Christmas 2009

The kids had a great Christmas despite a lot of medical drama going on in our family right now. We got some unexpected visitors for Christmas eve and Christmas day and the kids had so much fun. They are having cousin withdrawal right now. Here's some pics of our Christmas:

Chase and his cousin Jack in Chase's new sleeping bag.  (who knew a sleeping bag and flashlight could bring so much joy to a 6 year old!)

The cousins on Christmas eve. 

An incredible Christmas eve surprise; Dallas got it's first white Christmas in 110 years!  Here's Caroline putting out food for the reindeer:

Christmas morning:  "look what I got"

The much asked for "Rebecca", oh this was one happy girl

Hula Hooping! (Ignore the tree in the background, this was the kids and dogs tree and I let them go to town with decorating it!)

Just so cute

I don't know about any of you out there who have children from Russia, but I just couldn't help thinking of all the other orphans we saw in the desky dom's who didn't get to have a Christmas like this and are probably still there.  As much as I like to say I am the lucky one who was blessed with Caroline and Chase, I have to say, they were equally as lucky to have been chosen to get a terrific family who adores them. 

Merry Christmas from Caroline and Chase

Some pictures of our date with Santa.  Most of these were taken at the Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas.  They have this very cool interactive display in their storefront windows and the kids were able to be part of the display.  Caroline had her list ready to go, Chase just froze when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he ended up asking him for pants and shoes!  You can take the kid out of the orphanage, but you can't take the orphanage out of the kid!  After visiting with Santa, we had a very fancy lunch in the Zodiac Room.  Both C & C were on their best behavior and their manners were awesome, I was so proud of both of them.  The rest of the day was spent in their amazing display.  They loved it!

Finally...

Finally we will have a visit from the Tooth Fairy! Caroline has been waiting for what seemed like forever for her first tooth to fall out and it finally happened today at school. Only for her to lose it before I picked her up! Oh well, she ended up writing the Tooth Fairy a letter letting her know that indeed her tooth did fall out, but she lost it and could not find it. What's the going rate for a lost tooth these days???

Three Years Ago Today...

I met these two little turkeys!

Lots to be thankful for!


Happy Thanksgiving to all of you...

Where in the world is...

Well, clearly a lot of these places are more exciting than others, but since I'm working, usually all I get to see is the airport, the hospital and the hotel.

Wow, has it really been since July? I have been buuussssyyyy! Since last I left you, we have moved back to Dallas, the kids are back in their old school, Chase started Kindergarten, Caroline is in the first grade, I think they have both grown a foot (not really, but Chase had some sweat pants on from last year and they look like "manpris" on him) and I have logged almost 25,000 American Airline miles in 3 months! That's not including the SW Airline miles that I fly here in Texas.

Crazy busy, but I am loving it. The kids have really adjusted well to me travelling (knock on wood!), we have a terrific babysitter who spends the night, picks the kids up from school and takes them in the morning, the only downside is she is not much of a cook and they end up eating Mickey D's or Wendy's about 2 nights a week, but I can live with it. I had a commenter that referred me to sittercity and for anyone that is looking for a sitter, it is great! Kind of like an e-harmony for parents and sitters!

Chase turned 6 years old on October 12th and he is doing really well. We found a great doctor in Austin that really worked with us on coming up with the right medication combination for him and I think we have finally found it. It's not perfect, but he really is doing so much better. His delays have become more apparent now that his is in a more formal education setting and we are working so hard to overcome them. He is getting speech therapy, evaled for OT and really working on academics. It makes me so sad that he spent so much time in the PPCD program which really didn't do him any favors; his K teacher is just appalled that so little time was spent on academics, and speech therapist can't believe that there was a full time ST in his class, yet all she did was teach him to point at pictures! We have a lot of catching up to do, but I know he will get there. His pediatrician is amazed at his progress, he is at the 75th for height and 90th for weight. He did 'fess up to telling me that he really thought I "bit off more than I could chew" when I first showed up with Chase two years ago (he was an absolute "wild child") and never thought he would come this far so soon, that was definitely a proud mama moment, but dear Lord, there were a lot of tears shed to get there!

Caroline is loving first grade, she is doing really well, but seems to have become quite the couch potato! The girl could watch TV for hours on end, she is now allocated about 30 minutes a day if that. Caroline has always been really physically slow, but now it is starting to catch up with her academically. The girl who always came home at the end of the week with "Bravos" is now coming home with incompletes, tardies, etc. And it's all because she just cannot move fast enough! She has no sense of urgency and really doesn't care if it gets done today, tomorrow or next year! It has always driven me nuts, but her little shining star is now getting tarnished with this issue. If anyone has a way to "light a fire" under her, I would welcome suggestions. So far she has to have a timer at breakfast or she would take two hours to finish her juice, she has a chart at school just for her to reflect her speediness with things, and her weekly report now has a column for academics, not just behavior. I think she finally "gets it", but it's a constant struggle for her.

It amazes me how I have one child that can not slow down without the help of medication and another that is sooooooo slow, we always say we hope she's never caught in a burning building! I wish I could just get a happy medium between the two of them.

We're looking forward to the holidays and having a little down time and I hope to become a better blogger! And so pics of the kids from the past few months:

First Day of School

Celebrating our Family Day at Six Flags

Halloween 2009

Happy to be back,

Jane

Missing my KiddieKats

It's been one week since my sister whisked my kids away to Chicago and I miss them terribly. I should be rejoicing in all the time I have to myself, instead I'm pining away for them. I started my new job last Monday and so far, I am loving it! Just learning and absorbing lots and ready to take on the new challenges. I have a beautiful view out the window of my office, I am on the 53rd floor of one of the tallest buildings in downtown Dallas. Here's the view from my window: (excuse the bad pic, it was taken from my phone)



I talk to Caroline and Chase at least 2-3 times a day and they are having so much fun with Toycha and their cousins, I'm afraid they won't want to come back! Gail had them at their "Founder's Day" activities this past weekend, here is a pic she sent me:


I'll be picking them up in a few more weeks and they'll come home to a new house with a pool and get to go back to their old school and see their old friends and teachers, I know that will be enough to entice them back!

Hola, Como Esta? Muy Bien, Gracias.

After spending a week in the Dominican Republic, my children now think they are trilingual; English, Russian and now Spanish. Although they look at me like I have two heads when I speak any Russian to them and they know about 10 words of Spanish, they have both pretty much become proficient in English.

We had a great time in Punta Cana, despite getting there one day later than planned; the Punta Cana airport was shut down when we were supposed to land due to the fact they had no runway lights - pretty important if you are landing at night, like we were supposed to do. So anyway, we got there on Wednesday morning. The resort was beautiful and after checking in, we decided our room was too small, so we upgraded to a suite! Yeah, lots of room, a jacuzzi on the balcony and a view of the ocean. We wasted no time in putting on our suits and securing our spot at the pool under a palapa and ordering something alcoholic, fruity and tropical. Ahhhh, life is good. We were a little disappointed with the beach as it was not the clear blue Caribbean waters we were looking forward to; instead, we were located a little too far north and were on the Atlantic ocean, therefore the water was more brown and murky, so we spent the majority of our time at the pool. "Lather, rinse, repeat", that was pretty much our existence for the week we were there, no sightseeing, didn't really care to do it; no late nights, too hard with kids that insist on being in bed by 8:30 pm. Just eat, find our spot at the pool, people watch, chat with other vacationers, eat some more, decide where we were going for dinner while we were eating lunch, lay by the pool, read, time for a snack, pool time, get ready for dinner, eat some more and then to bed! You get the picture! It was a great week and I highly recommend an all inclusive if you have kids, they have a great kids club that keep them busy all day long, the food for kids was just right and the only money you need is for tipping those friendly waiters that keep bringing you something to drink with little umbrella's in it! Here's some pics of our week:

On the plane, we're going to the beach!

Getting closer, on the bus to "Dreams", Caroline is soooo ready!

We are finally here!

Caroline and her beautiful Toycha Gail, celebrating Toycha's birthday

Looking for fish in the pool! Sorry Caroline, wrong place!

The kids having fun in the jacuzzi

The view from our balcony

Mama Peacock and her baby outside our room

The building our room was in and part of the huge pool

Caroline "chilaxing" before dinner

Chase just looking too cute!

Brother and Sisterly love

Chase getting ready to do the mexican hat dance!

Okay, now for the big reveal from my last post; I was offered and accepted a fantabulous job! Yeah! This has been two years in the making, and it finally happened. The only issue is that we have to move back to Dallas. As much as I wanted Austin to be our permanent home, it was just not meant to be. I am so glad I only rented a home here and did not buy one right off the bat. I actually start this coming Monday and will be living in corporate housing until I secure something permanent (the company is paying for my living expenses for 3 months until I find something - this is such a sweet deal). The kids are going to go and stay with my sister Gail for the rest of the summer while I get myself situated in my new job and find somewhere for us to live. They will be going to their old school, so everything is falling into place just beautifully. I am so excited, I work in healthcare, but in a terribly small niche of it, so these jobs are not just falling off trees (as if any are these days!), so I am so fortunate that this happened. I do have a question for anyone of you out there that might know: What are your experiences with Au Pair's? I will be doing some overnight travel and need to secure reliable childcare for when I am not here and thought an Au Pair might be a good solution. If you have any thoughts on that or suggestions for other childcare options I would love to hear about them.

Until later, Adios!