A Little More Talk and a Good Progress Report!

Oh boy, where do I start? Daniel is such a talker. In fact, I would say that he talks 95% of the time he is awake. And not just little talk, but big, big talk. With big, big sentences. He keeps us constantly in stitches and also constantly answering questions. Here are some of his favorite sayings and some of the interesting questions we have received from him lately.

"That sounds like a great idea."

"I didn't mean to do it Mommy." (of course not!)

"Everyone, stop talking!"

"I love you to the sky and back."

"Can cars go on train tracks?" - This one surprised me.

"Because" - as if that is an answer to my question!

"10 minutes to nap/bed time Mommy" If I don't give a warning he reminds me!

"Is Papa here, Mommy" and if I answer "yes" he says "Yippee!"

"I coughed and coughed and coughed" - he's had a sinus infection which we are now treating with an antibiotic from the doctor.

There is much, much more, but those are some of the more memorable or recent!

Daniel also received his first real progress report from daycare. He received Yes's on all items except for 2 that he received Some's on. The two items were organization as he could organize groups of colors but did not organize the toy bins properly. I laughed because even though Daniel is a helper and will clean up, he won't organize at home either! However when they asked him to try again, he got it right (cars with cars, buses with buses, etc.) His other Some was for what they called receptive language as in when they ask a more vague question can he answer. He would always hesitate and then eventually get it right. The teacher did assure me that all the children got a Some in that category, so I am not going to worry. She also said Daniel was probably the best at articulating words and hence the most understandable in the class!!

Finally - We are in the process of getting ready for vacation!! We are heading to the panhandle of Florida in just about a week and a half! We are so excited. If anyone is going to be in the panhandle the week of August 8th - let us know!!! I can't wait for a week of beach, sun and sand!! On the way back, we're looking forward to spending a night with two fellow adoptive families!!

And alas - the legos - finally a big hit in our house. We tried them initially when Daniel came home, but discovered he was just too young for them, so I brought them back upstairs about a month or so ago and now they are a constant source of entertainment. Of course notice he LOVES the ones with wheels!!

The Weekend of We Did Not...

This weekend we had a relatively quiet weekend. Finally. So we took the time to do a few things that we will never admit to. For instance,

We did not put our son down for a nap and then proceed to play with his remote control truck for over an hour!!

We did not allow our son to swim in his underwear, teach him how to shoot a water gun and then let him shamelessly spray the dogs (who were good sports) over and over and over!!

We did not get ready for bed Saturday night and then at 9 pm decide we needed ice cream so changed back into our regular clothes and head out to the local ice cream hangout until 10 at night, shamelessly eating banana splits and waffle cones!!

We did not stay out with Daniel's Aunt Amber, Uncle Stephen and Parker until past bedtime Sunday and then on the way home go by McDonalds and order. I would never order a large Dr. Pepper that time of night (I really wouldn't but I was craving it), and then order a large sweet tea for Troy and apple juice and apple dippers for Daniel. Then proceed to stay up until 11 PM.

We did not (Daniel and I) take repeated photos our ourselves and laugh like crazy each time...

And here's the proof...

Sweet Things

I usually don't post more than once a week, but I couldn't resist sharing a couple of sweet things that happened this past weekend.

First off, every morning I ask Daniel if he had good dreams the night before. He always answers with a resounding "Yes!", but never elaborates. I didn't expect him too, so imagine my surprise Sunday morning when I asked him the normal "did you have good dreams" question and he answered with a thoughtful "Yes!" and then continued on his own with "they put Clifford on the trailer."

It took me a second before I realized three things. One, he was remembering a dream. Two, he LOVES trailers that hook onto trucks so it makes sense that a trailer would be front and center in his dream. Three, Clifford is the big red dog! We don't watch much TV in our house and he's only seen a Clifford cartoon maybe 3 times total, but he sure enough dreamed about him being put on a trailer. We talked for a few minutes about how Clifford is so big that he has to go on a trailer since he can't fit into the truck and Daniel was just as fascinated with his own dream as I was.

Then yesterday I was out tying up tomato plants with Daniel's "help" when all the sudden he put one arm around my neck, kissed the top of my head and said "You're my baby." Awwwwwww!! I loved it! I stopped what I was doing and hugged him back and told him that I was happy to be his baby if he was mine forever too. Then the moment was over and he "attacked" me with the sprinkler!!

Sweet moments like those really make parenting worthwhile and it makes all the hard days disappear. It's funny how looking back over this past 15 months, that I can't remember any really bad days, but boy I sure can remember the good!!

Russian Mementos

When we traveled to Russia we did most of our souvenir shopping on trip one in Votkinsk, the city where Daniel was situated. Votkinsk was the home of Tchaikovsky and we were fortunate enough to visit his manor one afternoon and then the manor shop where we purchased really all of our souvenirs. Even though we walked to Red Square on trip one, we somehow missed visiting Arabat Street where everyone said all the great souvenir shops were located

On trip two we were able to come home early and chose to do that instead of taking the few extra days to tour Red Square with Daniel in tow. Since we didn't do that, we did not purchase any additional souvenirs except for a few toys for Daniel that I consider to be like souvenirs and which have since found their home in his memory box.

So imagine my surprise when Troy, Daniel and I stopped by a yard sale down the street from where my mother lives and find a salt and pepper shaker made like Matryoshka dolls. I snatched them up right away and started looking at them closely. Sure enough on the bottom is a sticker that states they were handmade in Russia!! Even more interesting was that inside the salt shaker was a Vodka liquor bottle with the label mostly in Russian. To top it off, the lady sold me the set for $1.00!! I have added the salt and pepper shaker to Daniel's shelf where his other Russian mementos have their home!!

Some may think I'm silly for frequenting yard sales, but look what we found for $15.00 one day (swing set) and then $5.00 (work bench) this past weekend...and just look at the smile on our son's face!!

Holiday Weekend

I hope everyone had a fantastic Fourth of July! We had a busy weekend (a recurring theme around our house these days) with Troy's parents visiting, a trip to the indoor waterpark at Massanutten, fireworks and a picnic.

Friday night we took Troy's parents to the Blue Ridge Buffet at Massanutten for all you can eat crab legs! Ian, our nephew, also came and he and I ate everything but crab legs, while Troy, his parents and Daniel got in on the action of eating crab legs. It was delicious and Daniel I think had more fun stealing olives and cherry tomatos off of my plate throughout the dinner! You can also overlook the indoor waterpark which Daniel loved watching.

Saturday Troy's mom, Ian, Troy, Daniel and I hit the indoor waterpark and we had a blast!! We tried hitting the outdoor portion as well but the water was still too cold! I can't believe in July I'm even saying that! I only have a couple of photos from my mother in law's camera, since all of mine are on an underwater disposable camera, but imagine some very soaked people going down lots of kiddie slides and there you have it. I don't think I've ever seen Daniel laugh as much as I did on the lazy river!! He would flop from one side of the innertube to another and just laugh and splash and laugh some more!

He CRASHED hard on the way home and I had to drag him out of bed at 6 pm!! We were glad he slept though so he could stay awake for the fireworks! This was his first time as last year he was sound asleep for the celebration. When the fireworks started going off, Daniel jumped off my lap and pointed, back arched, and yelled at the top of his lungs "LIGHTS!" every time a firework lit the sky for about the first 20. It was hysterical and he has several families in stitches!

Yesterday we took a picnic lunch to a local park and picked up my mom and had a nice time. Daniel played hard and we ate lunch, then came home. I even jumped off a moving swing - something I haven't done in ages!!

Enjoy some pictures from our weekend!