ‘Take-out and a Movie” Friday nights. So far, we have watched the Wawa movie (Ice Age: The Meltdown), Gasgar (Madagasgar), Pumpkin movie (Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie), Cars, and Elmo Saves Christmas, and we have gotten takeout from Italian, Indian, Thai, Pizza, and Chinese. It’s my new favorite night of the week. Sweet Rinat is doing a ton of talking these days. I actually have people ask how old his is pretty often and comment that he’s a good talker. It definitely makes my life easier when he can tell me what he wants. Some of his new words are crocodile, shovel, wallet, hummus, heavy; and even better, he’s speaking in semi-sentences like “Bubby tayoh why” (Bunny’s tail is white), “Sitting NatNat” (Rin wants to sit here), “Dada soo bown” (Dada’s shoes are brown), and my fave “Dah duh Dada Mama” (can you guess what that one is:-)? Yes, he is really into naming the colors of everything these days too. I think he knows all of the main colors and I don’t know what he’s going to learn next. Peter and I have started applying to preschools for him next year and it is kind of sad and exciting at the same time. I can’t believe that it is already time for me to let him start leading his own life. Here in DC the process is insane. I think we are going to try and find 6 schools to apply to after going to open houses and we are hoping to get into one 2 days a week starting next September. I know I am going to bawl my head off when I drop him off for the first time. But that’s next year… And who knows what we’ll be doing by then. And this post really long already so I will give you a (relatively) quick sister update and then sign off. We started down the road in Feb and it has been crazy ever since- closings, slowdowns, policy changes, new agencies, and generally not knowing what was going to happen. I’m glad I was so naive the first time around or else I would have gone crazy- I just assumed that everything would work out (and it thankfully did). It was so easy last time and this adoption is so full of ups and downs. We don’t really have any idea how things will go but we are being told that it will be at least two years and we cannot be guaranteed a girl or a child under 1 year. It will get to a point that our papers will have been sitting over in Kaz long enough and they will tell them to send us to Kaz and get us a child or they will send it back. But we are almost done with the temporary dossier that our agency is requesting and then it is just a waiting game. We have to wait for the OK to get the real deal dossier done (apostiled & updated), and then we turn it into the consul and wait yet again for them to send it to Kaz, then wait again for them to assign us a region, and then again for a specific city and a date to travel. We will most definitely let you all know when we have any news. And, in the meantime, we will be enjoying the gorgeous cool weather that we have been having. Happy Fall! -m

Today's Excitement

Hi everyone! I was reading a magazine the other day and there was a quote from one of the Winnie the Pooh stories. In it, Piglet asked about the first thing that Pooh thought about each morning, to which Pooh replied “What's for breakfast?” He asked Piglet the same question and he replied “I wonder what's going to happen exciting today!” That’s exactly how my sweet pea seems to wake up each and every morning. It’s pretty infectious. And usually we do find something that is worthy of excitement. Sometimes it is a walk to the community gardens nearby where we find tomatoes, flowers, butterflies, peppers, squash, praying mantis, melons, a giant fig tree, and usually someone who is willing to share whatever it is that they are growing. Sometimes it’s a trip to the park to watch the kiddie baseball league. Sometimes it's class at Gymboree. Sometimes it is just a walk around to see what we can see- the city taking down a tree, a squirrel searching for nuts, or a friendly grandma type to give us much needed (yeah, right) attention. Well, today’s excitement was a trip to the pumpkin patch. I can’t believe that it was only a year ago that we took Rinat for the first time. He had no clue what was going on then. Well, this time, he absolutely got it. As we were eating breakfast, I was telling him where we were going to go and what we would see. He immediately told me he was all done with Bfast and “GO CAR!” as in NOW! When we finally did get him fed, clothed, packed up, and ready to go, he was standing at the door jumping up and down (sort of) saying “GO GO GO GO GO GO!” The longish drive didn’t bother him at all as he was busy making animal noises at the top of his lungs the whole time. And the patch definitely did not disappoint. There were pigs, cows, chickens, ducks, bunnies, and peacocks. There were multiple giant slides to go down. There was a rather scary hayride. There was music to dance to. And there were many many photo ops with the cutest child in the world. I know, I’m just a bit biased but tell me- you think he’s pretty adorable too don’t you? I know you do. Happy Fall and go pick out your pumpkins! -m

All Boy

Hi- I am not sure where it came from, but our little ‘NatNat’ (as he calls himself) is absolutely, 100% boy. He loves all things sports (OK, Peter has influenced him a little in that department). He has little plastic golf clubs and balls that he plays with 24-7. They are the first thing he goes for in the morning and the last thing he puts down at night- in the house, in the yard, and in the car. He also has a football that he loves and he carries it tucked into his arm as he dashes across the living room saying “Runnin’! Runnin’!” We even took him to a UVA football game which I think he enjoyed but didn’t really understand that we had to stay in one seat for 4 hours and couldn’t just crawl around wherever we wanted. To be honest, I think 4 hours in one seat is too long also. But it was still fun (well, maybe not so much for the people in front and behind us). And when football is on TV he watches intently until someone gets tackled and says “Uh-Oh! Uh-Oh, Mama! Boo-boo.” He cracks me up. But the one that took the cake the other day was when we went to the grocery store right next to a school where they were having soccer practice. He insisted that we walk over and watch them for a minute and he kept saying “Football, football!” and pointing to the field. When I corrected him and told him it was soccer and they kick the ball instead of running with the ball, he paused for a second and I could see his little face scrunch up in concentration, and he said “NatNat? Soccer? Kick it? Please?” He is sooooo cute. Have I mentioned how wonderful the internet is? Not only am I able to broadcast all of the adorable things that my little boy does, but I have also found it incredibly useful in trying to figure out what in the world to do about finding a sister for Rin. I joined several Yahoo groups to do some research and have, in the process, found a couple who we met in Almaty the day before they were off to meet their little one. I remembered them well because I felt so much sympathy for them since we had been in their shoes only 6 week before- terrified of the unknown- just like they were. It’s strange how you can run across someone anywhere now. The Yahoo group has also been really great for my sanity and I feel like I have finally found a group of people who can truly understand how exciting getting past each small step in the adoption process is and can offer guidance and support when I need it. It’s a lifesaver. And I have also, through Facebook, found some of my friends that I had when I was growing up and it has got me wondering who Rinat’s lifelong friends will be. One of the friends that I found was my best friend from the time I can remember until almost college and it has been really great to find out what she is up to and share some of the funny things that we did as kids. And I have found myself wondering who Rinat’s lifelong friends will be. Will they be the kids that we play with now? Someone he meets in school? Who knows, but I hope that he also finds someone who knows him through and through and can share all of those crazy childhood things like sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags, cooking s’mores over a campfire, spending hours and hours having Big Wheel races in the alley, running around the neighborhood like hooligans, going on vacations together, and having someone who feels like family- someone that truly understands what he’s about. I don’t wish for him a big house or fancy cars, I can only hope that he finds good friends to help him through the things that I can’t. And while we are on the subject of family, here’s a quick update on a sister. After researching every country that allows adoption, we are back to Kazakhstan. Yes, we are insane. We had considered Kyrgyzstan and Taiwan as alternates but my heart is in Kaz. I may come to regret it, but there we are. I waffled back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth). I have actually had our contract for two months and had not sent it in because I didn’t know what to do. I even put away all of the paperwork and took a break from it. But I decided to just rip off the bandaid and send in our contract so we hope to be moving forward with our dossier soon. I will, of course, keep you all in the loop. Cross your fingers for us because I think this time around is going to be a bit bumpier. But we have finally taken the next step. I hope that you too can soon rip off the bandaid of something you have been putting off. It’s really liberating! I feel a lot better about finally making a decision- whether it turns out to be the right one or not. Good luck! -m

WHHHHEEEEEE!!!

You all may have a Nintendo Wii at your house but we have a whole different kind of Wii. It is the new fort that we bought Rin for the anniversary of the day we met and he calls it The WHHHHHEEEEE! It’s really cute because he will go to the door and say “Mama, wheee! Mama, WHEEE!!!” when he wants to go outside and play on it. It has a sandbox which we loaded up with a digger truck and all kinds of shovels and buckets, a climbing wall, a ladder, a covered part, and a slide. He loves it and it has led to many a screaming meltdown when it’s time to say goodbye to the ‘whee’ and go inside. We also have had men working on our house lately and so he has become completely obsessed with tools- screwdrivers in particular. He likes to take a toy and turn off the power switch and then proclaim “Uh-oh, Mama, babbie” and try to use the screwdriver to take off the back and change the battery. He is always doing something that is so grown up and I can’t believe that he was a baby just one short year ago. I remember last September 8th when we got home from Kaz. Our first night home, after everyone had left and Rinat and Peter were asleep, I remember wandering around the house with just a feeling of finally being fulfilled. All was right in the world and our journey was finally over- not just the trip to Kaz but our journey that started years ago to make a family. And I still find myself, late at night, listening to the sound of quiet and thinking the same thing. All is right in the world- I have a wonderful husband, a whip of a son, and couldn’t be happier at what my life has turned into. I hope all is well in your world. -m

Court, Beach, The Day He Became Ours

Hi everyone- I know that I have fallen way way WAY behind on posting but I haven’t really forgotten about it. I just have kind of a backlog of entries that I never posted for whatever reason. I also have a list of things that I have not yet written about which I will hopefully have time to write up this week sometime. In the meantime, here are some of them below:
Aug 13th- Court Day- I remember a year ago Baheet saying “Today is a day that will change your life forever- it is the day that you are parents.” But it didn’t really feel that way at the time, I was still afraid someone would come along and take Rinat away. It was not until we got on the plane to Germany that the anxiety was finally completely over and I felt like I could finally let down my guard and give my whole self to our little boy. But as I went back and read the post that I did back then that detailed our court date and how it felt and what we were thinking, I guess it did feel at least a little bit like an important day in our lives. And she was right- it has most definitely changed our life. I can not even count the number of things that our sweet boy has taught us. He taught us how important it is to have patience, that there is no limit to how much you can love someone- it just keeps growing every single day, he gave us the knowledge that our lives are meant for something good (him), and that our purpose is to give one more person to the world who has an open mind, open heart, is joyful, and responsible. I can’t wait to see him grow up and see the man that he will become. He has also shown us we have an amazing family that will continue to grow and change and we only increase our strength when we face challenges together and we become all the better for it.
Aug 16 to 23- We drove down to SC to go to the beach (Rin’s first time!) with Peter’s Dad’s family this week and it was tons of fun. It ended up being a 10 hour drive down (with a short stopover at Auntie Ann’s house) and Rinat did absolutely wonderfully. He did not cry for one single second the whole ride and he spent literally hours playing with a golf club and ball. Unbelievable, right? As a matter of fact, every time we got out of the car to change his diaper or make a bathroom stop, he would just say “Go Car! Beach!” I guess he knew that we couldn’t’ get to the beach until we got back in the car and drove there. Rinat had an absolute blast when we were there. The first time we headed down to check out the beach, he had no fear as usual. I should have known. He just walked right out into the waves and laughed his head off at the water rushing between his feet. When he got knocked down he wasn’t scared at all, he just kept right on jumping in. And he, of course, enjoyed lots of quality family time- especially with Granddaddy. Big Pete took him for at least a couple hours a day and played with him down on the beach so I got a vacation as well (and poor Peter had to head up to PA for a meeting for almost the whole trip). We also got to see Walt/Nan/Sam/Sara and as usual Rinat had a blast with them. He always learns something from them and this time it was how to jump off the side of the pool. All in all, it was a great trip. I did, however, get some bad news mid-trip in the form of an email from the agency we were using to adopt our next child and it made me really sad for the last few weeks. Basically it led me to believe that Kazakhstan is not where we will find our next child. So I took some time to mourn the fact that we have to leave Kaz behind and rethink things and I think we are now ready to get started again. A new agency and a new country, but we are on our way. I think so anyway. Of course it’s never a done deal until we bring the baby home so we’re just hoping we are doing the right thing and working on making sure. I am watching the Yahoo groups and blogs like a hawk and it looks like I will most likely be doing it for several years as we work on the next member of our family. But we’ll get there eventually.
Aug 29th- The Day He Became Ours- I was watching Run’s House on MTV recently (yes, of the rap group Run DMC) and just happened upon the episode when they brought their adopted daughter home to join their family and it was so similar to the day that we brought Rin home to our apartment. I remember being so terrified but so unbelievably happy at the same time. It was just so overwhelming but I wanted to soak up every second and not forget anything at all. It was a good natured competition between Peter and me as to who got to give him his first bath, first feeding, first reading books before bed, first getting up in the middle of the night, who slept next to him the first night, who could make him laugh the most or who he would crawl to first. And now, a year later, not all that much has changed. It is not longer a competition but I have yet to get sick of it. Instead of giving him a bath, I love to have him play on the floor of the shower while I wash my hair; instead of feeding him, we eat all of our meals at the table where we really do hold something like a conversation; instead of reading to him before he goes to bed, he hands me a book and just climbs right into my lap when he wants me to read to him; rather than sleeping next to him I am still 100% awake and out of bed the second I hear his cry in the night; and we still try to get him to giggle nonstop and he rather than crawling to us, he now runs. So different yet still the same. The only thing that has changed is that Peter and I love him even more than we did then. I never thought that would be possible but I constantly find myself just watching him concentrate so hard as he pretends to measure something with the measuring tape, mirrors the mommy face that I sometimes make as he shares his snack with Blue Bunny, says ‘mama do it’ when I ask him to put something away, and I find myself just unable to take my eyes off him, staring at him- literally fawning like a teenage girl over a boy she has a crush on. It sounds bizarre and slightly weird but it’s true. I’m obsessed. I have trouble completing an email, reading a magazine article, or having a conversation that is not interrupted by me watching him, amazed at the person he is turning into. So to commemorate bringing him home to our apartment in Astana one year ago today, I declared today to be Rinat Day. I did not do anything that was not Rin-related. I didn’t answer the phone, check emails, do laundry, cook, run errands, or any of those other things that keep my from focusing on my sweet boy. It was a good day. But then again, any day that involves donuts for breakfast and cupcakes for both lunch and dinner is always good J Yup, I let Rin make all of the decisions today. We started with a trip to Starbucks to get our sugar (and my caffeine) fix, then watched the Wawa movie (aka Ice Age: The Meltdown). Then he told me “Go car” so we got in the car and I asked him where he wanted to go he said “Cupcakes” so we drove to the grocery store to get some. I’m not sure where the idea came from but I was happy to go along with it. Then we played, ate, read, did puzzles and just generally just enjoyed hanging out all day long. As I said, it was a good day. I hope yours was good too. –m

I’ll post more fun Rinat stuff soon so check back.

When We Met

Good Morning Everyone! I woke up to the sweet face of our little boy today and, as always, it’s the best sight I could imagine first thing in the morning. And to think that I first saw this face only one year ago today. The second that I saw him then in Dr. Alma’s office in Astana, I was overtaken more by uncertainty than anything. Was this the child meant for us? But Gulsanna, with a raise of her shoulders and a nod of her head, told us that he was ours and the confusion turned adoration. How could anyone not fall in love with this face? The caretaker passed him to me and I can truly say it is the most surreal, most amazing, most terrifying , and most wonderful moment in my life. And when I looked over at Peter, I knew he felt the same. Every day Peter and I say to each other at least ten times “Do you think he’s the best baby ever?” The answer, of course, is always an emphatic “Yes.” -m

Off to Kaz- 1 Year Ago

So here I am packing by bags to head to Kazakhstan to meet our son. No wait- that was last year. Yup, exactly one year ago today a frazzled, terrified couple left DC on a plane to Kazakhstan and came back almost two months later as parents. I can’t believe it has been a year already! It’s like someone pushed the fast-forward button and here we are. I still remember so vividly sitting in the terminal at Dulles just sitting, waiting, watching the people around us and wondering where they were going- meeting family (like us!), funeral, vacation, work. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t read, I could barely put two words together and I was so distracted that I was afraid I wouldn’t hear them call the flight. In short, I was a complete mess. Of course, Peter wasn’t exactly calm, cool, and collected himself either but at least he didn’t dump coffee all over himself minutes before getting on the plane for a 20 hour trip like I did. If only I had known that things would turn out as perfectly as they did. Here I am a year later and I have the most amazing, adorable, and loving family that I could have hoped for. I am truly lucky. As the anniversary of our trip to Kaz approached, I have felt kind of like the holidays are coming. And I guess they sort of are. We have so many stepping stones to celebrate- the day we met Rinat, the day the judge announced he was ours, the day we took him out of the Baby House to our apartment, the day we left Astana for good to complete our trip in Almaty, the day we stepped off the plane in DC and were finally home- there are 7 weeks of celebrations as we little by little became his family and he ours. As Rinat grows older, I hope to revisit this time every year and be able to relive the weeks, days, hours, and minutes that brought us together. I know it’ll drive him crazy and I’ll hear “Mooooommm, do I have to hear it again?” But I don’t care- he’ll know the whole story word for word even if I have to tie him down and torture him with it. I hope that you too can find something to celebrate today. Love to all. -m

It's Been a While

Hi everyone! Gosh, where do I even start? I feel like it’s been eons since I last updated you guys on what our little sweet pea is up to. I guess it kinda has been. Well, it’s not for lack of cute & fun stories to tell about him. It’s not because our lives are boring and I have nothing to report. Quite the opposite actually. It’s been just as wonderful having our guy with us as always. He is still just as amazing to me. Sometimes (this morning in fact) I look at him and just want to grab him and squish him and kiss him until he cries out for mercy. OK so I really did chase him around the house in his adorable little footie pj’s this morning after breakfast and grab and smooch him until he said “Mama, NO! NO! NO!” Is there such thing as loving your kid too much? If so, I’m definitely guilty. So… since I last posted, we have had a couple more firsts. We left our sweet baby for a weekend for the first time with Peter’s sis, Ann. We went away four our TEN YEAR anniversary (can you believe it?) and though Peter only checked in with her a couple times, my friends- the protective bulldogs that they are- called to check up on Ann and Rin 4 times. I still don’t think Ann believes that I didn’t put them up to it. He, of course, was fine and had tons of fun with his Auntie. And still, almost 2 months later, out of the blue will say “Aaaaannnn! Puppy!” because she brought her dogs. We also spent almost a week at the lake house and had a great time. We had Mer/Caroline and Nan/Walt/Sam/Sara come and he just had a blast with everyone. He just soaked up everything- the beach, the water, the finger-painting, and he learned 9 new words from his cousins (mostly Sara). The last day that we were there, he and the cousins spent the morning running up and down the hallway chasing each other and laughing hysterically. It makes me want a million of them. We also took a trip to Lynchburg where he had his first trip to the pool. It has since become a several-times-a-week activity at our house. He loves it and can spend hours and hours there until I have to drag him away screaming. Also in L’Burg, he rode on the tractor with Mar which was the equivalent of Peter riding in a delorian or something. He’s such a boy and loves all things that are construction related- especially diggers. He must say that word about 40 times a day. And speaking of which, we had his 18 month checkup the other day and they asked if he could say 4-6 words. I counted after I got home and he knows… are you ready for this?… 100 words- not counting animal noises and people's names. ‘No’ is, of course, his all time favorite but he also can say things like ‘raspberry’ and ‘river’. And he also knows the letters D, R, O, E and the number 8. I think he may be brilliant. Actually, I hope that every parent thinks that about their kid but I really do think he’s well on his way to living up to his name. And he's so flippin cute I can hardly stand it sometimes. One of his new favorite things to do is to find a booboo on Mama, kiss it, and say “Booboo, bye-bye” and wave to it. It’s the sweetest thing ever. He has also started to play pretend with his animals. He shares his snacks, drinks, and binkies with them, puts a diaper on them, puts them on the potty, and tucks them in. He also has enjoyed pretending to cook in his friend Hadley’s play kitchen. I’m considering getting one for him- do you think Pottery Barn makes one in blue? And, lastly, we are finally finally finally getting started with the next adoption. We had to change placement agencies because the Kaz program with CAI is on hold at the moment. So we are now with a new agency that some of our friends in Kaz used and we are happy so far. I put a link up to their website on the left of the blog. We are trying for a girl this time so it will take quite a bit longer (like a couple years) but we are happy to get going with things. And I think the timing will be a good thing since I think Rin will be a better brother if he can get a couple of years on his little sis. Things are a bit slower with Kaz adoptions right now and we had considered adopting from somewhere else but we went to a party at the Kaz embassy here in DC in May and felt such pride at our adopted country that it made us even more certain that Kaz was the right way to go- even if the process is a bit rockier this time around. Cross your fingers that we don’t hit any more road blocks! In the meantime, we will be enjoying every second with adorable, sweet, smart, funny, and ornery little Rinat. We hope all’s well in your world. -m

A Thankful Mother

Happy (late) Mother’s Day everyone! I was organizing some papers in my office today and came across an email from a friend of mine sent on the day that our last IVF cycle didn’t work expressing her disappointment. I remember being so upset at that time in my life but today I was kind of surprised when I remembered it because I see it in such a different light now. Instead, I see the end of IVF as a beginning to my life as a mother for Rinat. If it had worked, I never would have known this amazing little bundle that I am so lucky to call my son. And so, on this Mother’s Day I give thanks. I am thankful for each and every step that brought me to him- the good and the bad. I never thought I’d be glad for it, but here I am finally glad that it happened. If not for all of the horrible times, I might not have come to know this amazing lovable little person who has come into my life. So, in honor of Mother’s Day, I give you a list of things that I love about being his mom:
I love when he puts his head on my shoulder and I can feel his soft hair on my cheek, when he helps me empty the dishwasher and is so proud of himself, that he does things just to make me laugh like giving me ‘big eyes’ and pretending to eat my toes, that he STILL loves to play peek-a-boo, that he is getting so independent but still wants my help, that he imitates me stretching in the morning and brushing my teeth at night, that he leads me around by a finger laughing that he has such control, I love our time in the morning and at night when he snuggles his nekkid little body into my lap, I love his excitement over a stick, caterpillar, or acorn, that he is genuinely interested in watching the lady bag groceries at the store, that he tells me when it’s time for bed by putting his hand next to his head and pretending to snore, that he consoles me when I cry, that he would rather play with me than any other toy in the house, that he is cautious with his older friends and comes to me when he’s unsure of what to do, and that he happily leaves me behind once he gains his confidence, I love his warm weight on my back when he’s in the carrier, when he will stop what he’s doing to turn around to give me a quick hug without being asked and then immediately turn back to what he was doing like he just couldn’t help himself, that he finds beauty in every single day and makes me do it too. And most of all I love that there is something new to love about him each and every day that I know him. On this mother’s day, I feel so honored and so incredibly lucky to be a mother to this amazing little person.
And, as a Mother’s Day gift to myself, I have started the application process to become a mother twice over. I can only imagine that the amount of love I feel will just grow with another baby joining our family. We never know where life will lead us, and I know the process will take a bit longer this time, but I am hoping to bring home a sister for Rinat sometime in the next two years. Round 2 has begun! Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there. Much love -Rinat’s Mom

Our Son is Amazing

Hi all! I figure you might be wondering how our little guy is faring after our hospital stay and I have to say that he is just absolutely amazing. It's like nothing ever even happened. I was definitely more traumatized by the experience than he was. His Grandmother and Great Grandmother (she's 87!) came in town for a week the day after he got out of the hospital (the visit was already planned). We played tourist for a couple of days and Rinat really enjoyed looking at the paintings at the National Gallery which I was happy to see. And then his Uncle Walt and Cousins Sam and Sara came and it was just a whirlwind of activity and fun. He, of course, loved all of the attention from Gma and GGma (and the gifts they brought too!). And I think Sam, who's 5, is like a hero to him. I could almost hear him think to himself 'Wow, I want to be big and strong like him one day!' as Sam picked him up and bounced him around. And then Sara, who is 18 months to Rin's 15, is just enough ahead of him in abilities and just ahead of him in size that he just kind of followed her around to see what she did and where she went and he could almost do the same. And he, of course, wanted to play with the same toys, eat the same food, and do everything else the same too. It was cute. And, of course, Rinat just loved having Walt here too who is great with all of the kids and is the same kind of parent that we are. He is laid back and just wants the kids to have fun and enjoy being with their cousins. The only unlucky thing was the weather. Gma&GGma came in town to see the cherry blossoms and it was just freezing cold and raining here for some reason. And 3 stir crazy kids made it seem like there's more like 10. Of course having 5 stir crazy adults in our house didn't help either. But we got to play lots of Sam's' new game of Uno and it was fun for everyone anyway. We made it to the zoo the day after Gma&GGma left and proceeded to get really sunburned on the first warm sunny day of the season and we had a lot of fun seeing the big orangutan on the O Line. Then the next day, Gpa Byron made it up to visit for 10 days and we spent time hanging out enjoying the kids. Then Walt and the cousins left and Gpa B stayed and we did some sightseeing (the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception a couple of days before the Pope came, the Air & Space Museum, another trip to the Zoo) and some just hanging out. To be honest, I was kind of exhausted and after dad hopped back on the plane to head home, I looked at my calendar and realized that there have only been 5 days of just the 3 of us in the last 5 weeks. No wonder I'm beat! It was a tiring but great month (aside from the hospital drama) and it was fun to have everyone in town. And let me tell you a little bit about our sweet pea who is just getting bigger and bigger every day. Well, he's still just a little small fry (10% in weight and 50% in height- it's like we created him ourselves!) but he is acting a whole lot more like a big kid. He is just motoring around like a maniac. I swear, he'll be running any day now. Peter took him on a walk around the block after dinner tonight and he was screaming for more as we dragged him inside to take a bath. And he is talking and trying to imitate what we say all the time now. The other day, I pointed to a watermelon and he tried so hard to say it too. It came out closer to "dadabedah" but it had the right number of syllables anyway. He definitely has 'cracker' down pat and now that I finally turned his car seat around and he can see me as we drive along, I can no longer sneak in a quick snack for myself on the way to somewhere because I hear 'CAH-KOO, CAH-KOO, CAH-KOO' from the backseat until I share my cracker with him. His new obsession is the ceiling fan on the neighbor's porch. I actually had to move his high chair so that he could see it as he eats because he kept trying to climb across the table to look out the window and check and see if it was on. His hand sign for it is that he points up, waves his little hand back and forth, and says "woooowooowowoowooo". It's kind of adorable. And he is such a big boy now that I gave him his first shower and he did great. We had been practicing for the last week or so by me pouring water on his head in the bath so that when I actually put him in there with the shower on, he just climbed right under the stream and laughed his little head off. Gosh I love that laugh of his. It's kind of like a deep down to the core chuckle that is so infectious. It makes you want to do whatever it was you did to make it happen again and again just so you can hear it. What can I say but that every single day is a joy- even today when he spent half of his music class screaming and trying to leave and the other half of it trying to steal the other kids' toys and then screamed because it was time to go. Ahhhhh, toddlers. I hope all's well in your life. -m

Still Here

Hi all you concerned friends and family-
9:00am We had another exciting night last night. I actually don't even know how I am functioning at the moment. All was well until about 2am when I woke up to the alarms going off and saw him once again awake and flailing. As I was trying to get my wits about me and stand up to go try and hold him down yet again, a nurse came in and saw what was going on. Then things got much more exciting when he started to move around like he was convulsing or something and I heard some liquid noises and the nurse yelled out the door into quiet unit "I need help!" Then entire staff came running. She explained that he was not convulsing but vomiting into his breathing tube which he had apparently yanked loose and it was not likely lodged in his esophagus. They tried to suction it out as quickly as possibly before he breathed in too much of the fluid and then they bagged him to get his oxygen. As they were trying to pump some oxygen in, they noticed that the pumping didn't correspond with his breathing rate and suspected that he had pulled out the tube and it was no longer working. So then the question was 'do we take the tube out and try and let him breathe on his own even though we just shot him up with a truckload more of sedative? Or do we try and re-intebate him and hope the sedative kicks in?' So they decided to take it out but have everything ready to put a new one right back in. So they got me near him (I couldn't even see him at this point beyond all of the people surrounding his bed), yanked it out, and waited to see what would happen. Our strong little guy had no problem letting out a very muted cry (due to the tube) and then very distinctly saying "MaaaaMaaaa" and reaching out. I think my heart stopped functioning for a second. Then, to make a long story short (or shorter than it could be anyway), he has spent the last 7 hours pulling out all of his other tubes. He now has only the saline and then all of the monitors that are hooked up to make sure his vitals are doing alright. Now, all we are waiting for is the doctor to give the OK to give him some food and send him on his way either home or to another unit since he no longer qalifies for the ICU. And I guess they need to check the Xrays too and make sure his doesn't have too much fluid in his lungs. Anyway, I will update this post as things happen. But, I am extremely happy to say, that at this point Rinat is screaming his head off and doing the 'eat' sign over and over and over again. I think it's a good sign. He's definitely insistent. Love to all. -m
11:00- We just got the news that we will be discharged from the hospital just as soon as the doc writes the orders. WooHoo! And sweet Ann has the magic touch and Rinat has been snoozing in her lap for almost 2 hours. I guess he just finally wore himself out and gave up the fight. All is good in the world. -m
1:15 Home safe and sound but more than a bit exhausted. Sweet baby is chowing down on some lunch and then I am thinking he'll grab a snooze (and hopefully I can too). I can't tell you how much I appreciate everyone's support and wishes for Rinat's good health. And I am so thankful that the doctors and nurses at Georgetown are so on the ball. For our sweet baby have been in such danger twice in less than 24 hours and then home again as happy as ever is amazing to me. I can't even think of what would have happened had they not been able to figure out the reason for the co2 levels or not known how to treat it. I finally broke down and actually cried on the way home from the hospital- I guess I just had to wait until I knew that he was totally out of danger before I could melt down. And now I am off to enjoy my son. Thank you so much for everyone's support. -m

Rinat's Hospital Visit

*10:15- So here are the scariest words that a parent can hear from the doctor operating on her son as he walks into the room after several hours in the OR- “I need to talk to you”. Yup, his easy little no-big-deal surgery has turned out to be a much scarier experience than we had anticipated. I got all dressed up in scrubs and was in the room when they put him to sleep. I kissed him and told him I’d see him soon and I was confident that it would be quick and easy. Then the doctor walked me back to his little room in the ped surgery area and told me he’d come get me again in about an hour or hour and a half. I, of course, started checking my watch every 5 minutes starting at the hour mark. Then every 30 seconds after the 90 minute mark. And after then I was too freaked out to even read my book or do anything but stare at the wall and worry about all of the things that could be going wrong. And after almost 2 hours the anesthesiologist walked in and said those dreaded words. He told me that our sweet little baby had a reaction to the anesthesia called Malignant Hyperthermia (well, he said it was probably this). This typically presents itself as a high level of CO2, rapid heartbeat, tachycardia (is that the same thing?), high blood pressure, and finally muscle rigidity and it can ultimately result in death. Yes, DEATH. My heart stopped for a second until he assured me that the latter had not happened. Just thinking about the possibility makes me want to throw something at the wall as I sit here waiting. I just focused on this fact as he began to tell me what happened. Rin had actually only one of the symptoms of this reaction- according to the doctor, he had a very very very high level of carbon dioxide that he could not bring down via hand-pumping oxygen into him. So they had to remove the small tube that they had inserted for the surgery and intebate him with a large tube. And I think maybe they gave him some drug too but my memory is kind of hazy since my mind was going a mile a minute. It is really rare to have this reaction so the anesthesiologist is calling NIH to seek their advice on how best to treat him- I think they have some kind of national database or something.

**11:00- So the operating doctor just came in and said that he doing well and is sedated and will remain that way for 24 hours and they will send blood to the lab every six hours so that they can make sure that the toxins are getting flushed out and his body is getting back to normal and they will keep the tube in for this time too. Poor sweet baby. And now we are waiting for the anesthesia to wear off before they come and get us to be with him and they are checking him into the Pediatric ICU in the meantime. We will stay with him all day and I guess I’ll send Peter home at some point to get me some clothes and toothbrush so I can spend the night. And maybe some food if ever feel like eating again- right now it is most definitely NOT an option. I feel like something bad might happen if I tried to eat. Sooo… that’s where we are as of now. I will update at the bottom of this post as we find out more and finally get to see our little pumpkin. Love to you all. –m ps the cherry blossoms are amazing right now. Check ‘em out online or call in sick to work- they won’t last long!

11:45- Still waiting. Our nurse just went and checked on him and he seems to be doing fine. There are still 2 anesthesiologists in there to monitor him and a respiratory doctor too. At least he's been well looked after. As are we.

2:45- So we just spent a couple of hours down in the recovery room with Rin waiting for a room to open up in the ICU. Now one is open so I am waiting for them to transfer him and get him all set up so I can sit with him again. Sweet sweet Ann has driven up from Richmond to be with us and help if she can. It is so nice to have a calming presence in addition to Peter who is not exactly, um, what I would call calm in general. He woke up once and it totally scared the shit out of me. He started flailing around and swallowing (because of the tube) and trying to figure out what was going on. The anesthesiologist was actually sitting right there actually so he yelled to the nurse for a somethingorother bolise, loaded up a syringe, and he quickly passed back out. It’s the first time I cried.

3:30- And now we are safely ensconced in the ICU and everyone is really nice and Rinat seems to be doing really well. They are just going to keep an eye on him and make sure it stays that way. They are moving him into a bigger bed while we wait here. I guess I’ll send Peter out in a while for supplies. I am not anticipating any news anytime soon, but I’ll update here when there is anything new to report. We’ll let you know.

7:00pm- Not really anything new to tell you. Ann is helping us keep our sanity and it's nice to have another person here who has no qulams about charging up to the nurse's station and telling them to come attend to him. Peter, as you might guess, is just a little freaked out about the whole thing. Rin keeps coming out of his sedation and flailing around which is scary but otherwise he just lies there looking like he's sleeping peacefully. His vitals are fine and they are thinking they will try and extebate him in the morning (take out the breathing tube). They will have to wake him up for a while before they do it though to make sure he's ready to breathe on his own. Talk about flailing- they're going to need an entire team to hold him still and keep him from pulling out all the things he's hooked up to. I don't anticipate that it will be a whole lot of fun but I'm telling you that the sound of him screaming will be the sweetest sound I've ever heard. You may be able to hear it all the way from where you are. Oh, Peter just poked his head in here (the parents lounge) to tell me that he's flailing so much that the may take it out tonight. Listen for that Kazakh war cry! And thank you all for the sweet comments so far. Rinat and we are so lucky. Love to all. -m
10:15pm- So Ann, Matt, and Peter are still here hanging out with me but I think they are going to pack it up for the night while I stay here and hold down the fort. Rin is still doing well. They finally got him to stay asleep but then his blood pressure dropped so they are going to drop down the meds to try and bring his pressure back up so I hope they will soon find a happy medium and I can catch at least a few minutes of sleep tonight. We shall see. In any case, they are thinking they will try and take him off the tube in the morning (they decided not to tonight) so Peter's headed back here first thing so he won't miss the excitement. We'll let you know how it goes! -m

Easter, Vistors & an Adoption Freak-out

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a happy Easter! We actually had a snowy one down in the burg. The three of us went to Lynchburg for the weekend and had not one but TWO days of festivities. Rinat got 2 Easter baskets, 2 lunches, 2 egg hunts, about a million pieces of chocolate, and tons of toys. We actually came in town for our friends’ daughters’ baptism that Peter is the godfather of. The 1st egg hunt was after the breakfast at their place but he didn’t really understand how it all worked. He found one plastic egg and sat there taking it apart and putting back together. By the 2nd egg hunt at home, however, he was a maniac because knew exactly what to do and just went around finding eggs and putting them in his little basket as quickly as he could. And since we got back to DC, he will pull an egg out of his little basket that is still sitting in the living room, open it up, and hand me the mini chocolate bar inside to open for him. He definitely has the idea now. Aside from the holiday, we have been busy busy busy as always. In the last month, we’ve had several visitors. We had Aunt Kate come visit during her spring break and she was such a good playmate that he cried when she left room. He saw GMa G the bathgiver and GPa Mar the clapping man. Peter and I really loved having Aunt Ann come in town for the day because she took over parenting duties when he got restless at dinner- she walked him around so we could finish eating which is always a treat. And of course we’ve seen crazy Uncle Matt who stops by to hang out and put a big giant bus on his head which makes Rinat just fall over laughing. Too funny. Our little sweetie has definitely developed quite a sense of humor. The things that crack him up these days are me blowing my nose, when I brush the dirt off my hands, and when I dance to music on the radio. OK so really most people laugh when I dance but, it’s cute when he does it. He also finds it highly entertaining to be ornery and refuse to take a bite of food just for kicks. I will hold a bite of something up to his mouth and he will very dramatically throw his head to the side and kind of backwards like of like “how dare you offer me that horrible pile of poo- I would not dare eat it!” like he’s actually a picky eater or something. I have to laugh because it is really funny. Well, except of course when he knocks a spoonful of yogurt or something similarly messy out of my hand and it goes flying onto the wall or carpet in the process. But now that he can feed himself, he refuses to use his hands to eat with and tries to scoop anything and everything up with his little toddler spoon. I figure the faster that he can do it himself the better so I just let him go to town. He really does crack me up daily with his little budding personality. My current favorite is when he puts his little fists up near his head, points his chubby little fingers up in the air, and kind of bops up and down to any music that he happens to hear. It’s kind of like a disco-groove thing and I have no idea whatsoever where he came up with it, but it gets me every time. I also think it’s pretty funny that he will point to any food that he sees in a magazine, on the TV, or in person and say, very enthusiastically “Mmmmmmmm!” like it’s the most appetizing thing he’s ever seen. I guess we like food in our house. I know I do anyway. He especially loves fruit and it’s really funny to go to the grocery store with him because I will point to all the fruits in the produce department and tell him the names and he just says “Mmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmmmmmm!” Over and over again and makes the ‘please’, ‘milk’, and ‘more’ hand sign over and over again until one of them works and I put it in the cart. I have no idea why he’s not 400 pounds by now. I guess he got some good genes from his Kaz parents? And I think I might be turning him into a future alcoholic. I have been trying to find a way to get him to drop the bottle and drink milk out of a cup but he was a little reluctant so I taught him to ‘cheers’ me and then chug it down like a frat boy. I’m bad, but it works like a charm. And he is finally walking like he’s been doing it forever. He’ll just pop up from wherever he’s sitting and start cruising around with no hesitation at all. It just somehow happened overnight. But of course it always ends up in Mom or Dad’s arms- home base. And he still can’t get enough of things in the sky- planes, helicopters, birds- and now he is obsessed with the moon. He saw it one night when we took him over to Mer’s house after it had gotten dark and now he looks for it all the time. He always points to it and then looks at me like “Oh my gosh! Do you see that shiney thing in the sky?! Do you, do you?! It’s amazing!” Maybe he’ll be an astronomer. It’s so much fun to wonder how he’ll end up. It’s kind of like wondering what Santa is going to bring you for Christmas- no matter what it is, you’ll be happy to have it. Oh, and he has a new word that kind of sums him up I think. It’s ‘go’. He will point to the door, the stairs, his bed, the swings, the stroller, and say “go” (although it sounds a bit more like “gah”- but I know what he means)! He just wants to go, go, go 24/7. Our little maniac. He’s so fun. I think it is funny that he decided to learn to walk and talk all in the same week. He is a crazy determined little guy. My favorite of Rinat’s new talents, however, is that he can now give me big open-mouthed slobbery kisses. So now Rinat won’t be the only one with drool on his cute little face. When Kate was in town, she, Uncle Matt, and I went to see the movie Juno (about a teenager who gives up her child for adoption) which I highly recommend if you like indie films at all. It was really funny and ultimately uplifting but it also brought back some of those old feelings that I had before we brought Rinat home. Especially that feeling that something would happen to ruin all the work we have done and the confusion of not knowing who will be my child. Other parents don’t know what it feels like thank goodness because I would not wish it on my worst enemy- it is restricted to those of us who don’t give birth to our own children but are instead at the mercy of a stranger to decide when we get to be parents. I had a little flashback of this out-of-my-control kind of feeling a few weeks ago when I was just getting ready to start the process for our next adoption and found out that adoptions from Kazakhstan were suspended. I might have mentioned it to some of you which is why I am addressing it now. I, honestly, was kind of devastated by it. Not because I wanted to adopt from there again since we already know the drill, but really I wanted it for Rinat. I had always hoped to go to the same country to find him a sister or brother- someone to share some genetics with since Peter and I never will be able to give that to him. So I spent several insomniac nights cruising the internet trying to figure out what to do- should we wait and see what happens? Go to a different country and, if so, which one? Most of the other countries have several years of waiting before being matched with a child and if we wait for Kaz and it doesn’t reopen will it be forever until Rinat has a little sister? But the crisis was happily averted (for now anyway) when I checked the website tonight ( http://www.jcics.org/Kazakhstan.htm ) and adoptions have resumed as of today. WHEW!!! I can sleep again. And now I am off to do exactly that. Hope everyone is having a good month! -m

ER- and no I'm not talking about the TV show

This post is actually from last week but I never got the chance to put it on the blog:
Hi all- As I lay awake at 3am this morning, I decided to just give it up and head downstairs hoping that would help me shake my insomnia and I got a very timely email from one of our Kaz friends. It was called “25 reasons I owe my mother.” It was a humorous email but it just got me thinking about how Rinat owes me big time already. Here’s the story: He was not himself on Tues and I thought maybe he hadn’t slept well because of diaper rash (what’s new?) and let it go. I was not feeling well myself (I now have the full blown flu) and thought he’d be just fine with a little time and some extra rest. But then he fell asleep, naked, in my lap after I gave him a morning bath and slept for 2 whole hours which is totally unlike him. Then he refused to eat dinner which is even more unlike him. This boy never ever misses a meal! Well, it turns out that he had a bit of a temperature so I gave him some Motrin and decided to put him in bed with me so I could keep an eye on him. It didn’t seem any higher than when he got 4 shots at the doctor the previous week, but it just made me a little nervous since I did not know the cause. Sure enough, at about 1am, he rolled over and put his head on my belly and he was BURNING UP. I mean, so hot that I expected to see wavy air above his body like you see above the asphalt on a July day in Texas. I gave him more Motrin, hoping it would bring down his temp, but almost an hour later it had actually gotten worse and was now over 104. So we packed a bag full of everything we might need for a couple days at the hospital and headed to Georgetown to see if they could figure out what was wrong with him. There was, thankfully, no wait and they got to us right away. The nurses, other patients, and especially the security guard were really nice and helped out as much as they could. Long story short- after more than 6 hours of poking and prodding and tests that included IV’s into his tiny little arm and pee-collector bags over his privates, lots of screaming, and no sleep for any of us, it turns out that our little sweet pea has an ear infection. I am very glad that we packed it up and went to the ER even though it turns out that it was not anything major, but boy are we exhausted! I think I got about 5 hours of sleep in the last two and a half days. I check on Rinat about every hour and of course any little noise that he makes in his sleep brings me to my feet in a millisecond. Ahh, what we do for the ones we love… I hope you are all happy and healthy! -m

Another month with our guy

Hi everyone- I know, I know, this post is long overdue. I'm a blogging slacker. Sorry. Things have been pretty good around here. Now that he is down to one nap a day and his rash is totally under control, it has opened up a whole new world for us. I have been getting out and doing some classes with Rinat which has been really fun for him. We were taking a class where the kids learn about and pet different animals and it led to lots of shrieking when he wasn't allowed to actually squeeze the bunny to death. He was also really interested in the fish tank and trying to climb into the tank with the turtles. That boy is very insistent and very LOUD. The good thing is that no one seems to mind except for me. We were also able to get out and get his first little haircut which was lots of fun for Peter and me. And I have to say that he did really well. We took him to my hair girl, Kylie, and she did a quick little cleanup and he started to cry only for a second and then stopped when, the brilliant mother that I am, I gave him his Mishka (teddy bear) to hold and then he was happy once again. Wouldn't the world be so much easier if we could hand everyone a Mishka and it would make their world good again? Oh, to be 1. Our little sweetie is still not walking much despite the fact that I know he is capable. I think he is just stubborn. But he has been talking a lot which makes my life easier. He tells me "mama, up" and "d-d-d" for down. And he makes all kinds of animal noises including the cow which sounds kind of like "bbbbb", "bok, bok, bok" for the chicken, "ahh, ahh, ahh" for the monkey, and "aaaaaaah" for the sheep. It never gets old for me and is a wonderful way to entertain us both during the marathon diaper changing sessions. And he understands so much more now too. One day I had it with the screaming as soon as he woke up and so as I was putting him down for his nap, I told him "These books at the end of the bed are for you to read when you wake up. You just say 'mama' and I will hear you and you can read your books and play with Mishka and Blue Bunny until I come up here, OK?" And every since that day, it is exactly what he does when he wakes up. If only I had figured it out sooner! And he has definite opinions on what he wears now too. It's so cute. I show him two options (Do you want to wear the red fire truck pajamas or the green dinosaur ones?) and he is very definite about which he prefers. And he will spend the day checking out what is on his shirt or pants. He especially loves when I show it to him in the mirror. So cute. His obsession with the bus has now changed to an obsession with airplanes and helicopters. I know that there is most definitely nothing wrong with his hearing because he will start pointing at the sky and talking way before I know what he's pointing to. And he has started to figure out that he has a say in what goes on in his world as well. When we bring him to our bed in the morning, he immediately points to the TV to tell us to turn on the Sprout Channel for him to watch while we slowly wake up. And he is starting slow down in the eating department and to actually refuse to let us feed him. I guess he's officially a toddler now and is starting to test what he can do and what he can't. But overall, he is happy, healthy and brings joy to our lives every single day. Sometimes it just washes over me how much I adore him and how lucky we are that he is a part of our lives. Oh, and for anyone who's interested, his eye surgery is rescheduled for April 1- nope, it's not a practical joke. Love to all! -m

Our Toddling Boy

Hi everybody! So the holidays passed wonderfully and here we are in 2008 with an active, happy, sweet little 1 year old boy. Gosh, he's fun. He has most definitely been keeping us on our toes too. He is all over the place and I can barely keep up with his growing arm length. The things on our tables keep moving farther and farther back out of the danger zone. Pretty soon we'll just have to put all of our stuff away- I guess we'll be going for the minimal look in our decor from now on. Our big event in the last couple of weeks has been Rinat's 1st birthday party. His BDay is the day after Christmas so we figured we'd just start out celebrating a couple of weeks later so that when he gets older, then all of his friends won't be busy with family stuff and unable to come. It was a lot of fun- as far as Rinat's concerned, the more activity the better. Some family came in town to attend and some of his little friends came over to play. Parties sure have gotten different now that everyone has kids! The photo above is him enjoying one of his BDay cupcakes. He ate all of the icing but none of the cake- he knows what's good! Unfortunately our little sweetie was sick for his party (not that it slowed him down at all) and when we went to the doctor today and he told us he has an ear infection to go along with his runny nose and hacking cough. So that means we have to reschedule his surgery for late-Feb/early-March. No big deal though since it is not exactly urgent. He also hasn't been able to get his first little haircut quite yet so he is still constantly mistaken for a girl. Today I was looking at him while Peter was holding him and I have to admit that I think he is kind of pretty too. Maybe the haircut will help. He has also been drooling so much that I have to change his outfit several times a day (I don't need him getting a rash on his chin too!) so I think that teeth #7&8 are on their way soon. And speaking of his rash, it has gotten sooo much better. It's still a constant battle but we've had several (non-consecutive) days of rashless butt. It makes life a whole lot easier. And I think our big boy is working toward 1 nap a day. When I put him down in the morning now, he will just babble to himself for about 45 minutes and then start crying for me to come and get him. He thinks he's so big now! And he is just soaking up everything we tell him. The other day, I told him "Rinat, go get your shoes" and he crawled over and got them and brought them over to me. I couldn't believe it. And he will point at pictures in a book and make the please sign until I tell him what it is called. He is very insistent about it and I think it's a good sign that he is going to love learning about the world. He wants to know about everything around him. But the big news with our guys right now is that he is officially walking. I can't believe it! He has been using the walker wagon to cruise around here like Speed Racer. And he has no trouble at all walking with me and barely holding one finger. And I have enticed him into taking a couple of steps at a time to get to me, but the last day or so he has been standing up like a champ. I counted 'one hippopotamus, 2 hippopotamus, 3 hippopotamus...' up to 26 yesterday and I think for the first time he realized what he was doing. He kind of froze and stood really still and kind of looked at me surprised, then smiled, then stood for another couple of seconds, then slowly sat back down and started laughing. It was really exciting. But then a couple of minutes ago, he stood for a few seconds, thought about it, and thought 'I can walk to the big giant turtle', took several steps, and boomed onto the turtle. Peter and I were both frozen watching him figure it out and I am so happy we both saw his first true steps. I have to admit I cried just a tiny bit. I mean, we just got him and he's already a toddler! I know that not everyone's day was quite as exciting as ours, but I hope it was a good one! -m