Growth

I don't think I'm going out on a limb here when I say almost every kid brought home from an international adoption is going to be getting better nutrition, better physical activity, more 1 on 1 love, basically everything needed for growth. And I'm talking physical growth as in height and weight. And, again not too much of a stretch (pardon the pun), but most kids are smaller than their peers when they first get home.

So just about everyone you hear about says their kid makes a major growth spurt (larger than a regular growth spurt) 4 to 9 months after being home. Of course it's highly dependent on the genetic height the child will eventually grow to, so some kids are going to only have a modest growth spurt while others might have major ones.

We're not overly worried about Andrei's height because both Stef and I are short so even if he ends up being average height or even slightly below average he'll be taller than either of us.


But really seems to be eating a lot more lately and we've heard that a sign that they're about to get a growth spurt. So we'll see. We've been tracking his height, weight and head circumference since we got the referral. And like most of the Russian kids they start out pretty low on the percentile scores. Andrei was like in the 3rd percentile for both height and weight until we got him home. Although he always had a much higher percentile in head circumference, which was one of the things we were always thankful of. The concept being that the body takes care of the most important organ (the brain) by making sure it gets the lion share of fuel and thus grows the most even when the rest of the body doesn't.

We're nearly at his 2nd birthday (two more weeks, we're getting pretty excited around here) and Andrei has already moved up from the around the 3rd percentile in height to nearly the 15th percentile. So he's definitely growing up to whatever his normal height will be.

Interestingly his head circumference is at about the 60th percentile. But as I said, that was always doing well. In fact while in Russia and his height was around the 3rd percentile his head circumference was around the 45-50th percentile. The bottom line is that what all these numbers mean is that he is growing faster than the normal growth curve due to him catching up with his genetic growth expectation.

And until he levels off (i.e., achieving the same percentile month after month), we won't really know what that genetic growth expectation is. But remembering that I'm 5'6" or approximately the 10th percentile, he's certain to tower over me. As Stef says, "Well, at least someone in the house will be able to reach the tall shelves."

First Haircut

Of course in the orphanage they regularly cut Andrei's hair. Otherwise this referral shot at 14 months wouldn't have shown such short hair.


But we took Andrei for his first real haircut yesterday. One where the person who is cutting your hair actually cares about how you look and tries to make you look cool not like a...well...shaved sheep.

We weren't sure how he would respond to the haircut. First off he had a busy morning as it was the last of his swimming lessons and he was a major handful for Stef. He decided to do what he does at home and play the "Throw the pool toys out of the pool and jump out and get them to throw them back into the pool"...only to continue the cycle over and over again.

He was suppose to be learning things like blowing bubbles and such. But hey, he's a 2-year old so we basically let him have fun in the pool whatever way he wants (as long as it's safe). But on to the haircut. Here's a before shot of his hair on the way to the place.



Well at the hair salon he really liked the car and airplane seats and wanted to go into them right away, so we're thinking this is going to be easy. But after about 2 minutes he wanted out (this is even before the haircut chick, sorry, stylist even came near him). So we went with the sitting on daddy's lap approach.



And he was a perfect gentleman (as he usually is) for the duration. The stylist asked us if we wanted to "spike" his hair because she thought it would look cool. Of course she had tattoos up and down her arms. But, seriously, we do think it is kinda cute for the little ones, so we went with this look.



Which leads to a warning from Andrei to all 2-year old girls out there. "Watch out, I'm on the prowl."

It's not a bird, it's not a plane, it's Terrible Two Boy

We've heard this from plenty of folks (and regrettably experienced it first hand) that the Terrible Two's actually start around 18 months. Andrei was a bit late in getting into those episodes where his new found independence (or semi-independence) leads to some pretty trying behaviors. But he's in it full swing right now and let me tell you they are trying times.

He's actually so easy going and well behaved and even after a situation in which he really pushes our buttons, I feel almost like, "Well, that's good though, he's growing and trying to be his own person."

Of course I feel that may most often after a Corona or two.

But the testing rules is the one that just annoys the heck out of me. Case in point is tonight (about 30 min. ago to be exact). Mom did a diaper change and while she was cleaning up, Andrei and I were waiting for her. He finds the most unusual things interesting as toys and often I'm fine with him playing with them. The thing tonight was my drafting ruler (you know the ones that are triangular shaped).

So he's holding it through the railings (we're upstairs at the time) and then looks over to me. I say "Don't drop that down there, you know you're not allowed to put things through the railings and drop them."

That was all the encouragement he needed, and down goes my ruler making interesting sounds as it bounces several times on the tile floor below.

That lead to an immediate Time Out. Normally we don't use Time Outs ("TO") as the first level of discipline (unless he hits, hitting is an instant Time Out in our house). It is just so irritating when he intentionally disobeys a rule (usually after rehearing the rule). And thankfully the TO did it's work because he was pretty sad that he had to stand against the wall for a full minute. They say to use 1 minute per year of age, but Andrei really gets the message pretty quickly so ours are usually between 1-2 minutes.

Anyway, the really nice part of our Time Out method is that after a short discussion on why he got the Time Out we both say "I love you" and kiss and hug. And Andrei has such a sweet demeanor, that he really means it and feels great after a TO and doesn't really have any sense of holding a grudge. I just wish he had a little bit better memory of these TOs so that he'd at least not try breaking the same rule over and over and over again.

And the "We don't drop things over the railing" is his favorite rule to break.

It's a bird, It's a plane, It's ReadingMan!!!

As the title implies, one of Andrei's favorite activities is reading books, well actually listening to us read him books. As brilliant as he is, he can't read at 23 months - I know, you're all as shocked as I am (so, no he's not actually reading in this shot).


But the boy loves his books. This weekend we got a great set of 10 books called Amazing Machines from Costco. Each book has a story about some type of machine, from boats to airplanes to cars to trains. He loves them but doesn't quite stay put for the whole story so we have to invent a slimmed down version of the story. Sort of the Cliff Notes version.

But he really loves books. We read every night and if it was up to him we would probably read 10 or more books. But I cut it down to just 2 or 3 depending on how long each book is. His library of books is getting so large we may actually need to build him a bookcase just to house his collection. But this is all good (or "good-goood-good" as Andrei would say) and we want to foster his reading as much as possible.

During the day he'll often go over to his stash of books and take out...oh...six of them and head over to either Steve or myself and plop himself down and have us read to him. There was some study done that showed that children that get read to are able to learn the alphabet at earlier ages and we can see Andrei looking at the letters, almost realizing, that they stand for something. He even likes looking at our books (which of course don't have pictures).

We don't really push him into doing anything fast. So the toys we give him are for his age, because we want him to have that sense of accomplishment. But at the same time we do try to lead him towards good habits (very little TV, more reading, more outdoor play, etc.). And it's pretty cool (and makes us feel great) that he'd rather go and grab a book than ask for the TV to be on.

Quick Sandbox Update

The sandbox is a huge hit!!



Just one quick statement - Toddler, Sandbox, Yorkshire Terrier = not a good combo!


[Steve's comment]: So the picture is after we took Chianti (our dog) out of the sandbox. As Stef says he's a Yorkshire Terrier and thus has long hair. Well, Andrei thought it was cool to pour sand over him.

Maybe the Gloworm is more important than we thought

We've been able to "test" what happens when a lovey looses it's ability to make noise and the result wasn't pretty. The responses to Steve's post about noise making lovies mention letting the batteries die as a possibility to relieving ourselves of the noise. Well I'm here to tell you that this approach may not work as expected.

Steve teaches his class on Monday nights so I was going through our nightly bed time routine with our little man. The nightly routine includes bathtime, books, and then into the crib for sleep. Before I leave the room I MUST kiss the gazillion animals good night all while the gloworm is playing his (I'm assuming it's a him) songs. Monday night we ran into a little glitch. Gloworm's batteries were dying. You'd hit the button to play his song and he'd start out okay but then fade fast. Actually I thought it was quite funny but our child didn't share the same idea of humor so I had to treat this with the seriousness it required.

First thought, I'll grab the backup gloworm and do a quick switcheroo. Oh but wait, Steve had moved the backup gloworm and neglected to tell me the hiding place. No problem, he keeps the extra rechargeable batteries in his desk so I'll just replace the batteries. Oh but wait, Steve's moved those as well. So now I have a traumatized toddler on my hands while searching through my husbands office to find the batteries.

Good news, I found the drawer with the batteries. Bad news, there are only two batteries and I need three for the gloworm. Luckily we use rechargables in the toys so I just have to recharge the original three. While the batteries are charging, the boy finally calms down and falls asleep in my arms. I'm able to replace the batteries and get everyone to bed. Whew, that was a close one.

Since we always try to find the opportunity to learn something from these "events" here's a quick recap of what we learned. (1) Make sure any backups are in the approved spot and any moving is done with both parents. (2) Don't rearrange your office without letting the other parent know.

You'll all be happy to know that both the backup Elmo and Gloworm are in a known super secret spot within easy reach of the crib. We also bought even more rechargeable batteries so we shouldn't run low for a while.

Swimming and Sandbox weekend

Andrei had another busy weekend but he had a blast and as a result didn't really do any "toddler testing" which meant both Stef and I had a great weekend as well. Saturday was non-stop action as he had his second swimming lesson and then went to his first children's birthday party.

I attended the swimming lesson this week to take some pictures and as usual Andrei was the water king. All the other kids were either crying or clinging to their parents (again this is for the under 2 crowd to learn not to be afraid of water so their reaction is pretty normal), however Andrei has so much fun that he can't be contained. You can see him here running away from Stef to go play all around the pool.



He is just so unbelievably adventurous in the water that he was the only kid to go down the water slide by himself. All the other kids, even the ones who liked the water, went down with their parents. But Andrei would have non of that and pushed Stef away so he could go it alone.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture, I took a few and this was actually the best of the bunch.



After the action in the pool we hurried off to the birthday party for our friend Cristina's son. He's four and it was a wonderful party. They had it at a bowling alley and it was really fun. All the kids just loved it. They actually have these little rails that come up so the kids can't possibly throw a gutter ball. So needless to say the kids thought this whole bowling thing was really cool.

Andrei was of course one of the youngest kids there but he had a great time as well. Cristina and Todd adopted their son from Russia too and in fact, they where the inspiration for our decision to get going. We actually "pulled the trigger" on moving forward with adoption after seeing their wonderful son at his 2nd birthday party.

Anyway, here's a shot of Andrei trying to pick up the spare.



On Sunday, we finished his sandbox and it was naturally a bit hit. With the weather so nice now in the Bay Area, I suspect the sandbox is going to be a daily routine. A couple of notes, Ryan mentioned that it's vital to have a cover otherwise cats (or other animals) in the neighborhood might use it as well (yuck!). I also have a beach umbrella out there to make sure the whole thing is shaded.

Sandbox construction

Andrei is helping me build a sandbox in the backyard. Stef and I had talked about it for the past couple of weeks since he seems to like the ones at the park. Then last week while I was putting away laundry I heard some silence for a few minutes (almost always a bad sign) and sure enough Andrei was playing in the cat box.

We took this as his endorsement of the outside sandbox idea.

So yesterday we bought the wood and during his nap I made the cuts. Today he and I will work on the area where the sandbox will go. I want to till the soil and lay down some weed block. We'll take care of that this afternoon since we have our Gymboree class this morning.

There are tons of free plans for sandboxes on the web from super simple to pretty elaborate. One of the key things most say is to just use regular wood and not treated (sometimes called "pressure treated") wood. The chemicals used leaches out of the wood and most often it is based on arsenic. Great for killing rot and insects, but equally great at killing kids. Actually it's in very low amounts and I don't believe any child could die from it, but avoiding it makes sense.

My First Swimming Lesson

Last weekend was the best! But, it didn't start out so great. On Saturday morning, Mom said we were going swimming so when we got in the car I threw a fit - We DO NOT go swimming in the car, we go swimming in the back yard. Eventually I got settled down and decided to wait and see where she was going with this "swimming in the car" idea.

So we drive and drive for like FOREVER (Mom's edit: it was actually only 10 min) and finally get there and park the car. At first, I don't see any chance for swimming, there are a bunch of people playing in a huge sandbox and even more big kids playing with long sticks and a ball. We walk through a gate and mom talks to some people. I still have yet to see any water and even I know you need that stuff for swimming.

We then head through another gate and I finally see it - the biggest bestest swimming pool I've ever seen!! Mom's not doing too well in my eyes cause we sit there for a minute then she tries to get me to go back through the gate. NO WAY LADY, not after I've gone this far. Finally she DRAGS me to the gate and then back to sit and just look at the water. Hello, I'm supposed to be swimming not just looking at the opportunity of a lifetime.

There are a few other kids, but most look really scared. Some of the kids and their mom or dad go up and are just standing around this guy with a clipboard. We go up and join them. I'm really not liking this standing around and looking at water. Swimming means you go in the water. Who cares if it's cold and windy just jump in!

Then we get into the water. It's nice and warm so I just dive on in. This pool is way better since I can stand up and walk anywhere I want, so I just take off, I could tell the clipboard guy was impressed. We keep playing games in the water with rubber duckies, kicking and just having fun. - this is great!!- Some of the other kids aren't enjoying this, crying and getting out of the pool. I mean really, they are missing the opportunity of a lifetime.

Mom counted the other kids since I can't count yet and she's really into that kind of stuff. At the beginning of class there were a total of five other kids and now at the end we're down to me and some girl. My boys let me down, they've all left the pool and I'm left with a girl who can already talk and says I'm a little baby. I'm gonna prove her wrong, I walk on over to the ladder and climb on out of the pool.

It is really cold outside since the wind is blowing, but mom changes my clothes and we're off again back to the car. Mom tells me that I'm really lucky and get to go again next week. Yippee!! The bad part is we need to practice our bubble blowing.

"Lovie" or Satan? You decide.

When we traveled to Russia to pick up Andrei we brought with us Playskool's GloWorm which plays these little lullabyes and has a soft glow. Andrei liked it and became very attached to, however it wasn't a full blown "lovie". I say this because he didn't really want it except at nap or bedtime. So he didn't really treat it as a real "lovie" (i.e., carrying it around constantly, etc.). So we were on the lookout for something he would really take to.

Andrei doesn't watch very much TV, he's actually not too interested in it (which is perfectly fine with us). But we did find out pretty quickly that he really likes Elmo of Sesame Street. Well, we looked long and hard for a little Elmo that he could carry around and found one that (unfortunately) makes sound. It's this talking Elmo that laughs and says a few words when you shake him up and down.

From the minute he got Elmo it became clearly his "lovie". But the thing gets just a little annoying. Okay, incredibly annoying! But it is his "lovie" and for some odd reason the satanic "Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha" it produces does seem to comfort him. So we're resigned to the fact that we're going to be hearing Elmo for months or maybe even years (Crikey!).

But being good parents we're going to suck it up. In fact, we bought a second one just in case the first one breaks. We are hoping though that he won't mind if it stops making noise when the batteries run out. At first, we're not going to put new ones in and tell him that, "Elmo wants to be quiet". We're praying this goes over well. And it might...but I doubt it.

Here's a little video in which Andrei clearly demonstrates the demonic power of Elmo (and why the sound of Elmo makes an adult cringe).

Another Milestone Reached

One of two things happened yesterday during nap time either:

a - The boy successfully undressed himself except for his diaper, or
b - The dog learned how to climb into the crib and undress the child except for his diaper.

Since we didn't actually see it happen we're both inclined to believe option "a" since the dog isn't that ambitious and loves fully participating in nap time.

Yesterday at the beginning of nap time he was wearing the romper in the picture below and socks for his nap. At the end of nap time he was wearing a diaper. Now, I had witnessed his running around in the romper with the zipper undone, but he'd never made it to taking the romper all the way off. And then he'd also removed his socks. At night we have him take off his socks, but have to help him get them started.

So we can check another milestone off the list and hope we don't get to the point we need to duct tape the diaper during naps.

Life's Tough When You're (Almost) Two

Wow, it's been a week since I've posted and what a rough week it was.

First, he's hitting the terrible twos with full force and asserting his independence at every opportunity. Apparently no one has told him that he won't be turning two for another six weeks.

The testing, oh the testing. He's really testing both of us. One of Andrei's favorite activities is to throw balls, stuffed animals, shoes and other objects over the second floor hallway railing down to the floor below. As soon as he's done this we "discuss" how he shouldn't be throwing things downstairs and he's lost the toy. We know we're getting through to him because he'll tell us in his own toddler pantomime that none of us should throw items over the railing. Just in case we've changed our minds, he likes to reinforce this concept daily.

Second, his canines (teeth) are finally coming in. Those sharp little teeth are finally poking through and our superhero has been DroolBoy. We have drool everywhere - and no one warned us that toddler teeth are sharp!

Lastly, he's had a cold for the last couple of days. He woke up crying on Saturday night and it took Tylenol and rocking in my arms for about 30 minutes to relax enough to get back to sleep. The next day he started sneezing and had a runny nose. Today he appears to be feeling much better and hopefully will sleep through the night.

Generally he's a happy kid and gives us a little slack when we're trying to figure out this parenting thing. However, with the combo of these three we've been challenged this week. But who couldn't love this face!