January 2008

Our new year began with a blast as we celebrated with dinner at Mike and C's with the kiddos and then rang it in asleep, well actually I woke up at 11:55 and watched the ball drop. My how times have changed!

That week kevin and I headed down to the Keys for our long awaited anniversary trip. Well the Keys were not too happy to see us as we brought record cold temps down with us. But we made the best of it at our beautiful resort, Tranquility Bay, in Marathon. We loved the house, the grounds and the views. It was very relaxing and peaceful, well aside from the howling wind!

We enjoyed lots of great meals and great drinks, especially mojitos and margaritas. We spent saturday down in Key West, one of our favorite places and altho we talked up doing the Duval crawl, we knew someone had to drive back and we can't hang like we used to. But we enjoyed our drinks at our favorite spots: Irish Kevins, Turtle Crawls, Hogs breath, Captain Tony's, and Margaritaville.

Sunday was our only real beaach day, so I soaked up those rays all day long and Kevin was back and forth between the tiki bar which was showing football and the beach reading. Monday was back home to our little men. It was so great to see them. 4 days was the perfect amount of time. We were ready to go home sunday night. I have to say the sleeping in and using the bathroom without interruption was a very nice treat!! Grammom and Poppy survived their babysitting duties, altho I am sure they were ready for a vacation of their own, Noni, picked up the slack on Sunday and MOnday for us. The boys enjoyed all their spoling by the grands.

January has been fairly quiet. Maks got his first haircut since being home, yes, he has been home 1 yr and 2 months and this was his first haircut. It didn't go so well at first, he is not great in new situations and freaked out, wouldn't even have the cape on, so he sat on my lap and cried, until we gave him a lollipop and that did the trick, he sat calmly and cooperatively the rest of the time. Should have given him that to start, but know we know. He looks so handsome and best of all he still has his curls, especially when his hair is wet. I was afraid of losing them.

I didn't get pictures at the actual haircut, but did managed to save some of his cute curls for his book.

Alek is as active as ever especially with the new moonbounce in our basement. Everynight is filled with bouncing and hurling his body all over it, he is crazy!!

he is already talking about his birthday party and wants a jungle animal party, not sure how I am supposed to pull that off?

So we are in the midst of winter and have had like 2 inches of snow, which we had to race home to play in because it was due to wash away that night and it did, but at least we got to test out one of the new sleds. Alek loved it, Maks not so much, he was more interested in the snow itself. So we are praying for some good snow at least once so we can have some sledding fun. I will be happy with one good snowfall and then bring on spring!

On an ending note, I was coloring with the boys the other day and just was staring at their eyes, I just love their beautiful blue eyes, looking at them makes my heart melt, so of course I had to make them stop coloring so I could get close up photos of their eyes! I know pretty soon they are going to moaning and groaning about all the pics I take, but I feel like I just want to catch everything!!

Happy Anniversary!

I did not marry the person I thought I could live with,

I married the person I thought

I could not live without.

December 27th, marked 10 years for us, and while that seems long, it really feels like it flew past. We have had quite an eventful and memorable journey together, with many highs and lows, but I couldn't imagine going through all of it with anyone else.

We were looking at our wedding album and laughing at how young everyone looked, including us, we looked like babies, and I can't believe I was that thin (back then I used to think I was overweight!--geez I was nuts!).

It snowed that winter, just enough to make it beautiful and just enough to make the trolley ride to the reception a bit scarey!
It was such a fun wedding and a great party.

We had a nice dinner at Dilworthtown Inn last saturday night, thanks to T for babysitting! It was nice to be at a place that didn't hand out crayons and coloring paper!

Thursday we leave for Marathon Florida for our first alone vacation as parents. We are looking forward to it, yet we are both worried and sad over leaving the boys. I am in my normal stress mode as well. I start crying thinking about being without them for 4 nights, but I know this trip will be great for us and we will have blast, but it will be really hard not kissing my babies each night.

I know they will have a blast with grammom and Poppy and then Noni for one night. Hopefully they won't be too spoiled by the time we come home.

So happy anniversary to us, can't wait to see what the next 10 years has in store for us!

Happy Holidays!

I can't believe Christmas is over, all that time, all the preparations and it flies right by! It has been a wonderful month filled with lots of activities and lots of fun for all.

Alek has been so excited for Santa, he talks about him all the time and kept changing what he wanted with each new day.

Maks is still clueless over the whole thing, but one things is for sure, he does not like the big guy at all. Santa came to our neighborhood courtesy of the fire dept. Maks took one look at him sitting on top of the fire truck and freaked out. Not even a candy cane could calm him down. Oh well, maybe next year! He liked the fire truck alot though.

Kevin and I got to sneak away for a night with our friends and did an overnight cruise to no where out of NYC. It was a surprise for the guys, they loved it. It was a on a huge cruise ship. We got to choose from 3 notable chefs of NYC. We chose Floyd Cardoz of Tabla. It was a wonderful meal, the wines they chose were fabulous and we got to talk with the chef as well. We also received signed cookbooks too! After dinner it was John Legend in concert, he was amazing, what a performer. Afterwards, we stuck to cocktails and the casino. We wound up with a late night cheesburger snakc and poured ourselves into bed at 2am. Cannot remember the last time we were up that late, that wasn't due to a kiddo waking up or being sick!! We were off the ship by 8am the next morning and heading home. Our bodies definitely paid the price, but it was fun.
That night it was Christmas open house at Grammom's (Nana's) where the boys got to play with their cousins and as always the food was wonderful. Kevin and I were ready for bed by 7pm!

Sunday brought some rest and last minute shopping and wrapping. I think I was up until midnight wrapping! I need to remember to be more prepared next year!!

Christmas eve morning Pop and Noni came up for brunch. They brought new sleds with them, the boys were excited! Now bring on the snow!!!
Christmas eve we had dinner at JoJo's with the family. We enjoyed a performance of xmas caroles by Jake and Alek, with dancing entertainment by Maks.
We read the Night Before Christmas together, just in case the boys fell asleep on the car ride home. They did not and were pretty much fired up! So Alek sprinkled the reindeer food on the front yard and then Alek and Maks helped put out the milk and cookies for Santa (though Kaiser got to them first, amazingly he drank the milk out of the glass, hardly spilling at thing!).
It was off to bed. Maks fell asleep quick. Alek was filled with tons of questions, but finally passed out.
Then Kevin and I put the drums and ATV together, wrapped the stocking gifts and got everything set. I think we got to sleep around midnight. Maks decided to have a party at 2am and then 4am by climbing out of his crib and pulling out all his toys. So I had to sleep with him at that point.
I was awoken by Kevin yelling at me saying, their here, they are in the driveway, wake up. They were mom, John and Meem, who decided to arrive at 7:15am. My mom's idea I am sure!! Dont want to miss anything. So we got up quickly and then I got the kids up to commence the xmas morning chaos.
The drums were a big hit, so was the ATV, they were mad it didn't go anywhere though.
They loved the moonbounce, altho I don't think they realize what is in the box, but climbing on the box was a hit. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and watching the kids perform on the drums.

Then it was nap time. I took one myself, that was wonderful. Then it was time for round two! We got up and ready and then Granny, Pop Pop and JoJo came by, with more presents (are my kids spoiled?). They loved the dinosaur that walked, he was definitely a big hit. Great clothes as usual too!!
Then we all headed to Jimmy and LaLa's for dinner. Alek was on speed at this point and was so excited to play with Jakey. Poor Maks, stinks being the youngest, he kept getting shut out!
Dinner was wonderful as usual and the kids then had their final present opening spree of the night. The sleeping bags were a hit, Alek has slept in his dinosaur one each night, Maks loves his trucks and a fire truck which I hear in my sleep. Alek has been having fun with a dinosaur kit too!
It was time to say good bye and call an end to one fun filled Christmas day. We all had a blast and were sad how fast it went by. It was definitely a very merry Christmas for us!
So now we look ahead to 2008.....

'Tis the Season!

Well here we are knocking down the door to Christmas, another year flew by!

After starting December off with our visit to Disney Playhouse live, we contiuned the funby going to get the boys xmas tree. This is the one we put in the basement that the boys can decorate and we put the trains up underneath. They had fun decorating and helping daddy with the trains, as usual we started the year off with a few derailments!

We continued the holiday fun buy having a Christmas cookie baking party, well slice and bake and decorate. The kids and moms had fun. The decorating was a big hit, though I am not sure eating the ones Maks decorated was the safest thing to do--but he loved it! We got Alek to sit down for about 5 minutes to decorate.

It was a fun day as evident by the mess in my house the next morning, but messy house equals happy kids!

Monday we were off to the Picture People for our holiday portraits. I made our appt for after nap time and the boys seemed ready to go and in good moods. So we thought, as the camera came out Maks got bitter, he wanted no parts of it and despite Kevin and I's best efforts we couldn't get him happy. So the woman at Picture people was great, she just took her time and got him semi happy with building blocks. We did the best we could!

Kevin and I were looking back at the difference between last years pics and this years, it really is amazing the changes in the boys, from baby faces to little men and alot more hair for Maks (no I am not going for the Kate Hudson look for her son), I do plan to get his hair cut soon, I am just afraid of losing the curls! It is hard to believe that this time last year, Maks was in the hospital fighting off pneumonia and RSV, he is such an amazing little guy, we are so lucky to have both of them in our lives. They make every day and every holiday so special!

After getting our pictures done, we headed to visit Santa. Alek was so excited and went right up to him, as before Maks wanted no parts of the jolly old guy, so we got the picture as quick as we could and rescued Maks and Santa. Alek hung out and told the big guy what he wanted for Christmas, which changes daily now.

So two weeks left to Christmas and the excitement is building. Alek is definitely in the xmas spirit and loves singing carols and practicing for his school production. Maks is still at that oblivious age, which is wonderful. It is definitely going to be a fun Christmas!

Click on the picture below to see some more pics of the xmas tree hunt!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

I have been tagged!

Thanks Tanya!
www.thebaersdengrows.blogspot.com

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Mostly wrapping paper, but some gifts bags if it makes it easier!

2. Real tree or artificial?
Real, we do two, one smaller one for basement with the trains and this is the one the kids decorate and then the larger one for the living room. We are not particular though about which kind, just whatever looks the nicest and the fullest.

3. When do you put up your tree?
Generally about 2 weeks before xmas, that is as early as I can get Kevin do it, altho we did get the basement tree this week so the trains could be up longer.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Usually comes down the weekend after New Years.

5. Favorite gift received as a child?
Barbie Townhouse hands down.

6. Do you have a Nativity scene?
No but I have an angeland 3 wise men.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
My dad and Anne

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Alek and Maks

9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Don't ever recall a bad one

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail and I impressed myself with getting them out already!

11. Favorite Christmas movie?
It's a Wonderful Life has always been my favorite movie, though I have to say I really enjoyed the Polar Express and watching it with Alek.

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Usually the first week in December, but I don't finish up most times until 12/24

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yep.

14. Favorite things to eat at Christmas?
All the side dishes with lots of starch and cheese and pumpkin pie.

15. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Clear and colored on the trees and clearlights only outside.

16. Favorite Christmas song?
Fun song-Rockin around the xmas tree,
Xmas Hymn: Oh Come All Ye Faithful

17. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Just locally to relatives house, but we stay home xmas morning.

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
If I sing the song I can.

19. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Angel on the tree in the basement and star on the tree in the living room

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas morning, though I do try to get Kevin to open one each after the kids are asleep.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
That it is so busy and crazy and so rushed and that xmas stuff comes in out in stores before Halloween. It is all too commercialized.

22. What is the "corniest" family tradition you do, or miss doing?
No corny traditions, but Kevin and I have always gotten our tree, picked up a pizza, some wine and beer and watched Christmas Vacation. The boys watched it with us this year, thought I was going to have to explain some stuff, but thankfully Alek seemed to enjoy the slapstick humor the best.

23. Ugliest Christmas Decoration ever invented?
I saw this handmade angel the other day at a store that was absolutely frightening, she looked possessed with these big red lips and then I promptly saw a woman purchase it saying how beautiful it was!

24. Which looks the best, theme trees or homey trees? Homey trees. I just like when people have ornamanets from their whole lives on their tree and things that make it personal and special.

26. What does Christmas mean to you?
Celebrating time with family and friends and remembering what the season is truly about.

Merry Christmas!!!

kristen and Beth you are up next!

Alek's first art show!

November comes to a close

I can't believe another year is almost done and we are quickly approaching Christmas--the years just seem to fly by anymore, it makes me sad. I wish I could freeze frame some moments.

Thanksgiving was spent at our house this year with both sides of the family attending. It was very nice and very special to have Maks here with us for his first Thanksgiving feast! He definitely enjoyed it, although he attempted to start a food fight by hurling stuffing at Pop Pop. He was none too happy though when Jimmy returned the favor by hitting him with a roll. The glares Maks was giving was truly priceless, he was highly offended. We all got a big kick out of it.

It was truly a fun and wonderful day!

As usual we are well behind our neighborhood with the outdoor lighting displays as ours still isn't up and most of our neighbors had theirs up Thanksgiving weekend! But we are slowing getting the Christmas decorations up.

Alek is definitely getting the jist of Santa this year, he has a list a mile long and sees something new he wants everyday, thankfully he never remembers what he asked for the previous day, so I think we can get away easy again this year.
He is very cute learning holiday songs and has been practicing at school. He tells us that "boys bow and girls quincy (curtsy)" and he can do an amazing bow.

We can't wait to see how Maks reacts this year, I have a feeling he won't be liking visiting Santa too much, but maybe he will surprise us. I know he will be able to open presents this year, so that will be fun.

We started December off by attending a Family Fun Day offered by the IA clinic at CHOP. We could only stay a short time, but it was really nice and the boys had a blast. I dropped Maks back home and then Alek and I headed to see Disney Playhouse Live with Keeley and C. The kids had a ball, it was very cute, they were totally into it. Though as expected the overpriced Little Einsteins baton I bought Alek didn't last longer than a day before the ball was busted offf of it--BOYS! I am sure Keeley's is still working nicely!

One of the best parts of November, is that our bathroom is finished!!! After 3 years of being torn up, it is finally done! We are so excited, it is so beautiful and relaxing. Kevin did a great job designing it and finishing it up and the guys at Mastercraft did an amazing job with the tile. It is gorgeous. It is so nice not to have a share a bathroom with the kids now!

Maks 1st Year Slideshow

Happy Adoption Day Maks-Joseph!

One year ago in chilly Murmansk Russia, the judge officially announced that we were now the proud parents of Maks-Joseph Kirill!
Our family was complete, even though we had several more days in Russia before we would be together as a family of four.
After so many years of struggle, we finally had the family we had dreamed of.
It is hard to believe it has only been a year, it truly feels like Maks has been with us forever. It is wonderful to see how much he has grown and changed.
He went from being this pale, sickly little guy to a little man filled with life and color! He was so afraid of everything, sudden movements, people, new environments. It is amazing how resilient he is, if you think about what he went thru. He was taken away from everything familiar and safe to him, and now was with people (who although smiled a lot and showered him with hugs and kisses), didn't speak his language and didn't understand him. He traveled in cars and airplanes, spent several nights in hotels. Ate new food, started on formula, had his first bath in a tub, and then was brought to this whole new country, and a new home filled with two dogs and a boy waiting to be his brother. Maks was truly amazing, how he handled all of that!
I remember when we were finally in our house, and it was just the four of us. Alek was showing Maks all the toys and the playroom and we just sat there smiling, thinking, "we did it". What an amazing feeling that was!
Maks had a rough adjustment between being sick and in the hospital, to not being able to sleep and being afraid of pretty much everything, except food!
Fast forward one year,
the little boy who only wanted daddy, now runs to his mommy,
the boy who was petrified of bath tubs and water, now does belly flops into the pool and floats with his face in the water,
The little boy who was afraid of swings and sudden movements, won't get off the swings in the yard and loves to be tossed in the air.
And the little boy who didn't smile often, now has a face full of life and light.
Maks and Alek are truly brothers and buddies, you can see how much they love each other, especially when they hug and kiss good night. We love watching the boys play together, laugh together and of course even fight, because that is what being brothers is all about.
So we celebrate Maks 1st adoption day and his first Thanksgiving here! Last year we spent Thanksgiving in the restaurant at the Marriott Tverskaya in Moscow. This year both families will gather at our house for the feast!
We look forward to watching Maks grow and change in the coming year and we feel so blessed to be his parents.
We are truly thankful for all we have been given and especially for our two amazing and beautiful boys.
Happy Adoption Day Maks-Joseph, we love you!!!

Created a slide show above of Maks' 1st year home-Enjoy!

Going batty

Well it has been a crazy and interesting week here. Kevin was away last weekend and the boys and I had a nice time together, that is until Sunday morning. The boys were sitting nicely in my bed watching a movie, so I jumped into the shower. As I finished, I threw back the shower curtain and all of a sudden there were wings and something near my head and Kaiser was leaping in the air, I hit the floor and looked in the hallway and saw what I thought was a bird (but should have known) flying down the hall. I ran into my bedroom and closed the door. The boys seemed oblivious, thank God. I peaked out the door and the thing can flying at me. So I stood there in my birthday suit trying to decide what to do. I gathered myself, got dressed and called Brett, who was came over to help me find the bat and remove it. I peaked into the hall and no sign, so I crawled down the hall and down the steps to open the door for Brett. In my mind I figured it would not come down that low to attack me!
We finally found it hanging upside on the blinds in the kitchen, brett took it outside. Good riddance.
Monday evening, Kevin calls me frantically while I am at a dinner, there are more bats flying around the house-two he thinks. So he packs up the kids and the dogs and we stay at my mom's. Then I head to Kohl's to buy us all clothes for the morning. Of course in his rush, Kevin forgets to bring Maks' inhaler and of course, Maks who hasn't had any wheezing in a year, starts to. So I have to get another Rx called to the CVS near my mom's. Complete insanity.
Mind you, all this is going on as the contractors have been working in our bathroom, so our house it already upside down.
The bat people came out on Tuesday., said our attic is clear and still sealed from several years ago, but one of our chimneys is not capped, so they think that is how the bats got in.

So Tuesday night, we moved back in, sort of, we all slept in the basement. Thankfully we have the basement we do with a full bath, so it was easy to move in. The kids think it is fun, like one giant sleep over. A week later we are still in the basement! Wednesday we decided to have a fire in our other fireplace (the one that is capped), we heard alot of noises during it, so we think we may have done one of them in.

Last Thursday morning, just as I was feeling good about no bat sightings, I flicked on the foyer light in the morning and out came a bat flying right into the living room, I didn't stick around to see where he went.

Friday, Kevin notices the flaps for our whole house fan are separated and some black residue is there, so he thinks the remaining bat got up into the attic. He promptly sealed that all off and we haven't seen any since. Though I am not taking any chances as we are still sleeping in the basement. It is better since our bathroom is still being worked on and the upstairs is so dusty, I rather wait until they are done, then clean and move back in.

Of course, we are hosting Thanksgiving, so it makes it more interesting, hopefully Mr. Bat is in his winter slumber and does not make any holiday appearances...

Where did October go?

I can't believe we are staring down Thanksgiving's door, October just flew by! Life was pretty busy here this past month with lots of activities and excitement.

Maks' birthday party was alot of fun and a big success, thanks to all those who donated to Adoption Options, Inc and the Kyrgzystan van fund, it was greatly appreciated!!!

Alek still talks about our trip to Baltimore and the aquarium, he loves reading the books we bought there. Maks loves his new puzzle of fish.

We also had Maks' one year post placement report! I cannot believe it has been almost a year home. Seems so long ago, yet it wasn't.

Alek had his first school field trip to Freddy Hill Farms, and I went with him, it was so cute. It was fun watching him in action with his classmates and his friends. he loves his two little girlfriends "M" and "I". Apparently he has decided he is marrying them as well as Keeley. We asked him if he was planning on buying property in Utah as well!

MK and Mike came into town with the kids and we had a great visit. It was so wonderful to see them and we can't believe how big Erin and Kevin are getting! It was so fun to meet Kelly's fiance and see Mikey (can't help it, still call him that), though it made me feel really old.

The benefit/reunion party was a great time and a great success, hopefully this will help go to their furniture fund. I can't imagine the stress they have been going through after the flood and trying to re-build. Hopefully they will be back on their feet soon!

During their visit though, I think I gained 10 pounds, that cheesesteak and pizza diet just does not cut it!

We spent a morning at Merrymead Farms doing the hayrides and mazes and picking out pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. Then it was time to say good bye. We miss them already and secretly hope they move back this way soon!!

After they left, I headed back over to Merrymead with the boys and Cynthia and the girls. Tradition for our kids to get pics together at the pumpkin patch, not so easy anymore trying to herd 4 active children and get them to look at the camera. Needless to say, they were not the greatest pictures. But we had fun. The Bickersons were having fun together and no arguing, it was nice. Ryan was making the moves on Maks, I think she digs him!

This week, our house seemed empty, we miss the commotion and activity!! Kevin has been working hard getting the bathroom/vanity area ready for the contractors to come on Monday. I can't wait to have that done, 4 years in the making!!

Maks finally had his speech evaluation. As suspected he is doing great on his receptive skills (tests at 26 months) but his expressive skills are delayed (tests at 15months).

So we scheduled early intervention through the county, as our private insurance only pays for a limited amount of visits (gotta love that), so CHOP said to use them as a resource and for evaluations but to start the therapy with EI. Hopefully it won't take long to get him chattering up a storm!

Next up was Halloween. Maks was the Hamburgler and Alek was the police officer. He loved arresting Maks. They had their party at school in the morning and got to do some trick or treating there. They also bobbed for apples and apparently Maks was the only one in his group to put his face in and he got an apple! What that boy won't do for food. Alek got one too and decided to eat the whole thing, they stopped him half way thru the core!

So, then I had to pick Maks up for his 2 yr old well visit (and shots), yes I know, horrible to do that to him on Halloween. So mom of the year I am not. He did great though, He is now 29 pounds and 34.5 inches, so 50% all around. He got 3 shots, flu/pneumonia and catch up one. So he is officially caught up on his vaccinations. I am glad we decided to spread it all out over his first year home.

After the visit, it was back to school for the parade. That was so cute, the kids looked great. I loved seeing all the different costumes.

Then it was back home to get ready for trick or treating. We handed out candy for a little bit and then set out in the wagon. Once Maks learned the deal he was all business. He would waddle up to the door, get his candy and head right back to the wagon as if to say, come on people, on to the next house! Alek had to chat with everyone and tell them Maks steals food so he would arrest him. They had a great time. Though it was really hard keeping them out of the candy once home.

It was a great month. So on to November and more celebrating. We have Maks' first adoption day celebration coming up and we are also having Thanksgiving at our house. Last year, Thanksgiving was spent in the Marriott Tverskaya restaurant, so it will be wonderful to have our family all together this year!