More and More Firsts in June!

More swimming with my sister's kids, Zach and Lyndsay, and our cousins, Hannah Beth and Hayden.

Pool time at Pat's sister's wedding weekend.....First BIG air!

The trio, my boys and Pat's Nephew, Dakota.....they swam, and swam, and swam....Papa had sore shoulders and muscles after that night!

Wow, Are my boys cute or what?

Before Auntie Erin's wedding......

Aunt Julie saved poor Mama since she had to do everything solo with Papa being a part of the wedding party.......couldn't have done it without you, Jules!

He wasn't as beautiful as the bride but I think he came in a close second!

My first lesson in how to enjoy the lake by Ata Bob! He is the expert, they say.......This is how we all spent the day after the wedding....well, not Papa, he went home to work....sorry Papa! :(

My first boat outing in the afternoon......I could not quit talking about the boat!

Grandma Ruth and me watering all the plants.....

Our Evening excursion....I actually drove the boat all over the lake.....Everyone was amazed at my ability to turn the boat in whatever way I needed with only occasional help from Ata Bob.!

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We have had a busy June! Nick is having a great time with all of his new friends and most recently, Family. We had my whole family in last week and Nick had a blast with his cousins Lyndsay and Zach. We attended Pat's sister's wedding this weekend which was beautiful and a perfect way to meet all of the rest of Pat's side of the family. Everyone thought Nick was quite the cute boy which of course he is, most of the time.....he is 3, afterall. He did not seem to be too overwhelmed by the crowd and was very pleasant and gave smiles to all. We are now relaxing with Grandma and Grandpa Kitzman at the lake and can't wait to go play with some new cousins in the next few days. He has taken to the boat as you can see and is wow-ing the grandparents with how much english he has acquired in the last 2 months since they saw him. He has really started to improve on some of his clarity and can really express himself well now. With more speech, we have continued to be amazed at how spooky smart and funny he is..... We have our good days and bad days just like every other parent but overall, he is so typically 3 year old that we consider ourselves blessed beyond measure. I am enjoying all of the help that I have been getting the past week or so with my family and now Pat's. Of course, it makes us miss living near our family even more especially since Nick let my sister "babysit" him while I went to the store......My sister and I both wish we could be closer so we could trade date night babysitting. I miss her already! I still get a bit overwhelmed at all the things I want to do, should be doing, am behind in doing but most days just give up and hang out with Nick.....3 years is alot of time to make up for......Hope everyone is having a great summer. Would love to hear from any of you out there who are reading the blog...I know the junkies are still out there! Thanks for keeping up with us ...we love your prayers and support still! Love to all, K-Pat(at home) and Nick

Lots of firsts!

I couldn't wait to get up on my Cousin's tractor.......seat belt on first, of course!

I loved this BIG tractor!

My second swimming experience.....the bigger the splash, the better!

The big fish and little fish having some fun!

We attended our home study agencies big summer picnic and met Kole, another adorable Kazak boy who came home while we were in Kazakhstan. He is even from the same region as Nick. He is showing Nick pictures of his journey to a new family!

No slide is too steep or too tall for the Kazmanian devil!

Papa and Nick enjoying the picnic ....... we sat proudly in front of the Kazak flag!

A true Kazak horseman.....His first "horse" pony ride. He rode them at least 5 times and sadly watched as they got in their trailer and went home.

Nick's first adventure into a bouncing blow-up thing.....

This was actually Nick's first swim experience at the house where I was a nanny. Nick loved playing with the kids and watching them jump of the diving board....and of course he wanted to try and did......he is going to be a fish like his papa!

They had a slide that he tried also......

Nothing but grins as I try out this new thing called swimming.

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As you can see Nick is trying all kinds of new things this summer and loves them all. I can't think of anything that he has tried that he hasn't liked except vegetables......typical!

He continues to get more and more comfortable in his new home and has had several friends over this last week and played with the water toy. He has also started saying his name which is so cute. He is still Mama's boy and Papa's boy most of the time. His new favorite thing to do is ride his little fire engine around the house and when he comes over to you, he says Nick's home, Woo, Hoo! and he does his hands in the air to celebrate ( I always say woo, hoo, raise it to the roof....) We just crack up every time so of course he does it often. His variations of words keep us guessing but we have learned that Ela-ba-ba is elavator, ta-pa-pa is telephone, e-pa-tant is elephant and so on....and he is saying all of his friends names but they actually sound fairly close to the real thing. I think he is going to be a prayer warrior because he loves to put his hands together and then he will say MAMA! or PAPA! and want us to say a prayer. He rarely lets us forget at meals and even naptime. Sometimes just randomly does it......I guess he gets the scripture that says pray without ceasing more than his parents do at times! Hope everyone's summer has started out great. We are having a great time watching our boy groove into being a son. More pics soon.....love to all, K-Pat and Nick

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