Wow!It has been awhile!

We Celebrate Homecoming Day!

We have had Alex home for a year! What a year it has been. To see the growth in this guy has been amazing! He is growing physically as well as emotionally. We are so blessed. He is really a little character.

We can go places and return home without it causing major trauma. We are making progress. Alex loves to swim. Adam and Alex have enjoyed many days in the pool swimming. We started Alex in a support vest at the beginning of summer and have removed all the floating pads....so he is swimming all over the pool by himself. He will swim for hours given the opportunity.

It is fun to see Adam and Alex together. Do we have brother moments? We sure do! those moments when they pester and get on each others nerves.....but we also have the most loving moments you can imagine. That is what it is all about! A year of challenges but most of all of blessings!!!!BIG BLESSINGS!

See our you tube video:Russian adoption Alex's First year

July the 4th!!

We had a fun fourth of July. We started the weekend by going to the Rockies game. It was a beautiful night and the game was quick and the Rockies won! We also got to watch fireworks. We then went to lake on Sunday,Adam and Alex loved going out on the boat. Adam loved tubing and Alex and I liked it until we went into the water and it was freezing!!! There were lots of boats on the water, so tubing was a bit crazy. We sat on the boat in a beautiful part of the lake and enjoyed the day. We left around two thinking Adam had too much sun and it ended up that he was getting a virus. He ended up sick the entire next week and ran a really high fever. Luckily the rest of us did not catch it.

Summertime!

We have had a busy and fun summer. The boys have spent lots of time together and they have enjoyed their time together. it is hard to believe that Alex has been here almost a year! He is speaking really well and even his "S" are coming. He asked me very clearly,"Are you and Daddy sharing that ice cream?" Lots of progress in all departments. He is getting the idea that we go places and come home.

Mother's Day

I think back to a year ago when we had met Alex but could not get the information of what paperwork would be required to bring him home. It was so frustrating and the emptiness that was there due to having a child that you had met and fell in love with and yet not being able to bring him home was unbearable.
But....We are home and all that is in the past and what a Mother's Day!!!! It was so much fun just being able to relax and enjoy! We had gone to dinner the night before and Alex was actually comfortable sitting at the restaurant and eating dinner! That is a major accomplishment. We usually have about 5 trips to the bathroom and up and down all over the place and after He is finished eating he is ready to jump down and run outside. So to have a calm and enjoyable dinner out was nice!
We then enjoyed the day at home and had a wonderful BBQ........Dad and Adam had gone out and brought home flowers and steaks and even desert!!!!We had a wonderful day. We ended it by going for a nice walk and just relaxing!!!!!!
Mother's Day used to be the hardest day for me. When I couldn't have children, it was a very difficult day. I feel so blessed by getting the opportunity to be a Mom to two wonderful boys!!!!
My heart still goes out to those who have tried and have not been able to experience the joys of motherhood.....There will always be a soft spot in my heart for all those ladies!!!!!

Early Spring

It has been 8 months and the time is flying by. Alex gets more and more comfortable with home and the fact that he is a member of our family. Most of the time this guy is a happy little guy. He likes to play outside and loves to play with the dogs,Tanner and Dusty.He has learned that if something isn't to his liking that he can throw a little fit. We usually can laugh it off and tell him he looks like a chicken when he puts his arms up like chicken wings and gives you a big time pout. But sometimes it goes over the edge....like in a restaurant where he knows he can get the attention of everyone in the restaurant. We have learned never to take him anywhere if he is tired.......Or be prepared to deal with a major show wherever we decide to go.

He is persistent.

The bedtime ritual has gotten so much better. He sleeps in his bed and then whenever he wants to come to ours....he comes down and climbs on our couch or in bed with us. We no longer have all the screaming....... or the tantrums.......Life has its blessings!

Alex is very athletic and active....He is also starting to ease up about..."Where are we going" "What are we doing?" The 100 times a day questions has gone to a few times a day! That is good news. The indiscriminate affection thing is going away also. He is doing so much better by those standards.

Alex loves Bikes and Trikes!

Here are some fun pictures of Alex learning to ride all kinds of bikes and trikes!

Everday Things

Valentines Day

Valentines Day

Valentines Day

Super Bowl

We have had a nice few weeks. Alex is starting to talk all the time and to make all kinds of noises. He is so much more talkative and outgoing than we thought he might be. It makes you realize how scared and shy he was when we first met him. He loves to help us do everything around the house. He loves to follow Adam around and to sleep with Adam when Adam goes to bed.
Last Friday Adam and Alex were playing outside and they had binnoculars and a listening device and they were acting like spies.....It was too cute. Alex has the binnoculars backwards but feels he is doing exactly what he should be doing! he acts like such a big guy.
He does really well with transistions....which is a big step. He still gets totally overwhelmed sometimes by being overstimulated. At those moments ...he just spins out of control. They are few and far between.....which is nice. Usually it is when he is in a big warehouse type store....or when he is over tired. I have found that naps really help. We don't have to drive around anymore...we can just nap at home.

So we are making progress and we laugh at all the little things he says.It is fun having him around. When he wants to put chap stick on...He says"Yipp on?" He says "Mommy just Wookin"

when he looks at something. And when he wants to do something he says"YI DO IT!" We laugh a bunch.......

Here are some pictures of Valentines Day and different activities.

One Year Today

One year ago we had the opportunity to hold Alex for the first time. We had him in our hearts from the 5th of December.....but we actually where in Russia and got the chance to go to the Orphanage and meet him and play with him. So many emotions and so much joy....yet so much sadness knowing we had to leave him behind,while we completed the final paperwork. What should have been three months turned into 6 months and it was a very hard time for us to wait knowing he was over there wondering why he was still there.

After being home 6 months, It is amazing how far we have come. The language barrier goes away and it is so much easier to explain what is going on and why things happen. The bonding process is going well. His big issues are eye contact (which means he still struggles with trust) and indiscriminate affection towards people. (An orphanage issue, that comes from seeing every adult as an opportunity for love.)

I have a new book coming today.....Parenting the Hurt child.........I read the Adopting the hurt child.....which is an awesome resource.

Each day is a new adventure.....For the most part, It is going really well. To watch the bonding process is really remarkable. To see Alex's comfort level grow daily is rewarding.Here are some recent photos of Valentines Day. He has really learned to love holidays!!!!

Skiing

We had a day off school so we took a couple of days to go skiing.We went up to Keystone. Having had Alex and Adam up in December, we knew that Alex loved to ski. He is amazing how coordinated he is on skis. Adam is a very accomplished snowboarder, so he and Dad were off boarding and skiing together. Alex and I were on the little bunny slope until Dad and Adam came by us and Alex decided to follow them down the green slope. Needless to say he got going really fast........had a wipe out and said "Hey Mom, I did it!" He was so proud of himself. I decided at that moment, we would go into town and get a ski harness that night so I could control his speed and turns without killing my arms and legs...........

His ability to understand what all needs to happen and his transitions from one thing to another are going remarkably well. He really loves to ski and will actually ski until he is falling asleep on his skis. He fell asleep as soon as we got on the gondola one day. The next day, he was falling asleep as we were skiing down the hill....He was cruising along and I noticed he was nodding off.

Adam was so excited that he caught a bunch of air and went off a jump and landed it after going about 2 feet in the air....He says it was more like 3-5......Dad would be able to tell us!

We have a major accomplish....Alex will now go to sleep in his room without me staying in there the whole time. He knows that when Adam goes to bed we will move him over to sleep in Adam's big bed or down to our sitting room......so he does fine with all of that. It is a very big deal and he seems to be getting very comfortable with his room and sleeping and with us not leaving.
He still can't understand why we just can't visit Mamaw and Papaw in Indiana anytime we want.

He thinks when we get in a car with suitcases....we will end up at Papaw and Mamaw's.

Goofing Around

So much for quiet Sunday afternoons!!!!With two(three) silly boys in the house it is next to impossible for it to be quiet. Alex and Adam have been chasing around with Nerf guns and when Adam is playing the Wii with Dad, Mom gets drafted. Alex screams...."Run Mom..." and then laughs like crazy to shoot me. I now have the virus that went through Scott, then Alex and now me. It is not much fun and leaves you feeling really bad. Alex had it on his birthday...poor little guy! We are all doing well after the holidays and everyone is getting settled again. The holidays were hectic as always and fun...just lots of changes and new situations for Alex to manage. He did amazingly well....and coming down off all the excitement and people and presents.....has been easier than anticipated. It is amazing that once these little guys get all this stuff....then they expect more....I guess not unlike us.

Birthday #4

We celebrated Alex's birthday as a family. We were so thrilled to be able to share his birthday with him for the first time! He loved making the cake.....He didn't quite understand that you share your birthday cake. He quickly realized that it was the celebration and the sharing of the cake....He kept saying "Birthday, Me?" It was fun! He has the opening presents down pat!!!!We are looking forward to 2010!!!