First Dentist visit

Nicholas did very well at the dentist and he received an 'A' for taking such good care of his teeth. The dentist saw one spot that he will check again in 6 months. He did great throughout the entire visit and only had difficulty with 2 of the xray for his back teeth.

What a difference 2 months makes!

Wow, it's 2 months already?! It's amazing how much things change with some love, nutrition and time. To the girls, he is their little brother. To us, his parents, he is our son.

Nicholas is starting to call himself Nicholas sometimes or Nicholas Roma. We are getting used to his new name, too. His English is coming along and I even hear him spouting off some of our letters and sounds (thank you Leap Frog Letter Factory!!). He is really into counting things, constantly pointing things out to me and showing me how he can count. He is very much a boy, but has been playing in the play kitchen and occasionally with dolls (gasp!...lol!). I think it's great he has a variety of things to play with, from trains, to building blocks, to Dora figures. He loves play doh and can play with it for at least 30 minutes at a time. Same thing with some of the building blocks we have. His brain is like a sponge and he is just so eager to learn everything that he has missed out on.

We are seeing more and more of his personality come out. He is a sweet, loving boy with occasional stubborn streaks. Just today he was giving me hugs while he was riding in the shopping cart at the store and saying 'I love you'...an amazingly sweet moment! We have been trying different things for discipline and are finally able to use timeouts at the moment. Most of the time he likes to please us and he is compliant and even says 'okay dokey' when asked to do things, sometimes, he shouts out 'No!' and is stubborn. It is all a learning process as we get to know each other and figure out what will work.

Some of his favorite things:
Being tickled, riding his tricycle, drawing outside with chalk, going to the park, playing soccer, playing with Trio blocks, playing with toy airplanes and helicopters, watching tv (mostly Disney and Dora), riding in the car, going to the gym (Kids Zone while I work out), shopping at Costco (eating their samples).

He says he wants to go to school but he's not quite ready. I'm hoping to get him in after the holidays. He has come so far from when we first met him. I remember him trying to play in the visiting room and he would pound on the electronic toys trying to figure them out. Now he knows how to play with toys and he just built a robot by himself for the first time with the Trio blocks! I am so proud of him. He has also learned to use scissors. He is learning to color and the other day, he traced a ball and colored it in...amazing!

We are so blessed to have him in our family, we are teaching him a lot, but I think he has a lot to teach us, too, about love, acceptance and trust.

Holiday Dilemma

So normally we travel by car several hours away to stay with extended family a few days for the Thanksgiving holiday. The girls love seeing their teenage girl cousins and we enjoy spending time with relatives and doing fun things with the girls. But the girls are used to this and they enjoy all our travels. Now, Nicholas is acclimating very well to our immediate family and to short outings, but we just don't know how he would do on a trip where everything will be different and his routine will be disrupted.

Dad wants to stay at relative's house for 1-2 nights and maybe another relative's house. I've thought about just the girls going with their dad (they are his family) but they don't want to go without me or Nicholas. So here are our options:
A. Forget about it, stay home
B. Go for one day, stay one night at relatives house and come back
C. Go for it, it will be good practice, just high tail it out of there if it is too stressful

Now, I don't know if this is an option, but I think staying in a hotel would be better as there are less things for Nicholas to 'get into'. And if things are stressful, we can take him back to the hotel, and do calming things, like swimming, watching favorite dvds, etc.

Oh and I should add he sleeps pretty well at home in his bed in his own room and we have his night time routine down well. We do still give him an herbal supplement to help him relax for bedtime though and I think he is a light sleeper. I can't even think how we would do sleeping arrangements...

So, I would love to hear some feedback from some other adoptive parents of older children. Please tell me what your experience is or what you think about this.

A field trip with a friend

We've been having playdates with my friend and her son, L, a couple of times a month. Last week, we took a trip to watch trains come through an area which has been named as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Unfortunately, no trains came through. At least the boys had some snacks in the car while we waited the 20-30 minutes.




After this we headed to the town with the apple orchards and headed to an orchard for a picnic and apple picking. We found one that still had apples, unfortunately, this orchard didn't do 'u-pick'. I guess the worker told the owner and the owner let the boys pick a couple of apples from a tree near their shed. They also had lots of samples of the different apples and different ciders. They had some small apples, I think they were Pink Lady. Although they were green and red, they reminded me a bit of the apples growing in the courtyard of the babyhouse. Nicholas loved grabbing these and eating these, they are a great size for snacks.

On the way back to town, we ended up at a popular farm that has a farmstand and small petting zoo. We never made it to the petting zoo as the boys just loved playing in the bucket of corn (kind of like a sandbox, only with corn).

Halloween pictures

We ended up taking Nicholas just to our neighbors in our cul-de-sac. At first we thought he would be Tigger as he put on the Tigger costume I found and bounced around like Tigger. I put out 3 costumes, Buzz Lightyear, Tigger and the train hat and he chose to be a train engineer. The funny thing is, then next couple of nights before bed, he asked 'trick or treating?' and was so sad when I told him 'no' and that Halloween was only once a year. He really got the hang of trick or treating and loved getting the candy. We dropped him off with Daddy, and I took the girls with friends for trick or treating.

He really enjoyed seeing all the decorations. At the gym where I work out, they had some fantastic Halloween display. He would always point out in wonder at all the spiders and bats. I think he was surprised when all the decorations disappeared.

Happy 5th Birthday Claire Bear!

We had a big bash for Claire's 5th birthday. It was a lot of fun and I didn't have to do too much work for it. Everyone seemed to have a great time at the place we had her party. She is growing up so fast!

Some firsts for Nicholas

In the past couple of weeks I have been taking Nicholas 'out' more since I was stir crazy when the girls were sick. We have been to Costco (he LOVED all the samples), the gym childcare (with Claire), big grocery stores, our new Target and he does really great. We did take him to church where he did okay, but Sunday School was hard he didn't want to leave the classroom when it was time to go out and play. I was with him the entire time during Sunday School.

Claire

We didn't have to worry much about Claire over the summer, but I think she just wasn't old enough to understand what was going on in our family. More recently we have had more challenges, although I do have to confess I have found Claire to be more of a challenge to parent in general.

Nicholas and Claire are 12 months apart in age but will be 2 years apart in school as long as we are able to 'hold back' Nicholas 1 year from Kindergarten. Many times, they get along well, usually it is to 'gang' up on us! Many times, they do not get along well and fight over wanting to play with the same toys (like building toys). It's actually been helpful though in facilitating lessons in sharing and taking turns with toys. She has been helpful in helping me to teach Nicholas how to play a game. So far those games include Elefun and Dora Bingo.

Claire started Kindergarten this year and will be turning 5 on October 24th. We are planning a big party for her at a place with animals, pony rides, a bounce house and a mini train. I felt it would be better for Nicholas not to have a party at our house so soon. She still loves singing and she continues to take a ballet class after school like her sister. She talks a lot and asks tons of questions...I think it's payback, I remember asking lots of questions when I was young.

She loves Kindergarten and is doing well. She is a good reader and learning more math. She is doing well socially, I was so amazed the first week of school when she came home talking about all her new friends. She had a much harder time in preschool socially.

About a week after we were home, Claire flat out told me she didn't want Nicholas in our family because he was too crazy and didn't speak English. I have seen, however, how her love has grown for Nicholas and she loves to give him hugs and kisses at night. We definitely have some sibling rivalry to contend with, but we had that anyway. I suppose that now she is the 'middle child', she is trying to find her place in the family.

In November, Claire will be having surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids. I didn't realize how HUGE they were until I looked in her mouth this summer. She snores horribly and I think it affects her sleep. It's a little scary, but I'm looking forward to a more restful Claire. We are proud of Claire and what a good big sister she has been, we are proud of Olivia, too, of course.

Olivia

I've realized I've focused a lot recently on Nicholas...of course, he is the newest member of our family. I feel like I should tell you more about our other 2 and how they are adjusting. While we did have some challenges with Olivia this summer during our trips to Kazakhstan, she is adjusting very well, she is a wonderful big sister! She is patient and loving with her brother. I was reminded this the other night when she hugged him goodnight and told him 'I love you so much!'

She is 7 years old and in 2nd grade. She was actually chosen to be in a 1st/2nd combo class this year...don't ask, it's a California thing! So far, it seems to be a wonderful class for her this year in the midst of all the changes in our family. Her teacher is wonderful and seems to be very nurturing towards all the students. Academically she is making mostly A's on her tests and she has been reading a ton of books. She proudly told me the other day that she read the most AR books of anyone in her class!

Although most of her friends are in different classes, she continues to be a social butterfly. I just wish she could have more play dates with her friends, but like everyone else, we attempt to juggle schoolwork for 2 kids, after school activities, church activities, housework, etc.

An exciting event in her life is the holiday Nutcracker performed with the local symphony. She auditioned and was chosen again to be one of the coveted bonbons, there are only 4 per cast. She will perform in the Saturday evening show and Sunday afternoon show in mid-December. The Nutcracker is the whole reason behind her taking ballet classes. She was 4 1/2 the first time I took her and she decided she wanted to be in the Nutcracker. I told her she would have to take ballet classes and practice. As of yet, she doesn't have the flexibility of a ballet dancer, but she has the heart of one and will do her best.

Most of the time Olivia and Nicholas get along very well, in fact, Olivia will give in to him more often than not and she does enjoy trying to teach him new words.