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More Blurry Walking Pics

Ok, I tried again today and I even fiddled with my camera settings to try and get a less blurry shot. Here's our busy boy (and some of his beautiful sister too).













































This is why I can hardly get any good pictures of him walking, he just wants to see the camera!

Sister takes a break from playing Wii to say cheese.

Edited to answer Debbie's question:

No, D didn't walk till she was nearly 14 months old. She waited till she could do it perfectly before she would take off. She walked on New Year's eve and she turned 14 months old on Jan. 3.

We have a Walking Boy.

He is walking everywhere. He reminds me of a little crab, he goes really fast and short steps and sometimes kind of sideways.

Ok, so I just realized I have no good pictures of him walking! Every time he hears the camera, he gets down and crawls toward it! So here's a blurry pic of him at the hotel this past weekend.

He actually started walking about two weeks ago, but in just in the past two days he is walking more than crawling.

I'll try and get some better pictures in the next day or so. Maybe I can figure out how to turn the "music" off my camera when it comes on.

Russian Game - Part Two

Well, we ended up not playing the game afterall. At least not with the whole school. We ended up having early release on the last day of school, so we didn't have time to play. But I thank you all for your suggestions! The game that was suggested over and over was "The Bear" or "Mishka". Here is one summary of how to play (Thanks Penny!):

"The Bear". One child is picked to be "the bear" and is essentially "it". He/she stands in an outlined box which is the "den". The rest of the children walk around the den slowly until the bear says, "the bear is coming!". The children then run and the bear tries to tag them (gently). Once they are tagged, they become a bear as well and they must hold hands with the original bear. This continues until "the bear" is a long chain of children and there is only one child left. The child that made it to the end without being tagged gets to be the bear in the next round.

Kate also suggested us "faking it" a bit with Mama Moshne (Mother May I) and using some Russian words like Malinki and Bolshoi steps and Adin, Dva, Tree, Cheteri, & Pyat for the numbers of steps and saying Da or Nyet after they asked Mama Moshne.

We did play this game with just the 20 kids in D's class and they loved it!

Instant Motherhood??

Debbie posted on her blog how, for her, instant motherhood didn't equate to feeling instantly like a Mommy. I started to write this in her comments section, but it got longer and longer, so I decided I'd just make it a post of my own.

I think with us, having C in the NICU for a week was a blessing in disguise. That gave us a mandatory incubation period. By that I don't mean the time he was in an incubator :O) rather a time when we were just alone without a lot of people around (if you don't count all the nurses and doctors.) I am thankful he was one of the most "well" babies in the NICU - it was scary enough as it was. But that gave me hours of just sitting quietly beside him, getting to know him and talk to him and just stare at him while he slept. By the time I could finally hold him, we had certainly already begun connecting.

Being in the delivery room and being right beside the little warming table they lay them on right away, and being one of the first faces he saw (aside from nurses) I am sure helped. Although it was just completely surreal. Like I'd taken some weird trip into TLC and landed in a combo of "A Baby Story" & "Adoption Stories!"

Since Hubby was on his way back from Dallas while C was being born and I was all alone on the adventure, I think the protective Mama lion immediately came out in me. And that carried over into the NICU since I was there alone most of the time while Hubby worked and held down the fort at home and then came over (it is an hour drive) at some point in each day.

The first few weeks home were hard. I'd never been through the newborn phase personally and it is MUCH different than bringing home an 11 month old rigidly sleep trained child. The sleep deprivation was the worst thing and the biggest road block. There's just no way around that.

And I must admit (Hubby and hundreds of others will say "I told you so") there is some magical bond between a Mommy and her baby boy. I really didn't understand beforehand, how could I? But it has happened to me.

So, to sum it all up, I think I bonded with C more quickly than I did with D. Not that I don't love D now with all my heart, but it took me about 3 months to really feel like I was her Mommy. But I think just having the experience of C's first days attributed to our quicker bonding.

10 MONTHS OLD !!!

Can you believe I am already 10 months old!?!?

It's hair raising!

Hee hee, do you like my after the bath hair-do? If they decide to remake Seinfeld in 2038 I can play Kramer!

HELP! Attention parents of Russian kids!!

I need help and I'm about to freak out!

D is doing a presentation on Monday for her whole school -525 kids & teachers! She is sharing about Russia. It is multi-culture day at her school and they are focusing on 11 countries.

I need A GAME! On Tuesday, as a sort of field day, classes will rotate through the 11 "countries" and play a game that children from that country play.

This is 2nd and 3rd grade.

Does anyone, ANYONE know a simple game that Russian children this age play???

Please Help!!

AT THE ZOO

D's second grade class visited the zoo on Tuesday. I went along to help out and ended up as "mama" to four children. We had a great time, but a storm came up and ended the day a couple hours earlier than expected.

D rode home with me instead of on the bus, so I went ahead and took her to feed the birds after the busses left. While she was feeding the birds and catching birds on her stick, for some reason the birds liked the mesh on my shoes. It was a bit ticklish with all those birds pecking on my shoe!

OUTSIDE

C loves to be outside in the sunshine.

But he still isn't sure if he loves the grass or not???

I need to cook

I really need to start cooking more. I run out of ideas and the same ol' stuff gets boring.

You'll notice I added a bunch of mom blogs on my bloglist that have gobs of ideas for quick, easy, cheap dinners.

The one named $5 Dinners is a good one and she is on Rachel Ray today! It comes on here in 22 minutes. I can't wait to watch!

So, what am I making for dinner tonight? I dunno. Maybe I'll figure something out watching Rachel Ray :O)

Just some cuteness . . .

Springtime by DY 2nd Grade

I was going through the schoolwork D brought home yesterday ( I keep EVERYTHING in a Rubbermaid tote).

When I read this poem she wrote, I said, "Wow!"

So, this proud Mama will share with you an original work by DY:

SPRINGTIME

It's Easter, a grand old day,

eggs are hidden in every which way.

Rabbits hop all day long,

bees buzz along, small but strong.

Children play there and here,

I can tell that Spring is near.

The Family of God

On Sunday morning, EASTER morning, D made her Profession of Faith in Jesus as Lord of her life! We are thrilled beyond imagination.

At the end of the service she grabbed my hand and said, "I need to talk to Dr. T" and I said, "Right now?" and she said "Yes, right now." So we went forward and her daddy had a choir member come take his place in the pulpit and he met us in the front as we stood with the Pastor.

We bought her a special gift in Russia, even before we met her, that we knew we would give her on the day of her Baptism. We had faith that she would come to know God and accept Christ into her heart! I'll let you know what that gift is when we present it to her (she reads the blog sometimes ;o)

She'll be baptized on Mother's Day. C will be dedicated that day as well, so grandparents will already be here. It will be a great Mother's Day!!

Here is the picture that will be published in the Church newsletter announcing her decision: