Happy Birthday Alex!
Ryan helping
Party!
So Cool
Fun at the Park
At the Park in her New Polka Dot DressWe went to MI this weekend for my niece’s third birthday. 3-year old girls are great for teaching language. Nikolai tried to imitate her a lot – including her screech, which sounds really funny in Nikolai’s low voice
As noted above, Nikolai has a low voice for a baby – I think he will be a bass. That should compliment his tenor father well for duets
Nikolai has learned to flush the toilet (over and over). Surely this means he is partly potty trained, right? Probably it means we need to be better about keeping the bathroom doors closed
My niece and nephew are SO cute
Alex is such a girly girl – through no real direction of her parents (e.g., my BIL insisted on dying the newborn onesies black). Alex got some pink doll house furniture for her birthday. After it had been put in her room, she asked “where is my pretty pretty bed?”. When she got up Sunday after her party, she was wearing her new butterfly necklace, which had been in a box on top of her (tall) dresser. We were drawing on her new easel and I drew a fairy and told Alex it was her (she had just drawn a picture of me). She said “that is me? As a butterfly? I want to be a purple butterfly with a purple face” Of course I complied and drew an all-purple fairy (face included).
Ryan is probably the sweetest 4-year old boy I know. He is so sensitive. At one point my sister made a comment that all of her portion of some food (I cannot even remember what) was gone, and Ryan said “you can have some of mine, I don’t need it all”. When Alex got in trouble for climbing on her dresser in the middle of the night to retrieve her necklace – and wearing a necklace while sleeping, Ryan was worried because Alex’s feelings got hurt.
Nikolai is obsessed with music. I know all babies love music, but I think his interest goes beyond normal. He sat through a 1-hour musical without taking his eyes off the stage. He signs “more” in the car when the classical piece ends. He will be entertained for hours in the basement alternating between playing the piano and guitar, and generally Mama gets bored first, causing a little tantrum when I bring him back upstairs. After watching the minister at church energetically play the djembe, Nik plays his toy drum the same way – shaking his head like a rock star.
I wonder if there is anyone in the area that teaches dombra lessons?
Nikolai has started hitting in the face when he is frustrated and/or over tired. What to do?
While he knows what the word no means, Nik does not seem to care. We learned in adoption parenting classes to visibly change your stance and say “no” forcefully to get their attention if they are doing something like biting or hitting. The problem is that Nik LOVES to be startled, so this just makes him laugh and try to get us to do it again.
It is funny to watch Nikolai try to categorize the world. We have an overhead light in the kitchen that is round. Nik calls it a balloon; and now he calls all lamps above his head “balloons” regardless of their shape. Animals are either “ooh ooh” (dogs), “baa” (sheep), “diiirdie” (birds), or fish – for which he does the sign. My sister’s Scottish fold cat was determined to be a “baa”.
I am sick of doing paperwork and social worker visits. We are definitely dragging our feet in renewing our home study this time. How do people manage to adopt 4+ children? They must just do paperwork in their sleep.
The positive vibe in the Rumor Queen June room is starting to make me nervous about getting our home study updated and submitting the I-800A. June 6 is the biggest LID in June, so that big group is really getting excited because they are maybe only a year or less away from referral. While we are June 23, for the first time we are actually getting CLOSER to referral, rather than further away each month.
Why is it that USCIS’s mistake is costing us $420.00? Everyone acknowledges that they made a mistake, but apparently there is no protocol for correcting mistakes without filling out more forms – with the mandatory fees of course.
Nikolai’s tantrums are so funny. He carefully lies down on the floor, and then begins to fake cry and kick his feet. Tantrums generally last less than a minute. Unfortunately he will probably perfect his tantrum technique as he gets older.
Someone took my lunch from the refrigerator at work yesterday. How can this happen? Do they not know what they brought? I was so looking forward to the leftover dahl and the tangelo.
Tangelos are my new favorite fruit – I cannot get enough of them. I became addicted on my last trip to the Gulf Coast. I am supposed to go back in the next few weeks (even though I see no point to the trip – the temp field director has things well in hand and he would have to get me up to speed if I went). Perhaps I will go just to buy fruit.
Nikolai does all the hand motions to Twinkle Twinkle – including making a perfect diamond with his fingers for that part of the song. He has started doing another set of motions, one of which is moving his arm back and forth in front of him. I have not yet figured out what song it is; my guess was wheels on the bus (with the swishing of the wipers) but I did not get much reaction when I sang that song. I will have to ask day care.
I hope Nikolai is always as good an eater as he is now. He really loves food. I am always surprised to find a food he does not like. The most recent rejected food was hummus – doesn’t hummus seem like a perfect food for a 1-year old? His current favorites are mac-n-cheese, refried beans, and spiced pumpkin from the Afghan restaurant – oh, and sugar in any form.
As noted above, Nikolai has a low voice for a baby – I think he will be a bass. That should compliment his tenor father well for duets
Nikolai has learned to flush the toilet (over and over). Surely this means he is partly potty trained, right? Probably it means we need to be better about keeping the bathroom doors closed
My niece and nephew are SO cute
Alex is such a girly girl – through no real direction of her parents (e.g., my BIL insisted on dying the newborn onesies black). Alex got some pink doll house furniture for her birthday. After it had been put in her room, she asked “where is my pretty pretty bed?”. When she got up Sunday after her party, she was wearing her new butterfly necklace, which had been in a box on top of her (tall) dresser. We were drawing on her new easel and I drew a fairy and told Alex it was her (she had just drawn a picture of me). She said “that is me? As a butterfly? I want to be a purple butterfly with a purple face” Of course I complied and drew an all-purple fairy (face included).
Ryan is probably the sweetest 4-year old boy I know. He is so sensitive. At one point my sister made a comment that all of her portion of some food (I cannot even remember what) was gone, and Ryan said “you can have some of mine, I don’t need it all”. When Alex got in trouble for climbing on her dresser in the middle of the night to retrieve her necklace – and wearing a necklace while sleeping, Ryan was worried because Alex’s feelings got hurt.
Nikolai is obsessed with music. I know all babies love music, but I think his interest goes beyond normal. He sat through a 1-hour musical without taking his eyes off the stage. He signs “more” in the car when the classical piece ends. He will be entertained for hours in the basement alternating between playing the piano and guitar, and generally Mama gets bored first, causing a little tantrum when I bring him back upstairs. After watching the minister at church energetically play the djembe, Nik plays his toy drum the same way – shaking his head like a rock star.
I wonder if there is anyone in the area that teaches dombra lessons?
Nikolai has started hitting in the face when he is frustrated and/or over tired. What to do?
While he knows what the word no means, Nik does not seem to care. We learned in adoption parenting classes to visibly change your stance and say “no” forcefully to get their attention if they are doing something like biting or hitting. The problem is that Nik LOVES to be startled, so this just makes him laugh and try to get us to do it again.
It is funny to watch Nikolai try to categorize the world. We have an overhead light in the kitchen that is round. Nik calls it a balloon; and now he calls all lamps above his head “balloons” regardless of their shape. Animals are either “ooh ooh” (dogs), “baa” (sheep), “diiirdie” (birds), or fish – for which he does the sign. My sister’s Scottish fold cat was determined to be a “baa”.
I am sick of doing paperwork and social worker visits. We are definitely dragging our feet in renewing our home study this time. How do people manage to adopt 4+ children? They must just do paperwork in their sleep.
The positive vibe in the Rumor Queen June room is starting to make me nervous about getting our home study updated and submitting the I-800A. June 6 is the biggest LID in June, so that big group is really getting excited because they are maybe only a year or less away from referral. While we are June 23, for the first time we are actually getting CLOSER to referral, rather than further away each month.
Why is it that USCIS’s mistake is costing us $420.00? Everyone acknowledges that they made a mistake, but apparently there is no protocol for correcting mistakes without filling out more forms – with the mandatory fees of course.
Nikolai’s tantrums are so funny. He carefully lies down on the floor, and then begins to fake cry and kick his feet. Tantrums generally last less than a minute. Unfortunately he will probably perfect his tantrum technique as he gets older.
Someone took my lunch from the refrigerator at work yesterday. How can this happen? Do they not know what they brought? I was so looking forward to the leftover dahl and the tangelo.
Tangelos are my new favorite fruit – I cannot get enough of them. I became addicted on my last trip to the Gulf Coast. I am supposed to go back in the next few weeks (even though I see no point to the trip – the temp field director has things well in hand and he would have to get me up to speed if I went). Perhaps I will go just to buy fruit.
Nikolai does all the hand motions to Twinkle Twinkle – including making a perfect diamond with his fingers for that part of the song. He has started doing another set of motions, one of which is moving his arm back and forth in front of him. I have not yet figured out what song it is; my guess was wheels on the bus (with the swishing of the wipers) but I did not get much reaction when I sang that song. I will have to ask day care.
I hope Nikolai is always as good an eater as he is now. He really loves food. I am always surprised to find a food he does not like. The most recent rejected food was hummus – doesn’t hummus seem like a perfect food for a 1-year old? His current favorites are mac-n-cheese, refried beans, and spiced pumpkin from the Afghan restaurant – oh, and sugar in any form.
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