Playing Catch Up and Bye, Bye Orphanage!

Where has the time gone!

We have been here, there, and everywhere!



Our weekend with Princess Sophia was cancelled due to sickness and weather. We were very bummed out but will hopefully see everyone in the near future....if not, definitely in June, at KAZAPALOOZA!




We had a "snowstorm" for Kentucky with a big 4 inches in Lexington......boredom overtook us quickly as schools and all activities were cancelled. Alas, we watched a little more TV than usual...but isn't that what snowdays are all about? Nick hates to "suit up" so excursions to the outside were far and few between.

Nick on one of our snow days! Kicked back and well, I hope he doesn't eat often off that table.....

We had to do School pics during Nick's last illness. We had permission to bring Nick up for his pics and then take him back home. Notice how he looks and smiles.....it is very hard to tell when this boy is sick.....I guess we are lucky that he is a sweet and happy sickie! I told him that he had to stay with me while the other boys and girls had their pictures because he was sick. He stayed with me grudgingly and got me back when it was time for the group picture and he did not want to partcipate and go up on stage with the other boys and girls......He said, No! Nick SICK , ma-member (remember) Mama? Now, he chooses to listen! Ha!




We had some good weather finally and got out to the park with our friends Ryan and Kelly. It is nice for the moms because the dads are bigger goofs than the children.....we had to add the children to make the picture respectable....they were riding it alone without the kids....they were definitely testing the steel springs!


Nick's new favorite thing is to ride on daddy's shoulders. I love it because I don't have to carry him as much anymore! Not sure Pat is as excited about it as I am?

Nick has been taking major naps in the last few months so either a growth spurt is occuring (he has already grown almost 4 inches in a year!) or he is taking on the sleeping habits of a teenager (which would make sense because he already has the attitude!) ha! Papa often comes home and Nick will barely have rolled out of the bed.....this day, Pat had to go get him from bed and bring him downstairs and then quickly became the bed! ha! Nick was out cold....so cute! And, Amigo actually got up and walked over to the chair when he saw me get the camera as if to say.....ummm, remember me? I'm cute too!

We were gone for several days to Gatlinburg to meet Pat's parents for a long weekend....they are making their way back north after wintering in Florida. We rode the tram up the mountain and Nick loved it!

We also visited the Aquarium but this was the only moment Nick actually acted like he was interested in anything there. Definitely not paying for Disney world yet......Notice the Monkey on Nick's back.....a harness type thing that is supposed to be cute so the child will wear it and stay close by....Nick thinks it is a leash to pull mom and dad by......Anyone have creative ideas on how to get a child to stay close by in a crowd....if you hold his hand firmly, he screams "ouch, you are hurting me, no hurting me mama" Can you say "social services visit"..........I am hoping that this is a maturity thing that he will grow out of soon! We have tried everything short of never leaving the house (getting close to this one) or DUCT TAPE!

He did like this pirate's wheel in an interactive part of the aquarium!

Nick went to a small kids park with Daddy and Granpa while mama and Grandma shopped.

A miniture swinging pirate ship! What fun!

Pat and I are still adjusting to the "vacations will never be the same again" feeling but feel very hopeful that they will in years to come at least be "relaxing" again?

Funny Phrases in Gburg.......

"Nick no walk anymore, Nick dizzy! " big sigh

plopped down on a bench with the "thinker" pose...."No Walk, Nick hard day" along with another big sigh"

"Nick no like it here, make nose itchy!

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We are looking forward to our first "second".......it will be our second Easter with Nick. Last year we celebrated with our Wisconsin Kazakstan connection in Almaty, our "new best friends" Kiersten and Brad and their sweet girls. They work for the U.S. in Almaty and kept us sane (used liberally) for our last 2 1/2 unexpected weeks in Almaty. Pat's parents and sister are here this weekend to share in this special holiday with us.

We are also celebrating TODAY, Nick's Orphanage departure date (our version of the GOTCHA day)......On March 21st last year, we walked out of the Zhezkazgan baby house a new family! We never did show the video of that moment. It does not show the crying before hand in the green room. Dr. Roza was holding Nick's face in her hands and talking to him and crying. I can't even type it without tearing up at the memory. We have no doubts that his caretakers loved him and cared for him the best they could. His loving spirit is evidence of that! These videos show the "suiting up" for departure....no wonder, he still hates it .......and Dr. Roza walking us out and saying good bye. It seems quick but so much led up to those 38 seconds! (also, an unrelated side note, take a look at Dr. Roza's boots....typical fare for the women on the ICE)

He looks like such a little boy here......considering he has gained lots of weight and grown so much, he only barely resembles that serious little boy. I found another cute video that I will show soon of how immediate his personality changed once leaving the baby house. He almost overnight started saying the words that we had said to him over and over in the green room and the smiles started popping up all over the place (so did his temper but we were glad to know the boy had passion about something!) ;) Well, I still have a month to tie up our walk down memorey lane. It boggles my mind how much time we spent there.....glad we have it all in the blog!

Funny how time changes your perception of an event or memory of a moment.....Someday, I want to sit with God and just go over my whole life but especially the adoption and just discuss and be amazed at His orchestration of it all. Only He could have designed such a unique plan for us....cosmic collision, destiny, fate, Karma is just not good enough to explain the creation of a family in this special way, No one would ever say a beautiful Opera or Great classical piece of music or for my husband's sake, a really good Rock ballad, just exploded into creation or happened just by chance....there had to be a writer, a musician, a poet, to create them.........thus we believe and know to our core that Our creator and God hand wrote this Opus, this symphony, this poem, this journey, for us and on the first day of spring in 2007, we began the adventure of a lifetime with Nicholas.....out the door of the baby house, one step and one day at a time.

Now and Then......

We have recovered from the Party of the Year! It took a few days and nights to feel rested again. Nick was sick most of last week with a fever, ear infection, and sore throat. He did not eat for 3 days! I knew there was an issue when he would not eat french fries! He spiked to 105 during the night which is the highest fever that I have ever dealt with in a child. It was quite pitiful to watch him chill and shiver thru the fevers. Tylenol and advil worked really well on him and brought his fevers down pretty quick so we did not freak out too much.....I just couldn't sleep because I kept going in and taking his temp.......thanks to our great christmas present (ear thermometer) from grandma and grandpa, I didn't have to wake him too much.


We have had a great time getting to know some Kazakh students here on scholarship at the university. We met them thru our friends that also adopted from Kaz. The university has a program where they match up local families and international students so that they have some support while in the states since the often don't go home over holidays or breaks. We enjoy eating out with them and letting Nick hang with his homies. We were even able to get him to say some of his limited russian and kazakh with them. Nick never spoke either language with us at all except for the words that we said to him for basic needs....as soon as he learned the english, he spoke the english. I wish we could have heard him speak some kazakh but he just didn't talk until we brought him out of the orphanage.

Tonight we ate at our favorite restaurant with the students and come to find out, they love it too. Jason and Wyatt joined us also but Michelle was taking a class. Wyatt and Nick are finally recognizing each other and we hope to have lots of summer playdates. We had a momentous moment which almost brought me to tears.......we were all talking and not really watching Nick and I looked over and realized he was eating the Fatoush salad......yes, that is right, my son, ate a veggie...without prompting, without anything, he just started munching on it. Now, I don't know if we had starved him or something but he ate some lettuce! He will now eat some tiny bites of carrot and even tried a bite of red cabbage one day but mainly thru negotiation techniques. I will buy that salad everyday if it means he will eat some greens......it gives me hope!

We haven't been able to play too much with being sick and all but he got one playdate in last week with Logan and one this week with Lauren Clay. I love this picture of Nick and Lauren Clay. They look like me and Pat only pint-sized. We sit in those chairs in the evening and watch TV but Nick has adopted the bigger chair and calls it his King chair.....and you best not sit in it when he is around! ;) Nick was intrigued with LC's baby brother Ty. We tried to explain that he was a brother and Nick seemed to understand and even made a comment that he did not have one.

Nick has been expanding his vocabulary daily and the expressions are hilarious!

--If he is doing something and it is not working ....depending on his evaluation of the importance, he will say mama, Nick big pwobem, or have little pwobem, mama!

--he will get out of school or come home from somewhere and sigh real big and say, Nick hard day! take little nap!

--Thanks to Uncle Mike, you can ask him where he is going and every once in a while when you least expect it, he will say CRAZY!

--he has learned how to make excuses already.....too hard or Nick too little are usual but sometimes he might say, Nick get bigger, bigger first or policeman says no, no, no. I am impressed by how he uses everything in context but scared that he listens and repeats everything, EVERYTHING, we say to him.

We have important news to brag about to the blog network. We get to meet Princess Sophia this weekend of the Muriel and Jerry's blogs.... 2kaz4sophie and Tiaras and Tutus! We are sooo excited to meet everyone. We have been talking alot about the pending meeting and how we are going to be sweet and calm around the princess. He now calls her "pincess soapie". He thought we were going to see her tonight since we were seeing the other Kazakhs but we had to explain that Sophie is in a few days.......he didn't really get it except he said he was going to see her "ta-ma-yo"(tomorrow) after lunch? We are also going to see a couple who are in the waiting period to go to Kaz. So, they can get indoctrinated quickly on how fun and crazy these cuties are! Will post pics after our fun encounter.......pray for well children and travel safety for all of us!

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AND for the history lesson.........Last year at this time, we had just finished our court appearance and completely relieved and scared to death that this was really official. Below is our after court picture ......it seems like a lifetime ago yet there are days when it feels like yesterday.

I have been reading a bunch of blogs for the last year and new ones start every day. I love to watch the families journey to their child. It helps you remember all the fun and not so fun stuff and keep it fresh in your mind which is good when you are old like us! lol! I have been amazed at the apartments that I see from the bigger cities. We definitely were roughing it compared to the city dwellers and I continue to be amazed that God helped us to just be OK with everything that we had to endure.....well, at least we were OK for the first 7 weeks or so....after that, it could have been the RITZ and we still would have wanted to be home. So, in honor of our heartiness, I thought I would show the pic of our apt that we were in the longest for those of you getting ready to travel soon so you will be appreciative of the places you stay in the big city. In the picture below, you see our living room and bedroom and dining room all combined in YES, one room. I slept in the bed we lovingly called the double half-pipe......and Pat was on the floor because he did not fit in his half-pipe since there was a foot board (picture a water bed frame with two really bad college mattresses in it). There are two chairs and a side table next to Pat outside the picture frame that we ate and watched TV on. The TV was at the foot of the bed just out of camera range also. Our kitchen was not big enough for two people to sit in. We were so thankful to get home to our bed.....mere words cannot describe it! ;)

Hope everyone has a nice weekend....we are expecting another snow/rain storm in the next 48 hours......we are sooooooo ready for the spring!

Birthday/one year extravaganza!

What do these 3 extraordinary people have in common...........Birthdays!

I know most of you who have been following our journey know that Nick having my Grandfather Carmon's birthday was what we feel like was a gift from God showing us who was to be our son on that Crazy, Wonderful day in February last year. My sister had been fretting along with us about how we would ever "choose" a child....how could you choose one and reject the other? So, before we left, she made a comment to me that she would just pray that God would give us some obvious or weird sign that we would know.....and she then said...."like Papa Carmon's birthday or something".....well, as you all know, that was the exact day Nick was born on and I was stunned. I remember saying what birthday did you just say for that little boy and she repeated it. I remember thinking well isn't that something and then boom, my sister's comment came rushing back to my jet lagged memory (which is saying alot!) and here we sit one year later, almost feeling that same extreme jet lagged feeling only its because we have been going for 48 hours straight while we celebrated our sweet little boys birthday and our one year anniversary of that momentous bonding period as we became a family.

We have had a great weekend but this is the point where Advil becomes extremely important! I hurt, Pat hurts, even Amigo hurts! There are definite benefits to becoming "older" parents but the fact that our bones and muscles just aren't as young as they used to be is evident tonight! We have been cleaning, moving furniture for the onslaught of toddlers everywhere, shopping, and standing on our feet for hours and hours but all well worth it to put our precious son to bed tonight (early!) and sing Happy Birthday (louder, louder as requested by our son) one last time and send him off to dream land as our newly christened 4 year old!

We started our festivities Thursday night as we filled his room with balloons for an early morning surprise (we borrowed this idea from a new blog friend!). You can't see him but he is snuggled down in his blankets and oblivious!

He actually woke up when it was dark and missed the balloons completely so once the sun came up, I sent him back to his room to his big surprise! He was very excited!

We got dressed and headed out to speech class which unknown to us because we had checked the closed school listings "too" early (was open when we checked) was cancelled due to the ice storm! So, we went to McDonald's instead.......I needed tea and a breakfast treat for making the effort that the whole school district was apparently unable to make! ;) So, we headed home and started opening the presents from all of his out of town family! He got some great stuff and has played with them all. Auntie Tracey scored big with the Pirate Ship! Because he knows of pirates from the veggie tale movie, Jonah. Jonah is also included in his pirate play. It is too funny! Jonah gets thrown overboard often by the pirates. We had a good day playing with all the new toys! Thanks everyone!

We then took him for his birthday meal at the "CC's"...funny story....You know how CC's can be used as code language for Chuckie Cheese when you don't want the always listening child to know where you might go eat because they would be beside them self with excitement. Well, I kept referring to CC's for our dinner plans and then a trip to Sam's and Wal-Mart for party food. My very sweet and very literal minded husband drove us straight to "CiCi's" for dinner. Another chain of pizza places that is close to Sam's also. I got a bit suspicious when he drove past the shorter path to "CC's" and took the long way......now, already in almost 5 years of marriage, I have learned to just let him go the way he wants because my way is not always the only way ;) so I was quiet but then had to laugh when he drove in the "CiCi's" parking lot. He was so bothered by the fact that he did not "get" the code word and yes, we went on to "the Mouse"...our new code word and had a great time but I just had to laugh at how different we think sometimes! We figure it is just a good thing that we laugh about these times instead of bickering.....goodness, we would be bickering all the time then! ;)

We did commincate well the rest of the evening as we shopped until we dropped. I, as usual, over bought but that is just the way we do things in my family. If a little is good, then more is best just in case someone hasn't eaten in 3 weeks or so!

On to the big celebration day......we dressed our little Kazakh up in his traditional outfit and he actually wore his hat for at least part of the day. He was sooooo cute. We called it his Kazakh Crown for his "special day".

Nick did fabulous for the whole day. I don't know if I mentioned how we celebrated all four of his birthdays but basically each hour represented the year birthday (1pm -we celebrated his first birthday, and so on) We had pizza, make your own sundaes, appetizers, and cake! We sang at each hour and he loved getting to blow the candles out. We had to combine 1st and 2nd birthdays so it looked like we were celebrating his 21st birthday! Hee Hee!

He also liked wearing this other hat which he got at school last week. He loved opening presents and would barely let his guests get in the door without taking his gift, dropping down into the floor right there and ripping with extreme passion every little piece of paper off of the gift. We really got some great gifts. We are so excited to go thru and play with all of them tomorrow after church. He did not get nap but did awesome and only had two "moments". One when his little friend Ben wanted to share sprinkles with him and proceeded to shake them all over Nick's ice cream which just about sent him over the edge as he is a true purest when it comes to ice cream.....vanilla and plain, no toppings, please! And, then he and his fellow Kazakh buddy butted heads over a great garbage truck toy but we resolved it without any blood flow! Our only regret is that we were so busy with our 69 guests (!!!!!) over 4 hours that we did not get as many pics as we would have liked. But, we have the memories and feel so blessed that so many of our friends and family wanted to share this special day with us. It was awesome! We even had two waiting families come play with us that will be going to get their kazakh cuties in just a few months! We are so excited for them and glad they like to come play with us!

OK, now the important stuff.....THE CAKE ROCKED! It was sooooo cute and oh, my goodness, good! I will use this lady forever! He loved his rocket cake and we did too!

I like this next picture of him from the back as a little Kazakh cutie eating a post party snack. An apple! He then ate a banana! He was making up for all of the "junk" that we had all day! Glad we ended the day with a more healthy choice! We all crashed on the couch and watched some Dora to get him nice and calmed down and then bathtime and bed, heavenly bed.....which is where dad is already gone and I am close behind.....We are going to be a sight to see at the early service tomorrow.

Thought I would leave you with a family photo! We only took one and I think considering how tired we are and how un-napped Nick was, we look like a pretty happy one year old family, don't you think!?

Oh, and I mentioned that even Amigo hurts....well, he is exhausted from obsessively running around under every table and chair, every room, etc. trying to find all of the dropped children's snacks. Crazy dog!

We are so blessed by this boy and can't wait to share many, many more birthday celebrations with him (maybe just a little less big and long!) LOL!

Nick's "story"

Nick has been trying to tell his story this week. He first started saying that he was "lost" in Kazakhstan waiting for us to find him after watching a few Diegos and Doras....they are always helping lost animals find their mama and daddy. So I guess he just assumed that this is what happened to him also. So, the other day, he was talking about us coming to "azakan" and calling it his "story". So Cute. So the video was an attempt to catch the story and as a typical 3 year old would do, he started being silly. After many takes, some with good parts and some with craziness. This one had the least amount of silliness. Ha! The remote is the airplane that mom and dad flew to come get him and somehow we flew to the rainbow also and when it sounds like he is saying "catch" ....he is saying "get"......I think you can figure most of it out. I just think it is so cute when he says he was lost. He usually is a bit more dramatic and he will also usually say that we came to get him at the "azakan baby house" but couldn't quite catch all of that in one video. We will continue to try and get the whole story! ;) We are still getting party ready...I am in a bit of denial.....whenever I have lots to get done, I usually choose to do nothing....life long problem.....and I have a 3 almost 4 year old that gets back out or messes up anything that I have just cleaned up! You all know what I mean!

As we are progressing down memory lane, I thought I would show some pics of Nick's sleeping transitions......we are enjoying the fruits of our patient/not so patient labor at getting Nick to feel at home and safe in his bed....It took us 9 months to get him to that point but it was so worth it to have him be at peace at bedtime.

This was probably the first or second day in our apartment. He looks so stressed even in his sleep. We had many stressful sleep issues in those first few weeks. Luckily, he only had Night terrors for 2 or 3 nights; the rest of the nights, he just didn't want to go to sleep.

This was in our last Zhez apartment and shows what our motto became....let him sleep where ever he lands and with whatever he has on. Clothes, no clothes, bed, floor, etc. Pat was amazed that you could actually dress a naked child once he collapses in exhaustion after screaming for hours.

We discovered this one a few days after we got home. I walked in his room to check on him and grabbed the camera. He slept so wild for the first few months. We kept him on a full mattress in the floor because all we could see was him flying off of a bed and getting a head injury. Although it looks like he could have gotten one here too! We had rails on the floor mattress after this episode. Cute though, isn't it!

Now finally after 10 long months of sleeping with him, trading turns getting up in the night with him, and basically getting little sleep......Here is our son, the sleeping cutie.....We found this pose last night....as if he was saying all is good in the world and I am just chillin out. He is sleeping great. We put him down with lots of hugs and kisses and routine, and he falls asleep with the door open and never calls out or gets up......occasionally, he is still awake when we head to bed and he will try and pretend to be asleep although the big grin on his face gives him away every time. But, it is good sleep for all now!

And, last but not least is a hard to read and belated Valentine's greeting to all!

1 year ago today......

We started bonding day number 1 with Nick on a Tuesday after we went thru the "blind" process of choosing our son on Monday. I have been reading back thru the blog and going thru all of the pictures so that I can do a video montage. I now have a new appreciation for anyone who has already done one of those....takes way more time than I thought but probably because I cannot choose between all of the hundred cute pictures to tell the story.

We are in prep mode for his birthday/one year anniversary celebration. Invites go out soon although most people know already. I am trying to get his cake ordered. I am extremely picky about cakes.....good icing is all that matters. I like the old fasioned crisco and sugar kind....none of this fluffy whip cream or fondant style. Yuck! If I can't secure the particular cake maker, then I will go to my favorite bakery and just get a plain cake and stick something on it. I have thought about just asking them for a big bucket-o-icing and making the cake myself! ;)

Nick is talking so much now. Not just words anymore.....full on sentences and they crack us up.

He explains everything back to us...procedures, rules, anything. At night, he will get in bed and say his prayers "BY MY SELF" and then he will say something like...Monsters not outside, just a tree, mom and dad protect and God protect, not scary, Nick stay in bed, no shut door, mama daddy watch tv, Goodnight mama, Goodnight daddy! It is the cutest thing....we hear all kinds of variations but it is so funny how he recites everything that we tell him....boy, we have to watch what and how we say things because our little mimic can give it back to you in detail! Another new phrase this month is "big problem".....he will have a toy that he is having trouble with and come running to us and say, mom, have big problem! He also calls everyone little buddy because that is what we call him. It is so cute to hear him talking to his animals or his friends and say "come here little buddy, you OK little buddy". It is ironic that this month he has really started identifying himself as "son". Today we came home from swim lessons and he was running to the door saying "Dad, you son is home!" He still has the most incredible expressions on his face and we laugh all of the time......he loves to laughs and has really developed some great belly laughs.

To think that the only way we could get him to smile one year ago was to tickle him or make a loud noise. He would immediately turn back to his somber self and never say a word. It is hard for people who meet him now to believe that he never spoke during our visitations....hand signals and grunting were about all we heard. Now, we wish for a few quiet moments! I am practicing using the video blog button so here is the infamous green room....notice the size and imagine the door being locked and 80-90 degrees. Our visitation room was extremely small compared to many of the other ones I have seen but we survived! You can see a bit of Nick in the early days and see how quiet he was. I will have to get some recent video of Nick so you can compare in another post.

We still get random acts of orphanage living like these shoes all lined up. Don't know when he did it but it was so cute....even in order - daddy's, mama's, and Nick's!

His lates creative flair was a shopping cart made from his fire engine and a hospital pan. He went around picking up toys and talking about shopping. He cheesed big for the picture!

We are so blessed by all of the friends that we are able to have playdates with on any given week. This week we played with Logan, Judd and Owen (and baby Wyatt who the moms played with....adorable) and we got this great shot of all of them quiet and calm. The were eating and (gasp) watching tv and don't even think about asking what they were eating...No comment! I can't even begin to count how many "We will never...." rules that we have broken in just the first year.

Be patient with us as we walk down memory lane for the next few weeks/months......we have until April 20th (our return to the states) to ponder and remember!

And then there were more FIRSTS!

We have been busy with doctor appointments, school evals, swimming lessons, etc. Today was the first day of Swimming! We did not know how he would do but he actually participated quite well although mama had to stay right at pool side. He was very excited afterwards and wanted to swim more so that is a good sign!

We watched the Superbowl on Sunday and were actually glad that the Giants won so the Packers loss did not seem so bad....I guess! Pat cooked up some Wisconsin Brats and Nick had his FIRST Brat (I think?....might have had one up north but we couldn't remember) He ate it like a Kitzman! Excuse the bad hair moment....not sure what kind of electrical current was going thru at that moment! ;)

We went back to the eye doctor today.....gee, it was only an hour plus this time versus the usual 2-3 hour wait.....BUT, she said that Nick is continuing to improve with his eye sight so still does not need patches. I think he is better than they think because he simply gets so tired of waiting and then reading all of the lines that he just won't answer them.....so next time she said we would try the weak eye first before his tolerance is gone!

Saturday was a bit warmer and Nick kept asking us to go to the park so he could sing the bunny song. He didn't care what else we did as long as we ended up at the park so he could sing. He has been cracking us up with The Bunny Song from Silly songs with Larry video (veggietales). The singer is a giant pickle who sings with a deep voice like James Earl Jones (Darth Vader). Nick gets into it so much that we are trying to figure out how to get it on video but for now we just have a few still shots of him at the low soulful notes and the intense finish of the song....He even HAD to take a "microphone" with us to the park. Click on the photos to enlarge to get the full effect....he has his eyes closed and everything.... our boy has so much SOUL! Hilarious!

We are starting to get ready for a 1st anniversary/birthday bash for Nick. We are going to celebrate all 4 of his birthdays....his first birthday will be celebrated at 1p, 2nd at 2p, and so on. Of course he will have his big birthday cake at 4p for his real 4th birthday but I couldn't pass up on celebrating all the ones we missed (we were there for his 3rd but they wouldn't let us bring a cake for him.....that sweet allergy thing) We will have an open house so we can have more people coming and going as they can. I doubt we will do such a big blast at further birthday but he deserves a big one along with his 1st year with us celebraton! I am going to try and do one of those video montages with music for his year celebration....if anyone has any tips...feel free to chime in on the comments!

Nick had his final assessment with the school district last week. The only thing that I think he will qualify for is speech for obvious reasons. We may decide to get speech at his elementary school but continue him in our current preschool because they have been so great with him. I just can't say enough about his preshool (Little Elks). We are probably going to let him stay with the 3 year olds again next year as we still have many basics to improve on.......some things he is learning so fast but then others like using scissors, colors, crafty type stuff could use some extra work and I really see no reason to push him and as his teacher says " He really just likes to play and is always full of joy and excited about everything".....I think that is good progress for the first year! (Although my competitive, had to have all A's side did come out for just a second when we discussed what to do for next year....but I quickly jumped back into reality and realized just how far he has really come this year!)

Hope everyone is having a great start to February......countdown 7 days until that momentous first bonding day with Nick Nurik, private eye! ;)

Almost a year?

Can it be true?....can it be that Feb. 12th (we think....still a blur what day we actually arrived since there was almost a whole day lost with the time change!) will mark the year anniversary of meeting a crazy Kazmaniac named Nurik.....well, it has to be true because we had to do our first post-adoption home visit and trip to the Secretary of State's office for Apostilling. What was crazy this time on the road to the Capital was that Nick was with me......we have come full circle!

We had a good time, me and my little buddy. Definitely the only 3 year old on Capital Hill although probably he was much smarter. I think that they might have been in session because things were a hoppin'. We walked down the hall behind the Lt. Governor and his assistants. Nick was very well behaved except for some loud moments at the nice lady's desk who was processing our papers (FYI, Ky Secretary of State office rocks! We have had the best luck with them and they are so nice and do the Apostilling while you wait....never been there more than 30-45 minutes even with the big stuff). She thought he was cute anyway.....this will get us out of many embarrassing moments, thankfully. She apostilled Nick for us too so he is certified that the certifier can certify who can notarize......only adoptive families will get that......but basically he is extra legit! He proudly showed off his Apostille on the front steps of the capital as he waved and said HI to the other tourists! They were getting a kick out of his enthusiasm.....I said he was the "official" capital greeter....kind of like Wal-mart but younger! :)

Here are pics from the trip.....one full shot with the capital and the other of him waving....notice the little gold sticker on his coat.....apostilled and official. Have a good weekend!