Cricket Hunter

I have no idea how this got started today. Andrik loves bugs and he has no fear when it comes to holding bugs, getting close to bugs, etc. Artem is the opposite; he's like a squirmy little girl when it comes to bugs. This afternoon the boys were enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having and Andrik came across a cricket on the patio. I think he must have ingested a little too much of our bug spray because it was on it's death bed but still Andrik wanted to hold it and look at it much to his brother's horror. When Andrik put it down for a minute to go in the house to get a drink, his brother did the unthinkable...which resulted in a solid half hour of Andrik hunting for that poor little cricket.

Video Time

Andrik's speech is making great progress in the past month. He's always used full sentences, we just haven't been able to understand any of the words he's saying in those sentences. :) But lately his enunciation is getting much better and we can understand him a lot more.

The last time I got his speech on video was November and when I go back and watch the video I can't believe how much his speech has improved. I guess it's one of those things you don't notice when you are around a child day in and day out.

We are working on counting to ten so I grabbed the camera to record some of our practice tonight. There's a little jump in the video...I had to edit out the scene where my son ripped a major toot on camera. You're welcome!

Lesson Learned

One of our children refused to get dressed today, anyone want to guess which son didn't believe me when I told him I would leave the house to run my errands with our without him in clothes?

I instructed our oldest child to get dressed so I could run my errands and he told me, "No". So I simply told him it was his choice to get dressed or go out in his pajamas. I think he thought the idea of going out in his pajamas would be fun and when he refused to put shoes on, I grabbed my keys and walked out of the house. I wish the picture could better show you which socks he grabbed at the last minute when he realized I meant business and was really leaving.

And can you guess which child told me he didn't need a jacket despite me telling him it was very cold outside (in the upper 40's) and had to learn that lesson on his own as well?

Luckily for me I crossed paths with a few women that noticed Artem was in his pajamas and obviously very cold and suspected I was trying to teach him a lesson and they commented on his clothing and laughed as he walked away. He told me, "I don't like it when they laugh at me," so I asked him why they were laughing and he hung his head down and said, "Because I look funny in my pajamas and I'm cold." Ding, ding, ding...we have a winner!! Perhaps tomorrow when I tell him he needs to get dressed he will remember today's experience.

I can only hope he stands up to peer pressure when he's a teenager the way he tries to stand up to his mother!

Holy Growth Spurt

Don't let these innocent eyes...


...and the little button nose fool you...

...this little eating machine that's working on a double chin...

...is eating us out of house and home and has now grown FOUR inches since August which moved him into the 25th % for height. He asks for seconds on pork tenderloin and spinach, tells me he wants more cheese tortellini, and ate me under the table when he devoured five adult size pancakes for breakfast last week.

At this rate, we'll need Artem to take on a paper route to pay the grocery bill.

Good Clean Cream Fun

What do you do with two energetic children when the skies outside look like this and are predicted to remain cold and gray for the next few days?


First you spend the previous two days of good weather at the park running your boys like they are training for an Olympic track event in hopes of burning off all excess energy currently being stored in their wee bodies.

Then you go to the store and stock up on all the necessary commodities; bread, milk, mini marshmallows (you can't have hot cocoa without them!), and DVR as many suitable movies as your storage space will allow and prepare to be housebound for awhile.

Our time spent indoors has gone surprisingly well so far and one of the activities I planned for the boys to try was some shaving cream fun. Andrik didn't really know what to make of it at first. You could tell he wanted to get messy but at the same time he kept looking at me like, "I really get to stick my hands in this mess?"


It only took a little bit of encouragement for him to dive in and get messy.


Artem took off from the moment I said, "Hey boys, I have an idea..."

Still not real sure about this stuff stuck to his hands...

But he finally got the hang of it and had a blast!

I used the time to get Artem to practice his handwriting. I'm trying to teach him to stop writing ARTEM and start writing Artem, and I had Andrik practice drawing his shapes. He loved drawing circles and I heard him use the word "kirkle" for the first time. It was so cute to see him try to draw a circle over and over again and hear him say, "Kirkle....kirkle....kirrrrkle" as he drew the shapes.

The boys stayed remarkably clean without much fussing from me. Andrik must have had an itch.

Our eldest son and clearly a gifted child used the shaving cream as puppets and started making his hands talk to each other. Such a shame I didn't get that on video. He could have used it for his MENSA application.

I've done this activity with my students throughout the years I spent in the classroom and this is the first time I used shaving gel rather than cream. If you try it at home, use the cream, it doesn't dry up as fast and is much easier to clean up. Give it a try! Your kids will have a lot of fun, your counter tops will be super clean, and your kitchen will smell lovely!

Oh dear, I think the shaving cream fumes are getting to someone!

Ruff-N-It No More

The move to Dubai has required us to downsize some of our belongings since we can't ship everything overseas and it wouldn't be cost prohibitive to store other things for the next two years. Some possessions I'll be happy to see go like our circa 1970's end tables that we inherited from Randy's grandmother but other things have been downright painful to say goodbye to like Randy's big truck we refer to as Big Red. But the hardest thing to get rid of has been our travel trailer, Ruff-N-It, which joined a new family today.


Some of the best times we've had are the times spent camping in our travel trailer. I use the word "camping" loosely since our travel trailer had satellite TV, surround sound, full kitchen with microwave, skylights, rocking chairs, and a queen size bed with memory foam mattress topper. It's better living than my dorm room days in college; but still camping nonetheless.

This picture was in our dossier for both adoptions and was in the baby books that we left in the orphanage for the boys to look through after we met them. We love to camp. Period.


Where else can you get away with bed head at four o'clock in the afternoon? I'll tell you where...in your travel trailer while camping!


It was a camping trip last summer when our oldest child mastered these moves after gloating over his victory at playing ladder ball.


I took this photo of Randy and Artem feeding fish when we had Ruff-N-It in Florida while Randy took powered paragliding lessons.

Forget Hawaii or some tropical resort, this is where I love to spend my days! (For the record, the Waverunner is NOT being sold, that baby is being stored, I don't care how much we'll pay in storage fees!!)

And let's face it, my bottom is made for lounge chair living, or maybe too much lounge chair living has given me this bottom.

As sad as I am to see our travel trailer go, I know what awaits us in Dubai will bring just as many good memories and the way I see it, when we return to the states we can buy another travel trailer that's even bigger!!

I think I just heard Randy groan, I better quit while I'm ahead!

Passport!

It's time to celebrate, say it with me, "Woohoo"!!

Andrik's passport arrived today!

We applied for Andrik's US passport on December 20th and it arrived in the mail today! We did not pay for expedited service but Artem's passport only took two weeks to arrive at the house so I was confident that Andrik's passport would arrive quickly as well. Now we just need to have all of his original documents returned to us. They mail them separately for security reasons.

I'm so happy to get one more thing checked off the "to-do" list for our move to Dubai.

A Busy December

Just like everyone else, December has been a very busy month for us. Randy was able to come home to Texas for the holidays and we had Andrik's court hearing for his Recognition of Foreign Adoption which officially declares him a Texan and gives him a Texas birth certificate. His birth certificate is a Russian birth certificate with an English translation page stapled to the back. We feel it will be easier for our boys to have TX birth certificates for all the things they will deal with in life that requires that form of identification and if it is ever lost, it will be much easier for them to get another one from the state rather than ordering another one from Russia.

Our judge was very kind, the hearing was short, and you can see by Andrik's expression, it was a thrilling moment in his young life. :) The Recognition of Foreign Adoption is very, very easy and we used a lawyer out of Austin named Denise Hyde for both of our boy's court cases and she is wonderful. If anyone needs her contact information just let me know.

Santa spoiled the boys this year and the big hit with Artem was his Toy Story Woody doll while Andrik couldn't get enough of his Chapstick! Santa could have saved a lot of money had he known that a .99 cent tube of Chapstick was going to be the most prized possession of the day. I worry that Andrik now has a borderline unhealthy addiction to Chapstick. He calls it "lips" and walks around the house asking, "Lips? Lips?" when he can't find his Chapstick.

Artem showing off his moves on the new Wii balance board. Notice his tube of Chapstick sitting on the balance board. We really could have saved a bundle this year if we would have just wrapped up packs of Chapsticks for the boys.

One of the new traditions we started this year were Christmas shaped pancakes served on Christmas morning. I found these cute pancake molds at Williams and Sonoma; a reindeer, snowman, and elf are included. They were easy to make and you can't help but feel good when you see them in the pan.

So cute! (We told the boys the powered sugar was snow)

With daddy home the boys have soaked up the extra one-on-one time and thanks to some fresh oranges from Nana and Pops house in Florida, we had day after day of fresh squeezed orange juice. Delicious!

Wood working in the garage with daddy...

Kite flying at the park with daddy...

LOVE those baby blues!!

2010 was an incredible year for us and 2011 looks just as promising with our big move to Dubai in just two short months. We are truly blessed with two gorgeous, healthy little Russians, Randy's job, family and friends that love us, and our health; you can't ask for much more than that! Happy New Years from our family to yours!