Howdy, all!

Hello there!  Wow...where did February go?  Happy March!  It's been a busy few weeks for us.  Hate to rub it in, Northern readers, but we are back in the pool again, enjoying the sunshine and Spring.  It has been gorgeous!  And I am so happy to say that Bear Cub still has his mad swimming skills...need to find that boy a swim team!  Seems like most of them start at age 6, but I'm going to keep looking!

Bear Cub had to miss a couple of days of school last week due to strep throat.  It is amazing how quickly he got over that once he had antibiotics!  Thank goodness for modern medicine!  He went back to school last Friday and we then met up with Mimi at a yummy Spanish restaurant and did some shopping (well, more looking than anything else!) at IKEA.  That was fun!  BC wanted to go into the kids play area there...it was awesome!  We dropped him off (with IKEA supervision, of course) and had 45 minutes to poke around and look at what we wanted to.  I was just so proud that he wasn't afraid to try that and he LOVED it!

Last weekend, we met up with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt S, Uncle T, and cousin A for a fun meal out and play time at the mall for the kids.  BC must've ran 10 miles that night around and around that play area!  Wow!  He was  a sweaty mess by the time we left.  :)

This week has been a good one so far...life is SO busy.  My work is going well, but it is a lot of just that...WORK.  We seem to have adjusted to our new schedule here at home and I am thankful to have such a wonderful husband that will do so much to help me.  He does a lot!!  :)

Enjoy the few pictures here!  I need to get back to my old photo-taking ways...BC is so active that it is sometimes hard to catch him to take a picture!  He's been riding his bike a lot and of course, hitting the pool...so I am constantly RUNNING to keep up with him and always have a watchful eye on him when he's in the pool.  Most of the time I'm in too...tossing him, giving him "turtle rides," or playing some kind of fetch game with whatever critter he has brought with him.  He is one BUSY boy!  :)

 Looking so handsome in his new shirt before school yesterday!  Busy reading his snake book before we left...

Relaxing with Zoe...watching some TV

 Zooming on the firetruck ride at the Fair a few weeks ago

 YUMMY cotton candy!  :)

Have a great rest of the week!!

Happy, happy Valentine's Day!

Hi there!  I hope your week is off to a great start.  What better way to start the work week than with VALENTINE'S DAY!  :)  Bear Cub was THRILLED with his new Phineas and Perry the Platypus stuffed animals.  The boy LOVES the Disney cartoon, "Phineas and Ferb."  I have to admit...I do too!  It's pretty funny, yet still not TOO big kid-ish for my lil man.

BC also had a Valentine "Friendship" party at school which he said was "very fun."  He was excited about his Valentine cards and most definitely the CANDY!  He went from no sweet tooth to a mouth full of them!  Ha!  Takes after his mother there.  ;)

Sorry for my short blog -- I will update again with pics from last week's trip to the fun Florida State Fair!

 He look so big in these pictures!  My baby!  I know I'm biased...but that face!  He is so dreamy!

My homemade Valentine treat!  BC and I couldn't decide between chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie dough to make our cookie cake, so we did half and half!  It was YUMMY!!!  :)

It's Official..for the second time now! ;)

Hi there!  Well, Thursday was our court date to readopt Bear Cub here in the States.  This was an optional thing to do, but it will make HIS life easier as he can know obtain a copy of his birth certificate from the good 'ol US of A, instead of Russia.  :)

It all ran smoothly and it was an easy process!  We were in and out of the courtroom within 10 minutes...at the most!  The judge seemed really nice and he said he LOVED doing these cases as it was for something GOOD instead of what he usually sees.  I'm glad we could brighten his Thursday some!  Bear Cub was a wiggle worm...surprise, surprise.  But thankfully, he is so gosh darn cute and young enough still, that everyone thought he was adorable.  Phew!  ;)  He did shake hands with the judge and answered the few questions he was asked.  All in all, it was a great experience and now truly, the end of the adoption process.  I'm glad we did it!  We'll be getting his new birth certificates within the next few weeks.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday to you!  I don't have a preference as to who wins...usually I enjoy the commercials more than any of it!  :)  Have a good one!

 Getting sworn in...BC did great with the hand raising!

 BC said he was going to make a silly face for this one...and yes, he did!

 Here he is...spinning around and around me while the attorney asked us a few questions.  

 Listening in for a split second?

 Split second GONE...trying to climb into the juror box.  Oh my.  Me...TRYING to pay attention still!

 Shaking hands like a big boy!

A nice picture!  The judge asked BC if he wanted to sit up in his judge's seat.  BC very seriously shook his head 'no.'  I don't think he knew WHAT to think of the guy in the black robe!  Ha!  :)

Friday surprise...Busch Gardens! :)

Hi there!  Look at me!  Look at me!  2 posts in two days!  :)

I picked Bear Cub up from school yesterday as usual but surprised him with an unexpected trip to Busch Gardens.  He'd been talking about going again and we got  the news that his free preschool pass from last year was renewable again this year...FOR FREE!  Woo-hoo!  Love that! My pass is good through April, so I want to take advantage!

Wow, it's great to go during the week...it was so uncrowded and the weather was so pleasant!  I'd say this was  our most successful trip to BG.  Normally, BC is only into the animals, but yesterday he really got into the kiddie rides at the "Sesame Street" play area.  He LOVED the swings, which I knew he would!  He rode twice in a row and yelled out to me, as he whizzed by a few times, "I really.....do like.....these swings....Mommy!"  So cute.

The BEST part of the day for me was when he looked up and smiled and said, "I loved today's surprise, Mommy!"  Now that did my heart good!  :)

Enjoy the pics and have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday! :)

Hi there!  Wow, another week gone by!  Why do the go SO fast?!!?  It's been a good one here...been busy with BC's school and just our daily outings to the park or bike cruise around the 'hood.  :)

Big news...we will officially RE-adopt Bear Cub next Thursday here in Florida!  Yay!  **sigh** Actually, it's quite a silly formality, considering he's been a US citizen since landing in the States back in Aug. 2007 AND he's had a social security card since September of that year.  So, why are we doing this?  Well, it will allow BC to have a US-issued birth certificate...it will still say Vladivostok...we would NEVER want to do away with that awesome truth, but he will now have the ability to easily access copies of his birth certificate.  Something you don't have to do very often in life, but still...the thought of trying to go through RUSSIA to get another copy of his current certificate seems like a daunting task.  We've been wanting to do this for a while and got started on the VERY easy process a few months ago.  So, next week, it will be official...AGAIN!  Ha!  Oh, the bureaucracy of it all. Don't you think he deserved that right of a State issued birth certificate as soon as he was a citizen?  Oh well.  It's almost done!  :)  I'll post pics after the court date.  Oh yes...BC is going with us.  Hmmmm...wonder what that will be like!?!?  Some serious bribes will be put into place!

Funny (and smart!) thing that was said tonight at dinner....

BC:  "Ssssssssssss"  S is for sun!
Me:   Yup!  That's right!  S is for sun!  Do you know how to spell sun?
BC:   No.
Me:  Well, it's S-U-N. Did you know that the sun is really a star?
BC:  Hm-mm...a star that is active during the day!

Very true!  :)

Gosh, I had another cute thing in mind to share, but it has totally left me right now.  If it comes back to me, I'll post again!  :)

Have a great weekend ahead!  No big plans here...maybe a trip to the zoo, which we all enjoy!   I'll get pics up soon!  Promise!

17 days without a post?!?!?! EEK!

Hi there, everyone!  Or maybe just the 2 people that are willing to follow such a bad blogger?  ;)

Oh my...where do the days, weeks, months go?  We are doing really well here - it's just so hard for me to update the blog anymore.  I stay REALLY busy with my work and keeping up with my usual Bear Cub activities.  He's doing great -- really branching out at school...in many ways!  His teacher tells me he explores a lot of different centers these days and is really interacting with the other kids.  I am SO happy!  He seems to enjoy it, although he still LOVES to be at home.  This week he had Monday and Tuesday off, so he was happy to just hang out with me (my lil buddy!) and play, play, play!  He's getting into dinosaurs, creates some pretty cool train tracks and likes to reenact any of his favorite shows with HIS toys.  He really is at a fun age.  :)

Let's see...here's a non-poetic rundown of what we've been up to since my last update!

• BC had a "Winter Gala" at his school last week.  Each class performed a little show for the parents and it was very cute.  He did ok...at first he wanted to sit with me, then I coaxed him up with his class and he decided that he was going to zip in and out of the lined up kids.  **SIGH**  My dilemma....Do I snap my fingers and try to give him the eye to get back in place?  Will that just make things worse?  So, I decided to sit tight and that was the right thing to do!   Once the 3rd poem started, he got right into place (it must've been his favorite one!) and got right down to business!  YAY!  :)  We got that one on video...I'll try to figure out a way to get that on here!
• We went to the manatee center last weekend for an anniversary celebration.  We saw lots of manatees, sting rays, and even 2 little sharks!  Very cool!
• BC is now a speed demon on his bike and I have to RUN to keep up with the boy!  The next thing will be to attempt the no training wheels....hmmmmm...maybe by summertime!
• Drumroll here...Bear Cub is now saying his "G" and "K" sounds!!   :)  Many of you probably don't know that he couldn't say these sounds, but the G sounded like a D and the K/C was a T sound.  We learned a few things to work on with him and it's like it all of a sudden clicked!  He really has to focus on those sounds, but it's amazing to see his determination at getting them right!

Sorry for this very random post, but really I just wanted to say "Hi!" and share some pictures!  I hope to get more organized and back to my good blogging ways soon!  :)

My handsome fishermen!

BC really does have some decent soccer skills!  He got this new ball from Santa...I need to get him signed up for another YMCA league.  He's got a strong kick!

Looking as cute as can be, going into his school the night of the "Winter Gala"

Having fun at the "ice dig" center that night...what a blue, fun, frozen MESS!

The performers! Yes, BC was the only one not wearing the bag vest.  Oh well!  Look at him, front and center!

Coloring his butterfly at the manatee center last weekend

Mama & baby manatee!  So sweet!

We sit down at a picnic table for him to eat some popcorn, and he bends over and picks a FROG up...immediately!  I swear...he has frog radar!

I took a 2 minute phone call yesterday and when I came out to see what he was doing, this is what I found.  YES...he was FINE!  Just fast asleep!  Wow, talk about pure exhaustion to fall asleep like that!  :)  He stayed like this for over an hour!

Photography by Bear Cub

We gave BC a VTech Kidizoom camera for Christmas and he is LOVING it!  I think I mentioned in previous posts that he would always ask me to bring my "good" camera to the park or outside so he could photograph his snakes and other critters outside.  It has been great for him to have his very own camera now!  Although I do think we should buy stock in a battery company....oh my.

So, this is the official debut of some of Bear Cub's own photography skills.  We have LOTS of blurry pictures, but also, LOTS of interesting, creative shots as well.  I hope he'll have a future in photography!  We keep telling him he could travel the world with National Geographic and catch all of those wild reptiles on film...and make money!  :)

Adorable cousin, Mr. O!  We enjoyed a visit with him and his parents the day after Christmas.  Look at those lashes...I am JEALOUS!

Enjoy!