I am back

     Silly me thought being off from school would have given me more time to blog, WRONG, not with 2 very busy boys.  We are having a GREAT summer and have been on the move, my dad calls us Gypsies!! It is hard to believe Jake has been home for 4 almost 5 months it seems like he has always been with us.

     I will a short outline of our summer then the pictures.  Jake understands EVERYTHING everyone says and his speech is minimal but he goes to speech therapy and EI school once a week so I am sure he will talking a lot more soon.  He does say Mom, Bubha ( that is what he calls Mattie) Auntie Ooo (Sue), Boat and the rest is sign language.  He loves the beach, pool, seeing trucks, boats and any thing else that moves.  At the beach he loves to play in the sand, eat the sand and swim.  Mattie's favorite thing to say at the beach is "Mom Jake is making friends again", he likes to play with all the kids at the beach.

     He is still a little peanut only 27 pounds and 12 month clothes but he eats plenty but he is always on the MOVE, no TV watching for him.  The Dr. says he is fine and keep feeding him high calorie food and he will gain so we have been eating lots of ice cream so if he is not gaining weight I know I am YIKES.  

     OK well my 2 sweet boys are wrestling upssairs so I will end here but I will add photos.  I will write more when I get some free time?!?!?!

     Sorry if the pictures are side ways I do not know how to fix them??

Home 2 months tomorrow!!!

Hello,  

     Well Jake has been home 2 months tomorrow and I thought I would post tonight since it is MHS's prom tomorrow and I am chaperoning!!  Jake is doing great!!  It is amazing how much he understands and he is starting to say more words.  He loves being outside and as you can tell by one of the pictures he LOVES water wait till I open my pool.  He started swimming lessons and he loves it!!  The two boys get along like your typical BROTHERS!!!  Mattie loves the show I Carley so as you can see in one of the pictures Mattie likes to make spaghetti tacos for Jake.  This week daycare/babysitting has been a little challenging so Jake came to school with me for the day.  I work at a school with physically disabled kids and they are all in wheelchairs.  Jake was so well behaved and loved being with my kids and helping them and they loved having him in class.  That is him with one of my students and she just loved him.

     Things I have learned over the past 2 months about Jake is that he LOVES animals, music, playing in dirt, snacks, books, and being with people.  He is very independent,  stuburn, and he gives kisses to everyone!!  He is a little peanut wearing 12month shorts and `18 month pants for the length and he loves his sneakers.  Completely toilet trained and loves to wash his hands which is wonderful!!!!  

     Mattie and I just love having him home and can not imagine our family without our little peanut!!!!  OH and Mattie said to me the other day when is my SISTER coming home, I had to tell him I think it is just going to be me and you boys and he said oh no I need a sister.   YIKES the thought of all the paper work and the waiting I think he will have to settle for a puppy in a couple of years!!!

A year ago!!

     I can not believe it was a year ago today that I found out Mattie was going to have a younger brother and I was going to be a mom to another son!!  Yes it was 1 year ago I arrived in Ekat Russia to receive my referral for my 2nd child!!  I remember getting my referral, seeing Jakes picture and heading for his baby home #5.  I was so excited and nervous but lucky for me my representative Svtlana was great and every thing went great!!  I was able to meet Jake and get information about him from the head doctor.  I sent the information to an Dr in RI to see what he thought about Jake's medical information but to tell you the truth no matter what the Dr told me Jake was my son and I was going to say yes and sign the papers.  Luckly the Dr. emailed me back saying everything looked fine so it made it easier to except the referal.  

     Now Jake has been home with us for a little over a month and like Mattie says it is like he has always been here.  Mattie has been the best big brother ever, he truely loves his brother.  Jake has had a few behavior issues with Mattie and Mattie has been so grown up about it and I am so proud of him.  

     What is the most amazing thing about Jake is that he understands every thing that is said to him in ENGLISH!!  Yes home for one month and he understands us it is amazing.  I still can not get over how little he is one of his many nick names is Peanut!!  He wears 18 month pants and 12 month shorts and he is 2 and a half.  He does have a good appetite but he is also very active.  I like to call him Forest Gump because he LOVES to run.  

     I know how lucky I am to have my son home from Russia and I hope everything works out with future russian adoptions because I have made so many friends during this process still in the process of bringing hoem their children.  

2 weeks together

     WOW I can not believe it Jake has been with me for only 2 weeks and with Mattie for a week and a half it seems like he has been with us forever!!  Both boys are adjusting so much better then I could have ever imagined.  Mattie is a loving, proud, and very helpful big brother.  He only cries when his brother has to nap and he can not play with him.  I told Mattie to nap also he chooses to watch Sponge Bob instead of napping.  Jake is doing fantastic!!  The amount of things he understands is incredible when I tell him or ask him to do something.  After my 3 visits to Russia  could not understand any thing in Russian and here is a 2 year old understanding English after 2 weeks.

     Ok what does Jake like to do??  He LOVES music, food (especially the snack draw), water,giving kisses and of course his big brother.  OK he is potty trained and goes to the bathroom does what he needs to do then lets me know when he is done.  I think he goes to the bathroom so much because he LOVES to wash his hands!! Has become attached to his coat and sneakers so I do not know what I am going to do when it warms up this weekend not to have him wear his winter coat.  He gets very excited when Auntie Sue comes over and when Grandpa comes to visit.  And due to my basement flooding again Grandpa has been over alot!!

     He started trying to  climb out of the port a crib so he is sleeping in a big boy bed with a side rail of course.  Now if Mattie would stay in his bed then I will have my own room.  

     Unfortunately I need to go back to work on Monday so Jake will be going to Day Care next door on Monday.  He is going to go over tomorrow for a short trial period.  Lucky for me  April school vacation is in two weeks so I will have a week off then.  And if Jake is not adjusting well to day care well then I will take more time off.  

     Happy Easter to all my blogger friends!!

     

Brothers First meeting!!!!!

     Well we are home and things are going great!!  I thought I would post some pictures of the brothers meeting for the first time.  It was definately LOVE at first sight.  After a day of traveling we were not looking pretty but Jake was a trooper and did great on the 10 hour plane ride, then running across JFK airport to get on our connector to Boston.  We called Mattie from New York and he said to me am I going to be introduced to my brother tonight!!  Yes you are we are on our way home.  It was so sweet seeing Mattie come running to me and Jake he was SOOOOOO excited.  Jake was tired but he did great.  

     SInce we have been home they have been getting along great Mattie takes being a big brother very seriously and does not let his brother out of his sight.  WHen Jake needs to nap Mattie cries and just wants Jake to stay up and play.  WHile Jake is napping Mattie will lie in my bed and watch tv till his brother wakes up.  Yesterday when we took Mattie to school Jake took his coat off and put it in Mattie's locker it was so cute.  Mattie did fine going to school knowing Jake would be home with me. 

     Enjoy the pictures and I will post pictures of our last snowy day in Moscow when I get another free moment.  

Will we be home Saturday???

     Little bit of a scare today found out my CSI fingerprints expired on January 14th and well WHFC told me they expired in April so there was a problem at the Embassy for me.  So Mike picked us up and we were off so I could get finger printed here in Russia now I have done it all when it comes to fingerprints.  So a little nerve racking when I am told we might not be going home till maybe tuesday or Wednesday.  How would I explain this one to Mattie.  Well after a couple of nervous hours waiting the American embassy in Russia calls me at my hotel to tell me they could use the expired ones so we should be all set with getting Jakes VISA tomorrow.  

     So to celebrate after Jake s3 hour nap we headed off in a taxi with the new carriage since he likes to RUN and we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Moscow.  He loved it dancing to the music eating french fries it does not get much better then that.  We did a little shopping and then tried to get back to the hotel by taking the Metro which was an experience with a 2 year old and a carriage but people were helpful. Well we got so far and I got a little confused and it was getting late so we took a cab the rest of the way.  What an adventure Moscow is MUCH bigger then Ekat and less muddy!

     So after our busy day Jake is sleeping and I should be to.  So off to the embassy at 1 tomorrow then to Red square for pictures and a little more shopping.  Hope things go smooth at the embassy I can not take any more surprises.  How could WHFC be so OFF with my finger prints???????  

     Pcture of us leaving the baby house #5 and Jake waiting for his first plane ride!!  Enjoy

Moscow here we come!

    Well we made it to Moscow last night.  Jake is doing great, he is so happy and loving the outside world.  He finds everything funny and loves to RUN and sing all the time.  I picked him up at 6 pm Wed night and got him dressed in this St Patty day shirt.  Ok I left a bag of clothes in the directors office last week because she said it would be fine??  Well where did the 3 or 4 outfits go WHO Knows??  Lucky for us they found the coat I left and I had shirts for him but no pants why would I bring some in I just left 4 pairs last week.  Well they could not be found and said the kids were probably wearing them whick I hope is true but I mostly see tights and shorts on them??  So I had to use a pair of pants from the baby home which was fine because enow he has something from his baby home like Mattie.  And I must confess before I knew the pants were missing I put the tank top he had on in my bag I can not have baby home cloths for one son and not the other.

     So off to the airport.  He was great in the car.  Some how Svtlana got lost but we made it on time , just part of the adventure.  When we were waiting I went to get a diet coke and before I could stop him he had opened a bag of MM's that is my independent boy.

     Still everything was going smooth and fun then it was take off time and he looked at me and then you guessed threw up and laughing about it.  So I cleaned up the banana and apple juice that did not sit well and on to outfit number 2 which were his PJs.  He was happy the whole flight eating yes eating bread and cheese and the stewardess loved him so she kept coming to visit him.  Then he was running up and down the aisle and oh yes just screaming "um pa" as loud as he could and laughing.  SO there was no sleeping on our 10 pm flight!!  And if anyone knows what Um Pa means in Russian can you let me know.  TO me he sounds a little Greek??  

     SO the driver Mike picked us up with all our bags and Jake in his PJS and off to the Raddison.  A brand new hotel with WHITE comforters I do not think they will be inviting adoptive parents back after we leave.  He finally fell a sleep around 2AM in the bed with me because he wanted NO part of the crib!!!!!!