Happy Gotcha Day, Sasha!

"Gotcha Day" is the term used to describe the day that your adopted child was legally and physically yours. Most adoptive parents choose to celebrate this day each year with their child. Often times, parents will select gifts from the birth country and foods from the birth country and make it quite the celebration.

At two, we've decided to make this first 'Gotcha Day' pretty simple. We do have a gift for Sasha that we purchased in the Russian markets with our good friend, Alex. We will officially celebrate "Gotcha Day" tomorrow evening with my father who will be in town visiting his grandson. More importantly than the party, is the opportunity to take a bit of time and revel in how much Sasha has changed from the quiet (it's impossible to remember him as being quiet), serious, angry little boy. The first photo is of a little boy that doesn't realize that his whole world is about to change (notice the teeth marks on this crib ... I should've known!).

Dressed in his denim OshKosh overalls, coat and hat for the trip to Moscow. Ultimately, we had to change him from his cute little outfit as he had an accident and these clothes had to be retired to a ziplock baggie in the trunk to make the drive to Moscow bearable.

He walked to the car, holding Baba's hand. I'm sure he has no idea how excited Baba is to finally have been told that we can finally leave Kaluga and take her grandson with us.

The last photo taken by our good friend, Alex, who saved our lives while we were 'waiting' in Moscow, is of Mom and Sasha and I, ready to make the journey from Kaluga to Moscow. If you look at his face, you can tell he has no idea of the life that awaits him outside the walls of the home that he has known his whole life.

Happy First Gotcha Day, Sasha!

No Sleep for Us ... The Crib is Gone!

After a couple of days of Sasha scaling the outside of his crib to break free from its confines, we decided, sadly that the crib days are over. With great reluctance, we took down the front of his crib tonight converting it into a toddler bed. We flipped over his tattered baby mattress (did I mention that he shredded his water proof mattress cover and his mattress .. and no, we don't allow him to carry a pocket knife yet. He did this with just his little hands, teeth, etc. Shredded, big holes, crazy and we have no idea how he did it. Perhaps we don't want to know.) and added a sheet and big boy pillow to his ensemble.

We went to Target earlier to purchase a guard to add to his bed (on a side admission, it may surprise you to know that I never had a safety rail on my bed. I don't ever remember falling out of bed - not even once, and can't remember any friends or family talking about such an event happening to them either. And, now this is a big shocker - we didn't have ANY electric outlet covers! I know this is crazy but I never stuck my fingers in a socket either. I also don't remember hearing about any unfortunate electricution occurrences to friends or family when I was growing up. So, were there so many safety issues with children when I was growing up that it warrented corner protectors on every sharp object in my house (seriously, they sell plastic covers to go over every hard corner in your house)? How come I never heard about these life threatening situations? Were my obviously accident-prone friends the reason why parents are having to cover their homes in bubble wrap to keep their children safe? Are we raising a population of children that are more accident prone than the ones of the past? Can that somehow be blamed on the added chemicals in food and milk? Pollution? Global warming?)

As Sasha is climbing proudly into his new 'big boy bed', we discover that neither of us has assembled the bed guard. Lord ... this thing is more complex than the crib assembly (I think there is a mint to be made on 'no assembly required' childrens' items. I assure you as a parent of a toddler, we just don't have the mental skills, patience or time to sit and pour over a 30 page guide at the end of the day.) Sitting on the floor, in a sea of white 'bits' that are meant to create this guard we realize that we have two 'extra' bits that Nathan assures me just aren't needed. I guess they were thrown in just to confuse us or as a bonus gift. Finally, we got the guard assembled and installed. Installed we realize that it's as big as the bed which leads us to wonder why we bothered moving him to a big boy bed in the first place. Perhaps this will allow us to sleep soundly for a couple more days until he figures out how to escape from this as well. On second thought, he'll be out of this setup before we get back to our room.

A Great Day at Brookfield Zoo!

We enjoyed a day at the Brookfield Zoo. Nathan took a day off and we had a blast. My favorite animals (since childhood, I'll admit) are the dolphins. How cool would your day be if you got to spend time working with dolphins? Sasha thought they were cool as long as they were in the air but just swimming around - not so much.

We first rode the carousel. Sasha loved it. He'd never ridden one before so we got some great photos. Sasha was able to pet manta rays (well, actually he just splashed in their water but didn't actually touch them). Pictures speak louder than words so I'll let them tell the story of a fun, sunny day at the zoo with a little boy who LOVES animals (and we even met a cicada who wanted to come home with us. It's the year for the 17 year cicadas to return and they were plentiful at the zoo.)

One of the best Sasha moments was discovering that the zoo had an ice cream he had never tasted, Dippin' Dots. His uncle Jason had introduced us to this fabulous ice cream when we visited him at school in Florida a few years ago. It's good stuff and Sasha gave it his stamp of approval.

A Visit to Lamb's Farm (June Catchup)

Nathan worked from home one day so we decided to venture out to Lamb's Farm for lunch a look at their animals. The day was perfect for our first trip to the Farm. Lamb's Farm is a facility that serves people with challenges. They learn skills, work in the shops and restaurants, make crafts, etc.

Sasha LOVES animals so we thought looking around at the animals would be great for him. After lunch, we stopped by the adoption center. A golden lab really connected with Sasha and we were glad he couldn't ask for a puppy.

We then headed to the barnyard which also has a petting zoo.

Sasha met ducks first.

Then he said 'howdy' to the goats.

They even had a tractor to play on. Sasha has learned a lot about farm equipment from his Grandpa Tom. Grandpa Tom lives in Iowa so he's quite the expert on John Deere especially.

We were sure that petting animals would be the highlight but the look on Sasha's face told it all. Hey, these weren't as soft as his Baa or goat. Ick.

And, the piece de resistance, eating ice cream. Sasha's love for ice cream is beyond anything I've ever seen. He had a great day at the farm and then ice cream too. This was a great Sasha day!

Happy 4th of July!

First, my apologies for the long absence from the blog.

I have to admit that the sudden passing of my mother-in-law, Jan or Happenin' Jan (she was always on the go), left me less motivated to write. She, I believe, was my biggest reader and one of my biggest motivators to post frequently especially about Sasha. I have tried several times to write a tribute blog to her but its just too hard right now so I've decided to continue updating the blog and hope someday to write an entry in her honor. We've had a busy couple of months - Sasha on the rope bridge at Cub Scout Day Camp, Sasha's first zoo adventure, a trip to Lamb's Farm, geocaching, a haircut that makes Sasha look at least three, Sasha meeting his Great Uncle Larry, Great Aunt Karen and Great cousins Alie and Dieter plus a whole bunch of other relatives including Jan's Mom, Great Grandmother Minnie. It's been busy, busy, busy.

Today, however, seemed the perfect time to beging blogging again. A year ago today, while everyone else was enjoying the festivities associated with our country's birthday, Nathan and I were sitting in a hot, Kaluga court house in front of a stern-faced judge awaiting her decision on whether we would be able to bring Alexander home to be our son. She granted our adoption but would not waive the 10 day waiting period despite our best efforts to convince her that having Sasha in the U.S. as soon as possible was in his best interest. With mixed emotions we left Kaluga that day to return to Moscow, without our son who had just started recognizing us, to begin our waiting period. For those of you who were with us on that journey, especially the gut wrenching final days in Moscow which I refer to as the "Free Toni and Tamara" campaign. It was quite a journey.

We had our annual post-placement report last week. Our social worker, Christine, sat in silence with her mouth agape as she watched Sasha. After a while, she told me that she couldn't believe that this was the same angry, serious little boy that she had met a year ago. Here was a child that was laughing, having fun just 'messing' with his Mama, liked to be read to and runs around at top speed. This was a totally different person.

I guess it's hard for us to see these kind of changes since we see Sasha each day. I think as you look back of the photos taken on July 4, 2006 and the ones taken yesterday, you'll agree 'what a difference a year has made'.

Sasha enjoying sparklers for the very first time. Boys and fire - the love affair has started early!

We wish you a very Happy Fourth of July!