Little things to remember

There are so many things that I want to remember about my 2 year old version of Maks. I hope one day when he reads this he will understand what an unbelievable person his is, even at this age. He amazes me every day with how smart he is. Today we were reading the Foot Book by Dr. Seuss and he remembers some of the words in the book based on the pictures for those pages. He knows when it says up and down, when it says over the chair and the little gesture I make for that part. He knows when it says "sick feet" and does this little cough. Its so funny! I don't even read that book very much to him!

Our new bath tub has these little handles on the side. He now grabs the handles and then puts his feet up in the air and holds his little butt up. Like a gymnast on the pummel horse. I swear he's destined to be a gymnast. He already does somersaults on his own, is always trying to do handstands, can hold up his little body weight with his arms... I wish I always had a video camera handy!

Today the social worker from our adoption agency came to our house for our 6 month check up. They start it around 4 months so they can get everything processed, written up and sent off to Russia on time. Maks was very curious about this new lady. Grandma Peterson was here helping us keep an eye on him while we talked with Ellen and Maks kept walking in and out of the dining room to make sure everyone knew he was there and to check out what was going on without him. :)

He's not feeling well today. Last night he had a bit of a fever and today eating doesnt seem to be easy for him. I think his little throat is sore and swollen. But still he's such a trooper. He still wanted to watch "Pooooh" on tv and wrestle on the couch.

Every time I pick him up now he gives me a kiss. And even though they have been snot and bacteria filled lately, I gladly take every one! He's so good at giving high-fives and "pounding" his Dada. I sound like I'm gushing all the time, but I'm telling you (and the future Maks) he really is an amazing little guy. I want to get better at my blog so that he can always know what life was like when he was this age, what his Mama was thinking and what we were all going through together. I would have loved to have that from my childhood. Especially now that I'm a Mom myself.

Updates

I havent been writing on the blog for a while. Its been such a busy last few months that I havent had time! Maks has been home now for almost 4 months! I can't believe it. The last posting was at the beginning of May and way too much has happened to catch up on everything. Some of the highlights...

-We took Maks to Florida for his 2nd birthday. We went down to Mom and Dad's house with Mom, Dad, Ang, Me, Jason and Maks. We took him to Ohana on his birthday and then Chef Mickeys the next day. We didn't do any parks though. Thought it might be a little much for him and we were only there a few days. He loved the characters. Minnie Mouse was probably his favorite. She spent so much time with him, giving him kisses and hugs. When she walked away he stood up on his chair, pointed to her and cried. I'm so proud of him. He is fearless. We took him over to Daytona Beach to meet his cousins and to see the ocean. He ran right into the ocean and would have kept going if I didn't stop him.

-We've also had to pack up our townhouse to get ready for our big move into our new house. Our closing dates were so close to the new baby's due date but we didn't have much of a choice. The packing, staying in a hotel for a week and then moving into a new house definitely seemed to bother Maks a bit.

-We moved this past weekend into a house in Brookdale in Naperville. Its a great subdivision with lots of families who all seem pretty friendly. A ton of neighbors have stopped by so far to drop off cookies and introduce themselves. I'm hoping we'll be able to stay here for a long time.

The baby is due any day now. Erin is so hot and uncomfortable. The weather has been tough here, nearly 90 degrees every day. We've had some huge storms since we've been here. The very first day we owned the house I was here vacuuming with Shirlene, she left to head home and I decided to finish up upstairs. All of the sudden I heard a really loud noise and saw the trees start to blow sideways. I was almost 100% certain that we were having a tornado! I ran down the stairs (fell is more like it) and got to the basement, all the while expecting the roof to start blowing off. It wasn't a tornado and the roof stayed on, but a big tree came down in our back yard denting the siding and just missing the roof. The weather vain on top of the garage fell off and landed on our front step just 3 feet from my car. We're working on fixing it all. :)

So far everything has been good. We have a lot of work to do on the house. I'm scared to have the baby! :) I'm not sure how I'll handle being a Mommy to 2 little ones. I'm not sure what I should do with my career next year while trying to balance everything. I'm trying to stop worrying and just enjoy life as it is now.

Jason and I are so blessed and so lucky. Our son is amazing. He is the best little man that I have ever met with the best smile, the greatest little heart, a wonderful sense of adventure and even though it makes his Mama crazy, he has a strong fighting spirit. He makes us very happy. :)

More pictures!

Pictures!

I know, these are WAY over due. :) Here's a collection from our 8 weeks at home so far!

Chesterbrook

Somebody posted on the blog today asking why I call Chesterbrook a preschool and not a daycare. I wasn't going to post the question because I thought it would bring a level of maliciousness to an otherwise incredibly joyous site. But then I thought maybe she didn't mean it that way and really wanted to know. I prefer that option. :) So here ya go Peggy...

1. I don't always refer to Chesterbrook as a preschool. I have referred to it as both a daycare and a preschool.

2. Chesterbook is a private school in Naperville that takes infants all the way up until 8th grade. We can keep Maks enrolled for the next 11 years Full Time if we want.

3. All of the lead teachers in the classrooms have Early Education degrees from a four year University/College.

4. Those lovely teachers (and yes they're called teachers) work with the kids on different lesson plans. They have themes that revolve around touch, smell, sight, words, letters, colors, seasons, etc...

5. There is a Principal and Assistant Principal at the school who put together and approve the curriculum. There are periodic parent-teacher nights to go in and review the curriculum as well as the childs progress.

6. We have worked with a Speech Therapist who has sent several additional lesson ideas for a child like Maks to help him with his word development and catch up to the other kids. He is repeating everything these days and has so many more words than before!!

The bottom line is that you can call it whatever you want. Maks is adjusting very well to his new life, including his teachers, his new friends, new language and new Mommy and Daddy. Thank you to all for showing so much concern. :)

Life with Maks

Obviously I've been a little busy lately and haven't had time to update the blog. I wanted to update it though with some little things that have happened lately. I'm worried that I won't remember all of these little quirks or stories with him when he gets older.

Maks is an unbelievable joy in our family. Not always easy, but an unbelievable joy. The other day I was in the car on the way home from somewhere and thought to myself, can anyone really be this content in their life? I feel so blessed to have a husband that I love, a son that I adore and a little girl on the way. Our first days with Maks were so difficult. I cried and cried that first week thinking, will this ever be different? I can say without a doubt, yes it is different. We still have tantrums, he still hits himself in the head, he still hates going to bed, but as I get to know him those things are so much easier to handle. He went potty in the big-boy potty a few times last week. He was SO proud of himself! Sometimes when he is sitting in his high chair eating he puts his hands out to me for a hug. I always lean in and he wraps his arms around my neck and pats my back. He gave me a kiss for the first time a few weeks ago! Most days when I pick him up from his preschool he looks at me when I first walk in with a bewildered look wondering who I am. A few seconds later he realizes I'm me and he breaks into a big smile and runs to me. (Sometimes calling me Da-Da, oh well I'm working on it) He has started dancing. :) Its the cutest thing. One day in the car he started clapping to music and then starting head-banging to a rock song. It was so cute that I had to whip out my cell phone and video tape it. When I sent it to Jason he wondered if I took while I was driving. No...:)

Maks loves his cousin Rylan. This past weekend we went to my Grandma and Grandpa J's house for dinner and Rylan came over. They spent some crazy time running around through my Grandma's house (who puts a room full of crystal next to the toy room?? we have NO idea how it survived our childhood!), racing lawn mowers across the farm with Papa and Jason (yes we are a little country), and screaming everything they "said". When we got back to my parents house Rylan came in and Maks went running over to him to hug him. He held on to Rylan in a big bear hug while Rylan tried to get away. :) So cute.

His new words are "kitty-cat", "all-done", "Hi" and "Up". Okay, they don't all exactly come out sounding exactly like that but its close!

Overall I am so proud of our little guy. I am such a blessed Mom, he makes my life so much better than it has ever been before. I'm such a gusher now, but I don't care. He's amazing.

I will post pictures soon! I have to find time to connect my camera to the computer without Maks trying to eat it. :)

Busy Week!

Maks did fairly well toward the end of the week at school. He had some big days of going outside to play in the water, riding a bike (sort of), hanging up a picture of himself on the wall (and looking at it a lot), having rice krispie treats... it goes on and on. I was so worried about nap time but apparently its no problem. He averages an hour & a half or so of sleep every day! Yeah!

Last night we went to Erin & Jims for a cookout. They have a super-big backyard that Maks could run around and a very cool swing set to climb and slide down. Owen gave Maks a ride on his Jeep. As you can see, Maks loved it!

Today we met Aunt Leslie and Cousin Rylan at Portillos for lunch. They both ended up with the same bib (not planned). It was so cute. We went over to Aunt Leslie & Cousin Rylans playland (their house) for a while too. Rylan is so great with Maks. Hes so much bigger and could really just roll right over Maks if he wanted to, but he's always very gentle and lets Maks pretty much do his thing. The only thing that will make Ry crazy is when Maks tries to take his keys away. Rylan ALWAYS has to have keys. I think he's going to be a locksmith. Not a bad thing I guess. :)

Tomorrow is Easter. We got Maks and Ry coordinating outfits. :) Can't wait to see them! I'll post pictures of course!