Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag

As you know Randy's been working overseas in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates for two and a half years while Artem and I have traveled back and forth depending on the time of the year.  Now that Andrik is home and our family is complete we are ready to start the next chapter in our lives.  I'll let the boys fill you in...

Both of our boys originally traveled to the United States on Russian passports since they were still Russian citizens when we adopted them.  As soon as we touched down on US soil they became citizens, but we still had to go through the process of getting their US passports.  Artem already has his but right now we are working on getting Andrik's US Passport and Texas birth certificate and as soon as we get those in hand, the movers will be here to pack up the house for the long boat ride overseas.  We are going to sell our house here in central Texas, ship our cars overseas, and become full time expats in UAE.  And as much as we have enjoyed Abu Dhabi, we have decided to move to Dubai (about an hour north) and get a house in a neighborhood instead of the downtown high rise in Abu Dhabi that we have now.  We have a lot to do in a short amount of time, but we are hoping to be in Dubai by March!   

Teachable Moments

I read Artem one of my favorite Thanksgiving stories, "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie" and I've been working with him on noticing the details that illustrators use in their drawings.  In this particular story, the old lady comes to the house on the thinner side and by the end after eating all the items in the story, she's a rather large gal.  A couple pages into the story, I stopped to ask Artem if he noticed anything about the woman and what the illustrator might be trying to tell us with her pictures.  You can see the page below, take a good look at her.

It went something like this:

Me:  "Artem, do you see anything different about the old lady?"

Artem: *studies the picture*

Me:  "What do you think the illustrator wants you to notice about her?"

Artem:  *completely serious*

Artem:  "That she got her boobs."

How in the world do you follow up on that one?  You don't, you just nod and move on to the next page. 

I Knew This Day Would Come

I ordered Artem the Pottery Barn Kids Holiday bedding and it arrived today while he was napping. I was so excited to show it to him and when he woke up I told him he had a big surprise in the kitchen. He ran in the kitchen, I made a big production of opening the box and pulling all of the bedding out and then sat there waiting for him to gush, "Oh mama, that's the best surprise you've ever bought for me!!" Instead I got, "That's my surprise? Can I take the box outside and play in the dirt?"

In all fairness, what four year old would get that excited over holiday bedding?

Artem took the box outside and for the next glorious hour, the boys played together with that box.

I knew this day would finally come! I see more and more of this each day, more interactive play between the boys, more give and take as friends instead of strangers. I think Artem has finally figured out that Andrik makes a pretty good playmate and Andrik's motor skills are getting stronger and he can keep up with big brother when they play together.

But it wasn't all fun and games...

...until someone got a bucket stuck on his face!!

Low Man On The Totem Pole

Some days Artem says the sweetest things that absolutely make my heart melt. And other days, well...

This morning he wakes up and immediately starts to tell me what his favorite things are. "First I like (holding up one finger) firefighters, and second I like (touching his middle finger) Bella, and then I like (holding up just one finger again) Daddy, and then I like...long pause...long pause...YOU!"

Really? I rank below firefighters and the family dog? Someone needs to teach this boy that the woman who butters his bread and wipes his bottom better move up that totem pole if he would like to continue this posh life he's living!

Happy Birthday Artem!

Artem saw two big milestones today, he turned four and he finally mastered snapping. I hope we don't regret the later. We don't throw big birthday parties for our children opting to take them somewhere for a birthday experience and this year Artem chose to go to the zoo.

It was a perfect, brisk fall day today and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take advantage of the changing leaves we are seeing here in central Texas and snap a few pictures of the boys.


The zoo was practically empty and we spent several hours visiting with the animals...






collecting leaves...


and...oh my...I'm not sure what is happening here!


After a big lunch and one last lap around the zoo, we called it a day and headed home.


Five and a half hours of zoo exploration and driving and I was starting to feel a connection with this bear.


Artem's birthday present was a new two wheel bike. I had big plans to take all kinds of fantastic pictures of him learning to ride a two wheeler but Bike Riding 101 didn't go so well. The first five seconds saw Artem "crash" (and I use that term lightly) into the grass and he was done with his new bike.


But it was nothing that some birthday cupcakes couldn't cure! All is well in the world again.

Happy Fourth Birthday Artem! We love you very much!

Conversations With Andrik

Andrik's speech development definitely lags behind his peers but the little guy is catching up as fast as he can. At two years old, Artem had a HUGE vocabulary, but couldn't put 2-3 word sentences together to save his life. Andrik doesn't have the vocabulary but regularly puts 3 word sentences together like, "More juice please." Lately it seemed he had plateaued with his language development, but that all changed this past week when he added socks, trash truck, choo choo, potty, and milk to his vocabulary in a matter of two days. Now he's adding one to two new words a day to his repertoire.

While Artem napped, I had some one-on-one time with Andrik and grabbed the video recorder to capture some of his new vocabulary. He has the sweetest "little" voice. :)