Boy Heaven

I'm pretty sure we live in "boy heaven".

I was calling our life here "Mayberry" for a while, but it almost isn't a strong enough image.

I of course grew up many moons ago when kids roamed the streets, "ruled" the neighborhood, and stayed out until dinner. It has been all I've ever wanted for my kids growing up years. I've wanted them to ride their bikes until their little legs were too tired to ride any longer. I've wanted them to catch little creatures, keep and name them. To play in the mud and climb trees, explore creeks and come home worn out, tired from play.

Well, we've got it.

Ivan was so dirty yesterday that I didn't want to carry him in! It is a shame I missed the early photos which showed the leftovers of him TASTING the mud soup he and his buddy Gage were cooking. There has been a lot of rain here (which I LOVE) and so there is a lot of mud. I am done trying to keep little boys out of the mud and puddles. After all, I'm pretty sure they are a staple in "boy heaven".

Part of the blessing for Barrett has been that there are oodles of boys living on our street and around this corner and that one. They invade our home in droves and wait eagerly outside our door until we finish dinner. They build forts near the creek and have secret clubs. They have caught more frogs and lizards than Barrett even knew existed. (We even had a frog in our playroom. Yes, playroom. Boy heaven, not Mommy heaven!) They play flashlight tag, ride bikes in the rain, and love every messy minute of it.

We had a hard time narrowing down our invite list for Barrett's 9th birthday party a few weeks ago...Boy heaven I tell you.

Soccer games have been canceled for the weekend because the fields are under water. We have a long, gray, chilly, damp weekend ahead. Sounds like the makings of some good boy heaven fun!

Quiet Commotion

Ivan likes mornings. A lot. A wee bit too much for the rest of us in fact. Maggie is usually the unfortunate soul who is subject to his newest morning ritual.

Ivan wakes on his own and I think he feels a bit lonely. He sneaks his way into the girls's room and UP the ladder to Maggie's top bunk! (I KNOW this is not good...we are working on it...) Just being up there with her is not enough. He must sit on her, pinch her cheeks, get WAY too close to her for it to be that early in the morning, and I almost forgot, must do all of this under the light of her clip-on reading light which he turns on (first we think). I told Ivan just this morning that he needed to stay in his own bed when he woke up. He smiled and said, "Maggie bed". "I know Ivan, but Maggie was sleeping..." I reasoned. He smiled and whispered, "Quiet".

Maggie does not really like mornings, but she does love Ivan. And so, groggy and mid-dream, she loves on "little buddy" and helps him down off bed via the same ladder that brought him there. And then being the stellar oldest daughter that she is, she gets her clothes on and brings Ivan to the kitchen where she GETS HIS BREAKFAST! I usually hear them somewhere between the getting down off the bed and the breakfast piece but know she has it covered and let the whole waking-up process linger a bit for myself :)

Maggie is super responsible and loves to be left in charge. She has all the makings of a great teacher in fact. She loves to teach, help, grade, etc. We do lots of pretend school in our house these days. The following sign was JUST removed from her door after a two week stay:

"QUITE!!!!! Do NOT Dizterb!!!!!! Testing in progest!!!!!"

I also saved Maggie's spelling word sentences from a few weeks ago. A couple of them are too good to pass up. I ask you, what must the teacher think of this new, "California-bred" family?

"Ivan likes to bite."

"Maryn likes to stay up late."

"I like to shake it."

"There is a lot of commotion in this house."

I love that these all simply have periods at the end. True, matter-of-fact sentences. Not even warranting a "shout mark". Just the honest to goodness truth for sweet Maggie.

Hope Floats

My Maryn.

My Maryn is usually a joyful little soul. She laughs easily, is unaffected by some of the things that unravel her older siblings, and is just an all-around fun and funny little girl.

Lately however, her emotions have been working overtime and her heart has been a bit fragile. She misses her kindred spirit Jamie in California. She is SHOCKED at the injustices which allow Barrett and Maggie more freedoms, more play-dates, more FUN. Not much feels fair to Maryn. And in reality, this move has been tough on her. She has had some hard, disappointing, lonely days.

One of those days was Wednesday. A friend was in town and was heading to have lunch with Barrett and Maggie. Maryn wanted to join them and was absolutely beyond herself that she could not. She melted into a messy puddle of tears and whimpers and a few VERY loud shrieks in the car. Nothing I said or promised helped to ease her sadness. Not even an icecream date a little later in the afternoon.

We rounded the corner just a block from our house, and saw this.

Tears turned to raised eyebrows at a balloon literally floating down our street. "Mom, there is a balloon...just floating along...what in the world?!" We slowed the van, looked around for the owner of such a treasure, and soon gave into Maryn's great temptation to rescue the balloon from a very uncertain future in the middle of the street.

Maryn's sadness lifted, her tears dried, her shrieks of frustration turned into ones of bliss. Maryn loves balloons! She and Ivan played for hours with the balloon. And she felt special. Her disappoints diminished and SHE was the beneficiary of one of life's little surprise blessings. She is still telling people about the walking balloon that she found and rescued. It didn't take much to get our silly, fun-loving Maryn back.

While I am not expecting to come across too many more lonely balloons, I will be looking for the little blessings that come floating by each and every day.

A Little Texas Thunder

We have been in Texas for 6 weeks or so now. Things are feeling more and more like home every single day. I just read my last few posts and was SHOCKED at how long ago all of those seemed. And long ago they were...months ago.

Ivan is doing fabulously well! He started preschool a couple of mornings a week and was so cute on his first day I could hardly stand dropping him off. He apparently did great--with the appropriate amount of crying when I very first left, the same amount when his teacher

dropped him off at music (which he eventually LOVED!), and a few tears at the end of the day as the confusion of kids being taken out to the carpool line unsettled him slightly.

He cried a little and so did I.

I felt thankful and happy as I dropped him off--excited to hear how his first day had gone and excited about a few hours to myself! And then the tears came at a time I least expected them. At pickup. I cried as he walked with Maryn out to the car pulling his rolling backpack that is literally as big as his body. He looked so big, so old. He had started preschool and done just fine--how far we had come in 10 short months. I imagined him heading off to his first day of Kindergarten in a few years and I wanted it all to slow down. Way down.

I have been all sorts of emotional over these last weeks. Partly because of the move, I get that. But some of it is the remembering and re-living of all that transpired a year ago. In late July 2008, we met little Ivan. In early August, we had to leave him in Russia. I remember vividly these early September days of last year, wondering if we would ever be assigned a court date...if the judge would ever return from vacation...if sweet little Vanya would be OK.

And now as I look back, I am blown away by how OK he is. How OK we all are. He has navigated the move to Texas as well as anyone in our family. He is happy and healthy, messy, and snuggly. He loves to be outside and look for frogs, rocks, and lizards. He is absolutely addicted to chocolate milk. He sleeps well, is a picky eater, and is a pesky little brother...all wonderful "normals" we are thankful for.

The biggest shock to Ivan's little system has been Texas thunder storms. The rain does not phase him. He loves water of any sort in any place. Period. But the thunder, that is a different story. The first thunder storm paralyzed him. He didn't have the words to even ask what in the world was happening. Now he has sort of a love/ hate relationship with it. He likes to watch for the lightning, but is quick to jump into our arms at the sound of thunder. "Shunder cary!" (thunder scary) he says over and over again with a winced look on his face.

I will leave you with a few photos. He changes every single day it seems--OK, I feel the need to do better at keeping track.

I will write again and post about the other kiddos soon. All in all, Texas is good. And I, for one, really like the thunder storms.

Winds of Change

A lot can change in 6 months.

Six months ago today Ivan arrived to the United States. He became a U.S. Citizen. Our older kids welcomed him with wide open arms into our home, our family, our lives. These last six months have been filled with laughter, tears, frustration, joy, sleepless nights, babble-filled days, and a "fullness" that words can't explain.

Six months ago we had a boy terrified of animals--especially our less than 10-pound dog, Zizou.
Today we have a boy who carries Zizou, tries to walk him on his leash, lays down on him to suck his thumb and squeals with delight at the sight of ANY animal...no matter how large.

Six months ago we had a boy who was wobbly and unsure on his feet.
Today we have a boy who literally gallops around our house. He climbs everything and runs and runs and runs until he is either out of breath or laughing so hard his feet can't move anymore.

Six months ago we had a boy who only said "Nyet!"
Today we have a boy who is jabbering non-stop, saying quite a few word we can understand and about 6,532 we can not ;)

Six months ago we had a boy who was often clingy and a little nervous.
Today we have a boy who is full of life. He is confident, funny, brave (a little TOO brave sometimes!), charming, mischievous, and basically owns every crowd he is in.

A lot can change in 6 months.

The winds of change are blowing in our "family-life" as well...

First of all, I now look like this: (It still shocks me to see!)
AND, our family is moving to Texas! We are headed to the Dallas area in mid-summer for my husband's new job there. It has been a wild few weeks, but things are coming together and we are feeling hopeful about our new life and adventure there. We've sold our house here, I leave next week to house-hunt there, we are looking into programs, schools, etc. and trying to imagine ourselves in Texas...

Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of this new adventure is that we will be less than 2 hours from Ivan's little girlfriend! Though he hasn't seen Ashlyn since they were together in an orphanage on the other side of the world, I am certain they will fall in love, go to prom, and perhaps get married :) Of course I am kidding (kind of), but we are over the moon excited that they will get to see one another again and for me to meet Tracy, (her blog is here) who has been a treasured friend through our adoption of Ivan from Nizhny Novgorod.

So, as I said, things are changing. And the changes are feeling O.K. We certainly feel like we have our hands full, but our hearts feel very full as well. Sometimes change is good. Maybe even very good.

Whoa!

I honestly had no idea just how long it had been since I posted. It seems impossible that 6 weeks have gone by. And I realized that I have a few more "major" things to share in the coming days and weeks, so I better had do a little catching up or I never will. (And the only reason for the above picture is that I felt it needed to be shared. My son is a riot.)

First things first:
Ivan is 2! He had a fantastic birthday celebration with many beloved family friends on a gorgeous afternoon--it was prefect! He also had a special "bracelet night reunion" with the students who literally helped to bring him home. Here is a little proof of our memorable celebrations: (Please note that the same balloons that later "attacked" Ivan brought him great joy for many hours. Please also note that I had to photograph the attack before I attempted to rescue him.)











Ivan got a few cars, trains, and clothes for his birthday. He has a strong affinity to his red Thomas shirt that he nearly jumped out of the cart in T@rget for so it was only fitting to wear it on his actual birthday. And it clearly went well with the rain boots. And the thumb I think...don't you?Ivan has also started speech therapy 2 times a week and works with an infant teacher 1 time a week. All of this is going wonderfully and we feel so thankful that he qualifies for these amazing resources. For the record, Ivan REFUSES to speak for his speech therapist, but is quite chatty between her visits. She doesn't seem too shocked or irritated by this, but I find it mildly frustrating. It could be that the toys and books she is using are AT LEAST 3 decades old...but I am not entirely sure ;)

On the home front things have been a little busier than usual. We just finished a bathroom addition (inside an existing room so it is more of a re-model I guess). It was a long time coming...we have only had 1 bathroom for the last 8 years. It is fantastic to have 2...Although now there are 2 toilets beckoning Ivan for a "dip".

Just as the bathroom project started, we all got really sick. A nasty little virus with a lingering fever and canker sores all in the mouth. This is a modern day plague I am certain. We were sick for 3 full weeks. I literally asked my pediatrician if he could admit my oldest son to the hospital because he was so miserable. He smiled at me. I then asked him in all seriousness if he could admit me until the plague passed. I probably got my first gray hairs during all of this.

Speaking of hair, I gave away 12 inches of my hair to Locks of Love last week. It was honestly shocking to see the thick braids of hair be cut from my head. I have not had short hair in over 5 years. There are lots of double-takes when I see people. Let's be honest, I even double-take when I see me.

Also speaking of hair, I still have not cut Ivan's. I can't. His soft blond curls are too precious. And I will tell you that I work on a college campus and the mullet is coming back. And you might be shocked to hear that so is the rat tail...WHAT?!

This post is very random I recognize. I just needed to post or I feared I never would...Well, I am happy to report that we are healthy and happy here at the Wolf casa...all smiles as you can see!

Little Cheeser

We have quite the little ham on our hands. Even this morning over at my office, Ivan was laughing it up with one of my colleagues. And he never seems to tire of any game that makes him giggle. But for sure my new favorite thing is when he sees a camera and automatically sits down wherever he is and says, "Eeeeeeez". It really is so strange, I mean the kid has HARDLY EVER had his picture taken ;)

(He is also the only one of our kiddos who could ever get away with having an outside riding toy in the family room...cute little stinker!)