Funny quiz

I was hoping for JFK....

You Are Most Like Bill Clinton

No doubt, your legacy may be a little seedier than you'd like. But even though you've done some questionable things, you're still loved by almost all.

What Modern US President Are You Most Like?

Our vacation

We spent a week at the beach in Delaware. Thanks Pop and Noni for the use of the house! It was a fabulous week weather wise, especially for August. No humidity, beautiful breeze, good water temp. It was a relaxing week, well as relaxing as you can get with our two guys!

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Anniversaries and referrals

Saturday, August 16th marked our 4th Family day with Alek. Four years ago a kind albeit stern looking judge in Kirov granted our adoption of Alek and made us parents after so many years of waiting!

It is hard to believe that it has been four years and our baby has become a boy. What an amazing and fun adventure it has been for us, there are no words to describe how much happiness he has brought into our lives, we are truly lucky and thankful!

Monday, August 18th marks the day we received Maks' referral, a month before we thought! I got the call at work and unfortunately could not get the email with the pictures there. So Kevin got to see him first this time, as I got to see Alek's picture first.

I was so excited when I opened that email and saw his beautiful little face and red hair. We could not wait to go meet this special little guy!Unfortunately we had to wait over a month for that meeting, but it was all the more special as it occurred on his 1st birthday. So while there were firsts that we missed, we were able to share that special day with him!

What excitement, fun, and noise Maks has brought into our lives. It is so amazing watching the boys together, well not when they fight, but when they are happily playing together. They are truly brothers and they have made our lives complete!

"One gets only a day or two in an entire lifetime as incredible as the day we first saw your face"

(Nancy McGuire Roche)

Video, warning tear jerker

This video has definitely made the rounds, I have cried each time I see it, so I thought I would add it here for those who have not yet had the pleasure. Get your tissues though!

Fort Fun

One of the joys of boys, is they love forts. I think this was our best yet!! Especially the extra little crawl spaces inside under the stools!

There was even enough room for daddy to squeeze in, although that was definitely not a cute enough picture to post here!

What were you doing 4 years ago today?

We were meeting this amazing little man who changed our lives forever. One look from those gorgeous blue eyes and one smile from his sweet face and we were in love!

We are so blessed and thankful to have Alek in our lives.

They love the beach

We spent another weekend down at Pop and Noni's place on the beach. This time was even more special for the boys as they brought their friend, Megs with them. She played with them in the water and on the beach and went on alot of rides with them. They all had a blast. It was nice to have a little mother's helper around as well. It was great escape as there was a nice breeze at the beach while back home was baking in a heat wave, with high 90's and no air.

Thanks to the little pool at home, Maks is getting alot braver in the water and thankfully the calmness of the bay helped alot too. Alek was a maniac in the water as usual. My little fish.

Noni bought a fun new pool for the backyard, which they had a blast in after the beach. We enjoyed a fun night on the boardwalk. We had dinner at my favorite pizza place and our waitress just happened to be from Yaroslav, Russia, she knew exactly where Kirov was.

Then it was on to the rides. Maks definitely enjoyed them alot more than last year, although he was a little unsure of the airplane one.

Alek went on the bumper cars with Megs and he loved it. He was telling Meg which car to hit, he was cracking it, it was so cute. I even got to go on a ride, so that was fun for me. It was a great weekend and they already keep asking me when we are going back down, thankfully just a 2 week wait.

Alek has been obsessed lately with baseball, mainly his hitting, but now him and Daddy are into having catches. Alek started using a glove and is doing pretty good. He has a great arm as well!

Maks' stats and Alek's fib

Maks had his 6 month follow-up with his asthma specialist. He is doing well. He was fighting off a cold, but nothing hanging out in his lungs. So we just started our flare protocol to be sure.

Anyway, they did his measurements and he is now 36.6 inches and 30 pounds. So since his October 2 yr well check up, he has grown 4.6 inches! He still weighs the same though, he is really thinning out!! I guess it is all the extra activity and chasing after Alek.

Alek finished up his sports camp and got a certificate, he was so proud! I know he was a little sad saying good bye to coach Zoe, he told me he misses her.

We had a first last night with Alek, not one we are proud to announce. He told his first lie. It made me so sad and caught me off guard too, so I hope I handled it ok.
I know at this age they don't really grasp the concept, so I tried to instill in him that while he still may get in trouble for whatever he did wrong, lying about it only makes it worse.
He was one sad boy last night. We talked more today about what is the truth and what is not, he seemed to understand a little more.
I am sure this is just the first of many to come-yikes! What scares me even more is how quick this kid thinks on his feet!!

Safety

Unfortunately, many times it takes a tragedy to remind us how precious life is and how quickly it can be taken away.
There is a news story making its way through the adoption community and it is one that many of us have heard before, especially in the summer months. Child is accidently left or forgotten in a car, the child dies.
This time the child was a toddler, recently adopted from Russia, home only 3 months.

My post is not to talk about this horrifying tragedy nor to debate what should be done to the parents in these types of situations, but rather a reminder that we all should be taking safety precautions when it comes to our kids.

I know when Alek first came home and also prior to that, I remember hearing a couple of these stories and they shook me to the bone. Not because I was condemning the parents or thinking how on earth could they do such a thing, but more because of a fear, was I or my husband ever capable of making a mistake like this? Could you get so tired or so out of sorts that you could forget your child was with you? I remember those days before my kids when I was on auto pilot going to work. You know those times when you think, God I don't even remember driving here. It really freaked me out and I knew I had to do something so we would never become one of those horror stories. Approximately 36 children per year die this way.

From then on, I started putting my handbag and my bags for work on the back seat floor. It was one simple extra step I could do. It was just like the child proofing measures we take around the house, gates, cabinet locks, outlet guards. No one questions why parents do these things, we know how quickly kids can get into things, we know how it only takes a second of turning our backs or running to the bathroom for tragedy to happen.
So why not take this extra step for your car and your morning routine?

Come up with a plan, especially if your routine is changed, someone else is doing drop off. Call each other. If you are a single parent, make a plan with your day care provider, that if you don't show up by a certain time, they will call you.
I call Kevin every morning after I drop the boys off. He leaves for work before we even get up. That way he knows the boys are ok and in school and I can fill in him on the morning shenanigans.
Not too long ago, I forgot to call him, I got caught up listening to a show on NPR and he called me. So simple, so easy to make it your new routine.

So please remember this, talk to your friends and co-workers, a simple conversation could potentially save a life.

For more info and tips, please check out:
http://www.kidsandcars.org/

Sharing

The boys met a milestone together which is so cool! We have been trying to teach Alek how to swing on his own, he has always resisted. He just likes one of us pushing him and that is ok.

I guess thanks to some of his friends at school he finally started to do it! And then in one day, Maks was doing it, at 2 1/2 yrs old! He does it really good, we were so impressed. I guess he just really wanted to keep up with Alek. It is alot of fun watching them do it. They both will stay on the swing for a long time.

Thankfully no one has tried the flying leap off the swing yet, although with these two daredevils, I am sure that is just around the corner!

More pictures

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Long weekend fun

We had a very nice 3 day weekend, despite the weather. I finally talked to Kevin into one of those above the ground pool jobs. He fought it for so long, but finally caved. Of course he has been in it almost as much as the kids! The kids love it and it is perfect depth for both of them. They were so excited when it was finally set up.

We were pretty lazy the morning of the 4th, so we didn't get to any parades. It was rainy as well. Friends came up for some BBQ fun. We could see some fireworks from our house, so that was perfect. Didn't want to take Maks as he still scares a bit easily. So it was the perfect set up.

Maks was a maniac with the shrimp cocktail, he was addicted, he kept coming back for more, we had to finally cut him off. The kid is an eating machine!!

Saturday, Alek and I took in WALL E, the movie. It was cute, a little slow beginning in regards to talking, so hard to hold a littler ones attention, but it picked up and was pretty cute. Alek said he like Horton better.

Sunday, more friends came up to enjoy the new pool. So it was a fun yet relaxing weekend all around!

Alek started mini sports camp today. It lasts for the week. It was really cute and he had a great time. Maks liked it because it is at the park, so he gets to play around a bit too!

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Happy 4th of July!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Your life in 6 words

Ok, I have been hit with this via email several times today--your life in six words-wow-that is a tough one! Of course this consumed too much of my time and thoughts today, I had a very hard time getting it under 10 words.

What kept running through my mind was: Relax, there's always wine in the fridge. But not everyone would appreciate that humor.
Then I was thinking about that old poem about boys and girls: Snakes and snails and puppydog tails...
This is what I finally came up with, I tried to do funny or crazy, but wound up with mushy, oh well, at least I got it to six words!

Life is a leap of faith.

Ok so I am forwarding the email to my none blogging friends and sending the challenge to the following blogger gals: Kristen, Beth, Tanya, Marie, Teresa, and Patti. You are up girls! Lets see your answers on your blog or in my comments! Good luck!

Boys or Girls?

Found this article the other day and I have to say, I felt like it spoke directly to me!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/06/17/harder.to.raise/index.html

This paragraph really helped me feel better about raising boys.

"DISCIPLINE Who's harder? Boys
Why don't boys seem to listen? Turns out their hearing is not as good as girls' right from birth, and this difference only gets greater as kids get older. Girls' hearing is more sensitive in the frequency range critical to speech discrimination, and the verbal centers in their brains develop more quickly. That means a girl is likely to respond better to discipline strategies such as praise or warnings like "Don't do that" or "Use your words." "Boys tend to be more tactile -- they may need to be picked up and plunked in a time-out chair," Gurian says. They're also less verbal and more impulsive, he adds, which is especially evident in the toddler and preschool years.
These developmental differences contribute to the mislabeling of normal behavior as problematic, a growing number of observers say. Five boys for every one girl are diagnosed with a "disorder" (including conduct disorder, bipolar disorder, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, sensory integration disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder), says Stein, also the author of "Unraveling the ADD/ADHD Fiasco." Some kids -- most often boys -- may simply fall on the more robust end of normal. They need more opportunities to expend energy and aggression, as well as firmer limits"

Our guys are definitely active, they love physical activities and they have alot of energy. While I joke how tiring it is, I love it, I love how they want to try new things, how they are not afraid to explore and test their limits. To me it goes along with their self confidence. I have watched Maks over the past year and a half, go from being afraid of everything to trying to keep up with his brother in most activites.

But, I also love how Alek will plop himself on the floor with a pile of books and sit there for an hour just paging through and reading or how he gets excited with the games on his little laptop and how well he can write all his letters and our names. I love how Maks will sit and build extensive creations with his Legos and how he loves to fix anything that seems to be broken. He is our little engineer or architect.

I have heard many of the comments from people, especially if we are at parties or outdoor activities, about how "busy" are boys are. I always wonder what that is "code" for. Most of the time I don't think it is a compliment!

Of course that sometimes it is hard not to question-are they really that "busy", is there something wrong with them? My gut screams no, they are doing great, but as a parent, especially adoptive parent, you still feel like you have to research and read until you are blue in the face. So I have read every article on every disorder, talked to our pediatrician, talked to their teachers, and compared my kids to the checklists (red flags and what to look for...) and come to the conclusion they are just happy, active boys.

So that is why this article was so great for me to read and for Kevin as well.

"Some kids -- most often boys -- may simply fall on the more robust end of normal. They need more opportunities to expend energy and aggression, as well as firmer limits"

Yep, that is Alek and Maks and I wouldn't want them any other way!