Happy Memorial Day 2007!

We tried out Willie Wobble water toy this week. It was a hit!

Pictures are a bit blurry since he was running around so crazy and fast! :)

My first visit to Chuckie Cheese....the enthusiasm doesn't show on my face but I loved it and could not get enough of the Chuckie car! We had a Nanny reunion with Nick. Eleanor, Andrea, and I spent countless hours here and now had a reason to get the pizza without looking really silly......Thanks Nick!

This picture is priceless so make sure you click on the picture so you can see their smiles. They both weighed the same so they really could see-saw! Dana, I swear I tried to crop us out but the picture was too cute to not use just because I am not computer literate!

Another awesome smile with a new activity. They let me hit this ball on purpose.....what a concept! Most of the time they say NO to hitting....I think this sport may be a winner!

This was the momentous cornbread trial. My Grandmother's cornbread was always and will continue to maintain my favorite bread status and we visited Grandma's sister and brother again so we could now try the other flavor of Ky....iron skillet cornbread....and it has to be the iron skillet that makes the wedged shaped bread.... a plain round one won't do ....Nick hammed it up a bit for the camera and loved the bread.....definitely meant to be my son!

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I have had a few requests from the kitzkazventure reality blog junkies for new pics so here are a few.........of course, you all do realize this is not reality. In reality, I am 50 pounds lighter.....those cameras just put the pounds on you! Hope you all have a great week! Love, K-Pat and Nick

First trip to the zoo!

We had a beautiful day at the zoo and Nick was thrilled to see all of his favorite animals that he had only seen in books until yesterday!

We had difficulty getting Nick, the baby elephant and the mama elephant all in the same picture so we settled for the bronze version!

The Mama and baby elephant....so cute!

One of Nick's favorite animals besides the moose is the Rhino....he is doing his hand signal for the rhino while he gazes at the huge beasts.

If you look back a few blogs, Nick stayed a very far distance away from the mower...Now, Pat has to do creative mowing to keep Nick at a safe distance.

Our morning or afternoon (sometimes both) ritual is to play outside. Nick pulls all of his toys out on the patio. This day he was enjoying Mama's Midwest Living magazine in his new Owl lawn chair.



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We had good full week of mother and son bonding. Once we get a good routine and schedule, I think I will definitely enjoy being home with him. We have lots of opportunities to play with friends and the weather has been so nice that we could play outside many of the days. My biggest struggle will be in figuring out the whole household organization thing. Luckily, we still have some great friends bringing food to us which has helped so much while figuring this thing out. When you are home all day with the Kazmanian devil :) , all of the mail piles, folded but not put away laundry, and reading material somehow becomes exciting hurling missiles, spreadable fodder, and peek-a-boo paraphernalia. We must have a system now of cleaning which most of my friends and family know will be my biggest challenge! ha~

Our big accomplishments this week were that Nick ate some lasagna and tried a few pieces of pineapple....I just keep re-introducing and re-introducing....we will try some new veggies this week. He eats meat very well and of course loves his potatos. Soups are good as well as noodles.

He also ate a few bites of Mama's favorite cake from Magee's but really was not that interested....Ok with me though...I like it that he doesn't care for sweets that much.

His new word are hilarious as he tries the hardest ones....helicopter, elevator, cauliflower, hamburger, computer, etc. I can usually figure out which one he is saying but sometimes they all kind of sound similar! ;) He has started understanding the Mama and baby thing with several books that he is fond of looking through and was especially sweet this morning while laying in bed with Pat and I. He looked at me and pointed to himself and said Mama's baby and then looked at Pat and said Papa's boy. He does not usually say his name but we are glad he knows that he is ours and hopefully that this is a very special title to be our baby and boy!~ It is interesting to me that his first identity with us is who he is in us not who he is individually....of course it made me ponder whether my first identity is who I am as a child of God or do I just see myself as Karen. It is no wonder that Christ used children as an example of how we should believe and have faith. Take time to enjoy your kids and marvel at the simple truths that you can learn from just the simple actions of a child.

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Weekend! Love to all, K-Pat and Nick

my first mother's day

This was a great day to celebrate being a new mother.......watching my 3 boys play in the yard on a beautiful spring day!

Papa is a great horse!

smiles and laughter....doesn't get much better than that!

We visited Great, Great Uncle Jub and Aunt Wanda for a Kentucky brunch of country ham and iron skillet biscuits....yum, yum.....Nick tried his first Country Ham!

Nick showing off his handiwork.....Great, Great Aunt Wanda was impressed with his dish washing skills!

Our little worker bee helping out after brunch!

He was pretending to iron Aunt Wanda's placemats with her massage bug........

Close up of our sweet boy in his new green shirt.

Mama look it is another airplane....I love them....lucky we live in the flight path for the airport and the hospitals....lots of airplanes and helicopters..... our boy loves his skybirds.......can't wait to take him to an airshow!

His other favorite.....Ice Cream!

The smile that will melt your heart!

The most handsome boys in the world......inside an old, old tree at the arboretum.

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What a great day with my family! I get to start off this next phase in life with a great weekend with my boys. It will be interesting to see how we groove into the stay-at-home routine. I look forward to taking some morning walks for exercise and lots of playdates with all of our friends! I feel so blessed to have the ability to stay home and get to know this little sweet boy that we have brought all the way from Kaz to live with us. I pondered over motherhood all day and still can't say I understand all that has happened to us in the last 9 months since we started this process but I know that God's hand was over all that we encountered and each new day assures us more that Nick was exactly the boy for us. I have decided that the greatest thing about being a mother so far is just watching him get to know all his family and friends......but most of all watching him play with Papa. It is such a joyful feeling to just sit back and watch the man you love more than anything pour himself into this new little person that you are learning to love more each day.....it is at best, indescribable. I so enjoyed introducing him to more of his relatives today.....we also drove by Papa Carmon's house and will one day stop and take pictures at Nick's namesakes garden so he can start to understand what a wonderful man he is named after. As a new mother, I can't help but think of my own mother and mother-in-law. Pat and I are so lucky to have been raised by these women. We look forward to spending many vacations with our parents, Nick's grandparents and will be better parents because of what we observed and absorbed over the years from our families. I do wish that Nick could have met all of his great-grandmothers.....they would have been crazy about his smile and hugs.......but we look forward to seeing Great Grandma Norma at Erin's wedding. We bet she can give out hugs and kisses for all of the other ones that are not with us anymore. We hope all of the moms out there have a great day and we should all be thankful for the little ones that God has given us to cherish and love. Love to all, K-Pat and Nick

It's almost feels like summer!

Mikey and Nick having a great time!

The joys of a water hose!

This was the quilt that I had been trying to get from a research subject but she lived out of town and I didn't get to see her before we left. My great friends at work conspired while I was gone and presented it to me at my shower. I LOVE IT! Thanks guys!

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I am officially a Stay-at-home Mom now. I left work quickly to get Nick to his first USA Dr's appt so didn't even have an official good-bye time but I have still need to pack up my things so I will go visit tomorrow and celebrate nurse appreciation week with them.

I know Pat is relieved to get back to a normal schedule and we miss having family time together ....it has more been like tag-team parenting. Kudos out there for all you single parents...wouldn't do it if you paid me a million bucks. I love having Pat around for Team Kitzman activities.

We have continued to go out and meet Nick's new playmates and he seems to enjoy every minute of it. We still occasionally have some fits and biting episodes but still much better than in Kaz and well, he is 3..... He continues to eat variable foods which is also normal for a 3 year old but surprisingly enjoys the asian food that he has tried. Wonton soup is similar to their dumplings and he even tried chicken fried rice today which I assume is like the Plov (sp?) that everyone told us about but we never tried??

His doctor's appt went well. She thought he seemed a very healthy 3 year old and we have scheduled an initial visit for the peds surgery for the snip, snip that men don't want to talk about and an eye appt for his eyes. He will also do a dentist visit and a hearing exam in the near future to get some baseline information. He will probably get his tongue clipped by the surgeon or dentist as he is a little tongue tied as I suspected. She did not seem concerned about his sometimes lazy eye appearance in pics but said the eye doctor could better assess that. All in All, we are so blessed to have a very healthy and normal 3 year old boy. I can't say enough about the care he received at his orphanage to be such a healthy, sturdy boy considering his meager beginnings at 2 lbs.!

Hope all Mom's have a happy Mother's day....still not sure if I know what that feels like yet...I am sure we all feel it different but I am thankful to be Nick's mom and will celebrate the gift of a great son on Sunday and be very thankful for our MOM's and Grandmother's for showing us how it is done..... Love to all, K-Pat, Nick, and his finally accepted new buddy, Amigo

My new moose backpack from Aunt Julie!

I decided that pictures are OK and like to wave everytime mom takes one!

This outfit was so cute but a little too small so we took a picture anyway because I loved modeling it.

I went to my first derby/cinco de mayo party with my new buddies Payton and Mikey!

I kept looking down everytime mom tried to get a pic but I still look cute!

This was a perfect setting for a photo op although Nick is still working on the smile as the picture is taken thing......but he looks great in his new clothes from my shower at work....thanks everyone!

Kazak cuties meet!

Nick and Wyatt meet at Gattitown! Definitely the cutest boys in town!

Nick was able to meet Dasha and Dahlil before they leave for Kazakhstan for their summer break. Dasha spoke Russian to Nick and Dahlil spoke Kazak. I think he understood both but was acting a bit bashful.

Nick trying out the Harley.......I guess this means both of the men in our home will be watching OCC.

Nick is preparing for Derby this weekend although I think he prefers the slower horses on the next ride!

He made a dash for the carousel and thankfully our friend Michelle had a game card to get us on quickly.......he acted like a pro so we wonder if he has done this before.....I heard there was an amusement park in Dzez but is closed now??

He rode like a pro.....almost doing the rodeo thing at this point! Wyatt and Michelle are in the background having a great ride also.

I could do this all day mama!

Up and down we go......mama is worried about who is going to ride all the rollercoasters with me if this makes her feel ill.......

I keep making big strides in my friendship with Amigo. I am telling him where his nose is and reading my book to him.

I was showing Amigo my truck but he laid his head on it.......maybe he will like another story.

My last full week as a research dietitian is almost over. It has been a good week catching up with everyone and telling Nick stories. Pat has done a great job at home and has had the harder night shift at work. We will be very glad to see each other again and be a real family once we can get on a normal schedule. Nick is speaking more english by the minute it seems. He is starting to put some words together like "brush your teeth" and "mama or papa please". We continue to try new foods and even ventured out to a Thai restaurant where he feasted on their ground pork meatball like soup. He loved it. He has met many new friends this week and we have plans to meet more this weekend. We are so lucky that we have so many friends with children around Nick's age. We are going bed shopping this weekend and hope to get his room normalized although he sleeps really well on his full size mattress in the floor.

Pat and I celebrate our 4th anniversary tomorrow. It will definitely be different than our previous 3 years but a very special occasion to be thankful for each other and the special gift that God has brought to us this year. I am so blessed to start this new adventure with a great marriage and a great husband. We will celebrate with my mother-in-law's great cooking ....she brought us frozen meals to cook as needed and this seems like a great occasion!

Thanks Apa Ruth!

Hope you all enjoy the pics of our ever-changing sweet son and his adventures. Love to all!

K-Pat and Nick