An Easter in pictures

All dressed up to celebrate Jesus' resurrection 

The boys making silly happy faces

A family picture (Thanks Miss Cathy for stopping and taking our picture)

Finding eggs at the community Easter egg hunt

Getting some candy with Granny

Go speed racer!

Going down the slide

Dying Easter eggs with Momma

It says "X-A-V-I-E-R". I promise!

Ending the day with a stick (mop) horse ride with Pookie

Happy Easter everyone!  We hope you all enjoyed this day of celebration as much as we did.  Who's in the tomb? Nobody!!

Sometimes the best things happen by accident

I read about a fun outdoor water activity on this post from another super cool adoptive mom.  (which actually originated at this blog Play at home Mom)  Xavier likes all things water so it seemed like something he would enjoy. We've been having what I would call unseasonably warm days so we put our water gear on and headed out to the backyard to try it.  I had old guttering around the house so this "water slide" game was free, minus the cost of running water for extended periods of time.  I put a tub at the bottom to collect the water and showed Xavier how the toys and boats could go down the slide.  He never seemed to give the slide more than a glance.  He did enjoy splashing in the tub for a few minutes and then headed off to activities of his own choosing.  I called it a worthwhile, yet unsuccessful attempt.  Later this week he actually asked for the water slide.  I thought maybe we were making progress.  At least he remembered what it was called.  I set everything up and he spent even less time exploring.  Curious.  I decided to make some mud shapes/pies just for fun.  Xavier is still picky about anything sticky, wet, or slimy on his hands.  I did not expect him to join me and sure enough he started playing with bubbles.  Inevitably the bubble solution split and he asked for more.  I had to wash my muddy hands with the hose and that's when the interesting accidental thing happened.  Xavier suddenly was very curious about the water running out of the hose and over my hands.  He watched me intently, let me splash us with water, and did his own share of splashing.  Before it was finished he had spent a good 20 maybe 30 minutes holding the water hose while drinking, splashing, and watching the water flow.  Of course there are no pictures of our water exploration because I didn't plan it and it is very hard to hold a camera while being splashed by a two year old.  You'll just have to trust me that it produced many smiles/laughs and gave Daddy's grass a good watering.  I do have a cute video of him blowing bubbles.  Now that I've figured out the link tool maybe I can conquer uploading video.

Fat, calories, and other things you usually avoid

Thanks everyone for reading and responding to my last post.  I know I didn't specifically ask for advice, but I appreciate those of you who gave it.  We really sat down and looked at the food Xavier was eating and decided he actually might not be getting enough calories/fat in his diet.  It was sort of a foreign thought to us.  We have been working on eating low calorie, low fat food as adults who need to lose/maintain weight and Xavier eats what we eat. So, even though he was eating yogurt, it was non-fat and so on and so on.  Yesterday was our weekly trip to the grocery store and J.J. got to accompany us because he is on Spring Break. Hooray!!  We had to really examine the food we bought.  Believe it or not it is somewhat difficult to find higher fat yet still nutritious foods.  I guess I need to research foods with "good" fat, but I didn't do that before grocery shopping.  We just tried to substitute some of our normal low-fat choices with the more normal fat kind.  Does that make any sense?  So I am going to try to give more attention to Xavier's diet and see how that goes.  He ate a whole Nutella to go snack during church last night, so that is a start.  I am still open to more advice in the weight gain vs keeping healthy foods on the plate issue.  I think they can be compatible if we work at it.  I'll keep you updated on our progress.  Happy eating everyone!

Two and a half check-up

Xavier had a well-baby check for 2 1/2.  I'm not sure if that is typical or if we got special treatment because we had a different beginning to our time together as a family.  Either way, I was excited to see how he was progressing.  We don't have any scales in our house and it is difficult to measure a wiggly toddler so I left the measuring to the professionals.  We got in quickly this day. Yeah!  It is usually quite a wait before they even take you back to wait more before you actually see the doctor.  They are not just kidding about the "waiting room".  Xavier enjoyed playing with the new toys in the exam room while we did a little bit of waiting.  He weighed 23 lbs. and they measured him at 35 inches tall.  I think that might have been a tad bit tall, because the paper on the exam table scrunched up under him while they marked his head and heel.  Either way he has really grown in the nine months he has been with us!  Unfortunately he hasn't made as much progress percentage wise.  The doctor wants to see us back in 3 months to see if he is gaining.  If not she will refer us to a pediatrician. (Remember, we live in a small place.  Pediatricians take some travel).  It was not what I wanted to hear.  I really wanted to just dismiss it and I even asked, "Is it possible that he is just going to be small".  But she said we didn't want to ignore this is case it was a sign of something more.  I really don't know how to feel.  One part of me is concerned, but if you want my gut opinion, Xavier is doing remarkably well.  He is growing and changing every day.  He is like a little plant that just needed some love, attention, food, and a new surrounding to grow. That might be an bad analogy because I tend to kill house plants, but you get the idea.  I look back on the approaching months, where we were a year ago, leading up to his adoption and think, "Why did I ever worry about this thing or that thing?".  He is happy, active, talkative, loving, observant, and a great listener.  And he is small.  So for now we will try to keep him eating more bites of healthy things and see where we are in three months.  Right now we are blessed with a little boy only an amazing gracious God could have brought into our lives.  I don't see that changing any time soon.

Negotiation

It is nap time.  Xavier now has a habit of sleeping with Pookie the stuffed bear, a toy Elmo, and a stuffed dog who remains nameless.  That's all fine and good when he has the whole pack-n-play to flop around, but at nap time I still rock him to sleep.  I told him today he could only choose one toy.  Here's how the negotiations went.

Xavier: "Elmo"
Me: "Okay, only one toy today"
Xavier: "One, two, three"
Me: (very impressed by the counting, but not giving in) "You said Elmo first so let's get him"
     We retrieve Elmo who is still sleeping in the pack-n-play
Xavier: "Pookie"
Me: "No, you can only hold one toy today and you are already holding Elmo"
Xavier:....(thinking) "Mama hold Pookie"

I laughed so hard he started laughing with me even though he had no idea what was funny.  He fell asleep just fine with only Elmo.

The stomach bug and other things keeps us busy

J.J. hasn't been feeling 100% since around Christmas.  It seemed like mono from all the symptoms, except his stomach also hurt.  The first trip to the doctor told us just about nothing, except it wasn't the flu.  He hung in there for a few more week and then when things got worse again we decided to try another doctor.  They ran a bunch of lab work and discovered it had been mono all along.  On top of that he has a bacteria in his stomach, the kind that causes ulcers, that was giving him all the abdominal pain.  So he starting taking lots of medicine and was feeling some relief.  Then I caught a stomach bug from who knows where.  I always took building immunity as a perk of teaching small children so I guess now it is a perk of having play dates and exercise time with other moms.  J.J. tried to stay away but managed to catch the stuff anyway.  I'm sure I've lost weight, but I would not recommend this method.  Praise the Lord, Xavier has seemed to miss out on the worst on the symptoms.  He has been sleepy, gassy, and unpredictable in the diaper department, but nothing that matched our second homes in the bathroom.  My mom saved the day by watching him during my initial siege.  Thanks, Mom!  We are praying tomorrow brings more energy and less illness.
We also do other things besides being sick.  We go to lots of basketball games.  The season is actually almost concluded.  I don't know about the post season chances.  Xavier loves to talk about basketball, but he doesn't spend much time watching it.  He spends most of his time running in the "carefully chosen so we will disturb the least amount of people actually watching the game while preventing Mommy from having to say no 1,000 times because it is safer" section of the bleachers with his basketball friends.  Several elementary school girls think he is awesome and enjoy playing with him at all the home games.  We've been getting ready for teen camp this summer.  We get to plan with some great friends, which means fun planning dinners followed by entertainment by our kids.
Mostly though we've just been doing our fun and not so fun daily things.  Xavier's been home for almost 8 months now and I'm excited to see how his 2 1/2 year old check-up goes in a few weeks.  He is growing and changing all the time.  He now sleeps in his pack-in-play every night and no one has to rock him or cajole him into sleep.  He does try to negotiate release most nights, but he really doesn't put up a big fight.  He can reach door knobs and open some doors now.  He loves Elmo and wants to watch the potty video at all opportunities (more on that later).  Whew!  This post is just stretching on and on.  Maybe I'm finally caught up from Christmas and I can do more everyday posts.  Stay tuned for less "As the Stomach Turns" and more "Days of Our Lives".  =)  Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Russian Christmas Eve

We stretched our Christmas celebrating out to include some fun on Russian Christmas Eve, January 6th. Xavier and I made gingerbread cookies.  I noticed gingerbread boards on display in one of the art museums in Russia, so I decided that gingerbread cookies was a good traditional thing.  It really doesn't take much to talk me into gingerbread cookies.  Then we made blini for supper.  Finally Xavier opened a few more small gifts.  I don't know how traditional any of those things were, but we wanted to at least keep the idea of heritage alive.  I did some research on Christmas celebrations in Russian and they seemed to center around the church.  That is fantastic except there is not exactly a Russian Orthodox church anywhere near our little hamlet in Texas.  Maybe another year.  Here's some pictures from our day.

I had this hat and apron from gingerbread man/cookie activities with my Pre-K students.  Xavier actually enjoyed wearing it, but here he looks like, "Really Mom?".