Growing growing growing...

Today I measured Sy, and since he has come home, he has grown nearly 6 inches!  It is crazy.  He has also gained about 5 pounds.  Sy has changed in so many ways, but one thing that hasn't changed, he is a very PICKY eater.  His food selection continues to be:  yogurt, peanut butter and jelly or chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, crackers, chocolate candy, toast, an occasional french fry and chocolate shakes.  Perhaps you are seeing a theme here!  We struggle as a family to figure out how to address this as we continue to see the importance of getting him to eat so that he can grow, but struggle as we are looking for him to assimilate more to how our family eats....time at the supper table is not that much fun, to say the least.  We have found that both boys are much better behaved when they are one on one with us and much more honery when they are competing for our attention.  I, as some of you may know, am not very patient, so the constant whining, bickering and fighting is taking its toll on me, and hence transferring to them.  Any advice here would be great!  As far as growing goes though, Sy and Jake are growing so much it is hard to believe.  Jake is finishing up first grade and he has made enormous gains in both reading and math this year.  We are blessed to great teachers who really want all the kids to grow, grow, grow!  I have decided to take the boys to California this summer.  We will see family, go to Disneyland and see the beach.  Should be fun.  You might all think I am nuts as I am going solo, however, I have enlisted the help of my dad and aunt who will be there, so I might live through it!  I will leave you with this picture which testifies to how big my boys are getting!

It has been a YEAR, really?

Well actually it has now been over a year since we first met Sy.  It was mid February when we were there initially.  And then of course we traveled back at the end of March.  So it is awfully crazy that it has gone so fast.  And what a little guy he is.  We still have most of the same food issues with him and I remember saying to Dean that we would start addressing some of those once he has been home for a year.  Yikes....that day is about here.  I am not looking forward to food battles for sure.  Amazing what happens in a years time.  Our little Russian speaks near perfect English.  We ask him from time to time if he remembers things from Russia.  I don't know if he really does. He answers however he thinks sounds best for the question.  Although he spoke decent Russian when he left, he speaks no Russian now.  I would have loved to have him retain some of this but couldn't see how we could since there are so few in our area that speak the language.  He goes to preschool now and likes to tell me about his "friends".  He shadows Jake and annoys him, just like a good younger brother would do, but I know that Jake loves him.  When we are not with them, but watch from the window, he is caring and understanding to Sy.  Jake is an amazing older brother.  We are blessed with such a great life and two wonderful little boys.  God has done amazing things!  Below is a picture of his one year home party with all of his cousi s, then a picture from when he first arrived, and finaly a picture of him now.  Our life will never be the same!

So many firsts!

 

It has been so long since I last posted anything.  I don't know where the time has gone.  At any rate, we have been busy busy busy it seems.  Halloween has come and gone, Sy's 3rd Birthday, then came Thanksgiving, and Christmas zoomed in.  We have had such a wonderful time, of course not all of it rosy, but most of it is!  Jake was Pecos Bill and Sy was a Tiger for Halloween and Sy thought this was a great holiday because it meant getting CANDY!  By far this is his all time favorite, followed closely by GUM and then VITAMINS (gummy bears).  Bringing up the end would be peanut butter, nutella, marshmallow creme!  See a pattern here?  Sy has from the beginning struggled to "explore" food much beyond a few things.  But I am happy to report he at least has moved toward crackers, goldfish, and an occasional bite into a grape or apple!  Very occasional.  If we had one real issue...this is it.  So I guess you could say we are lucky.  Sy loved his birthday.  He opened lots of presents and I think the opening was his favorite part, more than what was in them.  He loves to sing happy birthday and we have celebrated lots of family birthdays since he has come home.  Sy started Preschool in late October and just loves it.  It has been good for him and he interacts well with the other kids his age.  He is a very routine oriented and so this structure is good.  Jake is also enjoying school and brings home  homework many nights and it is fun to watch Sy pretend to have "homework" as well!  They are really doing pretty well together and they do tend to fight a bit, but don't all brothers!  Thanksgiving was so nice as the whole Horton family was together and it is so much fun to see all of them.  Christmas was great.  Sy doesn't really understand all of it but liked to go around saying  HO HO HO...MERRRRRY CHRISTMAS!!!!  We put out cookies for Santa and both he and Jake decorated the "tree".  Actually it was a sage brush but it was beautiful.  Again the boys were showered with presents and Jake loved his new replica pistol that santa brought.  Sy, when asked, will tell you that Santa brought him GUM!!!  While this is true, it was really a stocking stuffer, his real gift was a toy computer....he likes Jakes stuff more!  Imagine that!  We are so blessed for what we have.  Our family is amazing and Sy loves all of them so much.  He is a true gift and we could not ask for anything more than the two boys we have!  They are amazing and we cherish our time with them.  2012 is sure to be a great year for our family.  More firsts, more laughs, more frustrations, more family, more friends.

As if he was always here....

I am so lucky in so many ways and that is no more evident when I travelled to see my sister and her family.  Everyone embraces Sy and as I was reflecting I just thought to myself, it is like he has always been a part of our family.  He interacts just as Jake did at that age and it is so great to see that.  I wish I could capture his facial expressions because they are just something.  Kate, my sister, would agree.  He tilts his head and raises his eyebrow just right and it is all you can keep to do from laughing despite the fact that he is likely not doing what he is told at the very moment.  ....On a separate, unrelated, and likely unwanted info note, I just have to say this, because perhaps it takes having a couple children to know this, but it amazes me that bowel movements can be the overriding factor between a happy kid and a miserable kid.  My children, Sy particularly, is a candidate for research if there is anyone out there that would like to study the correlation between these two things! 

The Return of Grammie

Well, we are so thankful that Grammie returned safely from Scotland. Sounds like she had a blast and boy was she MISSED on this end. She is a local favorite for both Jake and Sy so it was a real blessing to have her home. They missed her terribly. I have been struggling with darn allergies more than ever this season and so I opted for alle
rgy relief only to find out that the relief was worse than the allergies. I have been a zombie for days until I realized that Zyrtec is not the answer! Each year they get worse, and as much as I like Fall, this is not fun. ...................................................................................................................Jake is in swimming in school and doing great. He went from being last dressed last year to front of the pack this year! Huge success....made possible by a little cowboy conceding to wearing No Belt, No buttom up shirts and no Hat to school. The hat is the funny part, he actually wears it to school, but does not take it on the bus to the pool, he was quoted as saying "it is just one more thing to slow me down!". I may have provided a bit of an incentive when I mentioned that if he could not pick up the pace he may be watching swimming instead of participating. I know...again...Mother of the Year! But if you knew what every morning was like, you might go for this as well. .......................Sy has really made some major progress lately. We measured him compared to his entry to our life and he has seen about a three inch growth and three pound gain. I definitley noticed the 3 lbs! Especially because he still wants to be carried alot, which is defined as kakaseemee (aka Mom pick me up). That is not Russian by the way...just a variation of Come See Me, I think. He is so much happier these days...I attribute it to success in potty training. Not that we have really been so good at it, but a little boy that is regular....is a happy little boy, if you know what I mean!....................We had our first post placement report....they seemed surprised at his clarity of speech and his relatively calm demeanor. I was surprised by that too by the way! hee hee

Life

Well again my apologies for the less than stellar job posting to this blog...Our theme this year in volleyball is no excuses, no explanations, just do it! So...I guess I should not be giving any excuses...I am in the JUST DO IT stage! So we have not been home for 5 months...wow, that is hard to believe. Life in Sy's world is pretty ok I think. He and Jake seem to be getting along good (and getting along bad). So I think that is good. We are down to very little Russian language, in fact, the only word that is uses frequently is Die (that means give, at least right now!) Anyway, we are blessed at how well things have gone and the best news to date is that we were able to make contact with Sy's biological siblings here in the US. We hope to eventually be able to meet them and get to know them a bit better. But very exciting to see a glimpse of what Sy may look like 10 years from now. Now if we can just find a home for his two siblings still in an orphanage in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Today I celebrated my birthday by running a marathon and then best of all having my boys there to meet me at the finish line. Sy got stung by a bee...bad news, it swelled up...good news, he isn't allergic to them! Jake is busy as a first grader but each morning starts with a game of "Jake con get me" followed by 10 to 15 laps around our home, each time stopping in the bathroom to drive their mother crazy. I do get the biggest smiles when I see this interaction and know that they have developed a pretty good brotherhood. Next week we begin our first Post Placement report. Wow time flies.

The Dog Days Are Over...

Well not really, because it is hotter than the blazes of HELL here this week, but School has started! Today was day one of first grade for our oldest boy, Jake. Wow how time flies. It was like we never stopped....the routine was the same...the chaos for me was the same...the fact that I waited til the last minute for all of his clothes, supplies and even his meal ticket...you guessed it..the same..WOW am I the epitomy of the unorganized mom. But as with so many things...we got there, we bought it (all $100 of it by the way!) and day one was a success, at least according to him. And it was equally successful for Sy who now has Grammie ALL TO HIMSELF!!! It doesn't get any better. So here is what Day 1 looks like at the Schlattmann house! And it wouldn't be the same if Gus (aka Rat Dog) wasn't in the picture. I would like to report that every day is a great day for our family, but reality is that some days are better than others. Somedays Jake and Sy and great friends, some days more like great enemies. Somedays Jake is excited to see Sy, today..not so much. Somedays we roll through the day thinking..wow all is well with our transition to two kiddos and somedays...well somedays... Sy has learned so much English though... he is amazing. To think that we have been home with him for only 4 months and that he has a near normal vocabulary, has good gross and fine motor skills and has mastered the art of whining...who would have THUNK it! (I think THUNK should be a word).