Let's try again....

Blogger is making me crazy since they updated their editor.  For some reason it changes how pictures show up on my blog and you cannot move them around with just a click.  I have tried with and without the new version and it doesn't seem to matter.   So, when you don't have much to blog about it makes it just as easy to walk away.....thus the hiatus!

We are finally back in a routine with the holidays, snowdays and MLK day, Nick has yet to have a full week of school.  I have hope for next week but there is snow expected and well, you know what an inch of snow can do....complete devastation, I know! 

Nick has had a few bad days because of this lack of routine or just generally being 5 I guess.  We have had broken glasses (on purpose), screaming fits a plenty, and even hair pulling and hitting.  Now, lest you worry he is having problems at school, no, no, it is only mom that is the hearer and receiver of all that is the "other" Nick.  Since he really has come so far and these fits are far and few between, I think I handle them with less patience because it is just so out of nowhere.....I am starting to dislike any change in routine very much. 

He has started OT and I just wish his awesome OT's Julie and Ariana could explain all that they are working on with Nick.  The best I can describe it is Sensory related....visual integation and motor planning are two buzz words they are using.  I look forward to our next meeting with them so they can give me the layman's term for how to explain what they are doing. He is in group therapy.  They have found that this age child seems to have success with doing it together with others.  It is a group of all boys.  Nick is the only adopted child but they all have similar sensory issues.  One of the things they are assessing with him is whether  or not he still has some of the primal reflexes in place at birth that go away as a child develops.  While biological children can have this for sure, they definitely see it in some adopted children because of the lack of sensory, simulating input during the baby years.  It is all so interesting to me. I am reading two books that they recommended, the Sensational kid, and Physical Activities for Improving Children's Learning and Behavior (A guide to Sensory Motor Development).

Nick just received his 2nd quarter report card and it was glowing.  We are so proud.  He has come so far with his writing that I would say he is pretty much on target.  Surprisingly but not really, he got some exceeding expectations this time.  One area was Phonemic Awareness....rhymes, sound blending, beginning and ending sounds, etc.  I have to say that I swear by the leap frog video series, letter factory, word factory, etc.  They are the greatest tools to make this kind of learning fun and I think his report card shows that it helped him catch up.  In that area specifically, he is already at the end of the year benchmark (expectation).  Woo, Hoo for our boy!  He is also reading more and more.  He even got some exceeding expectations in spanish.  I am just so happy with the school and all that it has done to spur Nick on and also give him the awesome chance to be bilingual again. 

Since Christmas, he has also discovered thru his new cartridges, more advanced games on the leapster. They keep him mesmerized (batman and star wars) as well as now loving educational computer games on the computer.  We have had to start limiting time on these apparati due to his new "love".  We are keeping it educational only for as long as possible.....he has plenty of years later to discover the other mindless junk. 

Nick is currently into the whole phase of WHY.  He questions everything and it is taking every ounce of my patience to get thru a ride to or from school or anywhere else for that matter these days.  I love his questions but he is never satisfied with the answer and you can just "hear" the little wheels in his head going, and going, and going.....he has the energizer bunny brain.  Sometimes, Pat and I can be heard saying "just stop talking" or "you cannot fully understand that at your age Nick"  ....kind of funny but not so when you are in the car for a really long trip!! :)

His latest inquiry that amazed me was him trying to figure out how we can love God first and not toys.  Seriously, he went on and on for 30 minutes while we were driving around town trying to explain to me that it was impossible to put God number one in his brain when he loved toys so much and that he didn't want to "kick" God out of his brain but he just loved his toys so much he couldn't "kick" them out.  As I tried to explain how we could really enjoy other things alot as long as we put God and our family as our first love, he just continued to argue.  I will need to look up several verses for him to have on his wall to look at about the subject but really, he is just 5...why do I have to argue theology at 5?  DO they have Kindegarten Seminary too? :)

Speaking of growing up and thinking of "older" things, he and his friend Libby came out of class the other day and declared that they had kissed and that they were getting married when they are 17.  And, Libby, announced at home to her parents that not only are they getting married but they are adopting from Mexico!  It cracked us up and made us panic all at once.  Apparently, Kristina and her husband said the same thing Pat and I did at the dinner table which was, you can't kiss until your are married because there are just too many germs! ha!  Also, Libby's dad stipulated that they had skipped the whole process of Nick asking permission from him to have Libby's hand in marriage...and Libby responded...."but why?"   Cracks me up!   The sweet thing is Nick tells us often that he is going to grow up and be a daddy and adopt and have us over to a "feast".  We hear this often and it just melts my heart.  Last night at dinner, he told us when we were grandparents to this child he is adopting that he will buy us birthday gifts.  Rocking chairs for each of us and Knitting for me.  We almost choked on our food.  So funny!  He did say he would get Knitting for Pat if he wanted it too.  So, interesting since neither of his grandparents rock or knit at this point. :)

I just mailed off our third post adoption and last social worker written report.  We made our trek to the capitol for the Apostille and took Libby and her mom with us for an outing.  They had fun although the glasses breaking incident happened on our journey home.  They got a first hand experience with the "other" Nick.  Bless their hearts! :)  I personally think it was the homemade chocolates that we bought at Rebecca Ruth's candy shop near the Capitol building. Sugar is not our friend some days!  We got a few pictures from the outing below....

The crazy blogger won't let me write between the posted pictures so I will talk about Christmas at the end.  We had a great time in Wisconsin.  There was tons of snow to sled and stomp around in for days.  It almost kept a few of the Siblings away but they all being native Wisconsinites made it without much fanfair and panic.....good thing they didn't grow up in Ky.   They would have declared a national emergency and called off Christmas! :)  Nick had a fabulous time with his cousins and as he followed Dakota (15) everywhere so little Colin (1) followed Nick.  It was mutual hero worship all around.  Nick was getting a little testy with Colin towards the end of the week (that whole lack of routine and schedule thing) and Colin wanted most anything that Nick had his hands on.  Star Wars stuff was everywhere and Colin placed his snack cup on top of one of Nick's prized "boxes" from the star wars vehicles.  Nick came in, saw the cup and with much disgust and despair, removed the cup from the top of "his" toy box and declared "COLIN, THERE ARE NOOOO CUPS IN STAR WARS!!!!!!"  It was so loud and out of the blue that we all heard him and it took  a long time for us all to quit laughing....Colin was stunned and just giggled which he did often when Nick was trying to explain the finer points of "playing" star wars to a one year old.  It was classic.  I am sure that will be a phrase we bring up at the Kitzman gatherings for years to come. 

Well, I am sure there are more updates I need to include but I can't be sure this is even going to post so I am going to stop for now.  We have all of our Anniversaries and Nick's birthday coming up in the next 3 months so life and blogging should get a little more exciting....maybe.  

Our hearts are so heavy with the Haiti earthquakes....all of the orphans just break our heart as well as the loss of life.  Our church is doing several different things as they were already doing mission work in Haiti before so luckily there is already people in country that we can funnel our donations and help to at this tragic time.  The one good thing to come out of all this is that many orphans are being approved to finally skip the crazy red tape that has kept many of them from joining their new familis for months and years even.  I just get all teary everytime I see the babies coming home to their families in the recent news reports. Always good to see the good that God brings amongst all the tragedy.  I read a blog by a family working in Haiti and they remarked the other day how everyone sees the chaos and despair that has really been Haiti for a long time and they wonder who is in charge, and they said that they know exactly who is in charge amidst all this chaos and it is God.  Their reports have been so heart wrenching yet so full of hope for these people that you can tell they love with all their hearts.  I think I can understand a bit of their hope for these people because once you have lived among a different culture than your own, they become a part of you, that part that affects how you perceive the world.  It changes you.  You cease to see the government corruption, the bad and the ugly, the differences, you stop playing the blame game and you start to see how God made us all in His image and we are ALL precious to Him and you begin to love them accordingly.  We pray for those precious ones that God made in His Image....

Christmas time already??

Wasn't it just Halloween? Thanksgiving flew by (and turkeys don't fly, do they?) but not before we had an awesome low key (well, if anything with Nick can be low key) thanksgiving at home with Pat cooking and extra special guests Dasha and Al. We met Dasha several years ago thru another Kaz adoptive family. She and another student, Dalel, have become a great part of our extended family as they are students here from Kazakhstan. Dasha and Dalel are now married but not to each other so we have an even greater extended family. Al is from Tajikistan and boy does he know central Asian history. So interesting. It was Al's first Thanksgiving feast. I told him ours was pretty tame compared to some big family gatherings but we had PLENTY! I even tried my hand at Russian Compote.....I mixed lots of berries and we had it warm...it was really yummy! Dasha made some great homemade fudge that we loved and Nick probably ate too much of because our game time was full of fireworks and drama. I'm sure Dasha and Al have never played a game of Trouble like that before....well, any game for that matter! :) It was a great way to spend Thanksgiving!

















And, now I am getting ready to pack for Christmas?? What happened? Time SLOW down!
I truly can't believe this year has gone by so quickly. The holidays go by so fast now that they smoosh them all together. We saw Christmas stuff out at halloween?? Are you kidding? Well, regardless, it's here, isn't it. We have had a harder time this year keeping the toy count down. Nick is so into imaginative play with figures and accessories. I love the imaginext toys as does he. His other obsession of late is star wars figures. He has not seen the movie yet but boy does he like the action "figgers" as Nick would say. Nick has been a little crazy over what to get for Christmas....keeps changing his mind. So I just told him that mom and dad know what he likes so he will be surprised and like it! We have been also working on the " oh, thank you for this gift face" vs " why did you get me this stupid gift face"....he is getting pretty good at it! ;)

I am so ready to bring in some new toys and donate or sell the old that I have been a little less "grinch" this year and am allowing some extra toy purchases because I think they will last us a few more years with only a few accessory purchases maybe. We continue to get leapster 2 accessories as this is our Car toy of the century. We love it. He loves it. We have talked much about the reason for Christmas and he totally gets it so we are already starting to leave Santa out of the equation. I just don't feel there is that big of a need to get him all wrapped up in well, a lie, when he doesn't necessarily believe it anyway since he has only been here for half of his years so far. I want him to believe in the love and spirit of the season and just see Santa as one of the parts of the holiday like he does the easter bunny, etc. He has been so cute trying to explain to Amigo, our really old shepherd mix, the story of Jesus' birth and the reason for Christmas. Migs is such a willing listener even if he is hard of hearing! :)



Nick had his first Christmas performance at the elementary level and it was cute. My camera was totally not working and couldn't get the picture right no matter what....kept making the pictures dark. I am sure it was the operator but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong......supposed to be a point and shoot?? not so sure.

It is funny how different things affect me since we have adopted. For example, when I could tell Nick was looking for me from his place on stage and then he found me and waved. All I could think was he's "attached" and it made me so happy....even almost 3 years later....it made me so happy.

He was really singing and performing this year. In times past, he was a silent performer with occasional movement but he was really interacting this time.


As I said before we are going to try and phase Santa out as the main center piece of the holiday but we have started the tradition of going to the Kentucky Horse park for their light show and train exhibit and well, Santa was there so why not. I don't think he really told him what he wanted because he kept telling us that he wanted to be "Naughty!" Yes, son ,but you have never needed Santa's help for that! :) But, I digress, we thought we were going to have to leave because they made the Santa line right next to this obnoxious booth of scented Rocks (think Yankee candle store) and Nick was hilarious. He thought they smelled so bad (they did) and strong that he wouldn't stand there. He seems to be very sensitive to smells and really could not focus......so we moved away and left daddy in line. Great daddy! We got an awesome pic with this not very good Santa.....his other facial hair is totally showing?? hello?! beard that fits please!
I just think Nick is so darn handsome and boy does he look like a big boy now. Just precious still!
















We are currently taking Flat Stanley from my Niece Lyndsay all around with us and he visited the horse park with us that night because next year the 2010 world equestrian games will be here...it's like the Olympics of horse stuff and we are one if not the only places (not European) to hold the event. Very big stuff for our little big city.
















I really need to catch this blog/journal up on some developmental stuff so be patient as I list them for myself and Nick in the future.

. His handwriting is totally knocking my socks of these last few weeks. He has come so far since September when he was just scribbling. Below is his last spelling test which he got all right and the words were so neat. We were so proud!
















. he is reading almost all of his sight words that have been given so far and can find most of them in books and read parts of books with us. So exciting to this family of readers!!

. he is (OF HIS OWN ACCORD) starting to make his bed, clean up his toys, and clean the table off! I love this boy! His Daddy has been the most awesome example for him in these areas!

. he has this incredible ability to remember stories and re-tell them. We love to hear bible stories and stories of his own creation....its amazing. He also has started telling us what his memory verses are after Sunday school. He is such a sponge.

. he has started asking us about bad words and what they mean. I suppose this has to do with school and things we have already told him to watch for like "stupid", "hate", "butt" and of course all the big ones. I didn't realize how hard it would be to explain about words that we shouldn't use because some of them aren't necessarily bad in some contexts, and, I NEVER realized how much Lucy in Charlie Brown holiday movies says Stupid....my goodness...kind of sad now that I see it thru parents eyes! Anyway, we decided to teach him about attitude instead so one day I tried to explain to him that most words are not "bad", it is usually the attitude or heart behind how you say it that is bad. So I verbally gave him some examples. For some reason it totally clicked with him and it is hilarious to hear him go around and explain it. He is so funny the way he changes his voice and attitude. I need to get it on Video....it's funnier that way.

. he is very slowly but surely starting to get the concepts of sports. He talks about his favorite team the Packers and he will stop and watch and listen to his dad talk about the game and explain it. He is soooo competitive that I can't decide if it will help or be a nightmare to put him in a league. We almost avoid playing board games with him because he pouts and has so much drama if he is not in the lead. The only one he does pretty well with is Trouble, the game not the state of being...he's good at that one too though! ;)

. he is 45.5 inches and almost 48 lbs....75th percentile in both ht and wt. He has grown now 8 1/2 inches since coming home. He wears 6 size pants and anywhere from 5-7 in shirts. His shoe size is about a 12 1/2.

. we had his OT full assessment and it was very interesting. I will write more on it later once we get one of the last tests done. He did well and had a few cautionary areas in motor planning and visual sensory processing. He may do some group therapy for several months but overall he has had deficits but has overcome them or learned new behavior in many of the OT areas on his own.

. He continues speech therapy and progressing with that program and vision-wise has stopped having to be patched for several hours a day on his stronger eye because the weak one is maintaining and giving full effort now. We like team players around here! ;)

. he continues to be very popular at school and has lots of friends. Libby and Emma continue to be his main "girl" friends. Emma told her mom the other day that she and Libby are fighting some to see who is going to marry Nick! His main pal right now is Jack and he will have to have some play dates with Jack soon as we are losing our ability to play outside after school on the playground with the frigid temps.

. his vocabulary is outstanding. Yay, educational television (martha speaks and word girl especially) He surprises himself sometimes with new words. He totally will say something like...."well, not (exactly). ...mom, what does exactly mean" Cracks us up because he always uses it correctly but still may not know what it means?? too funny!

Well, the one whom I am writing about is distracting me enough that I can't think of any more and have gotten up about a million times to deal with a star wars crisis.

I am planning a new years card/letter this year since I want to get some fun pics in the snow for our cards. So don't worry, it will come just not yet. I hope everyone is having a blessed season with their families and friends.

Halloween 2009

Just thought I would throw some pictures up from Halloween for the family. We have not had our assessment meeting with the OT with her results so I thought I would hold off on journaling until we get that report.

Nick went back and forth between being a Jedi or Darth.....it was good vs. bad for most of October. So since we were able to go to another occasion at a local park, he got to be both.....kind of like Anakin and Darth! ;)

There were games and a cool hiking trail that had characters dressed up at various points. Nick loved it! He did the trick or treat trail with his sweet cheetah girl, Emma.

And then......the dark side took over for halloween eve. My parents were in town so they stayed and gave out candy while we toured the neighborhood.

It was a beautiful night to T or T with the sun setting over our gorgeous trees along our road.

Daddy was resident Sherpa and padawan? (sp?) ...... the Darth helmet made all the noises and breathing and such....so cool. We had this bratty kid that happened upon us and was mad at Nick because they had similar outfits. Nick was so excited that someone matched him but this kid kept heckling him and saying ugly things. The kid's sister even tried to get him to be quiet...all the mom said was "use your manners"? How about use some DISCIPLINE and take the brat home. Nick would have been home immediately if he would have continued to act like this boy. We tried so hard to get away but they kept catching up. Nick just couldn't understand why the boy kept saying stuff and was mad. I thought Pat was going to smack him with the light saber.....yeah, the kid with the big mouth didn't even have a light saber....I had to control my "NIck looks cooler than you do" attitude. Had to show Nick how God would want us to act....boy is that hard sometimes. I'm not sure if I am ready for this whole unkind kid thing as he gets older. Nick call them "Bowlies"....so funny. At first, we didn't know what he was talking about but then he said his counselor came to their class to talk about Bowlies (bullies!) :)

OUR VERY COOL and VERY NICE DARTH VADER!

Grandparents, punkins, and pirates, oh my!

We had our first fall visit from the GP's! Pat's parents were the first to arrive for a long weekend. The weather absolutely did not cooperate so lots of floor time for Ata Bob and Grandma Ruth in the basement playroom......glad they are both in such good shape. I'm not sure I would have gotten up quickly out of this lounge position Ata Bob was in for some Castle/starwars adventures! :)

We had a terribly cold and windy day for our pumpkin patch visit but the mums looked bright and cheery with an especially cute punkin in the front.

Afer dinner, we cleaned the table in preparation for Nick's first carving session. He had very specific directions for dad.....round eyes, triangle nose, and a big oval mouth that was saying boo!  Ata Bob began gut removal. Nick was not obliged to help......he said it was ewwwww! 'gustin!!  (disgusting) :)

We finally convinced him to put his hand in the pumpkin to at least touch the insides.  He agreed if we let him put his mummy in too! Such a negotiator.

Daddy was first carver but Nick was more interested in his other toys all the while giving orders for specific cuts and shapes!

As Pumpkin Boss, he had to give Ata Bob some advice on the job he was doing

Three generations of Pumkin Carvers........

 

Pumpkin #1 - Nick's design!  He requested the teeth purchase at the Pumpkin patch.  We don't usually give in to spontaneous buys but this one ended up being awesome.  He was so proud of his scary pumpkin!

Pumpkin #2 required less cutting and more tapping and poking!  The GP's found this awesome buy and thought our resident pirate would love and he did!

ARRRRRRGH, me mateys!

We also made a trip to Cincinnati to Ikea (The GP's first experience!) and bought our second cubby unit for our office.  So exciting.....I might be organized one of these days....or not!  It looks so great though!  Ruth and I did some shopping for Nick which turned out quite successful and considering they were here for only 3 days, we had great fun and got tons accomplished with them here to motivate us! Thanks Mom and Pop!

Report cards come out next week.  Should be interesting to see how they grade Kindergarten?? We also have our OT assessment on Tuesday so should be at least something to blog about next week.  Our trees are turning to their glorious colors right now and Nick has just been learning seasons.....so glad we have them.  He was excited when he actually saw the leaves falling in large amounts and got why it is called "fall" and then today he saw his first rainbow and it was a double one! He saw it first and excitedly pointed it out. I asked him why we had rainbows and he quickly responded "because God promised to never flood the earth again"!  So cute!  I said " we should thank God for the rainbow"....so we did and he kept talking so I answered him and he said, mom, I'm not talking to you I'm talking to God, I said oh, sorry, and he continued and said, God, I think I am going to talk to you everyday, OK?  Sometimes, he just melts my heart. Sweet boy!

Apple Orchards and handwriting........

It has been so hard to blog lately. Nick has done and said the funniest things but by the time I sit down to write, I have either forgotten the exact words he said or don't feel like journaling at all. I found that adding just a few hours of work confuses my schedule, I don't have time to work....got other important things to do like planning an adoption fair, starting my new position as rookie planner for Kazapalooza, bible study, volunteering with school, lunch dates with Pat, breakfast out with friends, and oh, yeah, the whole clean house, laundry and cooking thing! Working moms amaze me! I am just soooo thankful to not need to work but definitely could use extra cash just like everyone else these days!


Several weeks ago, I volunteered for Nick's first field trip to the apple orchard. It was really an adventure! He got to take his first bus ride and in true form, smashed his face on the window (ewwww, germs!) for me to take the picture!


















The whole class wears the same t-shirt (large size just worn over their regular clothes) and he was the Red (or Rojo in spanish) group......fitting for the apple picking!
















They all got a snack of Apple juice and Apple donuts while they waited for the hayride.....ummm, we didn't get to share in the snack!

















I Love this next picture of our "Ladies Man"! His little friend, Joanna, wanted to be in the pic so bad.....is she not adorable!! He also has plans for marriage to at least two other sweeties that we know of so far. He told Pat one morning that he was going to marry Emma (beautiful red hair, who could blame him?) and then yesterday he was in bed with me before getting up for school and said he was marrying Elizabeth. Then, he said he would be a daddy and go adopt from Kazakhstan but he wanted a girl! :) I just laugh at the look on Nick's face below.....


















He was admiring his "harvest" of the day......Tres Manzanas (3 apples) for each of them!
















They have lots of fun things to do and this was their after lunch activity!

















We actually looked into buying this ship/fort until we saw the price so we are glad he can play on it at the orchard! ;) Isn't it sooooo cool!

I was able to meet some parents and get to see the teachers in action. It amazed me that the spanish teachers spoke mostly spanish only to them all day. So great! Every time things got a little chaotic, the teacher would break out into a spanish song and they would all join in! It was a trip! Did I mention there were other Kindergarten classes plus another Elementary school there?......Crazy! Nick was such a good listener. I was so impressed!

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We have grooved into the whole school thing pretty well. He still complains every morning that he wants to stay in bed, yeah right! Saturdays lately he has been up at 5-530 am so I have no sympathy for him during the week! He is learning so much. We were so worried about his handwriting when school started because it really was something that we had not worked on at all and it certainly showed at first but I took a picture below of the gradual improvement he has made over the last month and 1/2 and we are amazed (if you click on the picture I believe you will be able to see the differences better). He still struggles a bit but I know he can do it with more time. He mostly just doesn't want to stop or focus so maturity may bring better writing. The teachers have been cracking down on disruptive behavior to model/teach the kids how to act in a classroom setting so he has had some "yellow" notes come home but the teachers explain that this is just to stay consistent and follow thru. The only area he seems to struggle with and where he gets the yellows is center/station time. He has never been good at self directing and I explained to the teacher that they may just have to show him how to do the activity and then he should catch on. In a group setting, he does better because he looks to see what everyone else is doing. By himself, he gets frustrated if it is not an obvious task. I am not overly concerned unless they tell me that it is a big problem with him learning and then maybe we will work together on some ways to help him practice working alone and asking for help if he doesn't understand instead of playing or disrupting.

This is currently how he is writing his name. There are two Nicks so I had him add the second K so we would quit getting the other one's homework! ;) He started out trying to do Nicholas but changed his mind when he found out Nick was shorter!

Daddy had a big conference that he organized and we left him a note for the evening that he came home. I was so thrilled that I could just tell him a letter and he would write it down ....below is or sign for dad!

Nick has the most incredible personality most days. He is so friendly and interactive. I was overwhelmed when I went on the field trip and moms kept saying oh, you are Nick's mom, my son/daughter talks about Nick all the time. Of course, he rarely mentions anyone's name but the "wives" and his friend James William (who he met at spanish camp) who we have had several playdates with since starting school.

He has started helping around the house lately without even being asked and I am all about giving big high fives and hugs for being a great team/family player! He cleaned off all the dishes on the table one night, took the new toilet paper and delivered some to each bathroom and even put it on the holder in one, he helps with the groceries, and helps with the dog. Now, don't get me wrong, he makes more messes than he cleans currently but I think he has great potential! :) I am so glad that my hubby is an awesome helper so he is seeing a good example of family working together!

Nick has been more curious about "adoption" lately and asked us one night, how we knew to pick him. While we were a bit taken back, we just explained that God led us to him and showed us that he would be the one to make us a family. He was good with that....whew! We have a new book on adoption for a little older kids that even explains how they were born (shows a picture of a baby being delivered) so he asked if he came out of me and I said no, another woman. He didn't say much else but then the other day when we were looking at pics from the orphanage, he asked if our translator was the one he came from.....I said no, so he asked where her picture was and I said we didn't have any and that was that......and then we just moved on to the hospital where he was born and the baby house. I just pray that when he does start asking the harder questions that God will give us the right words to give him an understanding of what happened without giving him extra worries. Because he was older and was able to remember the adoption process, we hadn't talked about birthparents much yet because the babyhouse was such a concrete thing for him. Dr. Roza, his caretakers, and the babyhouse were step one and we were step 2......this is how he talks about it so we have let that be his story for now. I am glad we are easing into the "rest" of the story. I know alot of adoptive families talk about the birthparents and pray for them early on but somehow I think that is easier when they come home as babies....maybe not, but this is how it has progressed for us and we are OK with this progression. We will always be thankful that our birthparents did not abort him and delivered him at a hospital but his caretakers raised him for 3 years and I guess we feel that they have a bigger place in his unique story than his birth family does at this point of his understanding. I only wish we did have pictures of his caretakers. Maybe someday......

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So many Nick-isms have come and gone in my failing memory bank but here are a few highlights....

After being told we were going to cracker barrel to eat..... "that place so Rocks!, I'm having hamburger and fries"

Sitting at the table looking at the table, taking his first bite......"this is a FEAST!"

Putting on clothes....."Do I look good in this.....I look FABULOUS"......(hangin with the "wives" a little tooooo much)

When he does something great and we give him encouragement .... " I sooo Rock!"

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There are so many more but the computer is acting up so I am going to post this before I lose it....We are entering fall and the wonderful weather and beauty that it brings. Along with Fall comes the Grandparents visits. Pat's folks are coming Next Week for fall break and my folks are coming the first of November. Nick is so excited! We are counting the days on the calendar since he is starting to learn about days and weeks at school. We will be glad to see family and let them share in the love that is Nickville! :)

The yellow shirt

Today, I was wasting time on the computer and Nick was off doing various loud things around the house and he came downstairs and said "look mom, do you love this shirt." He was holding his yellow shirt from the orphanage. We have talked about the shirt before and how we love it because he looked so cute in it and he wore it so much in the baby house. We were not allowed to take pictures of any of the other children or caretakers besides the baby house doctor and of course, we don't have any baby pictures, so I asked them if we could have the yellow shirt as a reminder/memento of the time at the baby house. They gave it to us and it has been hanging in his closet since we came home. So, Nick ran off and came back a few minutes later with it on.....it was a sniff, sniff moment and hilarious all in one! On one hand, it took me right back to the baby house and our favorite picture below of Nurik almost Nick Kitzman, On the other hand, he looked like an 80's muscle dude with his tummy hanging out of one of those hideous half-shirts and mismatched shorts! What is always so amazing is how much he has changed in 2 1/2 years. He hardly looks like the same child. The other picture of him at the babyhouse shows how he was always standing at the door banging to get out.....he sure loved us back then, hee,hee! and he was wearing the yellow shirt. We have tons of pics in the yellow shirt...I loved the yellow on him, still do! He looks so handsome in bright colors.......those strikingly handsome dark eyes and hair to match! :)


The YELLOW SHIRT 2007




The YELLOW SHIRT 2009

The really funny part was that my Kazakh boy had this crazy itty bitty bright puffy sleeved shirt with bears on it and was singing about bears in spanish! CLASSIC!

School continues to go well. We have grooved into a routine of sorts. He still is resistant to writing homework but I have seen improvement so I think it is just a matter of building his confidence (and patience!). We had one big war the other day and he was bemoaning....literally... the fact that he was hopeless (think total drama) and his name was the worst and he wanted to change his name (nope, not going back to Nurbolat) and on, and on, and on. He could have written his name one hundred times by the time he finished the "act". Oi! We are going to pursue at least an initial OT (private) eval for sensory type behaviors. They do not seem to be causing any problems at school but if there are ways that we can help him at home to focus or maintain composure when in an overstimulating environment, I am all over it. I will say that I still go back and forth on even doing this testing because it always seems if I just wait a few more months, he improves. I always second guess myself because maybe we are just having expectations that are ahead of the game. He wasn't cutting well at all 3 months ago and now, he cuts paper almost like a pro.....well, a Kindergarten pro but crazy improved even so! I think the initial eval will be good and then they can just give us advice on what to do next. I don't want to add more out of class time for him when he seems to be doing so well but also don't want him to lose out either if it will help him at all. Have I mentioned before that knowing the right thing to do as a parent is hard! ;)

I am working some now for the family that I nannied for several years ago. The mom always has projects so I am just helping her out. A very comfortable, flexible job that fits our needs and doesn't tie me down. We have been going thru all of her kids stuff and getting rid of the old, and with twin boys, broken! ;) Bringing back so many memories of when they were little. The twins were 7 months when I started and their daughter was born while I was there, Now, they are almost 13 and 10. Yikes! It is a great job for now so I can still do school things with Nick and a little mommy time to boot! ;)

Nick has his first field trip to an apple orchard on Friday. Stay tuned for apple pickin' pics!

How did you know?

What have we been up to lately? Besides having someone sick for the last 3 weeks, mostly Nick, we have tried to start venturing out every weekend to do something fun as a family. We have been bad about avoiding these things as the past bad experiences in the early days jaded us for further excursions but Nick has really matured so each new adventure gives us more confidence to take the next adventure....

We planned on going to Ikea in Cinci to get some wall units for my organization goals since I have some free time now. So, Patrick decided a small detour north to Dayton and the airforce museum would be a good family adventure. Recently, we had good friends move up there also so we gave them a call too. We headed up north after church. After we missed our friends for an hour or so due to bad cell connections in the museum and even funnier, we both were calling each others home numbers instead of cell numbers.(...can you say dorks!), we finally met up with them and the boys played on the planes and ran around. We love the museum! We did not have our cameras with us when the boys were playing but did have some shots of Nick before we met up. Nick and Pat when on the simulator and I actually think Nick was a bit disappointed that you really didn't leave the ground.

And, then we headed to Ikea! We had it all planned out since you only get an hour of free childcare and it takes almost that long to walk thru without shopping!! It seemed we were not meant to get anything again as the shelving and color we wanted was out of stock. I opted for the available color and to my surprise it wasn't that much different than the other color that I wanted. So happy! So below is a picture of our first purchase. We plan to go back and get another identical to this one for our office. Nick was not originally supposed to be in the pic but wanted to show off Super Bear although you can barely see him on his head! I am just glad to have a place for everything and it has helped keep things organized except for all the playmobil/lego pieces that are a thorn in my side.......all I am saying is if you have younger boys, only ask for playmobil or lego stuff when they are about 15! :)

The imagination station brought us the Happy Meal helmet this particular week. He actually had the upside down M handles on his eyes like goggles too. He is so funny!

Last weekend, we ventured back out to our local hiking trails. Daddy had taken him a while back and had a fairly successful adventure so this time we were going to try a whole loop. We usually had to turn around and come back the same trail because we were afraid to get too far out! He made the loop! We were so proud and tired! By no means is he a quiet hiker so animals will be far and few between but we are considering it a grand success.

This weekend, we headed to the planetarium in a near-by town. It was fun and he really liked the stars and planets. I would say the "movie" was about circa 1980 but he sat and watched the whole thing. After also visiting my great aunt and uncle, we headed back home. Good family time!

As I said in the beginning, we have had lots of sickness lately. Nick started it all with strep several weeks ago. Pat and I thought we had it but mine was sinus and Pat just spiked a fever and then came down with the worst poison ivy that I have ever seen! It just kept spreading. He finally had to go get a steroid shot and now is on a steroid taper until after next week. The good news is that we are on the mend. Nick however is having a chest cold/bronchitis flair up? He spiked a fever last night to almost 104. Bless his heart! I am wondering if he picked up something at school or the doctor's office? We had a little emergency visit to the doctor on Friday because the teacher was worried that he had blood inside his ear. I was worried that he had developed an ear infection after his strep episode, and he just not being one to show pain, just didn't say anything and now, his eardrum had burst. Total Mom guilt! Well, Not exactly the case! The doctor started checking his ears and then said "hmmmm, Nick did you stick something in your ear" and in true Nick form...no denial, no confession...just "how did you know?" I couldn't believe it. He had stuck something in his ear. The eraser end of a pencil, we think. Luckily, not far enough to damage the drum or other important stuff but had traumatized (scratched) the canal enough to bleed. So now we have expensive ear antibiotic drops and I am kicking myself for not asking her to check his chest/throat again as it was only the next day (yesterday) that he started with this chest cough and fever. Will it never stop! He hadn't been sick for almost a year or more and then you start Kindergarten and wham! I thought he would have had more in preschool but apparently not! Bigger kids, bigger germs? So, we are thankful that this is a holiday weekend and hopefully, he will be fever free today and tomorrow and get back to school on Tuesday.

Speaking of school, he is doing well! He loves spanish and is always singing for us and saying random words in spanish. We are struggling with writing homework but I am just going to have to let it go and just let him learn at his pace. The teachers don't seem to be that alarmed about his lack of skills so we shall see. His scissor skills have improved so much since last year that I hope his writing will kick in as well. We always have OT in the back of our minds but we will see how the next few months progress. He improves every week so we shall see. We have had some battles after school as I am sure he is just about sensory overloaded at that point but we continue to try new rules or structure that keeps him from melting down. He tossed his backpack over the stair rail last week. It didn't hit anyone but the looks I got from the other mothers was enough to make me cry for hours after. Nick received punishment but I was ready to never go back into the school again. What is it about raising kids that brings up so many old feelings and behaviors in the parents. My sister is struggling with her daughter because it mostly reminds her of her days in 1st and second grade and the younger me avoided all things that would draw attention or would get me in trouble and all of those feelings came flooding back when Nick misbehaved and did something that I would NEVER do! I felt completely condemned not to mention there was a teacher at the bottom of the stairs asking "who did it"! Ugh, I was way more traumatized than Nick was even with the million consequences I tried to give him.....although I did realize I was going overboard after talking with a friend. It just goes to show that parenting often teaches us more about ourselves, the good and the bad, than we ever expected. Life is always about learning and growing. Good thing God has so much grace......I only wish I had a little more for myself! Really though, fellow moms shouldn't be so quick to give "the look"...you know what I am talking about! :)

Well, we have officially gone private. It took me a while to get all the emails and I am still not sure I have them all. I guess I will find out now. Happy Labor Day weekend to all!