The Charmer

Nicholas continues to charm everyone he meets. At church yesterday, we had the opportunity for him to meet some new people. He was giving “high fives” and “the rock” to everyone, including the pastors. Then, Evan and I needed to attend a meeting yesterday afternoon at the mall food court. Nicholas did really well, even though he was missing his rest time. He even enjoyed a game of “Hide the Watch” with Pastor Jim. Nicholas loves to look at people’s watches, or play with them, if we let him. Yesterday he learned to open and close Pastor Jim’s watch. Then, when we told him to give the watch back, he sat on it. This started a whole new game.

We took Nicholas for his third haircut this morning. His hair grows like a weed, so we try to get it cut every four weeks. Our hairdresser had not been able to get around his ears well the last couple of times, but she did today. I talked to Nicholas about getting his haircut a lot this morning. I also told him, “No crying.” Finally, I pulled out the last stop – a lollipop. So, while he wasn’t overly excited, he was compliant enough. He did cry just a little when she got around his ears. Overall, this haircut was a 180 from the last two.


Are you sure you don't want to wear the cape, Nicholas?




There's hair on my arm!




That wasn't so bad.




Time to clean up!




Can we do this again?!?


A few days ago, I was looking for something to keep Nicholas occupied and decided to pull out the play-doh. It wasn’t my first choice since the last couple of times have been more about taste-testing than playing, but I decided to give it another chance. Nicholas sat and played nicely for almost a half hour. I need to go out and get some cookie cutters, but he was content with a measuring cup, spoon, and ice cream scooper. It gives me some hope that we may be able to do some crafts in the near future. I never would claim to be the most creative or artsy person, but I enjoy it. I have some ideas up my sleeve, so we’ll see what will happen the next couple of months.







We also celebrated my mom’s birthday this past weekend. After dinner and cake, we went outside so Nicholas could burn off some energy. We tried to get a picture of my dad, Nicholas, and Evan, but Nicholas would not sit long enough. Note the concrete bricks that my dad and Evan are sitting on. At one point, Nicholas was standing on them. The next thing we knew he was calling out each of our names to stand with him. If you would have passed my parents’ house on Saturday night, you would have seen Nicholas, Evan, me, my dad, and my sister standing on the bricks in a line. We felt silly, but Nicholas loved it.





It’s hard to believe that the summer is almost over. It has definitely flown by for us. We did spend an entire month in Russia, but that seems so long ago. We still mention Russia to Nicholas in casual conversation. We will never hide the fact that he is adopted from him. We’re not going to dwell on it all the time, but he’ll know where he came from and the story of how he came into our family. There shouldn’t be any doubts from him just how much he was and is wanted.

Kristin

Pray

We aren’t asking for a specific prayer request here, but your prayers are always nice. This is just a word we hear from Nicholas several times a day. It’s not a bad thing at all. We like that our son knows that we pray before meals, before bed, and other times during the day. In fact, he’s heard me praying during one of his temper tantrums, which stopped him mid-cry. I’m glad that Nicholas likes to pray, but I hate when he convicts me with the request. Sometimes when we’re hurried and our minds are on something else, we may forget, but Nicholas reminds us. Sometimes when I am frustrated and at my wit’s end, Nicholas reminds me. Do I have a little prayer warrior on my hands? I don’t know. But, Nicholas reminds me that we need to never stop praying. It’s a conversation with God. It can happen in the middle of a meal. It can happen while you’re reading a book. It can happen in a car. God’s always listening and that’s what Nicholas has reminded me this week.

I realized that it’s been a few days since I blogged. We had a pretty good weekend. On Friday night we celebrated Evan’s mom’s birthday. Nicholas was in his championship-eating form. He pretty much ate everything in sight. I really want to tell people that we feed him pretty healthy at home. So, when he sees French fries, ice cream, and cake, he gets pretty excited. It was also his first time to stay up way past his bedtime. Why is it that he was wide awake, but I was ready for bed? We kind of paid for it the next day though. He was a bit cranky until he got re-adjusted again. But, we had fun, so it was worth it.


Evan's mom's gigantic birthday dessert



This week has been pretty laid back so far. It’s weird having no place to go. I think we may want to get out and go somewhere today though. Yesterday Nicholas was having a rough day. It seemed like we spent more time dealing with disobedience than having fun. I really hate those days. It’s hard not to take things personally and get down on myself as a mother. I am really working hard on my patience levels too.

Thankfully, something clicked with him this morning and we’ve started out with pretty good behavior. When he wakes up he screams and jumps. I’ve been telling him for weeks that he needs to just call out our names. If he hears the shower, that means Mommy will be come get him in a little bit. He just needs to be patient (Easier said than done for a 2 year-old). So, this morning, he woke up and started screaming and jumping. I sighed as I heard this, wondering what today would be like. Then, he stopped. He started talking to himself. He remained calm and allowed me to finish getting ready. When I went in to get him, he was all smiles. What an encouragement after yesterday.

I know everyday won’t be all smiles, but it really did let me know that he’s listening. All my “training” isn’t falling on deaf ears. He’s had so much to deal with in the last two months. I’m often reminded of all the things he’s overcome with little problem. He really is a happy guy – most of the time. We are so thankful that God brought us together.

I’ll leave you with one picture. After feeling the burden of the adoption for the last year, I think Evan finally has something on his shoulders he doesn’t mind carrying.



Kristin

Cheese!

Or as Nicholas said today: “No cheese”. Nicholas had his first professional pictures today and they turned out great! We didn’t really know what to expect with him since he hasn’t had his picture taken several times since birth, but he did excellent. He didn’t always want to sit or stay in the picture, but the photographer ended up getting a lot of great shots. And, there were no tears from Nicholas. In fact, he decided to choreograph some of his own pictures, doing things they only wished some kids would do, such as putting the pal on his head in the beach shot. Here are just a few of the many pictures taken:







We’ve had something to do every day this week. Thankfully, it has caused rest time to turn into nap time almost everyday. He really needs a little nap each day to get re-energized. He is still an excellent sleeper at night. His bedtime is 7:30 and he often does not wake up until 7:00 or later. We have found that he is doing better falling asleep at night now that he understands the routine. He even has preferences on which books he would like us to read.

Nicholas also had his second opportunity to go swimming in the big pool with his cousins earlier this week. He was hesitant at first, but spent more time in the pool once he saw how much fun everyone was having. He even let other people hold him. I’m sure with more exposure he’ll be even more adventurous.



Right now I have no problem taking Nicholas to the store. If we go to the grocery store, I tell him that we have to take the food home for later. Then when we get to the register, I let him know that the cashier has to make the food go “beep” before we can take it home. He seems to be satisfied with this for now. I’ve never had him really ask me for anything until yesterday. My mom, sister, Nicholas, and I went to Trader Joe’s. It’s about a half hour away, so we usually make two trips a month. Nicholas happily sat in the cart and he even helped me put the food in behind him. I stopped to read the back of this chocolate syrup, which I had no intention of buying when Nicholas, who has never had chocolate syrup, took it from my arms and held it tight. “Nih-ka-ka’s. Yummy,” he told me. It was so cute that I had to put it in the cart. I’ll have to get stronger in the future, but I couldn’t resist this time.

Finally, I think we’ve made some progress in Nicholas’ relationship with Gabby. Here are pictures from two different days this week. Before we know it, she’ll be sitting on him while he’s awake.





Kristin

Socks, Socks

Nicholas has been home six weeks now! Some days it feels like so much longer, and other days I still have a hard time believing that I am his mom. I am still in amazement of how well he is adjusting. During the adoption, I read all the books on attachment and parenting. I’ve read about other people’s struggles. While I am well aware that to be fully bonded and attached takes time, Nicholas meets most of the qualifications for positive attachment on a list I have. I feel like with such a difficult adoption that God has given us a little grace in the area of post-adoption.

We still struggle with nap time though. Rest time on the couch works 50% of the time. He can either choose that option or he knows he will have to rest up in his room, which is the option he does not like. He was in his room the past two days. We are also finding that Nicholas can be a tad bit too friendly. While we don’t mind him giving hugs and kisses to familiar faces, we aren’t ready for him to just kiss anyone he meets. We need a happy medium. So, we’re trying to work on that issue. Overall, we're so happy with how he is doing.

We find that he likes to use his time in his car seat as vocabulary practice. Often times, he will sit and just say a bunch of random words over and over. One day as we were driving, Evan looked at me and said, “I guess you got what you wanted, a talker!” See, what A LOT of people don’t know about me is that I can talk! I love to talk! Evan will attest to it. I am just pretty reserved out in public. So, it would be nice to have someone who wants to sit and have a conversation. In fact, in the last couple of days, Nicholas has been sitting on my lap, looking me in the eyes, and talking to me. I don’t always know what he’s saying, but he loves having my full attention.

Yesterday we went to church and Nicholas was excited to go to the church nursery. He almost knocked a little girl over to get in the door. We actually had to ask for a hug, which he gladly gave us. We kind of had mixed emotions. We want him to be okay with the nursery, but at the same time, we (selfishly) want him to miss us. The lady in the nursery told us that he did really well. He did look sad a couple of times, but he had fun. In fact, she said he was a good helper! We know that for sure.

I do have a quick, cute story to tell you. Nicholas loves to see babies. Well, on the way to the nursery there was a man holding his baby. Nicholas saw the baby and then immediately noticed that the baby had no socks on. I had to keep him from trying to touch the baby’s feet as he proclaimed, “Socks, socks!” He always says the word twice. He looks at our feet everyday and says it. We have to tell him, “No socks" or "Yes, Daddy is wearing socks”, etc. He did make the father of this baby smile though.

There is another small problem that we are having. Nicholas loves to pick his scabs. Well, we were hoping to get some pictures done in the near future, so we needed to find a solution for when Nicholas sleeps, since that seems to be where he does it the most. I think Evan got a little carried away this time, but here was our solution:



And, here's a couple more pictures, just because:


Nicholas was so proud of this tower of blocks that he built all by himself.


Nicholas has learned to say, "Cheese". Here he is pausing to smile during one of his favorite pasttimes - Eating with Grandpa (and off Grandpa's plate).


This picture is just a nice one of him actually stopping and posing for the camera.

In closing, Nicholas' cousin, Carter is coming over this afternoon. I've been telling him that he will have to share his toys with Carter. Nicholas let me know that Carter could drive his boat. I thought that was nice. Let's see if he remembers what he said once Carter is here and actually playing with "Nih-ka-ka's toys".

Kristin

*@#&*#

I’m not really big on swearing. In fact, you pretty much have to get me extremely angry to hear me swear, which is very rare. But, if you hear the words coming out my son’s mouth lately, you probably would think otherwise. Anyone see the movie, “Meet the Parents”? Well, the main character has a last name that’s one letter off from a pretty foul word. Well, that is the word that Nicholas uses for “Farmer”. The first time I heard him say it, my jaw almost dropped. Then as I heard it again, I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Nicholas then proceeded to yell up the stairs to Evan to tell him about his farmer. “Daddy, F***er!” I have no idea why he says it that way, but we’re hoping it gets closer to having an “M” in there rather than a “CK”. We’ve learned that we can’t laugh anymore because then he says it more frequently and louder. I am just praying that the church nursery has no farmers in their toy collection.

Speaking of Nicholas’ language, he now has over 60 English words in his vocabulary. Thankfully, he acquired a nicer word this week – “Share.” We’ve been trying to teach him to take turns with Mommy and Daddy. Sometimes it goes well, but other times it looks to Nicholas like Mommy and Daddy are having way too much fun with their turns.

We have lots of birthdays to celebrate this month. It will be interesting to see if Nicholas will be able to say “Happy Birthday” by the end of August. Hopefully, “birthday” comes out like it supposed to sound. Ha ha. Tomorrow is my sister’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Amy!). Then, Nicholas will celebrate both his grandmas' birthdays the following two weeks. Nicholas has a sweet tooth, so he will love the next few weeks.

It is so nice to have him home for all these family gatherings. Last year at this time, we thought he would be home already. We were still waiting on our court date (the first one!). I am so glad that we didn’t know then how long the wait was going to be for us. Thankfully, it’s all over. I forgot to mention that last week Nicholas received his Certificate of Citizenship in the mail. While he became an official citizen in New York on July 4th, this certificate allows us to get his social security number and U.S. Passport.

Since this week has been more low-key for us, I haven’t really taken any pictures. Sorry. I’ll do better. Here’s one from last week to tide you over. I’ll set the stage:

Nicholas: I’m stuck.

Evan: Where’s the camera?

Kristin: Aren’t you going to help him?

Evan: I will in a minute. (Click)




Kristin

French Fries and Funnel Cake

Nicholas' long week has finally come to an end. I think he’s had fun. In my pre-motherhood life, I was a bit of a homebody. I like my house. I don’t like to spend much money, so being at home worked out fine. Then, Nicholas came into our lives. It feels like we have somewhere to go every day. Sometimes we’re just heading out on our own, but other days, we’ve got places to go, people to see.

Wednesday was haircut day. I’d like to believe that Nicholas did better than last time. Last time, he was at a 10 with his screaming and this time he was at an 8. I am hoping that with a few more visits, it will be second nature. As soon as it was over, he was all happy. We’ve never have a chance to get an after picture right away because we’re always trying to wipe the loose hair off of his sweaty body.

Later that day we met Grandma and Grandpa Morgan for dinner. Nicholas, of course, cleaned his plate. We don’t have too many days where we can’t get him to eat a good meal. Then, we headed to the store. His grandpa had promised him a pair of sunglasses, so we went to pick them out. Nicholas liked a purple pair with Tigger on them. Whenever he puts them on we like to tell him he’s a “cool dude”. What do you think?





Thursday we went to the County Fair. My sister and I had good memories of it from when we use to go, but we soon realized that all we cared about was the food. Nicholas looked at the animals, but he too found the food to be the best part. After Nicholas ate his soft pretzel and I ate my corn dog, we shared a funnel cake with Aunt Amy. After the eating was over, we were done with the Fair.

This afternoon, we headed to McDonald’s, so Nicholas could meet his cousins from Iowa. His cousin, Abby was such a great helper with Nicholas. She helped him overcome his fear of McDonald’s Playland. This particular playland was a very tall structure. I couldn’t believe my eyes when Nicholas, with Abby’s help, was climbing higher and higher. Then Abby, Nicholas, and Abby’s mom, Mindy played on the slide. It was hard to take pictures because they were coming down so fast, so I was happy when I got home to see I accidentally took a short video of it.







Finally, we went home to our daily afternoon battle. Naptime is something we’ve been trying to figure out for a month. Stay with him in the room? Let him cry it out? Set a timer? Skip the nap? I’ve been going crazy trying to figure out what to do. All I know is that Nicholas is miserable at naptime. Due to living in the Baby Home for the first two years of his life, he does have a few abandonment issues that we have to be sensitive about. I know he is tired and needs a nap, so my mom has been helping me to come up with solutions.

Today’s Plan B worked! She suggested I let him lie on the couch and watch a movie. He didn’t have to fall asleep, but just rest. So, I put him on the couch and told him that he could sit or lie down, but he couldn’t get off. For the first twenty minutes, he was so antsy and couldn’t relax. All the pillows were thrown to the ground. He didn’t like the cushion he was on, so he moved to the next. It was driving me crazy. Then he began to get that look in his eyes and I knew he was starting to get tired. The fingers soon came into his mouth. And then, this happened:



Thank you, Mom! I know this is only Day 1, but hopefully, this will work for awhile.

Well, that pretty picture is soon going to be over, so I better get going.

Kristin

Is He Really Getting It?

Nicholas is just like any other two year old – he’s testing boundaries. It took us weeks to get him to stop touching the lamp. We’ve recently been working on getting him to not play on the stairs. We don’t really want him to learn cause and effect on that issue. Sometimes it feels like all of our training falls onto deaf ears – until today. Nicholas has a stuffed bear named, Misha. Today Misha was going around touching all the things Nicholas is not allowed to touch. Nicholas then went on to discipline Misha, just like we discipline him when he does not listen. So, he knows right and wrong. Hopefully, “Misha” learns quickly too. If not, I will put him on a time out!

Yesterday we went with family to the Akron Zoo. It is a smaller zoo, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Nicholas was well-behaved. While he wasn’t overly interested in everything, he still would look at the animals. I think his favorite part was probably lunch. He put away his meal and finished off his cousin’s fries. He is slowly learning how to say the various family members’ names. We have to tell him several times a day that “Carter is at home” or “Carter went night-night”. After yesterday, he’s been asking about his cousin, “Loga” (Logan) too. Haley, be patient with him. We’re working on it.


Water tastes better when my cousin, Haley gives it to me.




Nicholas was admiring the ducks from a distance. The sign says that they bite.



“Small bites, Nicholas”



“We had fun, didn’t we, Carter?“


Our non-busy week looks like it will be busy as well. I think today is the only day that we are staying home. Tomorrow is haircut day. Wish our hairdresser, “Luck”!

Kristin

School Is Out

Today Evan took his final for his online course he has been taking all summer. He has over a month until his next two classes start. It will be a nice break for him. I know it has been hard to balance studying and time with Nicholas. He did pretty well though, even with the distractions.

Our busy week has finally come to an end. On Wednesday, several people from Hope Church surprised us with a baby shower for Nicholas. Thanks to those families, Nicholas has several new fall clothes. We feel blessed to have so many people from our new church family support and care for us and Nicholas. We can’t wait to watch these new relationships develop and grow.

On Thursday Nicholas had his first experience with a big pool. He likes to stand and play in his kiddie pool at home, but we found that he isn't quite sure about the big pool. Evan held him, but it still did not make him truly comfortable. He was a big fan of watching his older cousins and father jump in the pool. He loved to stand on the ladder and push them in. His younger cousin, Carter was the exact opposite and had absolutely no fear. We had to keep an eye on him because he kept heading to the ladder to jump in. Carter climbed up the ladder once while Nicholas was standing there and Nicholas surprised us all by saying, “No, Carter, no!” We’re not sure whether he was concerned for Carter’s safety, or if he wanted the ladder all to himself.


"No Fear Carter"


Haley, Carter, and Nicholas hanging out on the ladder.

After playing inside and outside of the pool, the boys stopped for a quick snack of Munchkins. We’re still trying to teach Nicholas to take little bites.



Then on Friday Nicholas, his Nana, and I went out for the morning. Nicholas had a Little Tykes boat he liked when he was in the nursery last Sunday, so we had to snatch it up when we saw it at my aunt and uncle’s garage sale. What a steal for $5.00!!! He also got to meet my cousin, Theresa’s twin daughters that are only 4 days younger than him. We’re so lucky that no matter where we seem to go, there are kids his age. He definitely won’t have a shortage of playmates.

We finally ended our Friday outing with lunch at Chick-Fil-A. Nicholas was thoroughly enjoying himself until a person in a life-size cow outfit appeared next to him. He screamed! Thankfully, the cow disappeared as quickly as he came. We had to reassure Nicholas from that point on that the “moo moo” really went bye-bye.

This coming week shouldn’t be as busy, but you never know. Tomorrow I am planning on dropping Nicholas off at the nursery and going to the church service. I’m sure he’ll do fine. If not, we’ll be seeing his number pop up on the screen at church. He also has his second U.S. haircut coming up. Hopefully, our hairdresser recovered from last time. We’re hoping to get it a little shorter since his hair grows very quickly.

Until then . . .

Kristin