Wow!

It's been awhile! Happy belated 4th of July everyone!

My laptop broke TWICE - first the motherboard died then they had to do something with the harddrive. I don't know anything about the techie stuff but I'm glad it's fixed.

Kiddos update: They're doing G.R.E.A.T.

Cooper talks a mile a minute, non-stop, fairly good English. He knows a lot of numbers and all of his colors in Spanish. He holds onto two Russian words and uses them interchangibly with English - malenkie for small and bolna for hurt.

He was moved up to a class where his peers are the same age and that has helped him learn a lot more (not all good!).

We've been getting ready for his 4th birthday party and if he gets mad or doesn't get what he wants, he'll say, "you not coming to my birthday party!". It's really funny and hard not to laugh.

He takes gymnastics on Fridays and they have water works (water play) on Tuesdays and Fridays. He's active, funny, smart and healthy.

He loves trucks, tractors, swimming, all animals, and anything with buttons for pushing. He's a freak for our phones, the remote control and our computer!

Kara's words are coming along better as well. She was also moved up to a class where she's in the same age as the rest. It helped that they were in a younger class to begin with because they weren't so intimidated by the 'bigger' kids but now they're so comfortable, they absolutely love school and all their teachers. The transition from Gaby's class to Valerie's went pretty well. She cried for Gaby the first day when she saw her but all is well now. She gives Gaby hugs and kisses whenever she sees her at school.

She's is still very much a girly-girl and will always pick a dress over shorts to wear. (I love that about her). She is really comfortable in the pool and 'swims' by herself now. It's not truly swimming but she treads water alone while she has her floaty suit on. She continues to mimic every move Cooper makes.

Recently, we were having a dinner of chicken, mac & cheese and green beans. Kara was eating everything including the beans when Cooper announces that he doesn't like the beans. Kara immediately said yuck and pushed her plate away pointing at the beans. Little rat!

I can truly say they are very well adjusted and very normal 2+4 year olds and we thank God for them everyday.

Oh, we had playdates with fellow bloggers! Chris and Christian met us at the zoo and Susan and Artem came over to swim and have dinner! Both were so fun and we can't wait to do it again!

Here are some recent pics from the 4th of July in Chappell Hill, TX- a small town about an hour outside of Houston -

Happy Mother's Day!

I had my first Mother's Day and it was fabulous!
We played in the pool, grilled chicken outside and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.



My little Russian hulk- and hulkette!


Cooper is such a daredevil now! He jumps from the highest point and goes completely under without blinking an eye- over and over and over again.


Kara is a tad more reserved. She seems a little bit overwhelmed so we let her go at her own pace. She puts her face down into the pool and can blow bubbles out through her mouth - it's a great start.


Happy Mother's Day everyone!

What's Happening?

What’s happening in our neck of the woods? I'll tell you!

The Coopster:
Is pottytrained. Yay! It took about 2 months of constant, ‘Do you have to go pee pee?’ for it to happen but it did. He still wears a pull-up at night and at nap-time. Oddly, he was potty-trained for poop about 2 months before pee pee.

Is still speaking in 3rd person. Cooper went here, Cooper did this, etc. We know he’ll grow out of this once he learns how to use pronouns, etc. but for now it’s too cute to correct!

Has a W.I.L.D. imagination. He pretends (I hope anyway) to see a teddy bear – a white teddy bear – that flies into his room at night. Every once in awhile he’s scared of it, but most of the time it just chases him and he runs around and laughs. It’s really funny to see Kara looking up searching for it with a confused look on her face!

Has discovered boobies. AND announced to one of his teachers: “I LOVE boobies!”. I was humiliated when she told me this. Coop and I had a talk. Hopefully, this little phase will go away quietly and quickly.

His WHY? has arrived. And he asks a thousand questions a day. He’s a talker, that boy.

The Karaboo:
Is babbling a lot more these days. She’s still not where she needs to be, but definitely knows how to get her point across! The EI (Early Intervention) people will come on May 21 to start her speech therapy.

Is such a girlie-girl! It’s really fun to watch her gross out at bugs and want to wear dresses all of the time.

Is sweet to her core. She is gentle and loves to cuddle and give kisses to us, Cooper, dogs, whoever! She’s very concerned when someone gets hurt and has to kiss their booboo and pat them while saying, it’s ok, it’s ok. She has great empathy.

Is extremely attached to her teacher Gaby and I’m terrified of what will happen when she has to change classes/teachers (August, I think).

Has a weird sense of taste. She hates chocolate and anything sweet except marshmallows (which is pure sugar, go figure?).

Opposites-
The kids are full-bio brother and sister but they are completely and totally opposite in every way!
Kara hates sweets – Cooper would live off sweets if we let him
Kara will eat only the chicken at Chick-Fil-A – Cooper will eat only the french fries and carrot salad
Kara is outgoing – Cooper is introverted
Kara wakes up happy and ready to go – Cooper takes a long time to ‘get his groove’ on
Kara is fairly obedient – Cooper likes to test the limits (this is probably age-related)
Kara will not try a food if she doesn’t like the looks of it – Cooper will try anything at least once

Now time for some pics from the past month or so…

Cooper "swimming" - about 2nd or 3rd time in. Now he jumps from the side and goes completely under. I'm going to try to teach them to swim.

We're ready to go for our jog/walk to the park-

Cooper went to a birthday party for his friend Madeline and it was a "Pony Party" except these weren't ponies! They were full sized horses! He loves horses and wasn't scared at all.

Cooper is admiring the horses - he's in awe of them. (I guess he really does belong in Texas!)

Kara is loving on the pool! Such a sweetie!

Karaboo in the pool-

Does this bikini make me look fat?

What about this one?

Sand-pit fun-

LOVE that prissy stance!

Poor Elmo

I read Rachel's post about Elmo and I was cracking up so and I had to share my Elmo story as well-

~the victim~

This was about a month ago before we realized that Kara was lactose intolerant.

First of all, Kara would poop 4-5 times a day. We were still in the process of trying to find out if there was something wrong with her or if this was her "normal".

So, she was taking a bath one night and the Elmo faucet protector was being used as a toy.
She gave me this certain look and I knew what was going to happen but I couldn't get her out of the tub in time. She proceeded to stand up and say Uh Oh and started whining/crying.
I started to pick her up but saw it coming out so I put her back down.
I didn't want to get it all over me and I figured I could just bleach the tub - again.

Kara did not like that.


She wanted OUT of that poop-tub immediately.


Elmo was on his side quietly floating near the drain while Kara was screaming, NOOOOOO ELLLMOOOOOOO and covering her mouth with both her hands. The poop slowly made its way down the tub and rested on Elmo's shoulder. I was laughing my ass off while my poor child was screaming ELLLLLMOOOO.

I really should have gotten a picture because it was sooooo funny!


Elmo (the doll) was also put in time out by Cooper- Elmo's really had it rough lately.


And since Kara has to do EVERYTHING her brother does, she put her baby in time-out.

Happy Day!!

Happy Tax Day everyone!
We're especially happy because we get to use our Adoption Tax Credit this year - Woo Hoo!!!
Thank you Uncle Sam!

Happy Birthday Laura!
You were my best bud growing up and you are the sister I never had.
We don't see each other a whole lot anymore because we live in different states, but I still think about you often and hope you're doing great. I love you and hope you have a wonderful birthday.

Happy 6 month Family Day to us!
Exactly 6 months ago, a judge in Arkhangel'sk Russia granted us permission to adopt our two wonderful, perfect, funny, crazy, smart, beautiful children and we will be forever grateful for that.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Happy Easter!

We're all wishing you a very happy Easter!

We've been very busy over here! Here's the rundown-

• we went to the wedding of Jim's nephew Chris
• another nephew, niece and cousin came to stay with us and go to the wedding
• my brother and his wife came to visit
• we went to a birthday party for a classmate of Cooper's
• we've been potty training the Coopster
• we've been half-assed trying to potty train Kara
• we've had the Easter parade and hunt at school
• we went to our friend's house for an Easter hunt and barbeque
• I finished their Life-Book and it came out fabulous! I used Picaboo and absolutely loved it
• we finished our first post-placement report (I can't believe it's already been 6 months)

AND our flipping coffee-maker is broken. UGH. Anyone know of a GOOD coffee-maker? I don't care what the cost - I need my morning coffee!

Here are some random tidbits of info:

• Cooper rode his trike into the pool. He was pretty stunned because it was very cold but he popped right back up and started laughing. I jumped in to help him-shoes and all. All is fine and I don't think he will be doing that again!
• Cooper can write his name. Oh, and he knows all of his colors in Spanish! Once again, LOVE LOVE LOVE that school!
• Cooper is officially a chocoholic. He definitely takes after his mother.
• Kara is lactose intolerant. After some tests and experimenting, she's on Lactaid and doing fine.
• Kara insists on standing up to peepee. We keep explaining to her that girls are not built that way - too funny! It's especially funny to hear Cooper tell her that she doesn't have a P (that's what he calls it).
• Kara, in complete contrast to Cooper, H.A.T.E.S chocolate - there is something wrong with her! heehee.

Ok, now for some random pics. You can figure out what is what...

Tuesday

The scene:

Cooper going through his Papa's drawer in our bathroom, pulling out one thing at a time asking, What's that?

He gets to some earplugs and I say, that's for your ears when things get too loud.

Cooper says: Cooper try it?

I say: Not right now.

Cooper: Later?

Mama: Maybe.

Cooper: Tomorrow?

Mama: We'll see.

Cooper: Tuesday?

We're obviously working on days of the week around here!