Potty Training and all its glory

I think my family would attest to the fact that my potty training skills leave little to be desired. I simply am not a patient person. I could never train animals of any kind, much less be able to "teach" my son the ABC's of using the potty. In the end, it is understood that I am the one who is being trained, not Sy. Today is a great example of that....I have been working diligently to listen for any tell tale signs that Sy would need to use the bathroom. He has me so figured out that during Jake's swimming lessons, we went to the potty at least 6 times. Sy uses some broken Russia and says "Mama, piska" (and I could tell he was enjoying this) A fun little game for him all because I don't want him to "fail" and wet his pants. Any child psychologists out there would tell you (and me) that I have the issues...and they are right. That couldn't be any more clear than the fact that both of my boys have developed the talent of holding their bowel movements for up to three days! This my guess is due to my constant question of "do you need to poop?" followed by "oh let's try", or some other verbiage I use to try and force them to go. At last, the pediatrician gave me the insight I was so desparately searching for....Sara..there are some things you can't make them do, and pooping is one of them. So there ya go, now I KNOW. 6 years into this and FINALLY I am on the right page! We celebrate, we do the potty dance, we say Good Job, we say Molladeetz (good boy in Russian, or so we think). But in the end, I am exhausted and Sy is oblivious. One a brighter note...we use less diapers! We just wash more clothes :( And even more fun than just every day potty training is getting to also teach them how to pee standing up. Jake likes to demonstrate of course, but the success rate is small and generally leaves us changing clothes more frequently. Yikes. Did I mention that I am not a patient person?

A Busy Life, But a Good One!

Long overdue on posting any pictures. Last week was our town celebration and so Jake was able to ride in the parade and then the National Guard brought some pretty cool equipment and we were able to check it all out.

Sy has fallen in love with animals and now most recently has taken a liking to horses. He went for his first ride with Jake and then was able to "ride" on his own. Very exciting for all of us because we were wondering if he would ever want to be a "cowboy"! If you can look close you will see he also has on his new cowboy boots. Watching him slip slide around in those was quite entertaining. He quickly realized they were not as comfy as his tennies!



Life is good. Although BUSY is the best way to describe our new life, perhaps it was always BUSY but never as noticable as when you have a two year old who is equally as BUSY!

Days then weeks then months....Oh My!

I thought I would be so diligent posting to this blog, but have not. It is not that there is nothing to report, just more about me not getting it done (like so many other things in my life!). But I am happy to report that Sy and the rest of us are doing very well. He is thriving and healthy. In the short few months since we have been home he has gained a couple pounds, and went from being scared of nearly everything to fearing nothing! And he likes to put everything in his mouth EXCEPT the food we put on his plate! I have never seen such a thing. He is a tough little guy when it comes to most things....he has already had two shiners due to playing with with the cousins. And he is at the perfect height to run in to so many things. His latest "Ouch" came as he went down the slide at Grammies house. They had strategically placed a dog bed at the bottom to soften the landing. Well apparently if you are going too fast when you go down the slide, the dog bed will act more as a trampoline and you will then propel yourself off of it and onto a much harder face landing, particularly if you forget to use your hands to shield yourself! When I first saw him, he looked at me and say "Mama Ouch". I would agree with that! ..................We are also seeing the beginning stages of "cowboy Sy." He has taken a real liking to Jake's horse and to his new cowboy boots (compliments of a loan from Ronna). So...once we get him a cowboy hat there will be no turning back. .....................Jake is growing like a weed and is the best big brother. He has perfected the art of snatching things out of Sy's hand (picture that meltdown!). He also loves to "set the trap" as he calls it. This game, also not one of Sy's favorites results in Jake getting to play with the toy that Sy is currently playing with (because of course that is Jake's favorite!) and Sy having a meltdown once he realizes what has happened. Parents all love this game, and might know it better as "bait and switch". They have also created their own word..."maneenee" which means "switch toys". This is not always sucessful and may result in one mad Jake Schlattmann when Sy opts to not "maneenee" when asked........... Jake is in baseball right now and loves it. Although game 1 was cancelled due to the monsoon rains that we are experiencing! Greybull, typically an area of less than 7 inches of percipitation all year, has become a tropical forest with rain and snow wreaking havoc on all sorts of things, particularly my SEPTIC SYSTEM!!!! Enough said about that! .........................Jake is having to take on a lot of extra duty assignments with a new brother and this has resulted in both positive and negative outcomes. Apparently his attention span is not as long as I had hoped, resulting in many times where "looking out for little brother" goes by the wayside and morfs itself into "fun things Jake will do instead". This is Jake reminding me that in fact he is 6 not 16 and babysitting is not in his future! Point taken.

4 weeks home, but who's counting!

I have found it harder and harder to keep up the blog, even though I love that it is going to be a living document for Sy and Jake when they are older (and presumably care what I have to say). As I have mentioned, Sy has settled right in and he and Jake are much like typical siblings, laughing together, Sy crying, Jake telling me that Sy gets all the attention, Jake taking toys from Sy (jake laughing, Sy crying). So all and all, it seems to be going quite well. ........I will note that eating has been a real struggle. Not that Sy is not eating, but his pickiness leads to limited choices. Our attempts to have him branch out have been largely unsuccessful and met with some criticism at our approach. Dean and I are in unchartered water and so we have tried many options, much of them failing. We of course want what is best for Sy and think that the broadened food selection would help him begin to thrive. Unfortunately, Sy does not agree! On the brighter side, he has branched out to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ham sandwiches (although not thrilled) and is a firm believer that Smore Pop Tarts are their own food group! ........ We went to visit Aunt Katy and family and had a wonderful time. Jake and Sy both wished they could stay. I on the other hand was eager to head out but only because the flood waters were reaching all time highs and as much as I love to see my sister, the vision of spending an undetermined amount of time in Winnett was making me anxious at best. .....Sy continues to repeat much of what we say and his vocabulary is growing tremendously. His latest is...."Cat come see me" a direct quote from me, who each morning begins with "Sy come see me". So there ya go, he is something! More and more he is puting names to faces. Dean has gone from mama to DaDa (unless he wants something). Deeuuuanne (as Sy would say it) is very popular, in fact I think if he had a choice Deeuuuanne might be at the top of the list. Pipeee, Shake (Jake), Ogan (Logan), Sibneee, and Sef are all well identified. And of course Grandpa and Grammie are all time favorites. If you want to get him to "come see me", then do as Grandpa has done and say "ready". That is a signal that you plan to through him up in the air for the next 10 minutes with each landing Sy saying.....Rebby . Caution...once you start you had better be prepared for quite an arm workout. He doesn't give up this game easily................Jake is in the home stretch of school and also for his cast. He is excited for both to come to an end. I can't believe he is already through with Kindergarten. Yikes!

3 WEEKS

I can't even believe that we have been home for three weeks with Sy. Time is flying by and he is doing amazing. He continues to repeat everything we say and mixes some Russian in just to throw us off I think. We just say...uh huh...what else do you say? He and Jake have been getting along real well. They don't share well, but I think that is LIFE. They handle it better than I do. Sy's feet have nearly healed. We starting applyng both the medicine and some Cortizone for the itching. He has gone to removing his socks during naps and at night and generally he puts at least one sock on his hand. Not sure what that is about, but whatever. Sy loves the outdoors and the students in Mrs. Kunkles class brought us a great gift basket with Sy size rake, shovel and hoe. It is perfect for the giant dirt pile as well and Jake doesn't seem too interested in them. Win-Win! I spend a lot of time in the car trying to figure out what it is that Sy is wanting from the back seat. Look out people on the road, I am definitely a distracted driver! Yikes. It appears that Sy has found a new volume level that we had not heard much before. When he gets excited...well look out because the pitch is an octave higher and the volume is somewhere near 30 on your TV monitor! And boy does he get wound up sometimes..........He pouts a lot, but we continue to "ignore" it and he comes back around pretty darn quick! He is an emotional roller coaster that can go from Silly happy to whiney in less than a second. I am not complaining because he is primarily happy and a joy to be around. ..............Dean and Sy have had the opportunity to spend an abundance of time together as I have returned to work. His favorite game is "Papa Tickle". They seem to really have fun together although Dean is chomping at the bit to get some work done that is often difficult to do with a two year old. He loves books and is getting pretty good at the English words for many animals as well as trucks, tractors, and now we are working on body parts. We are blessed with two wonderful boys and although both Dean and I agree we are EXHAUSTED....I wouldn't change it for the world.

Life...

It has been awhile I think since I posted. I had such good intentions, but life seems to have taken over. All is well in the Schlattmann household. We have two beautiful little guys who play together, fight, take things from each other, laugh, argue (Da...Nyet...Da...Nyet). Tonight Jake asked me when Sy and I would be going somewhere....I wasn't sure how to take that...he said, ya know wouldn't that be a great mothers day gift for you to be able to go somewhere? I said...by myself?...He said, no take Sy with you! So long story short, Jake wonders when I will take Sy so things can be like they used to be....gotta love it! My school friends had a baby shower for me last week. It was SOOOOO great and I was happy to be able to introduce them to Sy. He was quite a trooper and had plenty of things to say. I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends, coworkers and community to live in. Sy is a little Parrot (is that the bird that repeats?). Hello..good bye, I cuv (love) you . please...thank you, say your welcome (as opposed to "your welcome") corse (horse) sow (cow) Yeddy (our dog eddie). But still a big fan of "Oooooh MaMa...Saaaabaaaakaaa (dog), followed quickly by...good dog! Grammie is the all time favorite of course....and Uncle Duane seemed to be a close second. Jake wants to lift him up and carry him places. The more I don't want that, the more he wants that! Yikes....but Jake doesn't seem to have any trouble carrying all 23.5 lbs of Sy! Sunday we met up with the Leonhardt family and met their two little boys who were also adopted from Russia. It was so great to see how they are thriving and how happy they are. We know we have been blessed with a good transition thus far, and hope that Sy will grow, grow grow over the next year, like these two little guys have! Dawn was kind enough to bring down lots of clothes for me to pick through before puting them in a yard sale. We are set! Thank you thank you to all who have given us clothes and toys and money and you name it! We also were treated with a small pedal tractor and wagon from the school friends. Now I just have to talk my husband into assembling. You should have seen the look on his face! Yikes...I am praying for another rain day and perhaps it will inspire him! Sy still has lots of coping mechanisms that he is using and has tested us a lot by crying, flopping on the floor, and out right Nyetting us! We are holding strong most of the time and he seems to come right out of it. Sometimes it is hard though. On Mother's Day I mourned the loss of my mother this past fall and was most saddened by the fact that she didn't get to meet this amazing little boy. She would have gobbled him up and he would have stole her heart! It is the little things in life that make me miss her the most!

Update

I had intended to update this much more often but really things are just plodding along at a slow steady pace. Sy has adjusted well. His biggest issue that I see is his somewhat constipated lifestyle. But the more we can get him to eat, I hope this will get better. He loves bathes. He wants one all the time. Today I gave him his first haircut since we adopted him. It went really well and then we had a bath, so that might have been his incentive. My next post will be a photo post. I just need to find some time! Geez. I am working half days and Dean is sharing the duties with me. There just is not enough time in the day it seems. His vocabulary is expanding (or at least his understanding). he repeats most everything and so it won't be long. Sabaka and Kisha (dog and cat) are still major parts of his vocabulary. I wish everyone got to see his personality. In groups it is not there but at home he is a ham! He has some crazy facial expressions and he and Dake (Jake) go back and forth with them. Sy was once pretty fearful of the dogs but now has decided he likes them. Good dog is his favorite thing to say, but it his way of saying "get a way". he takes on a low voice and says "DOWN". It is real funny. He has taken a liking to tractors (that will warm my dad's heart) and trains. Both of which can be a sore spot since Jake will claim that they are REALLY his toys. This is the side of the sibling thing that is not so pleasant!