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.