Our Little Russian Peanut

To most parents (especially adoptive parents!), hearing your child say "one more kiss and hug" would be like music to your ears. To THIS adoptive parent, it's become a source of frustration at school drop off and bed time. It's become a stall tactic and it's the beginning to a complete meltdown. Boy oh boy, has it been a rough day and the feelings of working parent guilt have set in this mom's heart!

We held Andrew out of school on Tuesday just to be sure he was feeling 100%. Good move? Maybe. Bad move? Maybe. This morning was his first full day of Pre-K and drop off went pretty horribly. We got to his class and I was very bubbly - cheerleader like. He seemed excited to go in and I crouched down to give him a kiss and a hug once we were inside the door. I stood up to leave and heard "one more kiss and hug?" and so I squatted down again and gave him a big bear hug and a kiss. I got back up (who needs the gym to do squats?!?) and started to head for the door. Andrew turned and gave me this evil little smirk, cut in front of me and tried to head out the door. Uh-uh. No way.

I grabbed his hand, took him over to his teacher, gave him another kiss and hug and he proceeded to melt down, crying "one more kiss and hug". The teacher took him and he cried and cried and cried. He tried to bolt to the door but she held him back and kept asking him what was wrong. I, of course, stood outside the door, listened to him cry and once he calmed down (1 minute later), I left.

The afternoon was just as "fun" because Andrew was so tired and just cried over everything and anything. He refused to go into the bathroom unless one of us was with him (very unusual), he threw a fit about having to get in his chair at dinner time, he bit his finger while eating his grilled cheese and just LOST it. My poor boy's first active day in a week, first full day in a new class without some of his best buds and he's just so darn exhausted he can hardly stand it.

Bath time went well (YAY for small victories!) and then came bed time. I'd say, for the past month of so, bedtime has become more difficult. We really had a schedule down pat and he went down so easily. Now, it's about 4 renditions of "one more hug and kiss" and then it's meltdown time. I've just had to let him cry it out because he'll keep the stall tactics coming. He always wants to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed and that's usually meltdown part 1 when we tell him he needs to sleep in his big boy bed. We go through funny stories about how his car bed misses him, what it says when he's not there, etc... (Yes, the car bed "talks" in our house. How can something so big and blue not have a voice??)

So, there you have it... my little boy must be going through a phase. He's about to be four and I'm guessing this is just par for the course. Keith is worried something might be happening at school, but I think the change might just be taking a toll on him. Is this normal? Do I need to be worried about attachment? I remember going through this when we first came home and I can honestly say that I'm handling it much better now then I did before. :-)

And now.... proof. Well, not exactly proof because this was a fake cry meltdown (thus the eyes squeezed tightly - trying to squeeeeeze those tears out!) during dinner tonight. I couldn't help but take pictures. I know... I'm such a nice mom. I have video too, but am too tired to edit it right now. :-)

I'm heading upstairs to give my sleeping boy "one more kiss and hug". Here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day!
Becky

Welcome to my new look... and the new blog title! Yes, you are at the right place - the header used to say "Our Little Russian Peanut" and even though the title has changed (for now), the blog address has not! We just recently passed our one year "Gotcha Day" anniversary and are about to enter Alex's senior year and Andrew's second year in our family so this blog is really all about our family. With the help of my sister, we decided "Controlled Chaos" pretty much described our life, although "controlled" might be a stretch!

So, now I have a new pretty blog and the only challenge will be finding time in which to write! I really hope to blog as much as possible about Alex's senior year. We have senior pictures on Wednesday, a quick college tour next Monday and Tuesday, school starts the 10th and a partridge in a pear tree. Did I mention chaos???

We spent the weekend with a sick little boy. Andrew went from fine to sick in a matter of what seemed like minutes. At 11:30 Friday, we had him in a tub trying to bring his almost 104 degree temperature back down. He was congested, lethargic and very clingy. The weekend was spent indoors and let's just say that I think I've memorized Noggin's TV schedule (as my mind starts singing "Wonder Pets, Wonder Pets....") Andrew spent the day home with daddy today and daddy is now drinking a glass of wine. :-) Andrew was bouncing off walls to put it mildly and is definitely feeling 100% better.

I'm off to bed... tomorrow is the first full day of preschool and if last week was any indication, I think Andrew is going to have to be peeled off of me in tears when he gets to his new classroom. I keep hoping it was only because he wasn't feeling well but I think the change is bothering him a bit.

Have a great week!
Becky

Last night, after Andrew's second day of transitioning to Pre-K, he was sitting on the potty before bed and we were chatting. Our conversation went something like this:

Andrew: When I go to Kindergarten, I'm going to go see the principal a LOT.

Me: Why are you going to see the principal?

Andrew: Because if you don't listen you have to go see the Principal (with a "duh, Mom!" tone).

Me: I think you should really use your listening ears instead of having to go see the Principal! If you have to see the Principal for not listening then he/she will call Mommy and Daddy.

Andrew: Yep and so I'm going to go see him and talk to him and then I'm going to take him to Russia!

I tried to understand more about the Russia part but at that point he was over the whole going potty thing and instead hopped off the toilet, turned his bare bottom to me and said "you can't get my booty!". :-) What a charmer.

So, is my son talking about kidnapping the Principal and taking him to Russia so he can't call us?!?! And should I be worried that he's already planning to be in the Principal's office a year from now?

I think, in my heart of hearts, I'm just going to believe that Andrew will want to take the principal on a tour of his home country. Just go with it, people... Humor me. :-)

Happy over the hump day!
Becky

A clue! The Gingerbread Man left a clue in Andrew's cubby.

Look High!!

Look low!!!

Look REALLY close!

It's the Gingerbread Man!!!

So, this morning, I woke up late (shocker!) and had to rush to get to Andrew’s daycare. I had a meeting scheduled to meet with his new teachers since he’s transitioning this week. Transitioning to where, you ask? PRE-K!!! Oh my goodness, I know that’s not Kindergarten or anything, but it’s close enough and I’m ready to stop the clock.

I honestly thought I was a-ok and prepared to talk about my baby boy having lunch cafeteria style (so he’s prepared for Kingergarten), working on writing letters, math, only an hour nap (really meant to be “quiet time”), saying the Pledge of Allegiance, etc… Once I sat down and realized that he was entering big boy territory, I was so sad and yet excited for him at the same time.

Andrew is a sponge and although he’ll be on the lower end of the totem pole (the Pre-K bday cut off is 9/1 and Andrew’s bday is 8/22) I know he’s going to just soak it all in. As long as he’s being challenged, he’ll be engaged. Of course, on the flip side, if he’s not challenged, he’s going to be spending some quality time in the carpet area by himself.

After this year, we enter the true “private or public school” debate. We are fairly certain Andrew will start in public school and then depending on how challenged he is depends on whether he switches to public. I will never forget Alex’s elementary school years. In 4th grade he was in trouble every single day. We finally figured out that he was bored. Keith and Sabrina met with the teacher because Alex had been trying to throw pencils and get them stuck in the ceiling. When asked why, we got the typical 4th grade response of “I don’t know”. Turns out, he was done with his work very early and had taken out a book to read. He got in trouble for reading so decided to occupy his time with pencil throwing.

I’m not sure where I was going with that, but Andrew is a lot like Alex. If he’s bored, he’ll find something to do and it will most likely not be what the teacher wants him to do. I was raised in public school and both of my parents were public school teachers so I’m not opposed to public school at all. That being said, we want our son to get the best education and we’ll figure out where that is at some point.

So, this week the transition occurs. My little boy who relies on sleep like his mommy, will now have an hour of quiet time vs. two and half hours of full on sleep. He will need to be to school at 8:00 so we’ll be on a pretty strict schedule (I think I’m going to have a harder time adjusting to the morning schedule then he will). Bed time will move up a bit provided I can make that work with bath time and bedtime.

The next year is going to be full of transitions. The biggest boy is starting his senior year! One year from now, he’ll be heading off to college. Seriously? That’s only 52 Sunday Dinners left. One year from now, our littlest boy will be starting elementary school. One year from now, I will be a mess. Yep – planning my breakdown already.

Little does Keith know, we’re going to need to start adding more children to this house! I’m not ready to let go of having an itty bitty one yet – it’s bad enough to have one super independent child in the house (Alex). Soon, I’ll have two. Keith will have no clue what’s going on when I put a stack of papers in front of him to sign for our next dossier. And I’ll just tell him the social worker is visiting for a post-placement, not for a home study update. And to explain our next trip to Russia? Well, vacation, of course!

And I'll leave you with a funny conversation (depending on how you look at it, of course).

Last Friday while I was rushing around trying to get ready….

Me: Andrew, where did you put my brown belt that you were playing with?
Andrew: In the garbage. You’re getting way too big and so it won’t fit you anymore.

So, I head into my bedroom, already frustrated because I’m trying to find jeans to fit into, squeeze into something and head to work.

Fast forward to this morning and I have to go weigh in for our weight loss challenge.

Yep, gained 5 pounds since vacation. I think Andrew is psychic or something.

Off to find a salad for lunch!
Becky

Walking tall and proud

Yummmmmmmm... a cupcake!

And then, I see this and think "Who decided a cupcake with 5 pounds of icing was a good idea?!? My child is out of control!"

Enjoying the lake on the 4th of July

"One, two, three, KABOOZA" (what Andrew yells before he jumps - don't ask me!)

Waiting for the fireworks at the north side of the lake

If I haven't mentioned it, Andrew has no fear in the water. It's not something I'm too happy about although I suppose it's a good and bad thing. As soon as a class opens up, he's going straight to swim lessons. I'm so fearful of his fearlessness that I won't even let him walk on the docks at the restaurants we stop at without his life vest. He's likely to see a fish he wants to "pet" and jump right on in. As you can see in the pictures below, he and I "tubed". We didn't go fast at all but that was my choice, not his. If it was up to him, we'd be hitting the wake at mach speed!

Na-Na-Nah-Boo-Boo... you can't knock us off!

A Mama and her baby

Double Trouble!

This year, Alex has started wakeboarding. I think he tried it a while ago but did some kneeboarding instead. Keith bought him a wakeboard and low and behold, the kid is a natural. He just makes it look so easy. If I was to try that, just once, I would be flat on my back and unable to move for weeks on end. He showed off his moves by coasting back and forth across the wake and even did a jump. I was seriously impressed!

Well, I'm off to bed! Tomorrow is Friday and, ya see, the sooner I go to sleep, the sooner it will be Saturday and I'll be RELAXING on the lake again! :-)

Hope you all are having as awesome of a summer as we are!

Love,
Becky

P.S. Does anyone else get completely irritated trying to upload/post/move around pictures in blogger?? As you notice, this whole thing is centered because blogger would NOT cooperate. There's got to be an easier way to do this.

On July 8, 2008 we picked our little guy up from the orphanage and our lives changed for ever. Little did we know how much personality this little person had, how head strong he was, how witty and how stubborn he was. Even in the early days when he spoke a few words of Russian, you just knew he was going to be a little stinker. Much more quickly than I anticipated, he was grasping onto to most of what we said and was even able to repeat things back to us. Now, one year later, he is talking up a storm, singing songs he knows and songs he makes up and is just your normal almost four year old boy.

I want to write up all of the changes, all of the things Andrew's learned and how far he's come, but in the interim I've put together a short video of our past year together. But first, here is our Gotcha Day video if you're just getting caught up on our adoption journey (or if you want to watch it again!). If you've seen it already, skip ahead to the 2nd video. (Music by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole and Jars of Clay)



Our little boy might not have gained 10 pounds or grown 10 inches but most certainly has shown us his true colors. Enjoy our year in review! (Music by Cyndi Lauper)