New Posts

Hey everyone - I've just posted 4 new posts. You'll see 2 below here of pictures that I've been VERY delayed in posting. They are all out of order, but I labeled them. So, you can see how Roman has changed since coming home :) Then, the final one is an update of how things are going.

Hope you enjoy - thanks for stopping by!

Claire

Coming Home Pictures - May 2010

Day 2 or 3 home - I don't remember! :)

He looks shocked! :)

Meeting for the first time

Random Pictures

Roman - July 2010

South Georgia Cousins!

Me, the kids and Mom with Grandaddy - July 2010

Kate - the morning of her bday - July

July 4th

Troublemaker - June

First Family Photo

Sweet Brother and Sister - May

Wes & Roman - Roman wearing Wes's baby outfit

Mother's Day - May 2010

4 Months Home & 6 Month Post Placement Visit

2 more months have gone by since I've posted. I have come to find that it's impossible to find quiet time to update this. The only time I usually have is at night, and I'm too tired to think! Ha! I'm actually at Starbucks now (on a Sat), and Wes is home with the kiddos.

Anyway, I have much to update. Roman is doing fantastic! He has continued to adjust well to our family. He and Kate continue to be typical brother and sister. They love each other, but really love to torment each other as well :)

I took Roman about a month ago for his hearing test....my last dr. appt I needed to do to get him looked at up and down upon arriving home. The audiologist said he had fluid behind his ears, so she wouldn't be surprised if he failed the test. Well, she was right. He only had a partial pass in one ear. So, I took him to the dr., and she put him on some amoxicyllin. We went back in 2 weeks, one ear was better and one was now officially infected. So, she put him on a stronger antibiotic and that cleared it up. He still has constant congestion that she says may be allergies, and so I can give him some Zyrtec once a day. It's strange to me, though how he's had the same congestions since we first met him in Russia. You would think that whatever allergies he has would change with his major change in environment. Oh well....I guess we'll have him tested when we can.

Developmentally, he is doing great. He is all boy and very active climbing, running and climbing some more. He loves to push buttons on the cable box and change the channels....which brings a lot of drama when Kate is watching "her" show. I'm sure that's why he likes to do it :)

The one problem we've had lately is his middle of the night scream-fests. Ugh!! Now when I say scream, I don't mean crying. Roman just happens to wake up in the night and talk VERY LOUDLY! All our bedrooms are clustered together in our house, so we hear him very well. We are SO thankful that Kate sleeps through it.....we think b/c there are closets between their rooms, that it blocks the sound pretty well. We, on the other hand, are across the hall, and the sound travels very well to our room. We just don't get it......why does he have to be SO loud?? The lady at the hearing center said that the fluid behind his ears would also make him sound loud to himself, so he can obviously hear how loud he is too :) Oh well.....hoping this stage passes quickly.

Roman, Kate and I made a trip down to south Georgia in late July to go visit family and most importantly see my granddaddy. I braved the long drive by myself..10 hours in the car with 2 small children. Roman settled in about 4 hours in......did I mention that he doesn't like being restrained? :) Once he settled in the trip went great! The kids had an absolute blast, and we had an awesome time with family.

He is doing great in his 2 day/week school and even gets excited when we pull into the parking lot. His teachers love him to death and say he is so good. I asked if he was loud and dramatic with them too....they said no. ha! He knows several words, but this will hopefully be a continual area of improvement. Here are the words he knows that I can think of right now: mama, dada, K for Kate, hey, hi, bye bye (aka buh bye - with a wave of course), nigh-night for night night, doh for dog, a version of thank you that I can't figure out how to type phonetically....

Kate is the awesome big sister who passes toys to Roman in the car when he can't reach them. She loves to go with me in the mornings to get Roman out of bed. She loves to help me drop Roman off in his classroom. And she loves to tell me at home when Roman needs help with a toy, needs more snack on his tray, etc. etc. You get the picture. Wes likes to call her my Luitenant. One day it was about the 3rd time she had to tell me he was about to mess with the tv buttons. As I was walking toward him she said, "Come on, let's get him!" She cracks us up!!!!

I looked at some pictures yesterday of our 2nd trip to Russia as well some pictures of when we first brought Roman home, and he as changed so much! A lot of it has to do with how much his hair has grown and how he now has 8 teeth coming in. He is still so stinking cute!! Even cuter! Same personality that has just come out more and more as he's gotten comfortable. I remember thinking everyone was crazy who said how much fun they had in Kras, b/c while we were there it was so boring and tedious. But now, I think back on that trip and say "Awe - I miss it." And I realize that it's b/c it's the first time we had to spend with Roman, and he was so new to us. What great and truly fond memories I have of the entire experience.....no matter how stressful and crazy it all was!

So, crazily enough it was time for our 6 month post placement visit this past week. Our report is actually due Oct. 13th, which is 6 mos. from our court date of April 13th. However, we can't have it apostilled more than 20 days from the due date.....they just like to keep it confusing don't they?!

I'll post some pictures in a separate post.