Stuck in NYC

Came to New York for a client meeting yesterday, but they had bad weather and the airport backed up. I had to stay an extra night but I hope to get home today. I am missing my boys! I got to go see Rockefeller Center after my meeting. I really need to come back here one day as a tourist!

Caching

We are staying busy, trying to get settled into a routine with school. So far, second grade is going great. (fingers crossed!) This morning when I dropped Daniel off at school he said, 'I don't think I am going to have a good day.' 'Why not?', asks mom. 'I just don't feel like it' he said. Whoa! Let's hope he was just teasing me!

Last weekend we did some geocaching. We wanted to get out and enjoy the nice weather. We found ourselves at the location of the very first geocache Daniel ever found in America. So of course, I had to snap a photo. We have found many caches with him in the last 2 years!

Where do babies come from?

The beginning of Second grade is going great so far. (Thank you Lord!) They have to do timed math for homework. Which means, they have a sheet of math problems and they have to complete as many as they can in one minute and 15 seconds. What a challenge for a perfectionist!! We're working through it. But, his behavior at school has been acceptable so far and we're just thrilled. They had a party in the school library last Friday and got to dress up like a character from a book they read over the summer. Check out our cowboy. Of course, he can't take a toy gun to school so Pop made him a cool lasso...



And he also lost his BIG front tooth!! This is his fourth tooth to come out and he looks so cute with with the gap in the front. When I was in second grade I was missing both of my front teeth. Daniel might be there soon:

I have to tell you about a conversation we had on our vacation. I got an email that a girl I work with who was pregnant when I left lost her baby. What a sad time. Daniel overheard me sharing this with Jason. He said, 'How did she lose her baby?' Whew! I always try to answer his questions truthfully and not shield him from the sad parts of life, but still in an appropriate way. So I said, 'You know that babies grow in mommies tummies.' (we had a good friend he calls Ms Bunny who had a baby and we talked about how she had a baby in her tummy) 'Well, this lady mom works with - her baby got sick and died. So she won't be able to be born.'




Daniel says, 'I don't get it mom. How does the baby get in the mom's tummy?' (Whoa! Really?) I tell him, 'Well, that's how God designed it. The baby starts out as a little speck in the mommies tummy and then it grows and grows and when it's big enough to be born, it comes out of the mommies tummy and is born. And that's his birthday!' (let's see if that satisfies him)

He looks across the table at me with that sweet face and says, 'Did I grow in your tummy Mom?'

Do you ever wish you had a pause button? You could push it and pause everything, the whole world, while you come up with the right response. I totally need that pause button! I was flabbergasted. We do talk about when he lived in Ukraine 'with all those kids'. He remembers it. He knows he is from Ukraine. What I have not done a good job with, is to talk about his birth mother. I don't have the words. I don't know what to say to make him understand when I don't understand myself. Avoiding it hasn't been the best choice. He was almost five years old when we got him so I assume he remembers and knows he didn't start out with us. But it's our job to help him connect all these dots. So, without the benefit of a pause button - I plunged right in...

'No, you didn't grow in mom's tummy.', I said. 'You grew in another ladies tummy in Ukraine. You were born and she couldn't take care of you so she took you to the place with all the kids where they could take good care of you until Mom and Pop could come get you. And now you're OUR little boy who we love sooooo much!' He got a big smile on his face and said, 'OK.' And then we moved on to the next topic. No more questions, for now. Huh. It's just such a wide arc of emotions and it happens so quickly! I need to talk with him about it more and just make sure that he knows he can ask whatever questions he has and will get honest answers. I think he knew the answer to that question was No, but he didn't really know the follow up information. I did the best I could. I will be prepared next time!

Snorkeling

Did I mention that we went snorkeling in Cancun? Not off the beach, but actually in open water! We practiced in the pool with Daniel the day before, so he could adjust to the feeling of breathing through that tube. He actually did really great and I was so proud of him. He is pretty easy going and willing to try just about anything (food or experiences!). I remember the first time I snorkeled on our honeymoon and I was totally freaked out by it all. Getting used to the breathing is totally weird!

He was excited about seeing the fish. He had a death grip on my hand but we were floating around looking at fish. Then he adjusted his mask, got salt water in his eyes and that was all she wrote. He wanted to get back in the boat. I didn't push him. I was so proud that he was willing to do it - even if it only lasted 10 minutes.

Soccer

The soccer season has finally started!! We've been waiting all summer and Daniel is really looking forward to playing. I think this may turn out to be his favorite sport! (and basketball of course) Check out his great Barcelona soccer jersey pop got him...

Second Grade!!

I can't believe it, but our little boy is growing up so fast and today was the first day of second grade. Oh my! When did he get so big? I am so proud and sad and amazed and nervous all at the same time. On the way to school this morning I was telling him how proud I am of him, how much he has accomplished in 2 years and how big he is! Then, we were walking in to school and he was holding my hand (love it!) and he says to me, 'look Mom, it's a penguin and an elephant!' 'Where? What?' 'There!', he says. 'That puddle looks like a penguin and that one looks like an elephant.' It was so sweet and reminded me, OK, maybe not so big. Still my sweet little boy....

New bed!!!!

The missing screw came in right before we left and pop worked really hard to get Daniel's new bed together. Once he got up there - it looks really high. Yikes! We have pillows piled all around the outer edge and hoped that he wouldn't roll out. It's a double, so he has lots of room up there. The first night he slept in it was the night before we left for Mexico AND he lost a tooth (can the tooth fairy reach that high? Sure mom, she'll just fly up here!) AND it was the first night in the new bed. Whoa! He probably didn't get any sleep from all the excitement! (and mom is excited about our NEW window darkening curtains from Pottery Barn. Maybe now we can sleep in on Saturday?)

Hola!

Sorry for the long pause, but Daniel got his first stamp in his shiny new passport and we just got back from a lovely, relaxing week in Cancun Mexico. It was a great vacation. We spent loads of time together, just the 3 of us and had a lazy week playing around in the sun.

Going down the water slide:

Daniel got to practice his 3rd language - Spanish! He got really good at saying Hola! and Gracias!

Enjoying the Mariacchi band:


















Contemplating this great life:

Cincinnati Reds Baseball game

Daniel had a good time at the game AND it was a winner!! With a water bottle and a fan - we were still HOT HOT HOT!

Babushka and Dadushka!

We went up to the Cincinnati area to visit Jason's Aunt and Uncle this weekend. Daniel calls them Babushka and Dadushka. We had a great time visiting with you guys - thanks for having us! The visit was just too short!

Puzzling

New bedroom

Who remembers the great paint debate right before we adopted Daniel? Jason wanted to paint the 'kids' room before we left for Ukraine and I wanted to wait until we knew what we were getting and could really decorate the room for the specific kid. Well, wisdom prevailed and 2 weeks before we left we painted Daniel's room a boring bland taupe color.



So now, here I am 2 years later - finally getting around to doing Daniel's room. It took me awhile to come up with an idea, then to gather the bedding, details, etc. And now we are in the execution phase of the great bedroom re-do. I didn't want to do something too childish since Daniel is a big 7 years old now and getting bigger and bigger by the moment. So I decided on an astronaut / outer space theme. First step, paint the ceiling dark blue - like the night sky:


This turned out way brighter blue than I expected. I said to Jason, 'I think we accidentally painted Daneil's room U of K blue! YIKES!' (of course - this is with the flash on my camera, but still - Geesh!)






And then Daniel decided he wanted bunk beds. Well, he didn't need 2 beds so we got him a cool loft bed from Ikea. It is a full size bed on top and empty underneath for a desk or storage or play area or whatever. This weekend it was time to put the bed together. What a big job! The good news is - I am married to an Engineer. I can just leave all this to him. He can design and fix an electrical problem on an Explorer - surely he can put together this little boy bed.




We broke it up into 2 building sessions. It was a family affair - we all pitched in. Here is brave Pop, letting Daniel use the mallet:








Daniel was so excited. An hour into day 2 of the bed build and we discovered a screw is missing. It's just one screw. One tiny (big headed) screw. But it's a weird shape and has a purpose. So, I called Ikea and in 9 - 14 days we will be able to finish putting up the bed. UGH!!!









And then for the ceiling - my plan is glow in the dark stars. But after some reading on the internet, I guess those stars lose their glowy stuff after awhile. The sticky stuff wears off. It didn't sound very good. But I found some glow in the dark paint. And - it comes with stencils for the constellations. How great is that? Cool and Educational!! And they send a CD rom that explains how to make your own ceiling mural. Exciting and a bit intimidating. Will I be able to pull this off? Hmmmm...only one way to find out. More to follow...





And then on Sunday for a nice treat - Jason decided Daniel is finally grown up enough to inherit his army men that he played with as a little boy. Mom went shopping. Pop and Daniel had a big time playing, scheming, setting up, destroying, plotting, sorting and battling with the army men. Too cute:

Bless you!

We're sitting at dinner last night and Daniel sneezed into his hand. Then he says, 'Mom, I need to go wash my hands because I Bless You'd into my hand.'

We're still filling in our English!

:)

Weekend visit

Daniel and I went with my mom and dad over the holiday weekend to visit relatives in Northern Ohio. We didn't make it last year, so it was great to get up there and see everyone. Daniel had a great time......

Riding the Four Wheeler:

Catching Lightning bugs:

Visiting family:

And of course, trying not to catch anything on fire with our Way Cool sparklers!

Riding without training wheels

Happy Fourth of July!

Camping Trip!!!

For those of you that know me, you know that camping would not be my first choice (or 2nd or 3rd) of a great time. But, now that I am the mom of a boy I told Jason I thought we should go camping and create some of those fun memories because while I don't think it's great Daniel would probably LOVE it!



So, we bought a tent, loaded up the car with everything essential I could think of and off we went to the lake for the weekend. Our friends from Indianapolis met us there with their boat and camper and we had a big weekend. We spent the night in our brand new tent on Friday. None of us got much sleep, I think from the excitement and strangeness of it all. Daniel was so excited!!! Then on Saturday we had a fun day on the lake, boating and riding the tube then we came back and roasted hot dogs, marshmellows and made s'mores and had great fun telling stories around the campfire. This is exactly what I had hoped for - what a great camping trip! Saturday night we were beat and knew we would sleep really good on our 2nd tent night.














Well, at 2:30am we started hearing thunder and at 3:00am the storm rolled in. So I thought, 'OK - this isn't terrible - it will rain for awhile and then tomorrow the sun will come out and dry everything off.' Yeah, right. What actually happened was it POURED down rain for five solid hours. I mean it was a total monsoon! Just when I thought it couldn't possibly rain any harder, it did. It was crazy! At first, it wasn't bad but after a few hours I started feeling drops on my face. Uh oh! We pulled our air mattress more toward the middle of the tent and pulled the blanket up over our heads. Daniel slept through the beginning, but then he woke up and said, 'Mom, we need to go home!' We couldn't pack up in the rain so we just hunkered down and toughed it out.


(on a side note - often when Daniel complains about something I will tell him, 'That's part of the fun!' Like this - 'That's part of the fun of eating a taco - a lot of it will drop out of the end.' OR 'That's part of the fun of splashing in puddles, you will get your feet wet.' OR 'That's part of the fun of eating s'mores, your fingers will be sticky.' So we are lying there trying to survive the monsoon and Daniel says to me, 'Mom - This is NOT part of the fun!' How right he was!)






The next morning, it was still raining. So we packed up all of our wet sleeping bags, duffel bags and sopping wet tent and headed home. We pitched the tent in our backyard to let it dry out before packing it away for our next adventure. When will that be? Hmmmm.....it might take me awhile to forget about this one and be willing to do it again. It was the perfect camping trip, right up until that crazy storm!

King Daniel

They were learning about Queen Esther this week at summer camp, so they were talking about kings and queens. When I picked Daniel up yesterday he had a crown and this cool armor.

It was so fun to see how excited he was by a box covered in reynolds wrap! He kept putting it on and taking it off to show everyone. What a sweet thing. This may seem too juvenile for him, but he didn't go to preschool and get to do all this fun stuff when he was 3 or 4, so it's still new and interesting to him.

So, once they had all of these kings and queens all decked out - they had a tea party! Daniel told me he was worried that the kings would have to pick a queen and they would have to stay together for the whole party. Yuck! But they didn't have to do that. Whew!