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