love you lots

It may have been a month after arriving home from Russia, maybe less. I just went in to check on him before I went to bed, like all the other nights. See when first arriving home he was a restless sleeper, something to do with a vitamin D deficiency. I went to check and make sure he was all blockaded in.
He was all blockaded in and sleeping peacefully, owl in one hand and blanket in the other. I'm a pretty strong believer, like the rest of you, that sleeping babies should not be woken, but I couldn't resist. The absolute best thing about your kid sleeping in a bed is being able to climb in with them. It was midnight and I lowered the baby gate and crawled in.
After about ten minutes of laying and listening to him, I just started to cry. Not crying because the journey was hard and long and I was happy it was over, nope. Not crying because I was overwhelmed, nope. Crying for his biological mom. Sad she lost these moments, sad she doesn't know what he is capable of, and happy she did what she could when she had the chance. I knew I could love Oliver the moment I met him at the orphanage in Kemerovo. However, I knew I really really did love him when I cried for his first mothers big big loss.

SPOON survey,

Have you heard of the SPOON Foundation? I hadn't until someone from the agency contacted me about sharing some info on my blog.

You can check out the SPOON Foundation right here. Their mission is simple, "...to improve the nutrition of orphaned, fostered, and adopted children so they can grow and thrive."

Right now the folks over at SPOON are conducting a survey that is geared towards people who have adopted. It is a quick 10 question survey about transition foods, or foods that help bridge the gap between an adopted child's native diet and what will become their regular diet at home. They will use the responses received to provide more information for adoptive parents through their Adoption Nutrition website.

The survey is ending on July 7th so..
1. Take the survey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LZYBK9C)before July 7th
2. Post it on your blog and encourage more people to take it
3. Know you helped someone!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LZYBK9C

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Baby food, Oliver loved loved baby food. Defiantly his transition food. Sure he was almost two but really struggled to regulate the amount of food in his mouth and chew. He just wanted to slurp down as much as he could. I slowly started adding more and more table food to his baby food and eventually the transitioned to only having baby food fruit mixed in with his cream-of-wheat at breakfast time.

working out

It's hard for me to take pictures of Oliver at gym class because I'm usually busy helping him climb, hang, jump, or making sure he is staying out of the storage room, office, and bathroom. So when the grandparents paparazzi were in town I invited them to join us and snap a few pictures.

His gross motor skills impress me daily. Not because he is any more coordinated than any other two year old, rather because four months ago he was falling over all the time. Falling, tripping, walking into things, basically he was a gross motor disaster...luckily it was simply because of lack of practice. Now he is running, jumping off stuff, climbing, hanging, kicking, and can go up a few stairs without even holding on. Ya buddy.

giant bubbler

Oliver loves to drink water, loads and loads of water. For his birthday he requested some outdoor play toys and received a sprinkler from the lovely Barton family.
Just the other day we brought the sprinkler out for the first time, the lawn really needed some watering. I tried to teach Oliver how you can run in and out of the water and jump and all such fun. Nah, he is convinced that the sprinkler is a giant bubbler.

After maybe 25 minutes of drinking from the sprinkler I shut is off. Here he is in denial that there is no more water.

fly on the trapeze, with the greatest of ease

Oliver requested a trapeze bar for his birthday. The lovely Mosier family granted his wish.

party decorations

When it came to decorating for Oliver's party I just wanted a few colorful things, nothing crazy. He is two.

First I blew up a bunch of balloons and threw them around his playroom, big hit. Next I cut out a bunch of colorful circles (I guess when you have a boy you can't call them polka dots) and taped them on our front door, symbolizing that the party is here.

Lastly I searched around etsy for some flag banners. You know, little colorful triangles hanging from ribbon that you can tie up and use year after year. Etsy was too expensive for me.

Etsy was too expensive and I am not the owner of a sewing machine and even if I was I would have no idea how to use it. So, I checked in with my friend Kiley over at Anabelle's Attic to see if she could make them.

You can find all sorts of baby stuff in a variety of fabrics over there. Like burp cloths, changing pads, and diaper bags. If you don't see a fabric that you like/want you can usually ask for something that will fit you better. I ordered these reusable snack bags for Oliver and requested some sort of owl fabric for him. Point being, visit the site I'm sure you will find something you can't live with out and for a good price.

Anyway, flag banners is what I needed. Who doesn't? However, they were not listed on her site. I emailed her at kiley@walkingalready.com and sent the link to the etsy site and asked if she could make something similar. I requested bright colors and polka dots spots if possible. She practiced and got back to me with a photo of what she created, I liked it, and she said she could make me three for $40. Yeah I need three flag banners.

One for the fire place

One for the kitchen window

One for the balcony

I'll give myself a pat on the back for being such a great muse. You can now order flag banners right off the site. Come on that 4th of July one is adorable, and yes you need three also.

we're not the cleavers, you are not alone

Today, in our little adoption blog community is "Not June Cleaver Day" It's a chance to share some of your not so proud moments, some struggles, some of the times you just weren't so Cleaver perfect. I'll tell you it's a struggle for me just to write about struggles. I like happy, sweet, and fun. I like cute, silly, and joyful. When faced with the difficulty of raising Oliver I like to think of the struggles as a time to learn and get better, "tub is not torture" or "learning of to get out of the swings with out screaming boot camp" or "how to keep your hat on and be okay" and a million others.

I wrote about struggles when the adoption process was going on. When our referral was adopted by Russians, when our trips were canceled, when paperwork was late and complicated, and when we decided to move just to complicate it even more.

In the great big picture of international adoptions, we are just so lucky. Oliver is just the right perfect boy for us, but even so there are moments.

Top Ten Not So Terrific Mommy Moments (no certain order)

10. Headed home from Russia, alone. Twenty two hours of travel (door to door) with a baby who thought being awake for twenty one of those hours was the good choice. I blame the folks over at amazon for this not so terrific mommy moment, because sometimes I like to blame others. That's just how it is, sometimes. I ordered a child airplane restraint, paid extra for fast shipping, and still didn't receive it on time. I gave Oliver some Dramamine, because that stuff puts me to sleep in about 5 minutes, nope. We did lap upon lap around the plane, nope. Eventually he found a comfortable place to sit on the floor by/under his seat. I tossed cheerios down for him to catch and eat, I'm really not a germaphobe, like at all. This game occupied him for about two hours. I got to listen to part of some movie before we moved on to an hour of "wow look at this window shade go up and down"

9. If I cursed I would curse car seats. My lovely bendable two year old transforms into a solid straight and screaming disaster when faced with the car seat. Not every time, but enough time to make it annoying. Let him climb in himself...not a chance because one time Jim let him look at the front seat in his work car and now he is obsessed with making his way to the front, he can not be let loose in the car. Believe me I tell him where we are going, I hand him a toy, I talk to him, and he screams as if it's some brussel sprout force feeding chair I'm strapping him into. I eventually get his sweaty body strapped down and then he turns all happy and chatty, what?

8. I think we are over it, fingers crossed, but Oliver went though a let's try to stand in the shopping cart phase. Let it be clear, I'm not some crazy extreme couponing shopper. I'm not spending 4 hours looking for 9,000 groceries, and then spending 2 hours trying to check out. I'm talking about a 20-30 minute trip to the grocery store for our weekly groceries. Every 3 minutes Oliver is trying to "jump cart." I tell him in my nice mommy voice that jumping cart is not a good choice, please stay seated with your legs in there spot, you will get hurt, ouch, sit down, etc. It's not working! Maybe time 30 of him standing on the seat I just shake the cart a little, he freaks out and sits down. He tries, I warn him, he tries again, I give him a little shake, he gets scared, he sits down, he is now obsessed with the safety strap...yeah that's what I thought.

7. Nine months of tuberculosis medicine is a long time, a really long time. We are on month four, it's going well, but there are moments. Sometimes I just have to hold his nose so he will open his mouth and take the silly medicine yogurt so we can move on with some fun.

6. Oliver goes to the international adoption doctor every two months to make sure he is not having liver damage from this medication, so far so good. However, I have not yet taken him to a pediatrician. I've got her number, maybe I'll call next week.

5. One particularly long day Oliver was finishing up some time on the potty and then decided to go into his closet and play with some toys that we are "saving for later." He shut the door and seemed to he happy playing in there, so I rested on his bed and checked some emails. I let him out when he knocked, but still felt a little guilty for letting him shut himself into his closet.

4. At the mere mention of the word shower Oliver is running to our master bathroom and attempting to strip his clothes off while yelling "showa showa" I don't think babies need to shower or take baths daily, but sometimes it's a nice break. I get him in there, wash him up, and let him have a grand old time holding on to the sprayer and playing around. I sit next to, but outside of the shower, and pluck my eyebrows. I've heard of people using the TV to "babysit" I use the shower.

3. For whatever reason I have no patience with Oliver and crayons. I think crayons are for drawing and he thinks they are for eating. The crayons now live on the top shelf of the closet to be visited at some other time.

2. Social security card, nope. Passport, nope. Re-adoption in Kansas, nope. When there isn't a baby waiting in Siberia for me, I have no desire to do paperwork. Don't worry, I have started our post adoption report, because I would never never make it any harder on anyone else to adopt.

1. I wear earplugs at night, and have since I was married. Jim said Oliver fell out of bed the other night...I had no idea.

party food!

A few people at Oliver's party requested I post the sloppy joe recipe. You can find it right here Only difference is I used turkey and made a little bit larger batch, in case folks were hungry. If you asked me if I liked sloppy joes I would have said no, I have no idea why I even felt the need to make them, but these turned out really tasty. They are so simple and miles above any canned version.

I also had a try of vegetables and crackers with some hummus, garlic dip, and this totally yummy tomato bruschetta

Then for dessert we had this cake, in cupcake form with bright colored butter cream.

birthday party!

After Oliver's baptism we went home and got ready for his birthday party. Technically he is two but this was his first birthday party. Oliver was a total rock star.

He blew out the candles, just like we practiced

He ate the cupcake without smashing it all over his face

Then, as he opened his gifts, he pointed to the person that gave it to him and signed "Thank You" He even opened everything before considering playing with anything...I was impressed.

The party ended with playing outside, but only for a short time since it was sooo hot.

baptism

Having Oliver baptized was a big deal to us. Neither Jim or I were raised by parents who attended church or taught us about faith and God. Jim became a Christian in college, and I started believing when I was 10 (thanks to AWANA). We are excited about the idea of raising a child that always has a love of God. Oliver was blessed to share the special occasion with us, his grandparents, friends, and the church family. Sadly we didn't nominate someone to be our photographer for the actual event. However, we managed to snap a few pictures after the service.

floods

All that's on our local news these days is news of floods. It boggles my mind. It hasn't rained here in awhile, though I see some in the forecast. However, it's not our rain that's going to put parts of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and a bunch of other places underwater it's rain from up North in the Dakotas and such.
I drove over the Missouri River twice today. It already looks full to me but Jim tells me the flood water has only made it to Iowa. Then he tells me once it arrives it might stay for two months or so. Again, can't fathom that.
Us personally, we are in no danger of flooding. We don't live close to the river and we live up on a hill. It's the railroad tracks that follow the river. The location of Jim's actual office will probably be fine, but trains just can't run in 6-11 feet of water, which are some of their predictions.
Today when Jim comes home he tells me that he may be sent away during these two months of floods. Trains can't run here, but they can run in some other part of the country.
In short, don't worry about us. Rather pray for the thousands upon thousands that are just waiting to see if their home or business will be protected by their sand bagging efforts. Pray that if the water is so deep for so long that sickness does not start to spread. Pray that there would be much help and compassion when the water leaves and it's time to get back to life.

downtown kansas city

Grammie, (mother in law) requested to see this building that is dressed up like books, a friend told her she should check it out. Turns out that the building is a parking garage next to the central branch of the library.

After checking out the garage and the library Oliver and I were attacked by the grandparents paparazzi while walking back to the car.