Nicholaus and Max's Page April 2003 to December 2003 |
July 2003 Where has the summer gone? July has been an eventful month for the boys. Although they continue to ask us "Why America hot?". =) The boys have stopped speaking Russian almost completely. They still understand it, but will not respond to it. We all spent July 4 with Byron's parents in the mountains. Max sang Happy Birthday to America all day on the 4th. They LOVED the fireworks. We hiked down to Cascade Falls and took the photo on the main page. This place is special to us because it is where we hiked to shortly after we began dating over 10 years ago. Also on the 4th, they climbed a climbing wall that was set up at a festival in the mountains. They loved it and wanted to do it again and again!! They got to spend some more time with Penney's parents and with their cousins. They loved it and didn't want to come home. They are both swimming great and both can swim the width of the pool without our assistance. Nicholaus lost another tooth on the 20th and got his first visit from the "tooth witch". We've finally got him to stop calling it that! The last weekend in July we attended a reunion of our adoption group, IUAFN, in Gatlinburg, TN. The boys were so excited because our facilitator, J, was here in the US from Ukraine. But they wouldn't talk to her in Russian, but did talk to her a lot in English. The do love her so. We were also able to meet Cathy Harris face to face and thank her for helping us to get our boys!The boys are excited about school, which starts the second week in August. We hope it will be a positive experience! It has been a great summer! Now for some photos! |
December 2003 Whew! Christmas has come and gone. The month of December was a whirlwind, to say the least! It was full of school functions, visits to and from the Grandparents, parades, Christmas parties, a small bout with a bad virus, and of course the visit from Old St Nick! The boys thoroughly enjoyed their first Christmas in America. But Mommy and Daddy both agree that it was a little over-stimulating for everyone. Add the over-indulgence of sugar that is customary this time of year to the excitement they were already feeling in November and you begin to get the picture. But St Nick delivered to the boys their own aquariums, warm blankets, a new bike (for Nicholaus), a new scooter (for Max), and a Green Machine (to share). This was in addition to the love that was shown to them by our families in the way of very generous gifts, which the boys dearly loved!! We had so much to be Thankful for this year. We were so happy to ring in 2004 with our children! Max FINALLY lost his tooth (thanks to some assistance from his Pops) and already has another one loose, much to his excitement. And Nicholaus did a fantastic presention (already doing presentations in 1st grade!) on Christmas in Ukraine. We were able to attend and he did a fantastic job. Now that the holidays are over, the boys are back to their usual selves and are getting back in their school routine. They are now eagerly planning for their birthdays in March and May. The excitement just never ends..... |
October 2003 The boys had their first Halloween! They were so excited. We had purchased their costumes back in September. Of course Max wanted to be Batman (Daddy was so proud). And Nicholaus chose to be a policeman (of course Daddy was also proud). They had a blast trick-or-treating. The boys also had their first trip to the beach. We went to Myrtle Beach for the weekend and they LOVED it. Although, the week after, all 4 of us got strep throat. We endured as best as we could. The boys are doing excellent in school. Both of their teachers report that they are on grade-level or better. Amazing. Of course October marks 6 months home in America. We never dreamed they would do so well in such a short period of time. Every day we are amazed and humbled by them. OK...enough writing. Now for the photos: |
The boys have decided that movies are best viewed from Mommy & Daddy's bed. |
Batman and Officer Brooks to the rescue! |
November 2003 What a busy month it has been! They boys continue to do great. They love school. Nicholaus had his first big project in school where he had to write and present a story about Thanksgiving. He did great considering this is his first experience with Thanksgiving. Max's class also did a little Thanksgiving show, which was great!! There's something so sweet about kindergarten kids singing "I'm a little Turkey" to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot". Nicholuas lost another tooth and Max is still working on a tooth that has been loose for 2 months!! Every day he thinks today might be the day! Tooo cute! The boys loved Thanksgiving. They had been so excited about Pumpkin Pie. But when the big day came, neither of them actually liked it! But they loved the turkey and having our entire family at our house. The day after Thanksgiving, they saw Santa. They loved it! They had made their Christmas list (with the help of their 2 cousins) and gave it to Santa. They have decorated their room for Christmas and are excited about putting up our tree later this week. They are so excited about Christmas!! |
The boys love playing in all the leaves!! |
December 2003 Whew! Christmas has come and gone. The month of December was a whirlwind, to say the least! It was full of school functions, visits to and from the Grandparents, parades, Christmas parties, a small bout with a bad virus, and of course the visit from Old St Nick! The boys thoroughly enjoyed their first Christmas in America. But Mommy and Daddy both agree that it was a little over-stimulating for everyone. Add the over-indulgence of sugar that is customary this time of year to the excitement they were already feeling in November and you begin to get the picture. But St Nick delivered to the boys their own aquariums, warm blankets, a new bike (for Nicholaus), a new scooter (for Max), and a Green Machine (to share). This was in addition to the love that was shown to them by our families in the way of very generous gifts, which the boys dearly loved!! We had so much to be Thankful for this year. We were so happy to ring in 2004 with our children! Max FINALLY lost his tooth (thanks to some assistance from his Pops) and already has another one loose, much to his excitement. And Nicholaus did a fantastic presention (already doing presentations in 1st grade!) on Christmas in Ukraine. We were able to attend and he did a fantastic job. Now that the holidays are over, the boys are back to their usual selves and are getting back in their school routine. They are now eagerly planning for their birthdays in March and May. The excitement just never ends..... |
Merry Christmas from us!! |
A visit with Santa and Mrs Claus (notice the list in Max's hand) |
April 2003 The boys arrived home on April 24, 2003. They were greeted by family and friends. They settled in GREAT! Max came down with chicken pox the 2nd day we were home. Luckily it wasn't a bad case at all. But it did prevent us from going out with them much. Their language developed as we expected it would. They picked up a few new words every day. Neither of them have had any serious emotional meltdowns. Just the usual kid stuff of testing limits. They have such a funny sense of humor. Dinner time if always fun as we spend most of it talking, mimicking, signing things we did during the day. Nicholaus also takes that opportunity to tell us what everything on the table is in Russian and whether or not that they had that item to eat in Ukraine. Below are some photos from April. |
May 2003 What a month!! Penney was spending a couple hours a day working with the boys on their language, the alphabet, etc. They were catching on so quickly and their language was developing so well that we decided to let them go to school for the rest of the school year. Even though there were only 3 weeks of school left, we thought it would really help their language. They both LOVE school. Especially when they get to work on the computer. It's amazing how much their language has developed. Recent phrases include "Let me see" and "this one or that one". Neither of them like it when we speak to them in Russian. They prefer to use what broken English they know to communicate with us. Of course they still primarily speak Russian to each other. But that's OK with us. The swimming pool in our subdivision opened and the boys are quite the little fishes. They can both swim some and will be incredible swimmers with just a few lessons. They are both eating well. They LOVE strawberries and almost all fruit. They aren't crazy about red meat, squash, or cantelope. Everything else is good. They love to help us cook in the kitchen. Nicholaus LOVES anything musical. He loves to listen to music, watch music on television, and play at the piano. Max loves to color and draw and do anything physical. If he's sitting still, there must be a problem! They had their full medical work-up on May 13. After doing labwork, the doctor confirmed that the boys are completely healthy. They are both a little shorter than average, but otherwise they are right where they should be. We took our first trip to Penney's parents' house on May 9 with the boys. The boys "camped out" at Pops and Granny's house with their 2 cousins, which they LOVED. They also perfected riding Penney's old bike so well that we had to buy them their own bikes the next weekend. They'll be riding without the training wheels soon! The following weekend, we took our second road trip to see Byron's family. The boys had a great time riding with Grandad on his motorcycle and on the riding lawnmower with Granmom. It's been a great month!! |
How handsome! Their first day at church. They liked it and were perfect angels! Nicholaus LOVES the music!! |
Max and his airplane. A gift from his aunt (Penney's sister). He could make it fly all the way across the back yard. His secret was blowing on the back before throwing it! |
Nicholaus and his racing machine. Dale Earnhardt Jr, watch out! |
Watching Papa cut grass is SUCH hard work!! |
Our little fishes!! |
Since the boys couldn't go swimming on a rainy Sunday, they did the next best thing. They took a nap on their swim rings!! They were tooo cute and slept like this for 2 hours!! |
June 2003 Whew! My how the time is flying!! The boys have had a great month. They finished school on June 2 and are already asking how many days until school starts back. It was truly a good experience for them!! They have continued to adjust well. As of the end of June, they will not speak to us in Russian at all any more. And the only time they speak Russian to each other is if they are completely alone and don't think Mom and Dad are around. That's also another change. The boys decided mid-June that they wanted to call Byron "Daddy" instead of "Papa" once they realized that most children in American call their fathers Daddy. They still go back and forth on it, though. Which is fine with us. They had their first dental appointment on June 16. They did so well!! The good news is that Max only has 1 cavity and most likely will have textbook perfect teeth according to his dentist. The bad news is that Nicholaus has 5 cavities and will have "crowding issues". In other words, braces are in his future! During the month of June they started sharing more and more bits of their previous life with us. It usually comes up as they are expressing how much they like America or how different life is in America. It is hard to hear some of the things they tell us, but we are just so thankful that they feel safe enough to share it with us. The boys did begin to challenge us more this month discipline wise. But we began a behavior chart with them where they earn stickers that can be redeemed for money. That has almost resolved all the problems we've had---with only a couple of nights going to bed crying because they didn't get a sticker. Nicholaus learned how to ride his bike without training wheels in a matter of a couple of hours. And Max has learned how to roller blade--well, almost! They both LOVE to play outside and would rather do that than anything else. They are just great!! We can hardly remember what our life was like before having our boys!! Now for some photos: |
The boys decorating cup cakes doning their new Krispy Kreme Donut hats. They had a blast! |
Nicholaus riding his "big boy bike". He's getting so big!! |
Max coloring pictures in his room. Both boys are great artists!! |
July 2003 Where has the summer gone? July has been an eventful month for the boys. Although they continue to ask us "Why America hot?". =) The boys have stopped speaking Russian almost completely. They still understand it, but will not respond to it. We all spent July 4 with Byron's parents in the mountains. Max sang Happy Birthday to America all day on the 4th. They LOVED the fireworks. We hiked down to Cascade Falls and took the photo on the main page. This place is special to us because it is where we hiked to shortly after we began dating over 10 years ago. Also on the 4th, they climbed a climbing wall that was set up at a festival in the mountains. They loved it and wanted to do it again and again!! They got to spend some more time with Penney's parents and with their cousins. They loved it and didn't want to come home. They are both swimming great and both can swim the width of the pool without our assistance. Nicholaus lost another tooth on the 20th and got his first visit from the "tooth witch". We've finally got him to stop calling it that! The last weekend in July we attended a reunion of our adoption group, IUAFN, in Gatlinburg, TN. The boys were so excited because our facilitator, J, was here in the US from Ukraine. But they wouldn't talk to her in Russian, but did talk to her a lot in English. The do love her so. We were also able to meet Cathy Harris face to face and thank her for helping us to get our boys!The boys are excited about school, which starts the second week in August. We hope it will be a positive experience! It has been a great summer! Now for some photos! |
The boys in Penney's sister's bed having a sleepover with their cousins! Too many monkeys in the bed! |
Above: Max (l) and Nicholaus (r) on the climbing wall. They were so proud of themselves! Left: Us with Cathy Harris at the IUAFN Reunion. I don't know if we can ever thank her enough for helping us to find our sons! |
August 2003 Summer is done! Our babies have gone back to school (and Penney only cried for 1 day). So far they love it and have adjusted beautifully. Nicholaus has started to read (very simple words) and is sooo proud of himself. So are we. Max loves his class, too. We are so proud that both of them are talking and participating in class. Max is now riding his bike without training wheels and is preparing for his future appearance on the show Fear Factor. The boys had a Welcome to America party in Penney's hometown on Aug 9 and had a great time. They were able to meet many of our extended family and friends. The also have one coming up in September in Byron's hometown. They love parties!! They have been saving their money and recently pooled their money to buy a small tent. They love playing out there, but have not slept there for the evening--still too hot. It's been a great month and we are looking forward to a great fall! Now for some pictures! |
Just to show how they've changed in 4 short months. Their US and Ukrainian Passport photos. |
Snoozing in the car! |
First Day of School! |
September 2003 The boys have had a great month in school. Nicholaus is learning how to read and Max is learning about lots of things. Nicholaus was the student of the week in his class. So we made Ukrainian Honey Cookies and took them to his class and also taught them how to say "cookie" and "goodbye" in Russian. They thought that was cool. Max also got to bring "Froggy" (the class stuffed animal pet) home for the evening. He had a blast. They had their "Welcome to America" party in Byron's hometown and had a great time meeting lots of new people. They are really excited about fall--although they were convinced that on the first day of fall, all of the leaves were going to miraculously fall from the trees. They have already purchased their Halloween costumes--I'll save those photos for the Oct update, and have been practicing "Trick or Treat" on everyone. They endured Hurricane Isabel with little problem except they hated being couped up inside. But 100 games of Trouble, Hi-Ho Cheerio, and Go Fish seemed to amuse them. Now for the photos: |
The boys had fun decorating the tree in their room for fall. They had a blast painting their pumpkins with their Aunt! |
The boys were so sweet napping together. This is one of the few moment of them being still!! |
Nicholaus and Max's Page April 2003 to December 2003 |
