Where the heck is Kazakhstan? That's what we said too.
It's just south of Siberia....and was our destination in May 2006 to adopt Andrew Ishim Taylor.
Then a year later is was off to Guatemala for our scond son, James Westin Taylor.
Ishim is the name of the River we lived next to in Kazakhstan.
Westin is the name of the hotel we stayed at in Guatemala....glad we did not stay at the Intercontinental.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Holy Smokes it's been a long time
Yes, it has been a couple years. The boys are in school now and could use a bit of extra help. Since home schooling is sooo out of the picture, I have turned to the internet. I found a pretty cool web site that I'd like to try out for 6 weeks for about 15 minutes a day, 2 or 3 times a week.
I hope to review this baby for 6 weeks to see if it will pan out for the boys and liven up some of the knowledge gathering aside from boring work books.
K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.
2009- Q1 Yes i have gotten lazy and now do only quarterly posts. Get over it. This Quarter's Top HighLight: after 2 years of trying, Andrew can not roll him tongue. It's only uphill from here.
Art This month’s art collection covers winter, assorted odds and ends. We started off the year with a Christmas Reindeer, and then what I assume is the Chanukah or maybe Kwanza Bunny. Then we moved to Snowman-made-from-can bottoms and the Season of the Sneaker. The sneaker was actually one of Andrew’s finer pieces of work, aside from the Super Scary Hairy Orange Spider that bears some similarity to a chicken.
Pre-sleep rumble I thought bath time was supposed to calm kids down? It seems to be the quiet before the storm. One night the underwear spontaneously flew from the drawers and landed all over the room. James bravely weathered the storm, then passed out on the floor.
Another night I hear a big THUD and come in to find the humidifier in about 10 pieces on the floor with about 2 gallons of water quickly absorbing into the carpet. After re-assembling the humidifier, with most pieces, several weeks later I entered their room, unannounced, to find them sitting on the dresser, daring each other to push it off. Little do they know that the humidifier is the only form of medication they receive when they get colds. We can thank an overzealous media for that.
One night I THOUGHT I heard them making a racket (do I sound like a parent now?) and I just opened the door, looked at them with my German Face, turned off the lights and closed the door. The boys looked stunned, then I heard Andrew say "James… we weren't doing anything?!"
Sleeping Arrangement Can someone remind me why parents go to the effort of purchasing (or in my case swapping furniture within the family) a bed? We have 2 beds and 2 boys, yet James chooses to take over Andrew’s bed. Some how Andrew got pushed to the foot of the bed like a puppy dog.
Then James chose to act out the Monkey Jumping On The Bed book.
They soon grew bored of the bed and chose to lay out every blanket we own on the floor on the bedroom. They seem to be just as comfy sleeping on the floor….makes sense since I slept on the floor for about 4 years as a kid.
Closet Melee I did not realize just how many clothes out children owned until they decided to clear the closet one night. Andrew thought it was great fun, until I made him stay up to SORT the hangers. After about 2 hours he passed out, and so did I. The next evening we spent 4 hours together with him handing me each and every piece of clothing and color coded hanger to put back in the closet. I thought this was punishment, but he seemed to enjoy it way too much. The closets are now on lock down. And when I asked him if he would do it again he said “It’s Mommy’s fault. You forgot to lock the closet”. I have been outsmarted by a 3 year old….again.
Career Move If Naked Customer Service becomes a career path, Andrew is all set.
Pinball The Pinball machine’s future looks a lot brighter now that the boys are playing. It has been removed from the Endangered Species list for the house.
Potty Time I am happy to report that young James is giving potty training a whirl....again. He has the mechanics of it figured out, but does not understand the schedule…..as in get naked and sit on the potty before opening the plumbing pipes. I have been pee’d on more times than I care to remember.
Andrew has now decided that peeing in the corner of the bedroom makes him little brother laugh hysterically. Andrew likes to entertain, and has had repeat performances several nights in a row to mommy’s chagrin. Unfortunately our cat is not taking to Andrew marking his territory, so we have a battle of the boys raging. Is this really my life?
Roo pictures Give a 3-year old a camera and this is what he takes pictures of.
The glaring sun picture is the ceiling fan, also known as ‘sleeping place of beanie babies’. Andrew said he tried all night to get the 2 dogs stuck up there. Good thing he did not turn on the ceiling fan and watch them fly off.
I said “Take a picture of yourself” and he photographed his feet.
I said “take a picture of your brother” and he takes a picture of his hand.
Andrew does not just think outside the box, he can’t even see the box and does not even know it exists.
Naptime Sadly naptime for Andrew has come to an end. We no longer try to get him to nap on the weekends, but sometimes he falls asleep on the sofa in the afternoon with whatever he is playing with. This day it was the (unused) orange toilet plunger. This Home Depot $4.98 item has been a favorite over the years.
Dress code The boys must not have gotten the memo about wearing pants. It just cuts down on the laundry.
Our Alpha Dog At daycare Andrew has taken to sneaking up on the smaller kids in the class and roaring at them, causing them to crap their pants.
At daycare Andrew has started watching his teacher with an Eagle Eye. Whenever she turns her back, he runs and hides. When they can not find him, they have to call the office, declare a Lock Down, and his teachers and 3 directors go on a hunt for Andrew.
When Andrew is misbehaving, his teacher calls the director's office to have her come talk to him (this is new since he used to go to the Director's office which he enjoyed way too much). Once the call has been made, he goes from a spazmaniac, to a sweet little boy sitting on his cot for the pretty lady to come talk to him.
Alpha Dog has been so active at daycare that I know have monthly meetings with 2 organizations and the daycare to coral his behavior. The March meeting was spent covering “Why it is not appropriate to moon your classmates”. I see many Parent-Teacher-Principal conferences in my future.
Random Conversations
Germs James dropped his cereal spoon on the floor. Andrew exclaims "Quick Mommy, pick it up before the germs hop on'.
Why We Need Make French Toast One Saturday morning Andrew was explaining why I needed to make French Toast for breakfast: "You and Daddy went to Kazakhstan to get me, then you went to Guatemala to get James, so we need to make French Toast now." Odd logic, but surprisingly accurate. We never ate French Toast before the boys.
Football When the Eagles were playing the Cardinal in the playoffs Andrew said he saw red birds and white birds. I asked him which bird he liked more and he said "the more better birds". I'll leave it up to the reader to decide which bird that was.
Boo Boo Buddy In a frenzy of active play James ran head on into the corner of a family room pseudo padded chair. He then headed right to the freezer to get the frozen Boo Boo Buddy. Andrew beat him to the freezer, snatched the boo boo buddy and they had this exchange: Andrew: "Where's the hurt?" James: Point to his forehead Andrew: Applies boo boo buddy to his cheek for about 2 seconds then asks "All better now?" James: "Nope" Andrew: Applies boo buddy to his chin and then proclaims "You all better now" James: "Ok" They run off to play.
Black Out Do you have any idea how hard a 2 year olds head is? One night I was leaning down to James’ forehead to give him a good night kiss and he decide to sit up uber fast to surprise me. Our foreheads slammed, I saw a bright flash of light and a head ache emerged. After recovering from the stunning I tried again to give him another kiss good night and WHAM he does it again. Another flash of light and then I blacked out for a couple seconds. Andrew watched all this and was quite concerned and said “Mommy, you need to go to Dr House.”
Fine Arts The boys' exposure to the fine arts is limited to the Disney Channel, but has recently branched out to Nickelodean. We have maanged to escape the evils of Elmo and Barney. This is what is gobbling up our Tivo space:
Bear And The Big Blue House
My Friends Tigger And Pooh (includes Tigger Movie, Piglet Movie and the 1970's Pooh movie)
Handy Manny
Yo Gabba Gabbaa
Mickey's Clubhouse (borders on annoying as Barney)
Little Einsteins (ok, but sure is no Handy Manny)
Next Quarter.....the boys take Walt Disney World by storm.
Christmas The boys thankfully slept in to the ripe old hour of 6:30 on Christmas morning. They still don’t totally get Christmas yet, so we all had a chance to enjoy opening the presents at a leisurely pace. James was quite proud of his backpack, which was a big as he was. And Andrew’s need to help disassemble electronics was curbed with a Handy Manny TV Set you can take apart. The creators were kind enough to make the screws loosen the part allowing the part to be removed without the screw actually coming out.
After presents it was time to move on to breakfast, French Toast again. Here’s a picture of Andrew last year and this year.
By mid afternoon we had moved on to snacks. I could not get the pomegranates opened fast enough for them. The bowl never made it to the table, they just sat on the carpet by the sink and ate them. They also started to peel off their clothes by noon. By the time uncle Scott and aunt Peg arrived, they were in their underwear.
Door The boys were excited with the first snow. They like to look out the front door to check out snow, girl scouts, the young nurse across the street, the garbage truck or incoming visitors. Here’s another picture from April of this year.
Snow The first couple times it snowed the boys were very excited. The snow was mixed with ice which meant daycare would close early. The boys were excited about driving home in the snow and wanted to go outside as soon as we got home (but not before Mommy stopped in an empty parking lot to explain "donuts"). James got dressed in snow boots, snowpants, a sweater, gloves, scarf, winter coat, and hat. After 5 seconds outside, he decided his Guatemalan blood was not meant for the cold. Meanwhile, Andrew was in jeans, t-shirt and his winter coat, refusing to wear hat, gloves, scarf or pretty much anything that would keep him warm. I had to drag Andrew in after an hour, but not before we went for a ride down the driveway on our sweet new sled. Sure, you might see it as a plastic recycling container, but to us it is a sled. This caused much confusion on Trash Day when Andrew asked what the men were doing with his sled.
Pellets The wood pellet stove has been keeping the house warm all winter. Andrew is vigilant in making sure James does not touch the hot glass doors. James got a wee bit too close one day……that will be the first, last and only time that will happen. With the pellet stove comes bags of pellets, and lots of them. The boys are now using their sturdy Rainbow Lion as a work horse to help haul the 7 or8 40-pound bags we go through each week. If you make anything sound fun, they will be glad to help.
Tub Rub a dub dub, two boys in a tub means lots of interesting moments. Do you know how loud 2 boys can scream in the tub just for the fun of hearing the echo? Did you know what water can be splashed about 6 feet up and over the shower door? Have you ever seen a ‘bubble’ contest in the tub? After this month I can answer all of those questions. Andrew is the same wild and crazy man outside of the tub as he is in. Here they are now, and this time last year.
Things I Thought I Would Never Say In Regards To Tub Time 7. No Sword Fights 6. Who made those bubbles? 5. No Belly Flops 4. No Wrestling 3. Use a washcloth. Don’t lick your brother clean. 2. Don’t spit water at your brother “private part” 1. Don’t giggle when your brother spits water at your “private part”
I am now sure that was going through their heads when they put the ski caps on, but this can't be good.
Andrew found some sunglasses on clearance at the supermarket. There was a huge out-of-season display made of cheap cardboard that looked as if it was about to topple over and he was drawn to it like Pooh Bear to Honey. Two foosdtore workers nearby kept a close eye on him, ready to pounch when he knocked the whole thing over as he randomly yanked sunglasses off the display to try them on. Without incident, he picked these "Gidget" glasses, then gently placed them into the cart, instructing me not to 'mash them' them with the bag of salad. The store workers finally were at ease and went back to their work.
Potty Time With 1 boy potty trained we hoped the other would not be far behind. Recently James has decided that he does not need to wear a diaper; he takes it upon himself to remove his pants and diaper, place his diaper in the toilet, put his pants back on, then flush the toilet. There are several flaws in this plan, which I will leave up to the reader. Andrew also has the desire to Go Commando as he removes all the warms jammies we put on his after bath time. Forget the dilemma of boxers vs. briefs, these boys prefer to go au natural. They are really taking this ‘go green’ to reduce laundry a bit too far.
Art Here is this month's sole art project that was blog worthy. It's a Turkey Hat, just try telling me it's not cute.
Moments That Make You Go “Hmmmmm” From a daily daycare report: "Andrew made some better choices today. However, he emptied a bag of glitter and sequins on a friend and on the floor. He did help clean up. This is great'. James dropped his cereal spoon on the floor. Andrew exclaims "Quick Mommy, pick it up before the germs hop on'.
At daycare Andrew has taken to sneaking up on the smaller kids in the class and roaring at them, causing them to crap their pants.
At daycare Andrew has started watching his teacher with an Eagle Eye. Whenever she turns her back, he runs and hides. When they can not find him, they have to call the office, declare a Lock Down, and his teachers and 3 directors go on a hunt for Andrew.
When Andrew is misbehaving, his teacher calls the director's office to have her come talk to him (this is new since he used to go to the Director's office which he enjoyed way too much). Once the call has been made, he goes from a spazmaniac, to a sweet little boy sitting on his cot for the pretty lady to come talk to him.
And here’s one that made me cry. We were sitting at dinner one night and Andrew asked where Mommy’s Mommy is, to which we replied “Heaven”. Andrew instantly says “I go see her sometime?” How do you reply to that ?
School Picture Day. Of course we have to dress them alike, it's our rights as parents. By the time pictures rolled around James' hair was not as stylish, but the photographer was able to get some nice pictures.
Potty Time
I am glad to report Andrew is pretty much done, with the exception of night time. However, if he puts socks on at night, that seems to cure the problem. James is catching up fast with the potty scene. He's been trying for a year, but now he almost says the word before tottering over to the potty, stripping diaper, pants and socks then defying gravity and climbing up on the seat himself. I am glad to report James did not have the adventurous spirit Andrew did with "Distance Shooting" from a seated position on the potty. James is a bit more challenged with which side of the pants the underwear goes on....and which way is front.
Flu Shots
Fall means Flu Shot season. To lessen the blow the day Andrew had his appointment we went to Dunkin Donuts for a pre-visit meal. The nice gals at our local DD are quite liberal with the cream cheese. This year we did the FluMist instead of the Flu Shot. Andrew screamed bloody murder, and James giggled through the whole thing. They are 2 different sides of the same coin. In case you are wondering, Andrew kicked off the cream cheese and left the bagel behind.
Autumn
A couple weekends in a row in October our daycare had outings to pumpkin patches. The first one was well attended and had hayrides through corn fields, pumpkin patches, rides, food and ponies. The following weekend just Andrew went to the other pumpkin patches and there were about 100 less daycare kids.....Andrew was the only one. Lucky Andrew had 2 teachers and me to entertain him. The teachers were awesome, one from his current room and one from his previous room. They are such sports they even rode the tricycles with him. They are the greatest.
Halloween
Halloween brought another set of cool glasses. They match Andrew's super-cool Yo Gabba Gabba Broby jammie outfit.
I tried to make the boys' Halloween costumes this year, and I totally struck out. My grand plan was to make Andrew a Laundry Basket (any stereotypes of Asians and Laundry was purely coincidental) and James would have dirty laundry pinned all over himself. Well, the boys took one look at my "home made" costumes and went into a screaming frenzy. Apparently no amount of candy or stray coins were worth the embarrassment. Andrew would not even come close to the laundry basket, but I was able to lure James into the laundry basket with stray candy. We settled on James being a Hockey Referee and Andrew going dressed as himself. We were out for about an hour on foot, and stopped in at 1 out of every 5 houses we passed. Apprently Andrew has some sort of advanced candy detecting device I am unaware of. After our attempt at trick or treating we went to my friend Brenda's house where they sat on comfy charis, watched TV and grazed Brenda's Candy Bowl. By 9pm they were in a chocolate and Sponge Bob induced coma. They are not safe from future embarrassment.....the Laundry Basket has been put into storage.
Birthday
November James turned 2. We celebrated with our old neighbors, and as seen in the photo, some prunes, beer and an ice cream cake. This year was a step up from last year when we bought an Entenmen's cake. It doesn't look like he grew much taller, but be no longer has a pumpkin-round head, and he grew a neck. Here are the pictures from both years. If you a not figure out which photo is his 1st birthday cake, you are ready to apply for a position in the presidential cabinet.
A Handful
Since we never had kids before, we used Andrew as our barometer for what little boys are like. James is quite a bit more mellow, aside from eating small children and getting kicked out of his first day care in under 7 months. But the new daycare is great for both boys. They have been very patient with Andrew's 'spirited' personality and 'opportunities to make better choices tomorrow". It seems that young Andrew will be the Zack Morris of his school time. After several challenging weeks/months at daycare I met with the teachers (and director) a couple times. They told me that "all the kids want to sit next to Andrew because he is so much fun" which translates to "We need to do something about his behaviour". They have been very helpful as we try to reign in his Kazakh Spirit and 'craftiness'.
Let's Go!
One morning Andrew was in such a rush to get to day care (it was Muffin Day) that he grabbed every one's coats and my purse and headed out the door.
Rob makes the boys' juice before leaving for work and one day he left the fridge open which caused it to start beeeping. Eagle Ear Andrew heard this from upstairs, froze in is tracks and and spouted out this stream of conscience thought pattern: WHAT DAT SOUND. ME CALL DADDY. THE MONSTERS AT THEIR OWN HOUSE EATING BREAKFAST AND WATCHING TV,GETTING NAKED, GETTING MILK. EVERYTHING IS OK
Here are some attempts at getting a Christmas Card photo after bath time one night. Didn't get one of the official Christmas Cards yet? E-mail me (euuayya @ yahoo . com )
Art
The past 2 months have given us more 'hand and foot art', along with what I thought was Jesus on the Cross. Turns out, it was just a scarecrow. November closed out with this a nice kitty cat, oddly enough holding a clothespin. As always, the art work is priceless to us, but recycling material to the rest of the world.
