All posts by Molly

Everyday Life

A Very Busy Week

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We’ve had a busy last week. Ilya and Lena met all their cousins for the first time, as well as two of their aunts and their uncle. Their cousins are 11, 8, 5, 3 and 6mo. They stayed with us for a few days. I wasn’t sure how it would go… I figured they’d all have fun together, but I anticipated some conflict. Nope, not at all. They all got along wonderfully. My sister’s older kids were great about helping my two. There was wrestling and rough housing and then there was hand holding and stories. Ilya and Lena really loved meeting their baby cousin and would often run up to him and give him kisses or a big hug.

It was a week for a lot of firsts… we went to Cedar Cove Feline Sanctuary… a really neat place in Louisburg, Kansas. They have tigers, lions, wolves and other animals. We also went to Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead… if you are in Kansas City with kids, GO THERE. It is free Monday-Thursday, and only $2/person on the weekend. They do have other activities which you must pay for, but it is all very reasonably priced. My kids rode on toy tractors, fed baby goats, tried out fishing, saw all kids of animals and spent a ton of time on a very nice playground. Everyone, grown-ups and all ages of children really enjoyed Deanna Rose. We spent 5 hours there and easily could have stayed longer if it wasn’t closing for the day!

We also had some other adventures during the week, like trips to the dog park or up onto the University of Kansas campus. Our other very exciting adventure was our first trip to the pool! We have a couple of very nice public pools here in Lawrence. One which is indoor and one which is outdoor. My sister and her family had gone to the indoor one earlier in the week, but I wasn’t comfortable taking two kids who had never seen a pool before without an extra set of adult hands. But, with my other sister in town and Aaron free to join us, we went yesterday.

Ilya just loved the pool. He just walked around for hours, he wanted to try everything out, including stuff like the big slide, which he’s just too little for. Lena was more hesitant. She did not like to get her face wet. She clung to me or my sister most of the time we were at the pool. Occasionally, she’d waddle around in the kiddie pool, coming to check in with me every few minutes. Both kids had a good time, though and did not ask to get out once during the 3 hours we were at the pool.

I really enjoyed having my sister and her family here. It was a great opportunity for Ilya and Lena to get to know more of their family. I also think it was a very positive experience for them to see how families function in day to day life. I also felt like I got to experience another side of both Ilya and Lena, seeing how they acted with other members of their family, especially how affectionate both of them were with “the baby.”

Everyday Life

Chalk

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Thanks for your comments on the sleep post. We have only had one other night like that, where she is crying several times throughout the night. She was consistently crying right after we put her to sleep every night, but we’d just go in and remind her that we were right downstairs and she needed to go to sleep… that worked after several days of doing that. We already have a fan running in their room and the A/C as needed, so they are good with white noise.

We have not really done anything exciting since my parents left, except that the kids went down to their other grandparents’ farm last Saturday. Very exciting for them, exciting for me in the opposite sense… I got a whole day to myself and got to get some things done… and just sit on the couch and read for awhile.

We’ve also been enjoying the weather. It is all ups and downs, 95 and plenty of sun and then 55 with wind and rain. That was seriously our weather last week. On one of the warmer days, we got out and did this…


Chalk!


Don’t both of them look tired? These photos were taken the same day that I wrote that blog post.


Can you tell what I’m teaching Ilya?


“That dog, barking, over there. He’s the one who keeps me up at night.”


Here’s Ilya, telling me about his drawing. Hilarious.Yes, his shirt says “Loud and in Charge” and yes, that is hugely appropriate for him.

Everyday Life

Sleep Help?!

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We had some big problems with getting Lena to go to sleep when she first came home. It stopped after awhile and we’ve had some good months of sleep. Occasionally, she’d wake up in the middle of the night and cry, but we’d just go in and pick her up or touch her and all would be okay again. This is just getting worse. She has started crying every night 10-15 minutes after we say goodnight. She is waking up consistently in the middle of the night, every night and crying until she wakes us up and we go up and comfort her. It has been at different times of the night. She also has started crying when waking up often during naptime. She is also not a huge sleeper to begin with… she wakes Ilya and me up most mornings, long before we are ready by her LOUD, LOUD singing.

Tonight, she has cried 3 times in 3 hours. I get that this is great for attachment, for knowing that we are here and will come running when she cries, but I am worn out! We always tell her we’re right downstairs, we’ll see her in the morning, etc. I try to give her just enough attention that she is calmed down and ready to go back to sleep. My only ideas are to move her back to our room (but I’m not sure what we’d do about Ilya) or try Melatonin again. Ideas, please?

Everyday Life

About Lola

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My mom. She’s pretty awesome, as some of you know.

My mom had no idea we were thinking about adopting. Until I told her we were. I think I may have even said something like “We’re thinking about adopting. ” “Oh wow.” “Actually, we’re going to.” “Oh wow.” “Preschool age.” “Oh wow.” “Two kids.” “Oh wow.” “Special needs.” “Oh wow.” Just kidding, my mom doesn’t say “oh wow” that much, but that’s kind of how the conversation went. My mom has been so supportive the whole time. I think she loved them as soon as I told her about them. That’s the kind of person she is.

And the thing is, my kids love her too. It was over three months since she saw them in January when she came a couple of weeks ago. I had told the kids that she was coming, but I wasn’t sure how they’d react. Ilya and I were ahead of Lena and Aaron walking in to the airport, so we greeted her. Then, Aaron and Lena walked in. My mom got down on her knees and Lena just took off running towards her and leapt into her arms. That girl loves her Lola.

My mom is also smart. “How do I install car seats?” “How do I turn on the child locks on car doors?”  “My garbage disposal won’t work ever since I put a rag in it.” “I just got home and my front door is open!!! What should I do?” Who needs Google or even 911 when you have my mom. She might try to deny it, but she is great at having the answers or knowing the search words to Google them. She is good at all of the traditional domestic tasks– cooking, cleaning, sewing, but she’s also been known to drive a limousine from time to time.

My mom is just a great person. I am pretty sure we would have forced her to stay last week if we could have.

Happy Mother’s Day, Lola!

lolalename

Everyday Life

Photo and Video Overload?

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I was just going to share a couple of videos related to yesterday’s post, but then I found all these forgotten gems on my camera.


Have I showed you this before? My friend Amy‘s parents gave Ilya this tractor when we were over at their house one day and he couldn’t stop playing with it. Well, now, sometimes, he tells us he wants to “read books” instead of going to the playground with Aaron and Lena. “Read books” is code words for play with the tractor.


Here Lena is rocking out the awkward MK&A Olsen look with a strawberry.


Ilya is kind of weird and just a tad gross about eating strawberries. He tries to eat them like an apple.


This is for my weimaraner friends… Josie squishing poor Nina.

I spend quite a bit of time with Ilya practicing different words and sounds. Words that he almost has down, but just can’t quite make out. Lena definitely struggles with speech and I often joke that I am waiting for the day when she breaks out yelling at someone in perfect English.  Well, last week, she had one of those moments when her papa didn’t eat his pizza crusts. She yelled at him “Eat the pizza!” And we were all shocked how easy it was to understand her. This is a little bit afterwards, since I wasn’t able to catch the first time on video.

He really loves this song and just kept telling me “pa-pu-guy” last night so I’d play it for him.

Ilya knows this song well. I think it’s so cute how well he can sing along.

What makes that last video even cuter? Comparing it to this one from Ilya’s birthday…

To answer the questions from my last post, I didn’t realize that song was mostly in German. I thought that, but just shrugged it off thinking that Russian sounds a lot like german, of course know that I watch it again… As for him knowing other songs, these are the only ones I’ve found that he knows. I’ve tried playing other songs on youtube, like the suggestions that come up, but haven’t found other ones he knows. Any suggestions?