Happy Mother's Day, to all the mom's out there, great-grandmom's, grandmom's, mom's, birthmother's, first mothers, God-mother's, aunt's, friends, mom's to be, and those dreaming of motherhood! I have always felt this was more a day to celebrate all the women in our lives and any woman who is important in the life of a child!

May you have a peaceful and beautiful day!

So while I will not be celebrating Mother's day with our annual party, our family is in our thoughts today!

So I will be raising a glass or two, of the clear liquids I can have today, to all the women in mine and my children's lives!

This was emailed to me the other day and it gave me a good laugh!

You're Really A Mom When...

You count the number of sprinkles on each kid's cupcake to make sure they are equal.

You want to take out a contract on the kid who broke your child's favorite toy and made him/her cry.

You have time to shave only one leg at a time.

You hide in the bathroom to be alone.

Your child throws up and you catch it.
Someone else's kid throws up at a party and you keep eating.

You consider finger paint to be a controlled substance.

You mastered the art of placing food on a plate without anything touching.

Your child insists that you read "Once upon a Potty" out loud in the lobby of the doctor's office and you do it.

You hire a baby sitter because you haven't been out with your husband in ages, then you spend half the night talking about and checking on the kids.

You hope ketchup is a vegetable because it's the only one your child eats.

You find yourself cutting your husband's sandwiches into unusual shapes.
You fast-forward through the scene when the hunter shoots Bambi's mother.

You obsess when your child clings to you upon parting during his first month at school, then you obsess when he skips in without looking back.

You can't bear to give away baby clothes--it's so final.

You hear your mother's voice coming out of your mouth when you say, "Not in your good clothes."

You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you.

You read that the average-five-year old asks 437 questions a day and feel proud that your kid is "above average."

A little update and things that I love

Last weekend was a busy one! On Friday morning I was chosen as the lucky customer to have breakfast with my favorite shoe designer, Donald J Pliner. It was so exciting and very fascinating as well, it was a great experience, he is such an amazing guy.

Friday night I had a girls night out at one of my favorite restaurants, great food, great drinks, great friends. It was a lot of fun, although I was up so much later than I am used to and that meant nothing to the boys who were happily waking me up at 6:30!

Saturday Alek and I went to see Backyardigan's Live. He loved it, he was so into it, dancing and singing, it was really cute.

Saturday night friends were over to christen the new grill and cheer the Flyers on as they wrapped up their series over Montreal.

Sunday was a family communion party and then I went to see Hairspray that evening, it was a great show, an amazing performance-we really loved it!

So needless to say when that alarm went off Monday, I was so not into going back to work!!

Today is my last day at work for a few weeks. My surgery is scheduled for Monday, so my nerves have really kicked in, definitely have a lot of fears, so I really just want to get this over with!!

But in the meantime, I am going to try and enjoy the weekend and Mother's Day (even though I can only have a light breakfast, followed up by clear liquids all day--but I have my jello so I am ready to go!).
Yesterday, Alek and Maks gave me a beautiful little flower that they planted in a very pretty mug, at school, for Mother's Day. Alek was very excited about it. It is so cute. He was telling how I have to take care of it and how they plant flowers and how they grow. So sweet!

Things that I love and that make me smile:

They way they say certain words:
Alek: smarshsmellow, gaal (girl), Corlie (for Corie, our dog), tweezlers (tweezers)
Maks: Melmo (Elmo), Alyek (Alek), mooooose and moooon (he just drags the word out so long and when he sees a bus, he yells bus! and that says boop boop for his horn sound.

Funny things Alek says:
"Mom, Dad, you are a genius!"
"Well actually...."
"Mom, your my princess"
When he didn't have a great day behavior wise at school and I was talking to him about it: "Well mom, that is why I shouldn't go to school".
I love how he wants to marry me (well there is me, KeKe, Isabelle, Molly...) I tried to explain you can only have one wife, he said no he is marrying everyone!
I love when after playing with KeKe or Isabelle, he says, "she's my gaal".

Maks-will show a month's old boo boo to anyone new he meets, he says Hi and gets sad and holds his thumb out and says booboo
I love how he holds tight around my neck when we are hugging or when I am carrying him.
I love his excitement now when he sees me, he is smiling and keeps yelling mama mama. I love that he gets excited over family pictures on the fridge and says everyone's name. I love that he shares my love for shoes!!!

I love how daddy has instilled his fascination with trucks in both boys, they love construction sites. Alek wants to be a "worker" like daddy when he grows up.

I love how they all wrestle together at night, poor daddy gets the worst of it! I love to watch daddy pitch them balls in the yard and their excitement when they get a hit.

I love watching them learn new things each day, it just amazes me. I love how excited Alek gets when he gets his letters right in his Phonics computer or how proud he is when he writes out his letters on paper. I love how his drawings of people are all head with arms and legs and no bodies. I love that when the boys are coloring, they only like one color per picture-it cracks me up.

I love their belly laughs and giggles when they slide down the stairs or when they are supposed to be hiding from me during hide and seek-they haven't quite figured out how much noise travels.

Most of all I just love having the opportunity to watch these two little guys grow!

My turn

Last week was my turn to blow out the candles. As usual Alek was disappointed there was no big party, but he settled for singing and cake.

We ate outside as it was a gorgeous spring day. The boys were dirty and muddy and at least let me wash their hands before digging in, but wanted no parts of their faces being scrubbed yet!

Kevin surprised me with a beautiful new Adirondack chair for the front porch, so I was a happy girl! Now I can sit out front, read and be a nosy neighbor!

Saturday night we spent in Philly with friends. It was a good time and the Flyers won a great game too. The mojitos I enjoyed were fabulous and had me dreaming of the islands!

Grammom and Poppy kept the boys overnight and were craziness to also have Joe and Reilly stay over. 4 kids under the age of 5, God bless them. I checked in around 5:30, just as Poppy was unlocking Joe and Alek from the bathroom, apparently the boys thought it was funny to lock themselves in. Maks and Reilly competed for Poppy's attention and potty time as well.

They had fun, but I am sure it will be awhile before Grammom and Poppy volunteer for that kind of adventure again!

So it was a fun birthday for sure!!

Two weeks until my surgery. I have pre admission testing this week and my nerves have really kicked in, I have had way too much time to think about this and way too much time to question whether I should go through with it!

It just needs to get here and I just need to get it over with!

Happy Birthday!

(that scowl looks very familiar!)

Happy Birthday Kevin!! So I guess you are officially, over the hill now--but still looking pretty darn good!!

Alek was looking forward to a big party, he wanted to jump out and yell surprise, but daddy beat us home.

So we settled for some singing and cake.

Hopefully the new birthday grill will be ready for pick up this weekend!

Wonder what the chef will be grilling up?

Happy Birthday! We love you and hope this year is extra special and extra fun!!

Soccer starts

What a nice weekend we had. Saturday morning we spent at a Family Fun day set up by the international adoption clinic at CHOP. There were all different play stations and lots of activities. It was so nice to meet up with some families I had only spoken to online. It is wonderful to see all these amazing, beautiful families, and children from all over the world. Alek thought they were all from Russia, but I explained to him all the different countries of the kiddos he met. Once Maks warmed up to the situation, he really enjoyed himself. He loved the basketball nets and the moonbounce the best. Alek loved the moonbounce and swimming. He was so proud of himself that he did two flips in the water without taking a breath, he said next time he wants to do 3.

It was such a great morning, we all enjoyed ourselves.

The boys were even more excited to wake up from nap to find out Keeley and Ryan were coming up to play. As we were going to bed, Alek said he had such a fun day and wanted to do it all again tomorrow.

Today was the first day of soccer. Alek started with an ear infection last night, thankfully in the ear where the one tube is left, so it is draining well and the drops seem to help. Alek was very excited for soccer, especially since his shirts this season are orange. His favorite color. He did great during practice sesssion, altho it was so windy and he was complaining his ear hurt. Next up was game, he was ready, started taking the ball down field, and it was taken away by the opposing team and then came the tears. He was so mad they took it away. He went out and tried again, but he kept getting so upset. I could tell his ear was hurting him and it was draining alot. So we called it a day, apologized to the coach and headed home. Hopefully next week is a little better!! He said he would practice with daddy this week.

Isn't it Ironic?

Since being diagnosed with endometriosis 8 years ago, I knew eventually I would be looking at a more permanent treatment option. I have tried every medication (including a clinical trial), many surgeries, and alternative treatments. Everything works for awhile and then my symptoms rear their ugly head again.
Since our family is complete and we had no desire to ever try to get pregnant, I focused on just dealing with my pain. I had a good run for a little over a year, but the past six months I pretty much have been taking anti-inflammatories daily. I knew I was risking GI issues, so it was time to discuss the H word (hysterectomy). After several consults and discussions, I made my decision.

It is finally scheduled for May 12th, yes the day after Mother's Day. Kind of ironic to me that all I will be having removed was supposed to make me a mother, but didn't. Well I guess in a round about way, they did. They failed and we now have our two awesome boys and experienced the journey of a lifetime, so I guess I should really thank them for it. I have fondly named these parts, "the bitches". Seemed like a fun name for the group. I know this is the right decision as this is definitely affecting my quality of life and I have lots of worries of my increased risks of ovarian cancer as well. But it was definitely a tough decision to make.

I have definitely been going thru a wide range of emotions. I am looking forward to getting it over with and being able to hopefully live each day pain free. But I am also sad at losing part of what makes you a woman? I also am scared, scared at being young and going on HRT, scared of surgery and all the what ifs.
Thankfully I will be undergoing this laproscopically using the Da Vinci system (it is actually pretty cool). This makes my recovery time significantly shorter ( 2 weeks is all I will be out of work), altho I have been forewarned that it could take awhile to feel back to normal in terms of energy and strength. But I am optomistic.

So hopefully this all goes smoothly and by the end of the summer I will be a new and improved woman!!
I will try to enjoy my last month with the "bitches" and say my good byes!

To be a kid again

The boys have their new favorite game, I know, probably won't win me the Mother of the Year award I have been vying for, but I so remember doing this with my brother and the rug burns on the belly and all the laughs that went along with it. It totally cracks me up watching them do this.

Some Easter pics

Easter was nice. The day before we did the rounds and visited Granny and Pop Pop and Grammom and Poppy. The boys got to do an egg hunt at Granny's which they loved and they got golf clubs and a soccer ball from Grammom and Poppy, so they definitely had a good day.

That night, T came over to babysit as Kevin and I had a birthday party to attend. The boys dyed Easter eggs with her and Alek told me how fun it was. The egss turned out cute too.

I had asked Alek what they did and he told me, they "laid" eggs with TT. So cute. I started calling him my little hen that day-he didn't like that too much.

So the eggs were hidden the next morning. The boys did their egg hunt and received their baskets (as the bunny was lazy this year, the pirate and sports themed baskets from Target had to suffice). They were a big hit and Maks loved his new nerf football and Alek loved playing pirate.

Alek and I went to church. Unfortunately he didn't want to go to children's church as he didn't want to leave me, so he sat thru the whole service, he did great aside from dropping his sippy cup in the middle of prayer. I thought the older woman in front of me was going to have a heart attack!

We spent Easter dinner with Pop and Noni at Nana and Uncle Billy's house. More presents of course, the boys had fun chasing the cat around, I know she was happy to see us leave!

Dinner was nice and it was great spending some quiet time with Nana, well as quiet as you can get with my two!

So that was our Easter, low key and fun.

We have definitely been enjoying the warmer weather and playing outside every afternoon. It has been great!!

Like the new look?

I think I finally finished the update! I figured since we are raising to rough and tumble boys I really needed to drop the pink color, then I found all this fun new stuff to add. Like the visitor counter, the slide show and music playlist at the bottom and the current events.
Fun stuff!
Hope you like the new look!

Interesting article

There is an article today in The Moscow Times, called The Politics of Adoption (click to read). Most of us in the Russian adoption world have heard all the stories and read the articles of adoptions gone bad, parents losing control and hurting, even killing their newly adopted children. While these cases are such a minority in numbers, they have created a backlash in Russian adoption over the past several years, regions closing, new rules, psych and 8 doctor medical evaluations for potential parents, push to ban independent (non agency adoptions in Russia). Obviously this is completely understandable, there should be as many safeguards as possible in place. But what always bothered me was the twist put on these cases by the Russian media. Adoptive parents in the US were made out to be monsters, people who only wanted adopt the children to hurt or kill them, there were articles that children were being adopted so their organs could be harvested! Americans were the evil doers that must be stopped!
Never in these articles did it mention how many children were languishing in Russian orphanages, how many parents had their parental rights stripped, how many children in Russia were harmed or killed by foster parents, adoptive parents or while in an orpahange, there was never any comparison.
This was the first article that actually states some of the facts, statistics and comparisons, so it was actually nice to read. I give the author a great deal of credit for writing this article. For once Americans were not monsters.

One child's death is one too many in my book. So much more needs to be done on educating parents during their homestudy process, throughout their adoption and once home. pre-adoptive parents need to know that it isn't always sunshine and roses, yes in many cases it can be, but it is good to read about the other side as well. Though as much as we read and educate ourselves, we just will never know how will would react in a given situation.
And while education is a big piece, I believe that more importantly parents need to have it instilled in them that it is OK to ask for help, it is ok to acknowledge that they are drowning. This does not make them bad people or bad parents. I think all parents should be given a list of phone numbers of people they can contact in an emergency situation. It would be great if there was a hotline or something like that. Maybe agencies and social workers should follow-up more frequently once the family is home, know the right questions to ask, encourage the parents to talk openly.
I think the more these issues are talked about openly and honestly, the less taboo it becomes and the less people will feel like failures if they ask for help.
I know the knee jerk reaction is to think how horrible these adults are (which well may be the case), but It is easy to see how alot of these situations occur. You work and wait long and hard to build your family, all the while having this vision and dream in your head of what your family will look like, all the great things you will do with your child, how perfect it will all be. Then all of a sudden there is this reality, nothing like you have ever thought about or picture, like a bad nightmare, a raging angry child, who won't sleep, wants no part of you, is injuring themselves or maybe others in your house. How can a parent not get overwhelmed or feel like they may lose control? We read and researched and I have always felt prepared, but truthfully I don't know how I would have dealt with any extraordinary situation. I consider ourselves extremely lucky and blessed that all of our issues thus far have been minor.
Hopefully things will change with agencies and professionals and hopefully soon we will see less and less of heartbreaking stories.

Ok so I am rambling now, that means time to end this post!

How they change

I love looking back and watching how much they grow! April 2005 was our first Easter as a family. It just amazes me to see our little baby turn into a little man. And the difference in a year with Maks is really cool. He doesn't have that baby face anymore!! They are just so stinkin cute, I can't help but smile!

Spring portraits

It is that time of year again for our spring/Easter portraits, wait Easter? Wasn't yesterday St. Patrick's Day? So weird, how early Easter is this year!

I got myself all geared up for our picture session, ready to herd the cats as usual. I have to say it was too bad. Despite Maks' reluctance at first, they were both pretty cooperative and we got quite a few good poses.

I chose some favorites but may have to go back and check out the other pictures as the boys were definitely getting antsy at this point.

We also stopped to see the Easter Bunny, as expected Maks wanted no parts, he was not digging the fluffy fellow. Alek walked right up and sat next to him and started chatting away, telling him what he wanted for Easter. I had to explain it is not like Santa.

It was a fun day and the boys looked very handsome in their outfits!

Party Pics

Can't believe it has taken me this long to get some party pics on here! Alek's jungle birthday party was a success. He had a blast. The kids seemed to enjoy the little safari they went on (they had to find all the animals on their safari passport checklist). Next up was the lizard and snake hunt, they loved that they could keep what they found.

We had a pin the nose on the elephant game (thanks to C as I have no artistic talent what so ever!)

And then the Zebra pinata, where there were some technical issues as its hook broke with the firt smack, so the poor thing was strung up by the neck to finish off the game. As usual the kids love the scramble for candy!

Alek was so happy to continue the day by having Jakey stay over.

It was a fun time despite the crazy weather outside. Still can't believe my baby is 4!

What were they thinking?

Yesterday I was on my way home from the movies, was in a great mood after a wonderful weekend with Alek's party and being able to sneak out for a movie. As I am driving I pull up next to an old pick-up truck, I look over and see 4 people in the front seat with a woman holding a baby who appeared to be abot 7-8 months on her lap. Unrestrained, bouncing around about one foot from the windshield, my mouth dropped. the adults were all chit chatting and laughing. I glared at the man until the light turned. I followed behind, I wasn't sure what to do, all I kept thinking is if they hit the breaks even a little hard that child is thru the window, it made me sick.
So I called 911, since it is a law in PA for children under 4 to be in safety seats. I told them where we were, where the truck was headed and its license number. She asked if I wanted to continue to follow them, I really didn't as I wanted to get home to my kiddos and it was stressing me out too much, but I gave them my number, she said she was alerting the police in the 2 townships we were near. That made me feel better, but I still feel guilty, like I should have followed just in case there was an accident, I am a nurse, I should have helped more.

I just don't understand how people would think that is ok or not care enough about their baby to want to keep them protected. How do they not know better?
Extra hugs and kisses were given to Alek and Maks when I got home, it just made me so sad.