Long Time - No Blog

Wow, I can't believe how fast time flies when you're this busy!

The children are doing great. They're getting cuter and smarter every day.

Cooper knows all of the alphabet and colors and we're working on numbers now. His English is improving every day. The Russian is slowly going away (which is a little sad too).

He had some teeth issues that we had to deal with: 4 decayed teeth pulled, 2 root canals and several cavities filled. His baby bridge will be in next week so he'll be good to go until his permanent teeth come in. He was under IV sedation the whole time so he doesn't even remember it.

He's truly a very happy little boy who wants to do nothing but please us.

Kara's attachment is so much better. She kisses and hugs us regularly now and sits on my lap whenever I'm on the floor. She lets us console her when she gets a booboo and lets us love on her without her pushing us away. We've come a long way in a short time!

Her speech still needs work but it's coming along too. Now, instead of saying "bah" for banana, she says "nana" and she points to different things and tries to say them.

Kara's eating has slowed down tremendously. She routinely pushes her food away, saying "kaka" when she doesn't like something - which we're glad for because it's a normal toddler behaviour. And she doesn't HAVE to finish every bite any longer. She is 1 pound heavier than her brother however (who is 16 months older!).

Both kids' blood work came back absolutely normal and they're up-to-date on all of their shots, etc. We were happy to find out that the immunizations that the orphanage in Russia said they had given her were accurate. Our doctor did titers to confirm.

Their Giardia is now all gone as well.

Now they're ready to start school and I'm ready to go back to work.

It's been fun but exhausting and I feel like preschool can teach them a lot more than I can. Since they're at different developmental stages, it's hard to give each child what they really need. For instance, if Cooper and I are practicing writing his ABC's, of course Kara wants to write too but ends up eating the crayons or wanting to write on Coopers page and upsetting him, etc. At least at school, there will be structure and the kids will be in classes with other kids their ages.

Thanksgiving was quiet and nice, just us 4. We had a peaceful traditional turkey dinner that Jim and I prepared.

Santa (or Moroz in Russian) made his presence known at our house after Thanksgiving dinner. Jim went upstairs and put on the Santa outfit, came downstairs yelling ho ho ho - it was not a pretty site to see my son scream at the top of his lungs. Kara just gave him a bizarre look like, Who in the world are you? We calmed him down by showing him that it was actually Papa, and he thought it was hilarious after that. He tried on Papa's Santa wig. When it was all said and done, he said "All done Moroz" - translation: I will not be seeing you again this season!

They also went to their first Christmas Party.

Here are some pics: