A Christmas Story

Erlan likes to tell a story about visiting Santa. He says:

Cheese.

Poop.

Choo-choo.

Mommy then translates for his avid listener.

We took a picture with Santa ("cheese").

Then Erlan went to the bathroom to poop.

Then Erlan rode a little 75 cent train.

The longer version of the story goes like this:

Erlan and Mommy stood in line for 30 minutes to get Erlan's picture taken with Santa while Santa had a lunch break. Three minutes before Santa is supposed to arrive, Erlan announces, "Poop!" I told him that we would first "Cheese" with Santa and then he could poop. Erlan asked, "Choo choo?" "Yes," I said, "we will choo-choo after pooping." [At that point, I wasn't actually sure what he was talking about. Erlan, who loves trains, had spotted a kid's train ride while we were walking around the mall. I figured there must be a train somewhere in that mall, and we could find it after the poop and picture.]

Erlan was fine with this plan. As we are standing there (1st in line), Santa finally walks out. The kids start cheering and waving. Erlan sees Santa and emits a high-pitched scream--the kind you hear in horror movies. He was terrified. I finally got him to wave to Santa, but I knew that he wasn't convinced that this guy is jolly.

I let the people behind us go first so that Erlan could see that Santa is ok. Erlan still was not convinced. Another family gets their picture taken. Even though Erlan still does not want his picture taken, I force the issue because of the impending need for him to poop. Erlan screamed again, started crying, and reluctantly sat on my lap for the picture. The result was this:

From this, we created our 2008 Christmas card:

We hope everyone has a great holiday!

Inspiration

One of the blogs that I love to read is written by a friend of Ben's from college, Angie O'Neill. Angie and her husband have been dealing with cancer for the past 11 years. Despite this, Angie writes a blog that is funny, insightful, and inspiring. Today, Angie has written a beautiful letter that I found completely inspiring. I hope you do too...

KEEP BELIEVING: our interview - a few things I WISHED I would have said...

More!

Our house was rockin' on Halloween. Friends, family, and our two dogs had a howling good time at Erlan's first Halloween. Ben and I have been very excited about Halloween. We started talking about what Erlan should be in August. We finally settled on a Shrek-themed family get up, with Erlan as Gingy. Granny Jannie made his costume. He was as cute as a button.



Erlan caught onto the whole trick-or-treat thing pretty quick. I could see the wheels in his head turning...Hold orange bucket. Follow big kids. Thrust orange bucket at stranger. Say, "MORE!" We couldn't get him to say, "Trick-or-treat," but he would say or sign "more!"


Here are Erlan's cousins, Kenzi, Gavin, and Keely, on their way home after a night of trick or treating.











Here I am with our youngest revelers: Mikayla and Brecken. Erlan did not like seeing me with the two babies and demanded equal time.

A few more scenes from the night...
















And, finally, here are pictures of our new puppy, Baxter. Ben's brother, David, got Erlan a puppy. David didn't tell us he was doing this, he surprised us. Ben was elated (meaning he wasn't at all elated). Erlan is not the best at getting up in the morning to walk Baxter even though it is his dog. Erlan calls him "Back!" and loves to chase him. For a 2 y.o., Erlan is actually pretty good with Back. Now when Erlan wakes up, his first words are, "Back. Out." (Translation: Daddy get up and take Baxter out.) Before Baxter, his wake-up words were, "Eat. Milk." (Translation: Mommy get up and get me some cereal and milk.)

Life and other things

I know that the faithful reader (n=1) is wondering what happened to this blog. Basically life happened. We are so busy that I wonder where the time has gone. I take my hat off to those bloggers who can balance their life with posting in order to maintain some wonderful, insightful, and funny blogs.

Speaking of blogs, one of my favorite Kaz adoption blogs just went public. Check out:

http://ruopoliadoption.blogspot.com

This is the story of Regina & Frank. They adopted Milo. He was the second little boy that we met during our selection process. We were thrilled when Regina and Frank sought to adopt him. From reading Regina's blog, Milo and Erlan seem like two peas in a pod. Also Regina writes fantastic posts that give great insight into the adoption process. For example, she wrote a letter to Milo's birthmom that captured the complexity of emotion adoption involves.

I have been thinking about Erlan's birthmom a lot lately. When we started the adoption process, I was reluctant about maintaining contact with the birth family. This was one of the appealing features of international adoption. Now I wish that I could send her pictures of this beautiful little boy so she could watch him grow too. I wish I could express my gratitude for her for the gift of being allowed to raise this little boy. I would love to send her updates on his progress. Instead I send progress reports to the government. Oh well, at least somebody in Kaz gets to read about how wonderful Erlan is (even if he wouldn't eat his dinner tonight).

We have started taking classes through the State to become liscensed foster parents. We must take this step in order to adopt through the State. I don't know if this is the right path for our second adoption journey, but we do want to explore this area where the need is so great. Take a look at:

http://www.moheartgallery.org/Albumn/index1.htm

This is a wonderful project that tries to help place children who are older and thus harder to place.

My parents had their Fall Party a couple of weeks ago. Erlan had a great time. He went on every hayride, found another girlfriend (Erlan has a thing for blonds), and played in the bounce house. He had chocolate cake for dinner, courtesy of some yet-to-be-identified man.

Erlan has hand-me-downs from 7 boys, including a set of twins. Here's Erlan trying on all of the clothes on at once.

Erlan continues to make great strides in development. He likes to jump ALOT. He can stand on one foot and looks like an exaggerated version of the Karate Kid when he does. He loves to ride his tricycle around the house. He can use the pedals, but he prefers to Fred-Flinstone it. He continues to build his vocabulary and is putting together two-word sentences. He likes to say, "I be back" and to raise one finger when he does it.

On that note. I'll be back. I don't know when, but I'll be back.

Say cheese!

Erlan loves to mug for the camera. Now he must say "Cheese!" As a consequence, all of our picture are starting to look like this:




He's still adorable!

The weekend, with an update.

Some local ne'er-do-wells kicked our weekend off with a bang. They stole our car right out of our driveway. Not my precious SUV (thank goodness!), rather our 1996 Nissan that has seen better days. The car has been through Ben so it was not only a big surprise that somebody stole it---it was rather shocking that they could even get into it. Frankly I'm surprised that the mess in the car didn't make them shut the door and walk off. The dome light doesn't work, so maybe they didn't see it but surely they could smell it. The car has a peculiar odor that comes from cow-mucked boots, cattle feed, and dropped toddler food.

The car has been reported. We've driven all over town and on county roads looking for it. I figure it will turn up as an abandoned vehicle on one of the numerous gravel roads that surround us.

UPDATE: The car was found today. I'd like to be overjoyed about it, but somebody's joyride will end up costing about $400. I got to pay for towing, I'll need to get it shampooed to get all of the fingerprint powder out, and then there was the money in Ben's wallet....

The three things we swore we'd never do...

I figure it's time that both Ben and I cop to the three things that we swore we'd never do when we became parents.

Oath 1: No child will sleep in our bed.
Oath 2: Our child will not suck his thumb--ok, this was my thing (not Ben's)
Oath 3: Our child will have a normal name with a proper phonetic spelling--again just me.

Reality 1: Erlan loves to sleep in our bed! He will not go to sleep unless we lay down with him and pretend we are going to sleep too. If I try to read as he goes to sleep, he calmly stays up with me until I turn out the light. We generally transfer him to his baby bed after he goes to sleep. This means that he wakes up at least once in the night and screams to get back in our bed. Generally this doesn't work; although, I have slept walked, gotten him out of his bed, and transferred him to our bed. Occassionally we fall asleep while putting him to sleep. He is in heaven when this happens. He sprawls out like a starfish in order to cover as much of the bed as possible for a two-year old boy. His second favorite position is in-between my legs. He then tries to roll over my outside leg so that he would fall out of the bed. The consequence is that I raise that leg throughout the night. His third favorite position is to lay between us like we're a hammock, head on Daddy's tummy and feet on Mommy's stomach. I know you're wondering--yes, he kicks. By the way, he does not like it if I try to snuggle with Ben.

Reality 2: Thumbsucking was one of the few things that I really felt compelled to comment upon when my friends' kids sucked their thumbs. I did not want my children sucking their thumb. I watched my nephew struggle to break the habit when he was young, and I didn't want my children to go through that. My beautiful boy is an ambidextrous thumb sucker. He uses both thumbs interchangably. Now strangers comment about Erlan's thumb sucking. I agree. I don't want him to suck his thumb, but it is the way he learned to self sooth and I won't take it away from him now. I read that children tend to outgrow thumbsucking by age 5. This hasn't been my experience, but maybe I never met an average kid. :-)

Reality 3: I like phonetically spelled names. I wanted people to know how to pronounce my child's name when they looked at it. Erlan's name is about as far away as you can get from this. Erlan, pronounced Yair-lawn, starts with a Russian "E" not an English "E". The Russian "E" has a "yeh" sound. This spelling will confuse Erlan's teachers for years to come. :-) So, why not just change the spelling? The Russian "E" is part of Erlan's heritage, and I want him to be proud of where he came from. Also, I just like the E.

By the by, Erlan UPDATE:

1.) He grew 3/4 of an inch within two months
2.) We saw him jump by himself for the first time yesterday.
3.) He can put his sandals on by himself. He can put his shoes on, but cannot tie them yet.
4.) He's potty trained!!! WOOHOO!!!
5.) He wakes up with a smile on his face, says "Mommy! Daddy! Eat!"

The Poop Game

Erlan's favorite game is the poop game. He has figured out that poop is a magic word. It gives him special powers that allow him to escape whatever he is doing at the time and results in lots of attention from Mommy and Daddy. Here's how its played: Erlan yells, "Poop!" He points to his bottom and tops it off with a pained expression.

The result: Mommy drops whatever she is doing, runs to Erlan, picks him up and takes him to the bathroom.

As soon as Erlan is picked up, he breaks out his biggest smile and a happy giggle.

We played this game 25 times before noon. Any pooping? Nope. But what do you do? Poop is a magic word. Who wants to take chances with that one?

Baby makes 15!

We welcomed a new arrival in my family in July. My nephew (Mikey) and his wife had a beautiful baby girl, Mikayla. It's hard to believe that my nephew Mikey, the one that I changed and held and loved as a baby, now has his own baby!

Mikayla is the 15th kiddo to join Erlan's motley crew of cousins (with 8 living in our same small town). Besides being jealous when I tried to hold Mikayla, Erlan liked her very much. He was very interested in the baby. He really wanted to hold her, but I had to put my foot down on that one.





Erlan is, in general, the happiest child that I know. He occasionally tries to fake cry (in response to being told "NO"), but these attempts are always subverted by his desire to smile. It's not that he smiles all of the time, but he does seem very content with his life (and he is very easy with his smile).


Erlan has been taking swim lessons for the past 3 weeks. He can kick successfully using the kickboard. He can blow bubbles part of the time. He finally started putting his head underwater to pick up the dive sticks (instead of using his toes to grip the sticks and bring them up to his hands). The instructors let the little kids jump off the diving board. Erlan, after figuring out what was going on, was more than happy to jump into the arms of his instructor. He jumped a second time and was cuing up for a 3rd jump when Daddy intervened so the instructor could get out and prepare for her next class. The instructors also took the little ones down the big slide. Erlan LOVED the slide. I don't know how he's going to take it when we go to the pool, and he has to watch his cousins go down the slide and he doesn't get to go (he's way too short).


Speaking of short, Erlan has grown 3.5 inches since we first met him. Amazing what a few vitamins, better nutrition, and a lot of love will do! The first picture is from our first visit with Erlan.


Erlan's Auntie Del came to visit him again. I didn't know if Erlan would remember Adele since he hadn't seen her for a month. The delight on Erlan's face made it very clear that he remembered Adele. He absolutely beamed when she looked in the car at him. Erlan led Adele around and showed her all of his tricks. His latest one is singing the first part of the last verse of the alphabet song: "Now I know my ABCs.." Adele taught him to put a WOO! at the end of it, so Erlan sings "Now I know WOO!"

Erlan's English is coming along. He understands almost everything we say to him. He has finally started calling Ben "Daddy" instead of "Mama." I'm now "Mom" or "Mommy." He has some simple phrases, like "More milk." He can also do the sign for that... I've learned that he likes signing... it's as if it makes the spoken words more fun. This doesn't mean he consistently signs, but he does enjoy learning them. Erlan still babbles ALOT. He gives such a serious expression, points, sometimes claps as he tells you whatever it is that he's saying. When he finally finds all of his words, the boy will be a talker. His lack of words certainly do not limit his communication ability... he can communicate his needs very clearly whenever he chooses.

In the meantime, we are starting to think about adopting again. We both have siblings, and we want Erlan to enjoy that same sort of bond that only comes from being in the same family. Anything we do will take at least a year, which should give Erlan plenty of time as an only child.

Erlan goes to the Lake

We spent the long July 4th weekend at the Lake. If you're from MO, you know which Lake I mean. If you're not from MO, the Lake is the Lake of the Ozarks. Erlan loved it! We arrived on Friday evening about 20 minutes before it was dark. As we walked down the stairs, Erlan spotted the water and the boats. He was DELIGHTED! He ran across the deck, climbed on the first rung of the railing, and yelled "Boats! Boats" He pointed excitedly and gave me the biggest grin.

A short time later the fireworks started going off. This time Erlan ran to the railing and yelled "Lellow! Lellow!" (I'm not sure why he was yelling yellow... I think it's his new favorite word, replacing "hot") Erlan loved the big boomers. Everytime one went off, he'd smile and yell "KABOOM!" The kid was pretty darn happy.




The next day we took him swimming, which was quite the commitment for me since the water was cold when jumping in. I prefer water to be tepid if I'm going to go swimming. Erlan floated with me and Ben. He let us push him back and forth between us. By the time we took our last swim on Sunday, Erlan was kicking his feet and trying to blow bubbles. He also went down our neighbor's slide. (Don't worry, Ben was waiting at the bottom.)

On our trip back home, we were loaded down with 4 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog, and all of our luggage. Erlan was in the 3rd row seat in my SUV. We stopped at Sonic for some ice cream on the way home. Erlan did not know that we had ice cream. He could not see the ice cream from his back-row seat..... that is, he could not see the ice cream until he saw Aunt Amy pass a bite of her ice cream to Daddy. Erlan let out a howl. He was not happy. He got his own little cup of ice cream and all was right in the world again. Shortly thereafter, he was sound asleep.

The final post from Monterey...

I wrote this post in MRY... it has taken me this long to upload pictures...

All good times must end, and my boys left Monterey on Thursday. I had to stay behind to finish working. I was in tears as I watched them drive away at 5:00 am Thursday morning. I miss my boys terribly, but I am thankful that they could stay with me as long as they did.


Erlan finished his stay in Monterey in a grand style. Our friends Adele & Vince had us over for dinner. Vince barbeques the MOST DELICIOUS ribs ever. Erlan had a great time with his Auntie "Del" and Uncle Vince. Who wouldn't have a great time when your whims are being indulged? He showed Adele the gate, and she taught him the word. He then enjoyed showing the rest of us the gate and telling us his new word. Later he and Adele got into a pillow fight. He laughed so hard everytime he was whacked with a pillow.

On our last night in Monterey, we went to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner and to see the sea lions one last time. (If you come to Monterey, go to the Coast Guard Pier to see the sea lions. It is an amazing sight.) We ate dinner at a restaraunt overlooking the boat docks. Erlan fell in love with the sail boats. He squealed with absolute delight everytime one pulled into his view. I would love to have shown him one up close (the docks are locked so meddlesome tourists don't meander around). I get queasy just looking at at the ocean, so Ben is going to have to take Erlan on all of his boating adventures.

Erlan had such a good time at the Wharf. Ok, there are very few times when Erlan does not have a good time. He is such a laid-back kid. I marvel at his personality and how he reacts to the changes in his life and the new experiences that he has. He takes everything in stride.

Erlan does listen to me when I talk to him on the phone. He knows my voice, and Ben reports that he smiles and stops what he is doing to listen to me.

By now, my boys are sound asleep in MO being loved and missed by me in CA.

Erlan goes to the Aquarium

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a must-see when you visit Monterey. Since this is Erlan’s first trip to the area, we visited the Aquarium today with our friend Adele. Erlan’s favorite exhibits: the Splash Zone and the simulated wave. The Splash Zone is one of the kid-friendly areas in the Aquarium. They have lots of play areas for the kiddos (and the daddies)! Erlan must have gone through the tunnel 50 times. He also enjoyed playing in the water. He wasn’t too sure about the penguins though.


His very favorite thing was the simulated wave that crashes within the Aquarium. There is a walkway that you can stand in while the wave crashes overhead. There is also a large glass aquarium you can stand in front of and watch it crash. This exhibit startled Erlan each time the wave crashed. Given the horrified look on his face the first time he saw the wave, you would think that he didn’t like this exhibit. Erlan, however, enjoys being startled, and he LOVED this exhibit. Loved it. He dragged us back to this exhibit so that he could enjoy the wave again and again.

Erlan didn’t know what to make of the divers who were cleaning one of the large tanks. The divers were terrific, interacted with the crowd, and posed for pictures. To be honest, Erlan wasn’t all that interested in the fish. We would say, “Erlan look!” There were so many new things in front of him, he really didn’t know where to look.

He did enjoy watching and waving to the kayakers in the Bay. We tried to get him to look through the telescope; however, he wanted to kiss it. I wonder what he thought Ben was doing when he spent so much time looking through the telescope.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice lunch with Adele in Pacific Grove. I had a piece of olallieberry pie. Yummy! I love olallieberries, and you just can’t get them in the Midwest.

We are having a great time in Monterey.

Erlan goes to Monterey

Erlan is on his first vacation. He and Daddy are tagging along with me while I work. Overall, Erlan was terrific on the flight. He did try all of the tricks that other kids used that drove me crazy when I traveled on business. He threw a fit for no reason. He kicked the back of the seat. Fortunately for everyone, he kept these activities to a minimum. :-)



On Monday, my friends at work had a party for him. Being a ham, Erlan soaked up all of the attention that was showered on him. Midway through the party, Erlan was giving high fives and shaking hands all around.



Erlan learned a few things at the party that will serve him well. First, he figured out that brownies are good stuff. He was reluctant to try the brownie at first, but, once he did, he gobbled down two. When Erlan spotted my co-worker Bruce trying to eat his chocolate cookie, Erlan quickly climbed off of my lap to ask for a bite.



He also learned about presents at the party. When he unwrapped his first gift, he seemed to be trying to figure out how the package was put together. He loved finding presents under the paper. He really enjoyed the gift bags that he could use to organize his new books.









He finally figured out that stuffed animals are ok. Notice the kiss that he is giving his new penguin. He spontaneously hugs the penguin when he sees it.

Erlan had a great time at the party. He did his best to work the crowd and charm everyone.

Today we took Erlan to the ocean. He loved it. He liked running into the waves and running from them. Keep in mind that the water in Monterey is always freezing. The locals wear wet suits when they go in the ocean. Only the tourists swim in the ocean in a swim suit. Erlan didn’t care about the water temperature. He didn’t care when his jeans were soaked and his shirt was soaked. He was ready to go back for more. Poor kiddo only had his jacket to wear on the ride home.

This was actually the second time Erlan was soaked today. Earlier in the day, he managed to soak himself with the hose while helping Daddy water the yard. He also likes to help Daddy use the leaf blower. The kid is a hard worker! By the time 8:00 rolls around, it is all Erlan can do to keep his eyes open. He was asleep almost as soon as he head hit the bed tonight.

And on a completely unrelated note: Erlan can now identify 20 different body parts! He can say four body parts: eyes, belly, neck, and back. The word “back” sounds a lot like “butt”, but he is saying (or thinks he is saying) “back”!