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Text of the page (random words):
alysa s big adventure alysa s big adventure this is the story of my journey to adopt a child from kazakhstan a family isn t determined by who is or isn t in it or how it came to be but by the bond that is created by the love that is shared tuesday december 8 2009 i know i know i m working on it check back soon posted by alysa at 11 21 am 3 comments monday september 14 2009 biting the director at brady s daycare center called me into the office this morning when i dropped him off apparently his biting has escalated breaking skin and he may be kicked out yay i know the biting has increased recently but i had no idea the bites were so severe seems one of the parents has called the licensing board so the county is coming out to see what is happening this is a new director and she is much stricter than the last likely why there is a new director until now no one has told me that 1 he s biting harder and 2 he could be kicked out in fact i ve been told he isn t really hurting anyone and that it was no big deal just typical toddler behavior he is biting when fighting over toys or when someone gets in his way on the playground also seems to bite more when over stimulated and or tired so the director wants to move him into the two year old room starting today she said that in her experience biting can sometimes come with boredom we re going to try it but i think he bites more when over stimulated so lets throw him with with larger group of kids that are running jumping yelling and months to a year older than he is all day long yeah that s going to help to add to the fun my job ends tomorrow and we are going to have to go to part time for as long as i can afford it maybe it is best to have all these changes happen at once but i fear the biting will get worse before it gets better which will likely mean he gets expelled he s in the cheapest daycare center in the area right now so there really is no where else to go after this unless i look for home based daycare which is not my preference frustrated upset and worried posted by alysa at 10 07 am 6 comments tuesday september 8 2009 toddler times my vow to myself to update this blog more often apparently didn t work so here s a quick update and a bunch of pictures with another vow to update more often in the future much easier and less overwhelming to do it more often not to mention i won t forget half of what has been going on words words and more words brady is an absolute chatterbox even though he is still only using single words nouns he jabbers constantly while playing and tries sometimes unsuccessfully to get mommy to understand what he is saying his favorites of course are all things transportation names and sounds there is a play by play whenever we are in the car as he points and shouts car choo choo truck tractor mo mo motorcycle and bus non stop for some reason a cement mixer is ma mo i m not even gonna consider why his teachers at daycare think it is hysterical many cement trucks go by behind the playground since it sounds like mama and the kid can spot an airplane that is nothing more than a speck on the distant horizon that i have to squint to see he used to call them choo choos but after my persistent prompting of airplane they are now known as air choos gotta get that on video took this video almost two months ago he is more articulate and even more enthusiastic now we ve made great advances with mommy although it took awhile which i attribute to the fact that there is no one in the house calling me mommy in front of him i refer to myself as mommy all of the time but he still doesn t really get it since he has been home i have guarded whatever drink i ve had near me as he is reaching for it by saying no that s mommy s now he points at every coffee cup wine glass or soda can and proudly yells mommy so next i tried pointing at myself chest cheeks whatever and saying mommy then he points at his chest cheeks whatever and says mommy poor confused kid just within the last couple of weeks he has been playing a game where he points at something and i name it so we ve been pointing at each other and the cat or friends or pictures of people we know and naming them he now knows mommy s name is mommy yay still hasn t used it outside of the name game though baby steps books books and more books brady loves books i love that he loves books but i d also love it if i could go to the bathroom just once without the child trying to climb on my lap with a book in hand his favorites are naturally anything about trains trucks tractors airplanes etc however he does have a few elmo books several little people books and a couple of animal books that he likes as well if i pick up a book that he doesn t find interesting after looking at the cover or maybe by the first page he ll grab it out of my hands close it say night night to it and fling it aside school days his fall enrollment is complete and brady is still lovin daycare i m still reeling from having to re enroll him pay the enrollment fee and filling out all 14 pages of the paperwork all over again for a child that has been attending the same daycare without interruption from the beginning i just don t get it emergency room visit 1 why daycare has a huge sandbox where a gaggle of toddlers play and fling sand at each other is beyond me i know the kids love it but the teachers don t and as a parent i like it even less i picked brady up one afternoon from daycare while he was in the sandbox he saw me came running but also started rubbing both eyes something he was doing often with sand covered hands about halfway home the screaming started i tried to rinse his eyes out at home but could tell that wasn t enough i called my next door neighbor to drive us to urgent care thank goodness she was home the doctor at urgent care wouldn t even look at him and told me we should probably just go to the er poor kid is screaming this entire time anyway they confirmed he had minor abrasions on both eyes then rinsed both eyes out using a nasal canula as a dripper and a liter of saline then sent him home with antibiotic drops that i had to put in his eyes every four hours when he was awake for five days that was fun fortunately he was already scheduled two days later to see his ophthalmologist for a routine exam she said his eyes looked fine and to stop the drops whew since brady loves his sunglasses and will wear them in the car and outside or just for fun he now also wears them while on the playground at daycare he has always been sensitive to having the sun in his eyes and rubbed them all the time the sunglasses have really helped on both the sand and sun fronts given the extra brightness of the sun at this elevation 6 000 feet this is actually a very good thing cool kid pointing at the cars a little ocd brady certainly likes routine and especially having things in their place except for his toys of course which can be all over the house it is almost a little weird if he sees my shoes in the hall he takes them to the laundry room he knows just which toy boxes certain toys go in when asked to put them away and when i move the trash can in my bathroom he picks it up and puts it where it is supposed to be he does this with everything it is delightful in some ways but should i be worried the work front finally got the word about my job after our company was acquired last month my job ends as of september 15th they actually wiped out my entire department unfortunately there isn t much out there in my field in this area right now it s going to be very tight and i will need to find something fairly soon i m going to try to keep brady in daycare part time for as long as i can for both of our sakes i am actually looking forward to having some time off while the weather is still decent i have several projects to complete yet sanding and staining the deck painting the front porch etc summer activities cannot believe summer is over it has been a strange one in denver most afternoons have been cloudy and stormy with several intense downpours and 3 tornado warnings only a few really hot days as well then we were in the direct path of the smoke from the la wildfires and had several days of red tinged air couldn t see the mountains for the thick haze and you could actually smell the smoke in the mornings very bizarre brady found the nearly full box of swim diapers and put them to good use since being in his little pool in the yard didn t happen very often we have had some fun outings including a day at the cheyenne mountain zoo in colorado springs several single mom group get togethers and a playdate with a pair of gorgeous kaz girls coming up is thomas the tank engine at the colorado railroad museum and a weekend in estes park for the annual fall festival checking out the wallaby at the zoo gorgeous kaz kids posted by alysa at 4 43 pm 3 comments wednesday july 22 2009 meetcha day one year ago today in a land far far away i looked into the sparkling eyes of one particular bouncing baby boy for the very first time and then he giggled and spit up all over me except for the frequent spitting up part he is still a sparkly eyed bouncing giggly baby boy well okay except maybe for that baby part he has grown so much and so fast in the last year surreal still applies especially when i look at the photos and videos from our bonding days is that really the same little boy that is tearing up the house now 7 5 months old a few sweet moments while we were getting acquainted in aqtobe what a difference a year makes a few recent photos of brady in action my little guy loves to read books especially if those books are about cars trains trucks or tractors anything with wheels elmo is okay too but thomas the train is even better won t wear a hat when i put one on him but he found this baby swim hat put it on himself and wore it for a good hour in the house faster faster brady giggled and giggled when his friend brandon pulled him in his megablock wagon we went to the park on the fourth of july for the neighborhood celebration they had a little petting zoo brady was afraid of the pony the burro the sheep the goat and the calf but the bunny was okay for a couple of seconds brady s love of trucks and water what could be better he put this truck in the pool by himself i ve been missing the simpler life in kazakhstan rather intensely the last few weeks no doubt it is because it is summer and this anniversary is upon us the sweltering quiet and repetitious visits twice a day to the babyhouse the creative meals and warm hospitality served up by regina the chuckles and smiles from our native kazakh driver ceric and the list goes on and on it was a wondrous and life changing journey as stressful as the process and initially that first visit to aqtobe was i d do it all over again a thousand times for the same result i m so glad i met you one year ago today in a land far far away posted by alysa at 7 39 am 4 comments older posts home subscribe to posts atom welcome welcome to my journey to motherhood i appreciate your interest and am thrilled to share this exciting and terrifying adventure with my family and friends alysa little precious fur babies callie and merlin aqtobe time aktobe aqtobe weather weather forecast weather maps polling place polls take our poll timeline october 26 2008 4 38pm mdt newest us citizen october 26 2008 homeward bound october 12 2008 left aqtobe for almaty october 7 2008 we are family gotcha day october 3 2008 return to kaz trip 3 october 1 2008 adoption decree signed by judge you re mine september 15 2008 kaz court september 9 2008 return to kaz trip 2 august 9 2008 end of trip 1 july 22 2008 i found you july 19 2008 on da plane to kaz july 10 2008 letter of invitation received february 1 2008 dossier sent to aqtobe moe november 9 2007 aqtobe is my region november 5 2007 dossier to ministry of foreign affairs october 10 2007 dossier to kaz consulate in ny october 5 dossier in translation october 2 2007 dossier fedex d to lmi august 21 2007 i171h approval from us immigration received august 9 2007 homestudy submitted to uscis june 15 2007 homestudy completed again sent to uscis not may 31 2007 homestudy completed not march 2007 signed agency contracts january march 2007 researched agencies countries etc march november 2006 decided to move out of ca found and started new job sold ca house bought co house and moved february 2006 realized i needed a fresh start whether or not i adopted october 2005 started researching adoption favorite adoption blogs angela and family blackmans catalina christy and z karla and ben kelly and sne mcmary patrick and eileen regina and frank sandi links to more info kaz and russian language downloads skype internet phone golden rule travel info on aqtobe peace corp kaz blogs my adoption agency kaz embassy kaz adoption country info kazakhstan a bit about kaz kazakhstan is the largest of the former soviet republics in size after russia and is the ninth largest nation in the world it shares a border with russia on the north and is west of china kazakhstan gained its independence from russia in 1991 and although traditionally a nomadic and pastoral society the current way of life and culture reflect strong russian influences kazakhstan has a population of over 15 million people comprised of 46 kazakhs 35 russians 5 ukrainians 3 germans and the remaining 11 a mix of other european and asian ethnicities while kazakh is the state language nearly everyone is bilingual in kazakh and russian about me yep i m 40 something and going to be a single first time parent and yes many nights days nights and more sleepless nights i think i may have just lost my mind but i m also excited and am looking forward to all the challenges thrills sweet little moments panic hope messes joys and mostly love that will be an everyday part of my life i ve changed my life pretty dramatically in the past year new job new state new house new life in part because i wanted a fresh start but also because doing so allowed me financially and emotionally to pursue adoption most of you know that my mother had me at nearly 40 and raised me alone and this was back when being a single mom and especially an older single mom was not a very acceptable thing to do i m sad that mom will never know her grandchild but i know she would be thrilled that i am doing this from her i have learned independence tenacity resourcefulness and that family is not defined by numbers or what society thinks it should be but by love and support thank you mom for setting the example that has given me the courage to follow in my own way in your footsteps visitors blog archive 2009 9 december 1 i know i know september 2 july 1 june 1 march 1 february 2 january 1 2008 100 december 1 november 4 october 23 september 10 august 9 july 10 june 4 may 10 april 7 march 11 february 5 january 6 2007 40 december 3 november 9 october 5 september 5 august 4 july 2 june 12