Sum-sum Sum-sum Sum-sum Summer Time! :)

Covered in sand and sunscreen, lovin' every minute of it! Have a great summer! :)

Home 6 Months and 18 Months Old! :)

Where has the time gone! I think that since we aren't waiting, minute by minute, for a referral, travel dates, etc. that time has reverted back to normal speed, instead of snail speed.

Today, Cassi has been home for 6th months! She is also now 18 months old! It's very hard to get her to look at the camera these days, since she is on the move much of the time. Here are some recent shots, which took about 500 shots to get--lol!

First Pigtails!

Playing with disc

Helping "baby" play with disc
Hugging baby doll

Kai and Cassi drawing with chalk

Memorial Day fun!

Big Kindergarten Graduate! :)

Finally, got Cassi to stand still, look my way and smile, all at once! :)

In case anyone noticed, I didn't post on Mother's Day. I really wanted to, but I was sicker than a dog with some kind of flu (swine?) for several days.

Memory Lane:

First picture we took of Cassi, age 10 months

Cassi and Daddy, Trip 1, Day 1

Day Two, Trip 1

Trip 3, First Grocery Trip, Moscow, Almost 12 months old

Cassi, happy 18th month birthday! You have now been with us for 1/3 of your life, but it feels like you have always been here! We love you and Kai so much! :)

Can it be true? Is it really here?

IT'S FINALLY SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Candy Lou Lou, Cassi and Peppy

Finally, we are able to play outside!!! It's been raining and raining here or too cold and windy to get outside. Cassi is walking well enough now that she can traverse the backyard and just has a ball exploring! I can actually pull a few weeds, etc. while she and Kai play. Kai loves having a playmate! :)

Cassi trying to tickle her own tummy.

Cassi and Peppy
Mowing the "grass" (ignore the "grass"--we don't spray the backyard since the kids run around barefooted in it--it's on its own and I can't help it otherwise if it has failure to thrive!)

She's a climber!

Trying to get a cute shot of Kai on the playset, Take 1
Take 2

Take 3, I give up! :P I will spare you the other 2000 shots!

Kai only has about a week and a half of school left and then he will be a big 1st grader---what? Where did the time go??? We planted a watermelon plant that he's in charge of this summer. This is our first foray into farming, so we'll see how it goes. The label says that we should have watermelon in 75 days.
Grow, baby, grow!

Becoming a Daddy's Girl

Laying on the floor with her Daddy, watching TV in her pj's, fresh from a bath...gotta love it! :)

P.S. We tried to get the free KFC dinners today at lunch and they were already issuing rain checks. Oh, well...it was a nice concept.

FREE KFC CHICKEN!!!

For anyone who missed Oprah today, here is the coupon. You have 24 hrs. from today's Oprah airing to print out up to 4 of these coupons for free 2 piece Grilled Chicken dinners from KFC. You have until May 19th to use the coupons. Guess who's havin' chicken tomorrow night for dinner? Bock, bock!

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090430-tows-kfc-coupon-download

Google AdSense

They cut us off because they didn't like the activity on our account AND they aren't paying for the ads that were clicked on!!!!!!!!!!!! RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

PPR Has Left The Building and Another Layoff...

Yay! I got the first of 4 post placement reports apostilled and mailed off to Lighthouse today! Then, when all was looking better in our world, Dan was laid of his new job of 5 weeks today and I'm still looking, so we are back at the starting line again. :(

Cassi turned 17 months 2 days ago and I don't know if it's because girls are way more advanced than boys at fine motor skills (which is what "they" say) or if she is even more advanced than that. She is sitting by me putting 2 toddler Legos together and pulling them apart, over and over gain. Kai was about 3 before he could do that! So, again, I don't know if it's just the difference between boys and girls (she is doing things way before Kai, i.e. zipping zippers, erasing the Magnadoodle after writing with the pen, opening and closing her sippy cup top, etc.) or what.

I'm glad it's the weekend. I'm taking a break from reality for 2 whole days! :P

Home 5 Months, Thank You For Clicking and 10,000 Visitors!

Five months ago today, we touched down at the Houston Airport with our Russian Sweet Baby! She was 12 months old and didn't sleep more than 2 winks on the whole trip over here. She was still happy though! :) We are so grateful and thankful for her and how well she is doing.

Also, our Google Ads have now made $105 this month! Thank you all for clicking on the Google Ads, just below each post. We appreciate your help! Cassi has been clicking, too, on her baby computer. ;) Also, the blog has had almost 10,000 visitors! Wow, I never imagined so many people and so many views.

100th Post!

Wow, I can't believe this is the 100th post! I thought I would celebrate by listing the top 100 things I love about my kids. I will try to limit it to only 100. Okay, okay, that might not be the most interesting thing to everyone, so I will post pictures from our recent trip to see relatives in SE Missouri. This was Cassi's first long car trip. She and Kai were great, as long as we kept them going with snacks, movies, toys and Vaudeville acts.

There were 10 cousin's there from the age of 16 months to 13 years old to play with! Mostly boys, too! They all had a blast. The big fun was to ride the big wheels down the hill, going what they thought was surely 100 m.p.h.

Preparing for take off...

Cassi watching the kids go down the big hill

Gettin' the heck outta there!

We also got them some giant balloons and they loved those (well, until they popped and they didn't love that so much).

Kai and his cousin's in their best action poses, at least that's what I told them to do...

There were also (at a very slow rate of speed) four wheeler rides and pick up truck rides (in the 70's and 80's those were considered safe, remember the good ole' days? They were all seated and supervised, unlike in olden times).

Kai, my brother's boys and my brother. My uncle is driving.

On the last night, we had a cookout and the kids made s'mores. Yum!!! Cassi was safely inside in a highchair with my Mom during this segment.

Cassi eating her first s'more, inside like a civilized person

Checkin' out my brother's shoe--wow!

Cassi in her new pink hippo crocs that my sister-in-law got her---she LOVES these shoes! :)

Kai and his cousin's hangin' in the garage

She looks like she should be wearing high heels, like she's going some where important--lol!

On the loose! :)

Milestone and Measurements

Well, we had our first post placement report this morning! Cassi will have been home for 5 months on the 29th. So hard to believe! Our SW agrees with us that she is on target or advanced in all developmental areas. I was thinking maybe we should call the early intervention specialist anyway because that's what most people do, even if they don't have concerns, but it seems pretty silly, so we are forgoing that. The SW wanted to know how she is doing with bonding, developmentally, her schedule as far as napping, eating, etc. Also, how Kai is adapting and how the extended family accepted her. We are also sending 12 pictures in with the report. Anyway, our SW will have the report ready next week so that Lighthouse can send it to Russia.

For those of you new to the process, there are four post placement reports that Russia requires. These are due at 6 mos., 1 yr., 2 yrs. and 3 yrs. home. They satisfy Russia and allow the adoption agencies to continue to process Russian adoptions, so it keeps Russia open for families that follow in our footsteps.

Also, I measured Cassi today because she just seems to be growing like a weed. Good thing I mainly bought her dresses for the Spring and Summer! Here are her stats when we met compared to today:

Oct. 2008, age 10.5 months:

Height: 27", 10% on the charts

Weight: 19 pounds (guesstimation), 40% on the charts

April 2009, age 16.5 months:

Height: 32", 75% on the charts

Weight: 25 pounds, 60% on the charts

I forgot to measure her head today, so I may come back and edit this later. I love to see how other children are growing by leaps and bounds, once home. It was very comforting when I was waiting to meet our Russian sweet baby to see that there are healthy children coming home! :) We are so grateful and thankful that Cassi is thriving in our family!

We went to a family reunion over the past weekend. I will get some pictures up in the coming days. The kids had a blast!

Lastly, I have added a subscribe button in the right column if anyone would like to subscribe to posts and comments. You can also become a follower and our blog will show up on yours so that you can see when we post a new post, rather than having to check every day. And, thank you to everyone who's been clicking on the Google Ads! Keep clickin'! :)

Feelin' Good and First PPR Appointment (already?)

Thank you to everyone for your concerns about Kai! He is waaaay better today! :) He is eating normally and pretty much back to his normal energy level (which is HIGH! LOL!). His ears no longer hurt and no more, yuck, vomiting. Janine, a new poster, pointed out, why do these things have to happen in the middle of a night (and on a holiday!) and I have no idea! :P I think we decided that Kai is allergic to codeine. He only had one dose and, man, he was sick from it for a good 12 hours. Things have to be on the upswing at the Patterson household now, right?

Anyway, thank God Cassi didn't get sick because I think that would have sent me over the motherhood threshold of tolerance. It's really hard when they are babies and can't tell you what's wrong. She has only had one cold since being home. I just can't believe how resilient babies are, considering all that she's been through.

Also, on a side note, we have our first post placement report appointment set up! I was nervous because our SW agency was on "the list," but apparently that is now only applying to home studies and not PPR's, but don't quote me on that. Cassi has been home for 4 1/2 months!!! That's so hard to believe! Our PPR appt. is next week and needs to be to Lighthouse Adoptions by the end of the month so it can make it to Russia next month.

Again, thank you all for your good thoughts and prayers! Now, let's all get together and help me get a job! :)