Back to School !!

Kylen started the 3rd grade this year. He has a wonderful teacher and is making some progress in reading. Sasha (Alexander) moved up to preschool two days a week. I have been thinking of putting him in an extra day or two, for the mornings only. He is so behind developmentally. This November he will turn 4 years old, but developmentally he is between 19 and 22 months old. He is very behind on language and has only now started to talk. Yesterday we were sharing a plum and he gave me a bite. Well, I must have touched his finger with my teeth, and he thought I was biting him, and he said "Say 'Sorry Sasha!!' "!! I guess I am always saying to him when he is too rough or acting out "Say you are sorry, Sasha". HA!! At any rate, I have struggled with trying to decide if he should have more classtime or more "mommytime". Our bonding and attachment has gone very well with Sasha ( and we still have a long way to go with Kylen....more on that later). However for now, I have decided that Sasha will benefit most from "mommytime". He already has some days that he must spend away from me because I work. I really feel he will benefit most from more love, nurturing and closeness to Mom. Time will tell.

Summer Revisited

Why is it the summer goes by so quickly? We had such a fun and wonderful summer. We took 3 trips to the beach. Sasha LOVED the ocean, waves and the sand. Kylen had learned about palm trees and coconut trees when he was in school at Magadan. He was so excited to see them in person!! Kylen was the best sand crab catcher EVER!! He even caught little sand crabs for the other little kids that weren't fast enough to catch them!! He has become a great little swimmer, too!! He is greatly improved from the second month of coming home from Russia and when we went to the waterpark near my Mom's house! We had only been home from Russia two months, and Kylen wasn't speaking English yet, but somehow I let him convince me that he could swim. So, I gave him permission to go down this big slide into what I call "the toilet bowl" with Tavia and Remmy. Well, it is this huge slide that at the bottom, you swirl around and around (like when the toilet flushes) and then you land in the water. As soon as Kylen hit the water the lifeguard blew the whistle and the they jumped in to pull him out. I raised my hand and said... "Yes, I am the stupid parent that let him slide down!" He wasn't afraid, and within a few weeks he was swimming like a fish!! Now he tubes behind our boat like a Mad Man!! But I look back on those early days and some of the crazy things that happened make us laugh!!

Fantastic Summer !!

We have enjoyed such a fun summer!! Having a Court Date last May that involved my two older children and my ex finished and behind us was a HUGE relief. This has been pending for almost two years, and again there was another successful postponement on the part of my ex until the end of September......but we are almost there and positive things are happening for our side. More on that later.....but needless to say it has been a HUGE stressor for all of the children, as well as my husband and myself to be going through such a tremendous ordeal. We are so happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel!! Kylen and Alexander (Sasha) are such a tremendous blessing to us!! They are happy boys and are doing so well!! We still have some issues we are dealing with.....and I hope to talk about some of these issues in order to help some of you with your challenges. I have just been so "zapped" dealing with all this legal stuff, that I didn't seem to have much reserve left to discuss other aspects of my life. It really has been all-consuming. I am so happy it is almost over....and will be even happier for a positive outcome!! Think positive thoughts for us and say a few prayers, please!! I am learning more about bonding as we go along and this is also something I want to share in future posts!! I have new pictures coming too!! I am glad to be back with all my blogger friends!! I have missed you all!!

WOW !! THE ONE YEAR POST-PLACEMENT REPORT !!

Wow!! How time flys!! Today Sasha and I drove 6 hours (to and fro) to "The Big City" to get our one year post-placement reports apostilled and off to FedEx to our adoption agency to submit to Russia!! One year ago today we were frantically packing and getting ready to depart to pick up our children in Russia!! It all seems so surreal now that they are so integrated into our family!! Honestly, I cannot even picture our lives without them being here!! WOW!! Are we ever lucky!!

Still the Sweetest Boys Ever!!

Our weather has stayed very warm until just recently. I wanted to share a sweet picture I took just before we went into our Sacrament Meeting at church. It was taken just a few weeks ago. Aren't they just adorable? I love Alexander in his "Southern Fancy Pants", and hope you Northerners will forgive me for dressing him this way. It is a true "Deep South" Southern tradition, and is ACTUALLY Remmy's outfit he wore 12 years ago when he was a baby!! WHAT am I doing with the same exact outfit my older son wore over a decade ago, you ask?? Well....unfortunately, I am a packrat......I told you I needed to clean my house!! I had better get crackin' !!!

Life is What Happens While We are Making Plans!!

WOW!! Is life ever busy!! Between three children in three different schools, one baby still at home. a football player, a cheerleader (cheering for the football games...now for the basketball games...all 112 of them including the 9th grade, the JV and the Varsity), wrestling season (ugh! I hate it when they squeeze, smash, and get sweat all over my son!!), drama club and the two performances so far (Charlotte's Web and the Christmas Pageant), band concerts, band competition and travel performances, soccer season for Kylen (which, by the way....they call "foot ball in Russia),church activities, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and....HOMEWORK!!....working for me (oh, and by the way I took a second job temporarily.....mainly because I was "temporarily insane", and shopping for food, and cooking, etc.etc.etc......OH! Did I forget to mention "cleaning the house"?? Well, that must be because it has NOT been done in a while!! HA!! Oh, I know....I have a day off from work tomorrow....THAT is what I can do in my spare time! I have had so many aspirations for this blog....and all of them have seem to have gone by the wayside......and lost in the flurry and hustle and bustle of everyday lifes schedule. I am hoping to make a resolution to blog because I really want to make a contribution that matters, and provide help for those who are seeking answers, and I know some of you are just plain curious as to how we are all doing. I am thinking now maybe I should just blog to save my own sanity!! Somewhere out there in the world, I have some interested readers.....or I wouldn't have over 10,000 readers looking at my blog!! So...as my Mother would say...."Come on Susan, Get it together!!"

Kitties, and Turtles, and Strawberries......OH MY!!

Ok...I guess I need a little help in the organization department, because after writing all these nice notes on bonding and attachment, and setting them aside for a time when I could post them......I CAN'T FIND THEM!! So...I keep waiting and hoping they will turn up, and then I will discuss the topic.....but, tonight I said to myself "What if I never find the list, and I don't blog again for months??" So, I decided to throw in the towel and write on some other happenings, and as sure as I start to ignore my obsession (trying to locate the lost list)....I will find it!! Right?? Well, that is my new theory and I am sticking to it!! Yesterday when Sasha and I were leaving the house, there was a little box turtle on the cement walkway! This turtle was soon joined by the little kitty that adopted our family this past summer. (There was this kitten that showed up in the garage when we were keeping the puppies there in a little fenced enclosure in the garage). Oh, did I forget to say that in May we had 4 puppies that we sold (finally!!) and so this little kitty would sneak into the garage and curl up with the puppies and sleep with them. It was a wild kitty someone abandoned, but finally now after a couple of months it is finally warming up to us. So back to the turtle.....after waiting 10 minutes for him to pop out of his shell (He clamped down hard when Sasha picked him up and started waving him wildly in the air!!), we decided to get a plastic container and keep him (just for a few days) and then release him again. Sasha was so excited to have the turtle in the container! We gave the turtle a strawberry to eat, and Sasha was thrilled to see this little creature take bites out of the berry. What cute giggling sounds he made! It was such a refreshing sight to see a little boy have this new and fresh experience!