A long way to go....but how far he's come...

So, LM is overall doing great, I think – sure, do we have more attachment work to do? Absolutely. Is he still delayed in his skills? Absolutely for speech and emotion, but actually I think he may have caught up in fine and gross motor! His personality well, he is just hilarious….He wakes up happy, loves to tease us and then laugh when we do, and is trying to repeat everything - he now is able to point to more than 10 body parts, when we look at picture books each night he can identify more and more things, and he is trying to repeat every sound we make...

Talking talking talking... this kid is making so much noise it is just stunning!! Examples --when he sees a dog/picture of a dog OR we say "what does a dog do", he woofs; same for cat (modified meow) and lion (roar) and for alligator (snap snap…ok, so it sounds like “nak nak” but we know what he is saying plus he does this little hand motion!).... he has about 15 appropriate words that he is verbalizing when we cue him, and uses about 5 words and 5 power signs without any cueing at all.... probably his funniest word is "ouch" (with a really long southern drawl type “ooowwww- ah- ch”...) he thinks it i sounds funny and starts laughing when he says it... And, of course, my personal favorites: "Hiya Papa" and "i wo wo" (trying to imitate us saying "I love you")...

While it may seem we are all over the place, honestly, I have to thank so many friends and family for their patience – we know there are a lot of people who want to meet him and we really do want to see you, too.... Remember above where I said we have a lot to work on? We are still working on him not being completely out of control boy in group setting and, oh, if you are more than 1/2 hour away, car rides have become a bit of a challenge (if he's going to be couped up, he wants all your attention and screams, cries, kicks when he gets to that point -- with 1 driver as the only adult in the car, it can make for a very unpleasant ride with 2 unhappy riders at the other end!)… The combo has left me to really consider when we plan something and slowly increasing the "ante" in terms of social skills requirements/etc...and, many of you may be reading this and thinking “yea, thanks for canceling again” – even tho the blog may portray the jet setting family we someday hope to be, the honest answer is that we’ve been keeping things very mellow – and very routine – we literally go to 4 places regularly– my mom's, the barn, a local playground that is always empty, and story time.... outside of that, we TRY one time/week to have a playdate with someone at the zoo or at a house or new playground... and many weeks we’ve had to cancel and for that we are so sorry! THANKS so much for your understanding that we are being careful how we plan so that we can respect his "slow opening of the butterfly cocoon" phase.... This week we did manage to get out to the zoo with ML and her mom, Sherri! It was really great to see them and Sherri has been a wonderful friend to us, and we are very grateful for her in our lives! ML is just an amazing little spirit who has just been a picture of sunshine & resilience since she was adopted just shy of 1 years old!! I love seeing her grow up!!

LM and his buddy ML at the local zoo!

Sleeping...sleeping MUCH better... finally - we can finally put him down and after about 10 minutes leave the room and he will say bye bye to us - when we say "goodnight we love you", he makes this "uh ooo" sound back, waves, and is asleep within moments (i peek in at him to make sure)... 3 months later and this has FINALLY happened.. so, those of you waiting for referrals or to go pick up your children – sleep now!! LOL….now, if only mama could learn to put herself to sleep when he goes to sleep ... ha ha ha ha!

Eating eating yum yum....He now eats anything we put in front of him (which is still “mom the food nazi” as much as possible --- all natural, no preservative foods, home cooked meats vs. deli meats, fresh veggies, fresh fruits, no juice, fish at least one time per week, etc)…. Good sleep, good nutrition, good fresh air as much as possible … poor kid... entertainingly, he loves his morning vitamin and will yell out and point at the cabinet where I keep them if i do not give him one while heating up his morning "super porridge" (yes, we give him homemade porridge of ground and cooked long grain brown rice and lentils along with yogurt.. ) no worries, I haven't ventured out into full Martha Stewart mode by getting into making my own yogurt.. yet.. we'll see what i have time for in coming months as the store bought is so high in sugar it is driving me crazy but i haven't had time to figure out how to make yogurt yet... LM also enjoys his daily fish oil in applesauce and will literally take the fish oil bottle out of the refrigerator after his nap to "help" make his special snack... he is still taking 2 -3 bottles/day and I swear by regressing kids now – He went back to the bottle starting the day we left Kirov, on the plane, loaded with juice. One of the smartest early mom moves I made back in “those days”…. But, no worries -- there are times when I just don't have it together and don't have healthy food in the house -- this week, he had several snacks that were preparation for college -- Kiddie Marshmallow stuffing... (see photo!)...During his bottles, he lays there, stares at us, plays with our hands and faces, and really focuses on us for those times…..it's really sweet and quiet time I look forward to each day...

Marshmallow, I mean cracker with cream cheese... Shoveling..
with some "candy" (raisins) as a special treat....

Emotional Development...little heart, little mind, little growing soul...It is fascinating to watch and he is coming along--- Essentially we adopted a mobile newborn, and he is doing fantastic given everything we've asked of him in 3 very short months!! We found out this week that in small gatherings he is either indiscriminately friendly or more like a 12 month old socially - i am still on the fence about which..and really trying not to over think it, give it more time, and try again at some point.... given his language and his other emotional skills are on par with a 12ish month old in terms of relating to us, and that we have been keeping social events of non-family very minimal to none the last few months, i am not sure yet how i want to label what he did.. .. he went from person to person and literally pulled out his "dominic the circus performer" (from Patty Cogen's book) acts to gain attention from anyone who wasn't already giving it to him... he did check in a few times early in the day, but as the day progressed, if we didn't reign him in, he could've entertained the crowd without a glimpse to mom and dad.... and, i can say he was incredibly dysregulated driving home. worse than i've seen him since the first few weeks home in the states... i mean, you'd think on the way home from a party like that on minimal nap on the way up, that he's sleep, right?? come on, I mean, what 20 month old is WIDE AWAKE for 2 ½ hours of a 3 hour drive that is all at night, and started right at his bedtime?? hm... that or it was the pretzels and crackers he ate - the kid had more "white carbs" than he'd had since we'd gotten him. LOL...

The good news is that we went, and we got to hang out with family and that it did give him a new little challenge.... the other kiddo his age got pushed around quite a bit but by the end he was "gentle" with her, so that was good, and he got to horse around with his great uncles!! :)"Hanging up on the wall with Uncle Pat"

.........A family tradition --Uncle Pat and Uncle Jerry use to do this ll the time when my brother and I were kids.... so, of course we thought of Uncle Jer and knew he was watching in spirit and laughing as LM has his first "hanging".... which, by the way, he thought was pretty funny!

Getting Jiggy with It with Uncle Tom

Uncle Tom and Aunt Norine are awesome people who themselves adopted many moons ago... They have been really supportive and caring during our ride to get LM and have enjoyed with the rest of us his antics!! UT hadn't met LM yet, so it was fun to see them play together -- Clearly they liked each other a lot :) You will always note that with UT and AN if you ever see photos on this blog, they will always be cute, fun and non-embarrassing... My older brother and I spent a decent amount of time with them as kids.... and let's just say there are incriminating photos we'd never want to get out! LOL...

My Matching Men Goofing Off together (not an atypical scenario)

It was a really fun day (albeit by the end of the drive we needed to remind ourselves of that! LOL)... I am especially thankful to Vicky, who found some of the "family children's silver"... it has my last name initial on it, and is beautiful... I teared up when she gave it to me as a gift to LM, and she explained she'd talked to all the sibs (my dad is 1 of 6) -- thank you all for sharing this special piece of Nana and Grandad with us... we are grateful.. we know they were our angels supporting our journey, felt their presence in Russia, and now it is so great to have a part of their lives, and raising all of you, in our homes... We are so appreciative...

"It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere" and Home 13, yes 13 weeks!!

Yes, we may have a lot to work on still, but who doesn't??
 And man, has this kid come so far!!
And continues to be one adorable boy..
even in his "mafia" look (thanks Kristy!LOL)