Life is Good!

From my first ride from je-ka-gan to 'maty and then from A-za-kan to A-may-ca, I have loved Airplanes so to go to the children's museum and get to sit in the "pilots seat" is the greatest thing ever!

Do you think Nick and Amigo have become brothers?

To most this would just look like a boy playing with his toys...... To me, it is heaven! Nick is finally starting to play alone with his toys for short spurts of time so Mama can have a small break to clean or talk on the phone. Yippee! He is the greatest pretender and I love to just sit and listen to him play. I have even been able to video him some. FINALLY!

These are usually the grins I get when he is just enjoying doing what he is doing. The grin is usually accompanied by a kiss or sweet hug. He will be good advertisement for his Life is Good T-shirt once he grows into it!

This picture is for Auntie Rhino (Erin). I am modeling my new target shirt with a football playing Rhino on the front and my Rhino hand sign.

My new favorite place to play is this fire engine at a local park.

Funny to think that I started out not liking to be pushed high at all....now, I like the higher, the better.

Papa was on the other side but preferred to remain anonymous :)
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We thought the grandparents were getting a little sad so we thought we would catch up on some pictures this week. Nick is completely recovered from his snip and has survived another round of vaccines. We found out that all of his previous vaccines in Kaz had not given him immunity so we have to do all of those over also.

We have had a good week. Nick is starting to learn to play on his own without Mama's constant companionship. I didn't mind playing and reading all day like I did when I nannied but this time there wasn't a cook and a housekeeper available to keep up with the rest of the stuff so I kind of needed little breaks to keep chaos at bay.

We have had a little less hitting and biting since we have started a different discipline plan. The time-out mat worked initially but then it became a battle ground where we had to fight with him to stay on it. It was stressing all of us out. Now, he gets one warning and then he goes to his room for time-out. This allows him to calm down and allows us to take a deep breath also. It has cut our biting and hitting episodes down significantly. It is so funny to me how every child is so different and you just have to keep trying until you find what works for you and then be flexible to try something new again if needed.

Nick went to his second eye appointment last week. Yes, it was traumatic again. For some reason, 3 yr olds really don't like their eyes dilated. ugh! The doctor confirmed that he is farsighted and the one eye (left) that I have been wondering about is much weaker than the other and he would continue to get worse with the crossing if we did not get glasses. So, we went and picked out some glasses on Thursday and will pick them up this next week. Please pray that he will think they are so great and wear them without difficulty. Luckily, we both wear glasses so we are using that as the WOW! factor.

We have enrolled Nick in preschool for two days a week in the fall. I think this will be a great opportunity to learn and have a great time. We have little under a month to continue to acclimate him to being in a group setting without us. We have had a little regression with the church attendance. He started crying last week before we ever got in the room so this week we are going to try something different. If it works, I will let you know what we did, If not, I won't be embarrassed that we thought of it! ;)

This week since I have had time just to sit back and watch Nick play and be a little boy, I have just been amazed at how far we have come since our first bonding day with him on Feb 12th. We often have to remind ourselves that we have only been back in the states for 3 1/2 months and for most new parents they are just getting their newborn to sleep all night and finally getting a stretch of 5-6 hours of sleep themselves. We pretty much have experienced the same thing only our newborn talks back and can slug like Oscar De la Hoya. I personally have to remind myself daily to not only give Nick the grace that he deserves as a "newborn" of sorts but also us as new parents. It is OK if we don't have it all figured out and as the months go by, we are figuring it out, getting a plan, and most of all starting to have a bunch of fun with our little boy. Somehow it was easier to watch all of my friends go thru that new mom thing with lots of understanding and empathy but when it was our turn, we felt like we should know more just because he was three. Well, we didn't and as usual, it is just by God's grace and assurance that this is right were He wants us, dependent on Him to make it thru the day, that we have made it thru the last very difficult 5 months. Oh, I am sure that we will have many more hard days ahead like every family but I actually feel that we have started to choose Joy instead of fear and are daily reminded that GOD is good and knows what is best and, well, that just means in general that "Life is Good". I added a very poignant look at Nick on our first bonding day and Nick with us today. It is amazing what just LOVE can do! Love to all! Happy August! K-Pat and Nick

Feb 12th, 2007........................... August 4th, 2007