Paragraphs, Puppies, Playmates, Pucks, Piano Man, Tons of Photos (and a Putting video), and one Priceless Playpen

So much for more regular posting. :-) Long time, no checking in with you all. Sorry about that!

Ahhhh, Springtime. I seriously think it is finally in the air around here. Even though we could still see a few more snowflakes, we are so happy to have turned the corner away from a really cold winter. Max and I have already embraced the time change and we have been hitting the road together for a couple of evening strolls that here-to-fore would have required a flashlight and a down jacket. We are all so happy that our lives can move outdoors a bit more comfortably now.

Although this report won’t necessarily be in chronological order, we’ll try to cover everything we’ve hinted at in our title.

First, the report on Max’s speech evaluation (and hence, the reference to talking in paragraphs). As we already suspected, but which is always nice to hear, Max’s receptive speech is testing beyond his age level. He can follow multi-step directions and he can listen to directions and then find teeny-tiny details in a picture. So, cognitively, he’s tracking at a great pace and his brain is working just fine.

But, the therapist pointed out a connection between speech and eating that quite frankly, we'd never connected before. (Maybe I should also be reading a few more books in my huge amounts of spare time?!) Max has been really slow to bite down and chew on anything but soft foods. He will eat the occasional bite of hamburger, but it is really difficult to get him to bite down on a chicken nuggett or any other meat. (I marvel at other blogs with videos and stories of kids eating 5-course meals. That's not our guy). And, although he has a huge single-word vocabulary, he is not stringing words together in sentences that have clarity. Now, he will look at you and talk to you in paragraphs of mumble jumble, but it's usually only possible to understand a few words here and there. (Again, I marvel at stories of children much younger than him speaking in full-on sentences with verbs, nouns, pronouns and prepositions, all where they should be!). (Oh, and a blog for another day -- how in the world do I stop comparing Max to other kids?! Seriously, is there a pill I can take or something?!)

Watching him with the speech pathologist was super cool, especially since I assumed going in that he wouldn't say a single word when asked. But, he did repeat back every single thing that was asked of him, including attempting to repeat back long sentences made up of a combination of relatively easy words. He gets all of the inflection and most of the syllables in, but the middle of the sentence becomes jumbled .. and you can even literally see him working extra hard trying to make his little jaw form all of the words and sounds. So, while Glenn and I often think, "What the heck, quit worrying, he'll catch up in no time," we have decided to have Max evaluated for "oral strength" (who knew there was such a test?!), which involves an eating test. Every test and evaluation prior to this point at Children's that I thought would be impossible to conduct on a toddler has been an amazing surprise, so we're signing him up for the next test. We've already verified that we get to be in the room observing the entire thing. If the specialists can give us eating AND speaking tips that are related, we can't help but to think that we should give it a try, particularly because he is totally at home with doctors and therapists and he doesn't seem the slightest bit phased by any of it. (He was actually strutting -- and I mean full-on strutting with long strides and arms a-swinging -- down the hallway at Children's this time around - checking around every bend for a new person who might have a new set of stickers!).

Additionally, our little guy also continues to show an iron deficiency (with a slight lean towards a blood disease that has to do with hemoglobin mish-mash, but we're focusing on the iron stuff first). So, lucky us, we now get to try to put more iron into someone who doesn't really like to eat much to begin with. We are quickly becoming experts in the foods that have been "iron fortified", but because the doctor wants us to try to bring his levels up quickly, we also have the even more challenging task of getting iron drops down his throat, chased with a citrus food or drink to help absorb the iron. I'm working in New York City this week, so Glenn has had the task of convincing Max that he actually likes the taste of watermelon-flavored iron, washed down by a juice that he has never liked ever ever ever.

Parenting is such a cake-walk! :-)

Seriously, as you'll see from the pics and video below, Max continues to be the joy of our lives and he is happy all of the time. As a family, we just take it all in stride because we know that we are all blessed to have found each other. Sure, we've had a few of these teeny tiny little bumps in the road, but it's those bumps along that way that just embellish his story to even more amazing heights. We're blessed and we're thankful and we're loving it!

So, on to some pics. First up, a couple of pictures of Max meeting his Aunt Mindy's new puppy, Paco. Max wasn't quite sure what to make of this little bundle of joy -- he exhibited a healthy fear coupled with uncontrollable giggles. So so cute.

The now practically unstoppable "CHEEEEEESE" pose that begins every photo shoot. You'll see it "live" in the video at the end of the post.

The second adoption is moving at slowpoke pace -- because of us, not because of anyone else. (So many other people have written about this, so at some point I just need to cut and paste from someone else's blog, but it really is so crazy how the second time around is such a different experience from the crazed-rushed-frustration laden-anticipation-of-the-unknown that enveloped the entire experience on our way to Max). Any way, as part of our preparation for two young children, we borrowed Max's BFF Ellie for 12 hours one day so that Heather could get the nursery ready for her third child. Max loves Ellie, and always seemed to be "guiding" her to look a certain direction, or follow him somewhere. She is just so cute, and Max is going to have a hard time choosing between Ellie and the many Kaz cuties he is going to meet at Kazapalooza in June.



In addition to Ellie, Max had another fantastic play date with his Kaz cousin Nick from Lexington. We were honored to help Nick celebrate his 5th birthday (where does the time go??!!!!) with his Mom and Dad and one of his mom's cool friends and her son at a nifty place north of Cincinnati called Entertrainment Junction (hint hint -- it's a train theme). Nick is just so great with Max, and Karen got better pictures than I did of the older boys leading Max around by the hand as they ran from one display to the next. Karen is such a great motivator for me -- I knew Max would love this place, but we had not yet visited it.

Nick taught Max how to use the train whistle, which called for High Fives all around!




Karen made this amazing train cake for Nick -- not only was it a masterpiece to see, but it was YUMMY!



Our good friends Gordie and Kelly were in town from Columbus as the select hockey team (12-year-olds) coached by Gordie was playing in a tourney. So, we left the train place, Glenn joined us, and we went immediately to dinner with two other couples (and Max). Max was on "no nap", but he was a great dinner companion. We then made a quick stop at home for Max to change into his Columbus Blue Jackets gear, and we headed off to watch Gordie's team in an 8:30 PM game. This is Max afterwards, getting a start on what we are sure will be his game. :-) Again, NO nap that day, and he was a total champ from morning through the b-day party fun, through to dinner, and on to the hockey game. No sign of anemia-induced listlessness in this kid!


Max loves to open the mail. Here he is genuinely studying his Valentines Day card from Grandma and Grandpa Floyd. He doesn't see them nearly enough (and I know they are NOT happy with my blogging infrequency)!


Glenn and I hit the concert scene and loved every minute of the 3 1/2 hour Elton John/Billy Joel concert. It took me two days to recover! :-) A special thanks is sent out to Aunt Kathleen, who babysat on a work night, so we could stay out long after the limits set on us by our regular high school babysitters on school nights.



I am including this photo just because it's so cute, but doesn't Max look so much older than he really is???


And last for the photos, and I SOOOO hope you are all still reading, is the most priceless gift of all -- a picture sent to us of our little guy when he was in the orphanage months before we met him. With the help of one of our blog readers (who I will never be able to thank enough), we were connected to a family who adopted a child from Max's group several months before we traveled. They fell in love with Max, too (who wouldn't?!) and they have several pictures of him from that time. Here he is in the playpen ... he is just over a year old at this time. These photos are clearly PRICELESS!!! What is really strange is that I followed their blog daily, often even commenting on it. It never occurred to me at that time that I might be communicating with someone who was seeing OUR child every day. At every turn of our Kaz journey is another little magical moment.


And lastly, just to prove to myself that I might be able to upload video, is a little snippet of Max from a weekend ago. You'll hear my raspy voice -- I've been battling "something" for awhile now, and the voice of our neighbor Glenn (yes, our next door neighbor and my husband are both named Glenn!). Max has a special place in his heart for Grandpa Glenn and his wife, Grandma Joyce, and Max was having fun showing off his golf skills for his Grandpa Glenn.

Happy Spring everyone!!!