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http://adventuresinpetersoning.blogspot.com/

The end of this line.

I think the last post I made into the blog is a great place to end our "Waiting for Baby Peterson" blog and begin a new one about both of our kids. Its proving to be even more difficult to update a blog with 2 kids, let alone 2 blogs with 2 kids. :) I still want to update a blog frequently though and will commit to making it happen!! Once I get the new Peterson Family blog up and running I'll share the info with anyone who wants to keep up with our increasingly hectic life.

I cannot believe the journey we've been on over the past two years. We have been the luckiest people in the world. We started down this path devastated and hopeful. Devastated that our lives were not working out the way that we expected. Hopeful that God would open other doors for us that would allow our dreams of starting a family to come true. I would have never guessed or dared to hope that it would have led us to Maks & Ella. What an incredible, elating, heart-breaking, difficult, long, blessed road this has been. And what a journey we have started now. :)

Wow. Life is going to change tomorrow.

So Erin did not go into spontaneous labor. So we're going into the hospital tomorrow to get that baby out of her. :) They're going to induce her at 7:15am tomorrow. Everyone keep your fingers crossed and say a few prayers. Its kind of goofy in that Maks has no idea whats about to happen.

To keep things interesting we found out that Maks has the Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. He had a fever the other night and then started getting blisters on his hands and blisters inside his mouth. The poor little guy had such a hard time eating. We weren't able to send him back to daycare on Wednesday and couldn't send him back at all until next Tuesday! Try getting everything wrapped up to have a baby, go on a 6 week leave, put together more stuff from our freshly moved house and having Maks running all over the place. Its been tough! My Mom is going to help us this weekend by taking Maks home with her. He can't be around the baby until his blisters have dried up and gotten better. Lets hope that he's doing better by Sunday. Thanks Mom! :)

Maks' new thing is saying "Hi" to everything. "Hi Mama", "Hi Dada", "Hi Doggy". Its so cute. I love coming home and hearing "Hi Mama". He sits in his crib and yells "Mama, Where is you?". He is seriously the cutest kid ever.

I'm going to wrap it up now. Big day ahead of me.

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!