Go, Dora, Go!

Just a quick note...something that I found really cool...

This morning, I decided to turn on Nick Jr. for Bear Cub to watch a little of Dora the Explorer. Well, as soon as I turned it on, Dora and Swiper (for those who watch this show, I have NO idea why she was with Swiper...that's usually not the case!) were landing in a hot air balloon in no other than RUSSIA!!! Dora even taught the kids how to say hello in Russian, "Privyet!" Bear Cub really tuned into it because I acted so excited and interested, too. Turns out Dora was on some adventure to get magical bracelets to different countries around the world.

Just wanted to give a little "Kudos!" to Nickelodeon for depicting Russia in a positive light for kids. How awesome! :)

Thank heaven for vacuums....

Ok...so for those of you who have ridden in my vehicle as of late, you will appreciate this! I finally vacuumed it this morning! Woo-hoo! I swear, I have been saying for at least 2 months, "This weekend...I'm vacuuming!" But lo and behold, I would never do it. But today was the day! And I will admit that there were enough Cheerios, fruit snacks, crushed crackers, and Lord only knows what else mixed in, to feed a small country.

Today's little bit of satisfaction for me: The wondrous sounds of crunchy things being sucked into a vacuum. :) What a sweet, and yet disgusting sound, it is!

The latest...

My little Slim Jim running towards the sprinkler this morning.

Hi everyone! Hope your week is off to a good start. It's been busy for us the past few days. Over the weekend we had a great time playing at our neighborhood pool. We are so proud of how well BC is doing with his swimming. He will now jump in to us (without holding our hands!) and even do about 5 kicks or so to swim back and forth between us. It's awesome to see him swimming like this! We still have a long way to go, but just the fact that he loves the water so much makes us happy. We've really been having fun at the pool these days.

Yesterday, we went to Sea World and met up with Little Miss, Aunt J, and another toddler and her mama. It was a scorcher out and it seemed like everyone around here is trying to get in one last trip to a theme park before school gets going. It was very crowded. But the great thing about Sea World is that you don't have to wait in any lines and a lot of the exhibits are indoors, so you do have a chance to cool off. My free pass that I got for being a Florida teacher is about to expire at the end of the month, so I hope to get us back there at least one more time. Bear Cub absolutley loves it and is so interested in all of the animals there. It's a really good learning experience and he has so much to talk about after we've been. Unfortunately...I FORGOT my camera at home! GASP!!! I couldn't believe it, but by the time I realized it was at home, we were too far on the road. Oh well. You can believe that he had a great time and slept like a rock last night from all the fun. :) Me too.


This morning we had two of his friends come over for a little play date and that also went really well. I was proud to see him share his toys without any fuss and the kids had fun playing in the frog pool and the sprinkler. He's sleeping now --- ready for a nap after being on the go so much.


As for the rest of the week, no real plans until Saturday morning when we are going up to Jacksonville to visit my best friend from WAY back and her family. Her little boy is just 4 months older than BC and the last time they were together they had a blast. We're excited about that and I'll be SURE to bring my camera and get lots of pics of our boys together.


Have a great week!

This is it...

Well, everyone, this will officially be the last "anniversary" date that I think I'll be blogging about from the past year with Bear Cub. August 2, 2007, we happily landed in Tampa, after a long journey home. It was about 6:00 a.m., so we had had a long couple of days worth of travel. Boy, was I glad to step off that plane and know that our travels were complete! Here are a few pictures from our arrival home. What a great feeling it was to be back in Florida with our new son!

I may not talk about all of these important dates in the future, but you can be assured that these dates will be etched into my mind forever. I have a feeling that in 30 years from now, I will remember August 2, 2007, and it will put a big smile on my face. Precious days, precious memories. Thank goodness the human brain is an effective storage container. I want to hang on to these FOREVER.

Meeting his Mimi for the very first time as we stepped off the tram in the airport.

A big smile from our little man! The day we arrived home, he also got to meet his Aunt A and Aunt S...unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that. I think I was beyond exhausted at that point and wasn't thinking about getting the camera out. You can see that he was happy to finally be free and have some space to scoot around!

A letter from one year ago...

Here he is...our laughing, and always-on-the-run, Bear Cub!

I was just looking back on old emails (yes, I still have ALL my Russia emails saved in my inbox) and saw this one, dated July 31, 2007. It was the very end of our Russian adventure and we were about to head home the next day. It's amazing to reread my words and think about all that we've accomplished in the last year. I did indeed print all my emails that were written while in Russia, and they are safely stored in a notebook that I continually work on for Bear Cub. So enjoy a little look back in time, as all of our "year-mark" anniversaries are about to come to an end. No longer is it an adoption adventure for us, but just the wonderful, extraordinary adventures of family life. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Hi everyone…one last time from Vladivostok! Our day to head home to the USA has finally come! Like I've said before, it's kind of hard to believe. We've been gone close to 4 weeks now….and what a four weeks it's been! We are still busy packing things up around here. It's pretty hard to know what to bring on the plane with us – lots of baby food, diapers, toys and extra clothes! I'm sure we'll do fine. BC slept really well last night and we'll try to wear him out today before our flight. By the time we leave Seoul, it will be close to his bedtime, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that he will be able to sleep peacefully on that long leg of our trip. We can make it through regardless. As soon as the plane touches down in L.A., he will be an official US citizen. What an awesome moment that will be for us all!

Thank you for following our story as we've been here. It's been great to record our days by email --- I've saved them all on the computer and will print them out for BC to have one day. This has been my form of a journal and it's been a fun way to chronicle our experiences here.

It's raining here today, just as it was the day that we arrived. Maybe that's just the way it's supposed to be? It's come around full circle for us. Except now we leave as three. I think I will feel a bit of sadness as we leave here. Vladivostok will always hold a special place in our hearts. A city that I had never heard of before our adventure began will now forever be a part of us. This is the birthplace of our son and our family. How can we not treasure it?

As this part of our journey comes to an end, we know that this is really a new beginning for us all. And so our story continues…..

From Russia with much love,
K, W, & Bear Cub

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Here's wishing my beautiful mama a very happy birthday, with a joyous year ahead! I love you with my whole heart and am so proud to be your daughter. You are more than just my mother, but my true friend. And I thank you for all that you are and all that you do. Hugs and kisses always!

Books...a steady love for Bear Cub

Reading with Daddy and Zoe - notice his arm draped around Zoe. He loves that lil' girl pup!
Our new bedtime routine - reading books on the couch while drinking his milk from his sippy cup. Yes, last week we officially said "So long!" to the nightly bottle. He was ready - it was Mama that was hanging on. He has had no issues and is happy to drink his milk this way. :)

As I was reading to Bear Cub tonight, I said to Daddy Bear, "You know, I heard you are supposed to read to a toddler for at least 15 minutes a day." We looked at each other and agreed at the same moment, that we read WAY more than that each day. We are so thrilled with BC's love of books and just hope that it continues throughout his entire life.

Some of Bear Cub's current favorites include, but of course are not limited to:

My Truck is Stuck! - Kevin Lewis

The Stray Dog - Marc Simont

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go - Richard Scarry

Soon I hope to post some of my current summer reads. I've read some really great books in the last few months. I still need to figure out how to put one of those sidebars on the blog for "Books Read." Another goal for another day, I guess!

Have a wonderful week ahead!

Here's hoping you all have a book on your nightstand that entertains and feeds your mind and your soul! :)