Opening Day, Easter, and Ryan's Home!

We're off to a good start this Spring, with a couple of Easter celebrations and Max's first Cincinnati Reds Opening Day. And, the month got even better when Ryan, Max's brother-in-law (Jessica's husband) returned safely with his unit from Iraq.

For our first Easter celebration, Kathleen and I bundled up Max and BFF Ellie and headed to the Easter Egg Hunt at The Beach Water Park the weekend before Easter. This was one of my first "big" kid-oriented events, and I had claustrophobia and an "oh-my-gosh-I-could-have-organized-this-so-much-better" 'tude from the start. :-) But, despite there being a wacky ratio of kids to staff members (as in VERY FEW staff members and a clearly underestimated account of potential attendance), we managed through the confusion and the kids had a great time. We were surrounded by empty pools, and Max spent alot of time pushing Ellie around in the stroller inside of the giant empty wave pool. At least he had alot of open space to cover!

This is Max's first experience up close and personal with a person dressed as something. You'll remember that he was really scared of the Elmo Live doll, and a couple of people asked me if he was scared of "characters" like this. I wasn't sure, as he'd never really been around any! But, as you can see, he was willing to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap, although he had that "I'm not so sure about this" look on his face the entire time. BTW, I had up to this point never uttered the words "Easter Bunny" to him -- never ever. No books about Easter Bunnies, no talk about Easter Baskets, nada. He saw this white blob of fur and yelled, "Easter Bunny!" I can only assume he learned this from school! Ugh, my loss of control has started already.

Max was willing to join the throngs of little kids during the actual hunt (with Kathleen at his side), but Ellie was content to sit in one place and take in the scenery. I love this picture, because Max saw that Ellie didn't have any eggs so he took one from his basket and gave it to her. Please, Lord, give me the ability to raise a boy that is this kindhearted for the rest of his life.

After the big hunt, we stood in line and rode the ponies. This is Max's second time on a pony -- his first was last fall with Kaz cousins Sophie and Nick. He was much more brave this time and I didn't have to walk with him or anything. He waited patiently in line (sort of) while shouting "My Ponies!" over and over again.

Then it was off to a park to enjoy the rest of the beautiful sunny Spring day, where Ellie used a bit of static electricity from the slide to impersonate Billy Idol.

A few days later, the snow and sleet and rain moved back in just in time for the Reds Opening Day baseball game. Not to be discouraged, we packed up our football-weather gear and headed to the game. Our seats were up VERY high in the stands -- so high that we had a nice view of the Ohio River. Max spent the entire time (well, the 6 innings that we hung in there) watching boats come and go. Every time the stands erupted in cheers, he jumped up and down, clapping and yelling, "Yay boats, yay boats." I'm relatively certain he had no idea that a baseball game was being played multiple stories below us, and instead assumed that 45,000 people has assembled to watch the boats.


As we were leaving the stadium, we literally bumped into all of the Reds mascots who were being shuttled from one part of the stadium to another by the PR staff. So, Max had another encounter with big blobs of fur and big heads. I've been to a gazillion Reds and Bengals games and have never just bumped into these mascots. How cool is it that our son got to be up close and personal at his very first Opening Day?!

Feeling like the perennial Reds fan, Max then pretended to be a Cincinnati Red.

On Easter Sunday, after church, we had an Easter Egg hunt of our own in the back yard. Most of it I caught on video rather than pictures, but here's one photo of him picking up an egg.

That afternoon, we piled in the car and drove up I-75, meeting my mom and brother halfway between our three homes in the small town of Sydney, Ohio. (GREAT IDEA, Mom!!) My mom found a nice little restaurant for lunch, and then she had scoped out what turned out to be a great park in which to spend the rest of the day and early evening. It was a bit chilly, but the bright sun made it easier to overlook the brisk weather. I dressed Max in his cute Easter duds, and I wish I had taken more pictures of him that day (without his jacket, although I love this jacket from Jen and Jack) -- he looked so handsome! The first picture is as we were leaving the house. He adores Dora and he likes to wear his backpack at every chance.






And, the best Easter gift of all ... Ryan has returned safely from Iraq. Max is so happy to have his brother-in-law home (as is the entire family).

I have received some GREAT advice and emails regarding Max's speech and iron deficiency, so thank you to everyone for that assistance. His speech/eating test is next week, so I'll post more about that soon. I just can't express how fortunate we feel to be connected to so many other parents, especially those who have adopted from Kaz! Such an amazing community!

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!!!

Road Trippin'

Long time no post! I won't even try to make excuses for my total blog slackerness. It does feel like we've been on the road since October, even though we've also been snowed in a few times during those months. Cincinnati saw a nice hint of Spring over the weekend, so our piles of snow and ice have all but melted away. We're ready for Spring, but that dang groundhog seems to have another thing in mind. And, since we used his name in vain about a thousand times in Kaz ("every day, the same thing over and over again, just like the movie Groundhog's Day"), I'm pretty sure he's out to get us.

Before I jump into lots of pictures to document where the heck we've been these last few weeks, I must humbly thank my friend Susan and her family for the nice shout-out of the Lemonade Award variety. Susan and family welcomed Leeza Grace to their family last year. Susan waited and waited and waited to travel to Kazakhstan for her daughter, and then as she was stepping on the plane, her US-based agency went out of business! Adopting internationally is stressful enough -- even when you can be in contact with your agency every single day -- but it's off the charts stressful if your agency tanks as you're headed to Kazakhstan. Maybe Susan cried or freaked out or asked God, "what's up?!", but you would never have known it from her amazing blog entries and emails during her journey. She just got on that plane, plopped herself in Kaz, and stayed for almost 3 months, never considering heading home without her daughter. So, given that she is the most positive person EVER, I am humbled and honored that she gifted forward the Lemonade Award, which she bestowed on her blogger friends who show a positive attitude, the whole "glass half full " mentality, and the whole lemon/lemonade gist. (You say lemonade, I say margaritas, but let's not get into semantics -- ha!). Anyway, thanks Susan, for the shout-out. I now need to gift it forward as well, and that post will follow soon!

It's not difficult to be optimistic when you share your home with the most joyous, happy, funny 2-year-old. Max wakes up happy and on most nights, goes to bed happy. He climbs the stairs at night, waving "night night" to anyone (and any pet) along the way, and he will generally go into his crib without much fuss after lots of reading and singing. (Side note: we're also in our very early stages of saying a bedtime prayer -- which generally causes him to break out into his own special version of Away in a Manger, which he does any time we talk about Jesus. It's adorable.) What's interesting now is that he will lay in his crib -- sometimes for up to two hours -- talking and singing to himself. I need to capture it on a recording or video. Glenn and I sit downstairs and listen on the monitor and just marvel at our little guy -- the little guy who did not speak or show an ounce of emotion during virtually all of our visits to the baby house. We can't figure out if he isn't tired or doesn't need alot of sleep or what, but we want to believe that he is just happy and comfortable, and that he is just chillin' and loving life. We could probably try cutting out his afternoon nap, but he naps at day care three days each week, and we ALL look forward to those naps on his other days at home. :-) If he doesn't have to get up for school, he'll sleep in until 9:30, which is great in our house of night owls.

He's really into music right now, and he could sit and watch Jack's Big Music Show or Backyardigans (both on Noggin, a completely unknown network to us before Max) for hours if we'd let him. This is also a new discovery -- just a few short weeks ago he would not even notice a video. As of his "two-year-old" doctor appointment last week, he weighs 26 pounds and he is 33 1/2 inches tall. He has gained a pound and has grown another inch since his appointment two months ago at the International Adoption Clinic. He continues to climb up the percentile charts in both height and weight -- he's hovering around the 15% range for height, and he's now in the 25th percentile for weight. Our doctors barely mention any of this -- they are so thrilled with his progress, and again, I only mention it as I know people like to follow the progress of children adopted from Kaz.

His primary care pediatrician concurs with the IAC that we should have his speech evaluated, so we will do that shortly. He babbles in multi-word sentences constantly now, but he still sounds like he's speaking Martian. We figure it can't hurt to have him evaluated, especially if the specialists can give us some additional ideas on how to help him. Just as I was fascinated to watch Children's Hospital test his hearing (which was perfect), it will be interesting to see how they will test his speech. He won't speak in front of strangers until he has really warmed up to them, so I can't wait to see how they get him to speak at all!

So, on to our road trip reports. We spent some time on Christmas Eve with Jessica and Tyler, and then we spent Christmas morning at home -- just Glenn, Max, and me. We really tried to keep things very simple, and it was a wonderful lazy day together. As I think back, I'm not sure that Max even made it out of his reindeer pajamas that day. :-)


We promised ourselves that Santa would not bring Max very many things, and I think we managed to keep it in check .... but I have to admit that I felt one tiny moment of regret when I pulled everything out after Max went to bed on Christmas Eve and it didn't seem to be "enough". Of course, looking back now, we know it was plenty and in fact, on a tip from Heather, I even put a few of his gifts away to bring out later this year. As with most 2-year-olds, he'll play with his "real toys" for awhile, and then he will spend an hour playing with a piece of string and a hanger.

Max loves to help clean (we'll take it while we can get it), so he loves his new vacuum cleaner.

My mom found this reindeer rocker at Ikea. Max likes to sit on it and rock away to his favorite episodes of Jack's Big Music Show.

Tiger devoured the Wonder Pets packaging, dreaming about how delicious Ming Ming would be as dinner.

We loaded up the car the next morning and headed to Ann Arbor for Christmas with my mom's side of the family. This was our first holiday without my beloved Aunt Barb, and it was wonderful to have Max to brighten the day for all of us. Thanks to an ice/snow storm, it took us 7 hours to get there (it should have been 4 1/2) ... and thanks to an in-car video system that Santa left under our tree, Max was entirely more content than his two parents. I didn't get any photos at my Aunt's and Uncle's house -- I'm not sure why, other than the fact that I was thrown a bit off my game due to the crazy car ride. We spent the night in a hotel in Toledo, and spent the next day with my Dad and stepmom. Max's grandparents gave him an Elmo Live, which scared the pants off of him. Have you seen this thing? Elmo goes into sleeper mode and then all of a sudden, he springs to life and starts telling another story or singing another song. Max was slowly making his way past a "quiet" Elmo to get to a safer area of the room when Elmo burst into story. Poor Max jumped three inches straight up and I almost busted a rib trying not laugh. Max still keeps one eye on that sneaky Elmo any time he walks past him.

If there's a present to be opened, Max is there to help, with what some might think is a slightly exaggerated case of excitement. Here, he is particularly exuberant about my brother's Loews gift card.

After our two-day road trip to northern Ohio and Michigan, we came home and worked two days -- and then Glenn and I took a road trip of our own. The University of Cincinnati played in the Orange Bowl in Miami on New Year's Day, and we headed to Miami for the game. Neither Glenn nor I have any formal ties to UC, although Glenn grew up in Clifton in the shadows of UC, so he's a lifelong fan and follower. I have just jumped solidly on the bandwagon, happy to have a football team in Cincinnati that actually wins occasionally. We are so so so blessed that Heather, Rich, and Max's BFFs Ellie and Maggie welcomed Max into their home for FOUR nights! We were actually only gone for three days, but because of a very early departing flight and a very late arrival flight, Max spent four glorious nights with his girlfriends. Heather is expecting her third child in April, so Max just moved into the space that will hereafter be occupied by the new baby. As you can see from the photos below, Max had no problems adjusting to his temporary home.

Watching a movie with Rich and Ellie.

Getting ready for a pancake breakfast.

Maggie loved having a "little brother", and as I understand it, she spent the three days trying to convince Max to team up with her against Ellie. Fortunately, Ellie is one tough 18-month-old, and she could probably take Max down if she wanted to!

In Miami, we rented a 3 bedroom/4 bathroom villa that overlooked the Blue Monster golf course in the Doral area of Miami. Mindy researched the accommodations and booked everything, and it was so much fun for all seven of us to be able to stay together in one place. This was the view out of the master suite, which Glenn and I managed to claim as our own (thanks to our very generous friends).

The gang as we were headed to the game, and then later that night as we tailgated with some other friends who had driven down from Cincinnati. UC lost the game, but that ended up being irrelevant for most of us. :-)

A week into the New Year, my mom had open heart surgery (proactively planned to deal with a valve problem). So, I headed back up to Toledo so that I could take her to the hospital and be there throughout the surgery. She came through the surgery with flying colors, and she has had an amazing recovery. We let her recuperate in the hospital and in a nearby nursing facility for 10 days, and then she needed a dose of her grandson. So, we piled in the car and drove up I-75 AGAIN, so that Max and Gramma could spend some quality time together.

Max is in that "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE" stage, as evidenced by this photo.

More faces of Max.....

Somewhere in the middle of all of this craziness, I agreed with three of my girlfriends that we would not give one another Christmas presents, but instead, we would "make" something for one another. I spent as many hours lamenting my willingness to go along with this crazy scheme as I did finally actually making something! Kathleen is modeling my handiwork ... mosaic frames with a picture of the four of us at a Bengals game, and fleece Bengals scarves. I loved making both -- I actually do like being "crafty" -- but I kept thinking that I need to do the same type of creative stuff with and for Max, so I felt both guilt and joy as I created my gifts.

Last weekend, Max and I piled into the car and headed down into Kentucky, to spend the day with "cousins" Zoe and Austin, and then the evening with "Kentucky Karen", her husband Pat, and their adorable son Nick. Karen and Pat served up a yummy spaghetti meal for several of us, including another Kaz adoptive family and three UK students who are from Kazakhstan. Max and I were on the road for 12 hours that day, and we had a blast. (Glenn got a much deserved day to himself). Max's nap schedule was all screwed up, but he hung in there and had a melt-down-free day. It was just a great day.

I was so busy having fun at Karen's that I forgot to dig out my camera. If I had, I surely would have had a picture of Max climbing up the beautiful wooden slat blinds in her kitchen. I don't know what it is with Max, but he loves to hang on blinds (Applebees' are another favorite). I spend alot of time moving cords our of his reach. Nick was so generous with Max, sharing his toys and letting the "little kid" tag along. HUGE thanks to Pat, who quietly headed to the family room with the three boys while I sat at the dining table enjoying those "adult" moments with all of the guests. The time went by too quickly, but we were so honored to have been included.

Max and Austin hanging out in Zoe's room. Somehow, Zoe missed out on the pictures!

A few final pics. Our great friends Kelly and Gordie sent Max this adorable Columbus Blue Jackets outfit. Gordie is a former college hockey player and current Select Team coach, and I have informed him that Max holds baseball bats and golf clubs like a hockey stick, and he hits the balls around like a hockey puck. Gordie has agreed to serve as Max's private coach if Max's Russian genes result in amazing hockey skills. :-) The first picture is proof that Max isn't always his cute little self -- this is the result when he doesn't get to hold the camera. After "sharing" the camera with him so he could take 30 or so pictures of his feet and the ceiling (the best angel for his little fingers to push the buttons), he was back to his cute little self to pose in his hockey outfit.

And just one last picture, taken just a few days ago.

More soon! (Must gift forward those Lemonade Awards!)