He is soooo cute!!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
1 Year Gotcha' Day!!!
October 26, 2007
Exactly one year ago this hour (7:30am Michigan time and 5:30pm Uralsk time) we went into the babyhouse one last time to see Alex, and then we took him with us!!!! It was on the ride over that I finally felt “for sure” that he was ours now… ( I must have been holding back a little) While our Gotcha moment was quite anti-climatic… only 2 caregivers were there out of 14(his favorite was not), they only came for a moment grabbed the gifts and went back… our interpreter was already interpreting for someone else and we were at the babyhouse for over an hour and half with no toys, snacks, or bottle… waiting for her and we had to put him in that stupid snow suit that gave him a heat rash all over his body and made him scream for the first time… it was still the best day there, because we got HIM!!! Then 17 hours later we were on a flight to Almaty to finish our journey!!
As I think about our time there, I wanted to come home, but did not… I wanted Alex to get home to his very own bed, toys, family, but I knew as soon as we arrived it would be back to crazy life that keeps us so busy!! Jerry went to work the next morning! Now I am looking forward to doing it again soon-ish… we are still waiting on the I171-h… and Alex is already telling us “Ant-hy” as he points to the empty crib in his room, and we put his “fridge” farm away for baby brother Anthony, because Alex has moved on to the ‘fridge Alphabet! The change is unbelievable in a year!! He is soooo loved… He knows what everything is – just about! He says almost anything you ask him to say including Michigan and Kazakhstan!! His pronunciation is currently astounding us…
Those of you who have done this can relate, those who have not, you just wait… It will be one of the most wonderful, touching journeys you ever have!!
Exactly one year ago this hour (7:30am Michigan time and 5:30pm Uralsk time) we went into the babyhouse one last time to see Alex, and then we took him with us!!!! It was on the ride over that I finally felt “for sure” that he was ours now… ( I must have been holding back a little) While our Gotcha moment was quite anti-climatic… only 2 caregivers were there out of 14(his favorite was not), they only came for a moment grabbed the gifts and went back… our interpreter was already interpreting for someone else and we were at the babyhouse for over an hour and half with no toys, snacks, or bottle… waiting for her and we had to put him in that stupid snow suit that gave him a heat rash all over his body and made him scream for the first time… it was still the best day there, because we got HIM!!! Then 17 hours later we were on a flight to Almaty to finish our journey!!
As I think about our time there, I wanted to come home, but did not… I wanted Alex to get home to his very own bed, toys, family, but I knew as soon as we arrived it would be back to crazy life that keeps us so busy!! Jerry went to work the next morning! Now I am looking forward to doing it again soon-ish… we are still waiting on the I171-h… and Alex is already telling us “Ant-hy” as he points to the empty crib in his room, and we put his “fridge” farm away for baby brother Anthony, because Alex has moved on to the ‘fridge Alphabet! The change is unbelievable in a year!! He is soooo loved… He knows what everything is – just about! He says almost anything you ask him to say including Michigan and Kazakhstan!! His pronunciation is currently astounding us…
Those of you who have done this can relate, those who have not, you just wait… It will be one of the most wonderful, touching journeys you ever have!!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
6-Month Gotcha Day!!!
From October 26, 2006 to April 26, 2007...
I can not believe that we have had Alex for 6 months already!!!!! We love him so much and he loves us a ton!!!
In general, Alex “talks” a lot! We usually have no idea what he is saying… he is quiet when he is focused on something! Alex LOVES going outside. He gets so excited when we say we are going outside and quite sad when we have to come in! He gets out there and just wants to run; down the drive way is his favorite for some reason! He is, after all, the escape artist of the family! He eats anything we give him, he especially loves his soy milk (which we have to spell out sometimes, when we are not ready to give him it, like before bed). He has some lactose intolerance, when he eats regular yogurt, or drinks milk, it makes him cough stuff in his lungs… weird but it does… he can handle some cheese, we don’t give him a lot, but he seems to do ok with it.
He loves to dance and bounce around, he even does a little "Happy Feet" dance once in a while, he has also started throwing small fits more and more... At home he gets to sit on "the pink rug", when we are out, we try to ignore it, or distract him... He learns things from other kids so fast! We are always having to undo things that he picks up at the store or playing from other kids! But he is quite compliant and very sweet, he has really been growing attached to us... he frequently comes to us just for a hug and kiss and then he is off again running, it is so sweet to have in our lives! I can not imagine life without him, it seems like he was always here!
I can not believe that we have had Alex for 6 months already!!!!! We love him so much and he loves us a ton!!!
In general, Alex “talks” a lot! We usually have no idea what he is saying… he is quiet when he is focused on something! Alex LOVES going outside. He gets so excited when we say we are going outside and quite sad when we have to come in! He gets out there and just wants to run; down the drive way is his favorite for some reason! He is, after all, the escape artist of the family! He eats anything we give him, he especially loves his soy milk (which we have to spell out sometimes, when we are not ready to give him it, like before bed). He has some lactose intolerance, when he eats regular yogurt, or drinks milk, it makes him cough stuff in his lungs… weird but it does… he can handle some cheese, we don’t give him a lot, but he seems to do ok with it.
He loves to dance and bounce around, he even does a little "Happy Feet" dance once in a while, he has also started throwing small fits more and more... At home he gets to sit on "the pink rug", when we are out, we try to ignore it, or distract him... He learns things from other kids so fast! We are always having to undo things that he picks up at the store or playing from other kids! But he is quite compliant and very sweet, he has really been growing attached to us... he frequently comes to us just for a hug and kiss and then he is off again running, it is so sweet to have in our lives! I can not imagine life without him, it seems like he was always here!
April 2007 Week 4
April, Week 4 –
Sunday we spent the day playing at Ryleigh’s house, we went and looked at sand boxes and forts. The kids had a blast playing in Ryleigh’s house of balls! Alex can now sign “I love you” so we have been signing it to daddy’s picture! This week Alex said “sweet pea” no one else would know what it was but he was trying, it had the right syllables… He also sang a song! “down by the bay, where the watermelons grow, back to my home, I dare not go, for if I do, my mother will say… did you ever see a whale with a polka dot tale… down by the bay!!” You really couldn’t understand him, but he had the beginning letters of the words and the tune and syllables! It was so darn cute! I am going to attempt to get it on video… Alex loves to a circle around the house… he can make a circle through the kitchen, living room and dining room.
In April I took about 1200 photos!
Sunday we spent the day playing at Ryleigh’s house, we went and looked at sand boxes and forts. The kids had a blast playing in Ryleigh’s house of balls! Alex can now sign “I love you” so we have been signing it to daddy’s picture! This week Alex said “sweet pea” no one else would know what it was but he was trying, it had the right syllables… He also sang a song! “down by the bay, where the watermelons grow, back to my home, I dare not go, for if I do, my mother will say… did you ever see a whale with a polka dot tale… down by the bay!!” You really couldn’t understand him, but he had the beginning letters of the words and the tune and syllables! It was so darn cute! I am going to attempt to get it on video… Alex loves to a circle around the house… he can make a circle through the kitchen, living room and dining room.
In April I took about 1200 photos!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
April 2007 Week 3
April, Week 3 –
On Sunday we went to the Lanphears and rode quads all afternoon. Alex enjoyed himself, he even got a really long ride with John around the track… he was so relaxed we thought he was going to fall asleep… but alas there was too much excitement going on! It was a fun day and I even rode the new off-road-racing-machine!!! It is amazing; I can hardly wait to spend some more time on it! Maybe I will have to ride in the Baja too! It has a clutch, which I am NOT used to on a quad, so I of course killed it a few times, but then I got the hang of it again!
Jerry left for his backpacking trip in Europe on Monday. Alex misses him terribly, but we keep a lovely picture on the computer screen so Alex can look at him anytime. He always starts giggling and pointing at the picture! The day Jerry left, Alex and I spent the day at the Grandville mall, we shopped till he dropped! He fell asleep in the car at 6:15 and didn’t wake up until 7:30 the next morning! At the mall, he completely remembered the tree that he and Ryleigh played at the week before! When we talked to Jerry on the phone just before he flew to Germany, I always make a kiss sound to Jerry, when I tell him goodbye on the phone and Alex did it that day too! It made me get all teary eyed, knowing Alex doesn’t understand where daddy is, just that he is not here! On Tuesday, Alex was running around outside as usual, all excited and fell and met the concrete with his little forehead, he cried and a couple minutes later was running around again laughing and tripped in the grass and hit the brick landscaping wall with the other side of his forehead! It happened so fast! Oh I felt so bad!!!! He cried harder than I have ever seen him cry! It was not pretty, Bonnie was here, I was so glad for that… we put ice on it and she ran and bought some of those butterfly bandages, to help it stay together in case it was split open… Amazingly, it was more like a dent in his skin! With a scrape! It looked terrible, but a few days later you can hardly tell anything happened! There was a bruise and a little bump by the weekend and that was it! I am so glad! We were worried about a scar! However, he learned a new word “owie” he is quite good at saying that now!!! He has shortened it to “ooowwww!” with seriously puckered lips!
We learned this week that the little girl that we wanted to adopt at Alex’s babyhouse has been adopted! We had been praying for her to find a family if it wasn’t to be us. Now we are just trying to locate where she has gone! Hopefully we can find where she is and be in touch with her family!
Alex has discovered the shadows of his fingers on his tray of the high chair… He makes shadows with one hand and tries to get it with the other. Every time we go into the garage, he runs to the new quad making “vroom vroom” noises! We went to the beach this week, too. He said “no, no” this week too, copying me when I told him “no” about touching the cat food! It was cute so far… He knows sign language for: eat, please, thank you, more, milk, drink, baby, ball, play, computer, sleep, blanket, bath, and even story, which I thought was a hard one! He seems to use Please the most!!! It really helps in knowing what he wants! And he has the connection down between hungry and eat! When I ask him if he is hungry, and he is, he signs eat! He also has grown extra attached to “mom” lately! He came up to me one day and hugged my leg and made kissing sounds! He seems to have really discovered his voice! He has been yelling everything including “MOM” and even “mommy,” however many times he is not addressing me, he just wants to yell it! It is rather funny and sometimes I need earplugs! He has discovered the cows in the field next to us, they are the cutest cows, we call them Oreo cow… they have white middle sections and black head and bottoms! He says “mmmmmmm” when he sees them! It even sounded like he said “Aunt Bonnie” this week. He says all kinds of things but you only know because he shows you what he is saying… for example: ball = ba, balloon= bu, giraffe = gu, panda = pa, book = bou! He is learning all the sounds that start words at least… It is very sweet! We went to the beach on Saturday evening… we took his bucket and toys and a bubble blower! Oh my, did he love that! He squeals as he tries to get the bubbles! He throws the sand in the air and just goes nuts basically! Running all over, falling on the unevenness of the sand and then finally heading for the water! Lake Michigan isn’t exactly warm! So we didn’t let him go in.
Ryleigh came over to play the night before Daddy left!
Don't I look so cute in a helmet?!
Almost falling asleep on the quad ride...
My owie with th brick wall!
My favorite place... except with mommy and daddy...
Bonnie, Dale, Chris, Jon, and Kierra!
Lake Michigan Sunset!
On Sunday we went to the Lanphears and rode quads all afternoon. Alex enjoyed himself, he even got a really long ride with John around the track… he was so relaxed we thought he was going to fall asleep… but alas there was too much excitement going on! It was a fun day and I even rode the new off-road-racing-machine!!! It is amazing; I can hardly wait to spend some more time on it! Maybe I will have to ride in the Baja too! It has a clutch, which I am NOT used to on a quad, so I of course killed it a few times, but then I got the hang of it again!
Jerry left for his backpacking trip in Europe on Monday. Alex misses him terribly, but we keep a lovely picture on the computer screen so Alex can look at him anytime. He always starts giggling and pointing at the picture! The day Jerry left, Alex and I spent the day at the Grandville mall, we shopped till he dropped! He fell asleep in the car at 6:15 and didn’t wake up until 7:30 the next morning! At the mall, he completely remembered the tree that he and Ryleigh played at the week before! When we talked to Jerry on the phone just before he flew to Germany, I always make a kiss sound to Jerry, when I tell him goodbye on the phone and Alex did it that day too! It made me get all teary eyed, knowing Alex doesn’t understand where daddy is, just that he is not here! On Tuesday, Alex was running around outside as usual, all excited and fell and met the concrete with his little forehead, he cried and a couple minutes later was running around again laughing and tripped in the grass and hit the brick landscaping wall with the other side of his forehead! It happened so fast! Oh I felt so bad!!!! He cried harder than I have ever seen him cry! It was not pretty, Bonnie was here, I was so glad for that… we put ice on it and she ran and bought some of those butterfly bandages, to help it stay together in case it was split open… Amazingly, it was more like a dent in his skin! With a scrape! It looked terrible, but a few days later you can hardly tell anything happened! There was a bruise and a little bump by the weekend and that was it! I am so glad! We were worried about a scar! However, he learned a new word “owie” he is quite good at saying that now!!! He has shortened it to “ooowwww!” with seriously puckered lips!
We learned this week that the little girl that we wanted to adopt at Alex’s babyhouse has been adopted! We had been praying for her to find a family if it wasn’t to be us. Now we are just trying to locate where she has gone! Hopefully we can find where she is and be in touch with her family!
Alex has discovered the shadows of his fingers on his tray of the high chair… He makes shadows with one hand and tries to get it with the other. Every time we go into the garage, he runs to the new quad making “vroom vroom” noises! We went to the beach this week, too. He said “no, no” this week too, copying me when I told him “no” about touching the cat food! It was cute so far… He knows sign language for: eat, please, thank you, more, milk, drink, baby, ball, play, computer, sleep, blanket, bath, and even story, which I thought was a hard one! He seems to use Please the most!!! It really helps in knowing what he wants! And he has the connection down between hungry and eat! When I ask him if he is hungry, and he is, he signs eat! He also has grown extra attached to “mom” lately! He came up to me one day and hugged my leg and made kissing sounds! He seems to have really discovered his voice! He has been yelling everything including “MOM” and even “mommy,” however many times he is not addressing me, he just wants to yell it! It is rather funny and sometimes I need earplugs! He has discovered the cows in the field next to us, they are the cutest cows, we call them Oreo cow… they have white middle sections and black head and bottoms! He says “mmmmmmm” when he sees them! It even sounded like he said “Aunt Bonnie” this week. He says all kinds of things but you only know because he shows you what he is saying… for example: ball = ba, balloon= bu, giraffe = gu, panda = pa, book = bou! He is learning all the sounds that start words at least… It is very sweet! We went to the beach on Saturday evening… we took his bucket and toys and a bubble blower! Oh my, did he love that! He squeals as he tries to get the bubbles! He throws the sand in the air and just goes nuts basically! Running all over, falling on the unevenness of the sand and then finally heading for the water! Lake Michigan isn’t exactly warm! So we didn’t let him go in.
Ryleigh came over to play the night before Daddy left!
Don't I look so cute in a helmet?!
Almost falling asleep on the quad ride...
My owie with th brick wall!
My favorite place... except with mommy and daddy...
Bonnie, Dale, Chris, Jon, and Kierra!
Lake Michigan Sunset!
April 2007 Week 2
April, Week 2 – April 8, Alex was 17 months old!
Holy Cow! It snowed like crazy this week!!!!! We probably got a foot and half of snow over the week!!! Terrible terrible! It killed off a lot of flowers! And the birds were going nuts at the bird feeders! Yeah… snow on Easter! Go figure! So we egg hunted inside at a friend’s house with their 2 younger children! Alex wasn’t quite sure what it was all about all he knew was that there was chocolate inside those eggs! This week he also started picking up the sign language from the new Baby Einstein video we got! That’s how I knew he knew there was something good in those eggs… he was excitedly signing eat, and smacking his lips! We went to Fredrick Meijer gardens and met some new friends there that have twin girls about 3 years old, from Uralsk, Kazakhstan, where Alex is from! They live less than an hour away from us!
Alex has figured out how to scoot himself along on the little car that was one of those walkers… He also helped jerry get packed for his trip by examining all of Jerry’s little gadgets he was putting in his backpack! Alex’s “mama” has progressed to “MOM” at the top of his lungs! Why the yelling, I am not sure! Alex also learned how to help me clean the house! We had picked up the toys and put away books and I was saying stuff about cleaning and such… well, I was vacuuming, and I turn and see him coming out of his room with a wipe from the drawer and he proceeds to “clean” the glass coffee table! Of course, I could not stop him, all though it made the table look terrible! It was so sweet!
Holy Cow! It snowed like crazy this week!!!!! We probably got a foot and half of snow over the week!!! Terrible terrible! It killed off a lot of flowers! And the birds were going nuts at the bird feeders! Yeah… snow on Easter! Go figure! So we egg hunted inside at a friend’s house with their 2 younger children! Alex wasn’t quite sure what it was all about all he knew was that there was chocolate inside those eggs! This week he also started picking up the sign language from the new Baby Einstein video we got! That’s how I knew he knew there was something good in those eggs… he was excitedly signing eat, and smacking his lips! We went to Fredrick Meijer gardens and met some new friends there that have twin girls about 3 years old, from Uralsk, Kazakhstan, where Alex is from! They live less than an hour away from us!
Alex has figured out how to scoot himself along on the little car that was one of those walkers… He also helped jerry get packed for his trip by examining all of Jerry’s little gadgets he was putting in his backpack! Alex’s “mama” has progressed to “MOM” at the top of his lungs! Why the yelling, I am not sure! Alex also learned how to help me clean the house! We had picked up the toys and put away books and I was saying stuff about cleaning and such… well, I was vacuuming, and I turn and see him coming out of his room with a wipe from the drawer and he proceeds to “clean” the glass coffee table! Of course, I could not stop him, all though it made the table look terrible! It was so sweet!
photos...
April 2007 Week 1
April, Week 1 –
Alex loves chap-stick and smelling things… and carrying around bags. He is scared of the fork-lift noise… but loves the quads! This week Jerry bought a “new to us” quad that he is going to race in the Baja 1000 in November down in Mexico! It is really loud, but Alex was only scared of it for minute! Good thing… because he already has one of his own! A little 50cc one, that Jerry picked up at an auction months ago! We played at one of those wooden fort-like playgrounds this week; he loved it, though it was hard for him to climb things. It was spring break for Bonnie’s kids this week so they came over and spent a day with us playing… Kierra taught Alex how to give a baby a bottle, so he was practicing for Kimi! Daddy also taught Alex how to open a can of mandarin oranges! This week he finally decided to say mama! However most of the time it was a yell, “mama mama mama!”
Our new furniture came this week!!! Oh my! Is it ever beautiful! It is just perfect! That also means that our frames came for all the paintings that we bought in Kazakhstan! They all look amazing! Jerry actually had to cut some of the frames down to fit the paintings, but he did a perfect job and the look so good hanging around the house!
His cry is a terrible looking one!!!
Alex loves chap-stick and smelling things… and carrying around bags. He is scared of the fork-lift noise… but loves the quads! This week Jerry bought a “new to us” quad that he is going to race in the Baja 1000 in November down in Mexico! It is really loud, but Alex was only scared of it for minute! Good thing… because he already has one of his own! A little 50cc one, that Jerry picked up at an auction months ago! We played at one of those wooden fort-like playgrounds this week; he loved it, though it was hard for him to climb things. It was spring break for Bonnie’s kids this week so they came over and spent a day with us playing… Kierra taught Alex how to give a baby a bottle, so he was practicing for Kimi! Daddy also taught Alex how to open a can of mandarin oranges! This week he finally decided to say mama! However most of the time it was a yell, “mama mama mama!”
Our new furniture came this week!!! Oh my! Is it ever beautiful! It is just perfect! That also means that our frames came for all the paintings that we bought in Kazakhstan! They all look amazing! Jerry actually had to cut some of the frames down to fit the paintings, but he did a perfect job and the look so good hanging around the house!
His cry is a terrible looking one!!!
March 2007 Week 4
March, Week 4 –
Alex helped Daddy a lot this week… he put stones in the holes for the bird feeder poles… and sniffed flowers and helped celebrate Daddy’s birthday. We had Aunt T, Lanphears and Bergmanns over for some pizza, cake and ice cream, we watched Jerry’s latest favorite movie… “Dust to Glory” about the Baja 1000.
In March, I took just over 450 photos!
Alex helped Daddy a lot this week… he put stones in the holes for the bird feeder poles… and sniffed flowers and helped celebrate Daddy’s birthday. We had Aunt T, Lanphears and Bergmanns over for some pizza, cake and ice cream, we watched Jerry’s latest favorite movie… “Dust to Glory” about the Baja 1000.
In March, I took just over 450 photos!
March 2007 Week 3
March, Week 3 –
Alex started smacking his lips when giving us kisses! (The cutest thing ever!!) He received his first real haircut, or rather, buzz! He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, he kept turning to try to see the “buzzer.” He looked so cute when he was done!!!! Jerry taught him to poke things like snow and dirt with sticks!
Before the haircut...
Alex started smacking his lips when giving us kisses! (The cutest thing ever!!) He received his first real haircut, or rather, buzz! He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, he kept turning to try to see the “buzzer.” He looked so cute when he was done!!!! Jerry taught him to poke things like snow and dirt with sticks!
Before the haircut...
After...
Birthday party for our friend Paul at Red Robins... St Patrick's Day night...
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