Tumbling - the aftermath

This is what happens when your child starts tumbling classes, the mattress suddenly becomes a trampoline and your child a jumping bean. We are **this close** from turning the bed around so that taller rail faces the outside.

On another subject, Nick was just tested by First Steps, Indiana's Early Intervention Program. He didn't qualify. I knew the gross motor, fine motor, social and cognitive skills were on target but wondered about the speech. They told us they had no concerns, especially with him learning two languages. This re-iterated what my speech-pathologist friend in Chicago had already told me.

We also had the opportunity to speak at our agency's (FTIA) informational meeting this past Saturday and share our experience. Lots of families considering adopting from Russia... yaaay!!!

A Year Ago Today

We got "the call". It was approximately 5:15 PM and I was walking out of my downtown office. I remember looking at the caller ID and wondering what FTIA could want. In the time it took me to press the green button on my phone to take the
call, I had run through what the next couple of days looked like, and wondered whether or not I could get one more document ready before we left for Europe two days later -- surely this call was about more paperwork, not a referral, we had submitted our dossier a mere 32 days before!

"We have a baby" - those were Inessa's first words after our "hi, how are you's?" were exchanged. I remember sitting right here during the most beautiful September afternoon and wondering how I was going to make the drive home. More importantly, how I was going to get up and walk to the car, my entire body weight had dropped to my legs.

I had to rush home to the pictures that I had been reluctant about. Bill and I had talked about not wanting to see pictures before meeting our referral. We didn't want to get attached to a baby before we knew he was going to be ours; after all, we didn't have any medical history on him. I told Inessa this and in her cute Russian accent she quickly responded "but you have to see him, he has the cutest cheeks!". After pelting her with 1000 questions, I hung up and called my friend Katie to tell her I wouldn't be going to tennis that night. The next call was of course to Bill and the grandparents.

During the next 48 hours I/we managed to:

- pack all of our adoption paperwork to take to Europe so we could make travel arrangements from there - good thing for the time difference, telephone in the apartment in Florence, and cheap calling cards!

- travel out of town to see a client two hours away - thanks Karla for driving so I could make 10,000 phone calls.

- arrange for Dr. Staat to review the limited information we had on Nicholas.

- get Visa applications ready to go so we could send for our Visas the day after we got back from Europe, 5 days before our departure for Russia.

- get our house somewhat picked up as we would only be home for 5 days after getting back from vacation.

- pack for two weeks in Europe.

On September 21 we took off for our 15 day European adventure.

On October 6 we returned home.

On October 13 we left for Novokuznestk, Russia

On October 15 we landed in Novokuznetsk, Russia and met the love of our lives....

The rest is history.

One Year Ago

Today

Rare sighting...

He never keeps a hat on, which kills me, because
I think he looks so flippin' cute with one on...

Goats and cows and horses.... oh my!

Yes people, I took Nicholas to the State Fair. I have told several of you over the phone and in person, and I know you are still picking up your jaw from the floor. The things motherhood makes you do ***sigh***. It was a spur of the moment decision, hence the lack of pictures from the fair. Nick had an ENT appt a week ago Friday, and right after that, we trekked down to the Fairgrounds. Nick was in looooove with the goats at the fair. Don't get me wrong, he liked all the animals in the barns, but the goats were his favorite. He even got to pet a baby goat.

In keeping with the farm theme, last Sunday we took Nick to the Traders Point Creamery. This place is a real gem, and just a 10 minute drive to our house. They milk their cows daily at 4:00 PM, so we went to see that, and to enjoy some fresh ice cream. The grounds at The Creamery are absolutely gorgeous. If you have a Whole Foods, you should be able to get their products. Their yogurts, milk (especially the chocolate milk) and cheeses are to die for.

And to round up our farming days, we spent some time picking apples at Stuckey Farms in Sheridan. We have been going to Stuckeys to get our produce for the past three or four years. Now that our time is more limited, we stick to our local Farmers Market. However, we wanted to let Nick roam around the farm and ride the tractor. Needless to say, he had a great time, despite the heat.

We have been kicking back the past couple of weekends, well, kicking back is a relative term. Nick got some more pool time with daddy and continues to do well overall. His six month checkup at Cincinnati Children's Hospital was on the 11th of this month, and we had a great evaluation. He is now on the charts for both weight and height, and right on target developmentally. We are going forward with speech therapy, just to give him some additional help as he learns two languages, so that's our next project. Can't wait to get him talking, considering how much he babbles and jibbers, this should be fun!

Looking forward to cooler temperatures and fall weather, definitely my favorite season! And, the one year mark from meeting our sweet Nicholas.

I am trying a Bubbleshare slide show in lieu of pictures, just too lazy to load them all up. Hope you like it!


BubbleShare: Share photos - Create and Share Crafts

Gotcha Day ~ 6 months later & first post placement visit

The pictures in this post speak 1000 words! It was 6 months ago on Friday that we became the Brockmann Trio. Today, the child with the empty look, hesitation, and unwilling to trust; who walked out of Baby Home #1 with us, is no longer there. Nick is vibrant, happy, loving, and full of energy. We certainly had our bumps along the road as we molded together, but I must say, it has not been nearly as tough as I thought.

We took these yesterday after dinner. Nick was clearly not interested in going to bed yet. I spotted an empty laundry basket in the laundry room, and the light bulb went off! We used to pull full laundry baskets using a belt back in the day, when we had to haul our laundry to the basement, living at the Purdue dorms.... so I figured this could also work as a "special car" and be fun with a toddler. He enjoyed it and then the next problem was getting him to go to bed. Yep, no good deed goes unpunished.

All along we thought we were making progress with attachment, and we were re-assured last week by our social worker that have indeed come a long way! We had our first post placement visit last weekend. Wasn't it just yesterday that the three of us (J, Bill and I) were sitting down to coffee getting ready to start our home study? Nope, that was March of 2007, but it sure feels like yesterday.

Our social worker assured us that Nick is doing great with attachment and is on par developmentally. She also noticed some personality traits that we had also noticed, and that funny enough, Bill and I also exhibit. He is very determined and independent. He will be the kid who will try to do everything on his own first before he asks for help... we can deal with that! We definitely have fun years ahead of us with 4 Type-A personalities under one roof... I say 4 because even the dog is stubborn... I mean... determined.

Nick's birthday weekend (2 weeks, 2 days ago)

(yes I wrote this a while back and I finally getting around to downloading the pics from the camera...)

Oddly enough, Nick does not care for cake of frosting, he just wanted to kiss Elmo!

Enjoying his new sandbox

All equiped to hit the course

It was a good good weekend for the Brockmann trio. We finally had time to kick back and relax. Nick didn't get to see fireworks this year, after running around all day, he was ready to call it a day at 8:00, and with DST, fireworks don't start till 9:00 around here. Will try again next year.

On Saturday, Nick and I spent our morning at the Farmer's Market. He, of course, enjoyed being outdoors and called every dog he met by our dog's name. I have been wanting to get out to the market to pick up some seasonal vegetables for Nick.

Then it was on to Classic Cakes to pick up his birthday cake. Judging by his reaction when he saw it, I say I made a good choice by picking out an Elmo cake. To put it simply, Nick squealed at the sight of Elmo. After Costco and Target, it was back to the house for nap time. While we trekked around town all morning, Bill hit the golf course and according to him "hit pretty well". Now he just needs to get out there again soon! See, this is the benefit of tennis, you get a couple of sets done in an hour. Well, at least I do, now those guys at Wimbledon playing the longest match in Wimbledon's history on Sunday, that's a different story.

On Sunday, Nick's paternal grandparents came to visit and bring Nick his big birthday present - a sandbox! This sandbox is set to provide hours of entertainment. It was a good thing we had everyone (mom, Bill's sister and her fiance) come up in the afternoon and wait till after nap to start the festivities, I am pretty sure Nick would not have napped if he had seen the sandbox in the morning.

After spending a couple hours outside, it was back in the house for cake. While the cake was delicious, Nick showed no interest in it, and even turned his nose when we tried to feed him some. I am sure that will change someday, no rush to get him to like cake.

So other than Federer's defeat in Wimbledon it was a great weekend. While it was the best tennis match I have ever seen, I really wanted to see Roger take Wimbledon for the sixth year in a row.

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

My baby turned 2 today! I can't believe I have to start buying T-lettered clothes, no more month-sized clothing. We celebrated with a cupcake, the big cake is coming Sunday when we celebrate with Nick's grandparents, aunt and soon to be uncle.

While you see Nick enjoying his cake here, I should tell you that after one bite, he was done. Maybe he is not a fan of chocolate cake. Grandpa Brockmann, should we claim an early victory here!?!?!?!