School is Out!!

School is out for the summer now. Max graduated and will go on to Kindergarden and Olivia and AJ will be in Preschool two days a week next year. We have them signed up for a couple of fun summer camps and vacation bible school at our church. We will be taking a family trip to Indiana this summer to see family and we are hoping that on the way there or on the way back we will get to stop by the Overstreet's in Illinois who just returned from Vlad with their son Blake. We are so excited because some friends of ours, the Fridley's, decided to take the journey to adopt a little girl from Russia. We wish them all the best for a smooth and speedy adoption.

As for us, so far this summer, Max has been doing very well at baseball. He has lost two teeth since we have been home. He has been catching fish like crazy anytime Eric gets the chance to take him and just went swimming for his first time in a lake at Becky's mom and dad's. He is looking forward to swim lessons and spending all his time fishing and swimming. Olivia did great at her school program. It was a King of the Jungle theme and her favorite song now is "No More Monkey's Jumping on the Bed." She is a princess in the making with a very serious shoe fetish. It is really funny though because as much of a princess as she is, she loves to go fishing and play baseball with Eric. She is 95% English now and talks our ears off!!! It is really funny because if either Max or Olivia say something in Russian that the other knows the English word for they are very quick to correct and use the English word instead. They are starting to get aggravated with one another for speaking Russian sometimes. Now for AJ's turn. Mr. Smiley. He is just happy go lucky 90% of the time. He just does his own thing. He loves animals, bugs, and BALL (any kind of ball). Hopefully he will make lots of money someday as some sort of ballplayer. He also loves to fish and we thought would love to go swimming too but swimming in the lake was not something he liked. Maybe by the end of summer he will warm up to it but so far that is the only thing he hasn't liked. He is a flipping fool, literally. He flips everywhere, in the bounce house, in the grass, off the couch and even in the sand pit! He is starting to speak very well since he had surgery so we think by the end of summer he will be talking nonstop too.

It has really been great seeing all of them grow physically and emotionally. They are making such amazing progress here. We see changes almost on a weekly basis. We are all looking forward to a great summer as a family!

Time Flies

Where does the time go. I can't believe it has been almost 5 months since we became a family. It is amazing how much the kids have changed during that time. It really feels like we have had them for their whole lives. I am really going to miss when AJ gets to big to rock to sleep. I just love that quite time with him. Since he had his tonsils and adnoids out he is like a new little boy. He was always pretty happy before even though he could hardly breathe but now his nose does not run at all and he speaks so much clearer. Olivia is just our little princess (she is princess Dora right now!). She wants everything done for her and loves to be pampered. She has a shoe fetish too. She is constantly changing her shoes and can sit in her room for a long time trying them all on. Her feet are so little though that it is hard to find shoes that fit good for her right now. She learned the word "why" from someone (boy would I like to get my hands on that someone!) so she says this after everything I ask her to do. You can pretty much have a conversation with her in English now and she does not miss a beat. She wants to know what everything is. Max is just sweet Max. He started baseball last week and had two hits and scored two runs. He is not really all that into it though so maybe that will come with age. The toothfairy came to visit on the same night the Easter Bunny came. He lost his front bottom tooth and the other is on its way out today or tomorrow. We went to see a pediatric dentist a week ago and by the time he was done telling me everything he needed to do to Max's teeth I had to ask if he would have any teeth left. I know he just has to be miserable but he never complains about his mouth hurting. I can't understand why we pay for insurance though when they don't want to cover things that need to be done. Our medical insurance does not want to cover Max going to a surgery center to be put under to have all the dental work done. It is very frustrating. He is very into the computer and tv games. He could sit for hours if we let him.
We had the best day on Sunday. We started out at the zoo. It is so great to see them get excited about the animals. The one thing Max has wanted to see the two times we have gone is the lions and I am not sure where the lions are hiding but we have been all over the zoo looking for them. Maybe next trip. They fell asleep on the way home so we stopped by our friends TJ and Frana's house and they asked us to come back for dinner and go fishing. The kids were so excited to go fishing and could hardly stand to be home. The pictures say it all. The kids had a blast! Olivia was the one catching most of the fish at first (which made Max mad) but then the fish really started biting and everyone was catching fish.