Pre-Holiday Memories

Where's your Eye? 




This Christmas was the best one ever sharing it with Andrew. Let me just start off by sharing a few pre-Christmas memories which happened the week before Christmas. Andrew has been pointing out our eyes, nose, ears, mouth, chin, cheeks and teeth over the last couple of weeks. All of a sudden he will poin to my nose or his nose or the nose on his Elmo or where ever he sees someones facial features. In a book of his that we took over to Ukraine with us is a book that points out different parts of the body which we used to read all of the time to him when we were there and since we've been home. We haven't read much of it lately so it surprised me when all of a sudden he is pointing to my nose and saying "Nooos" and pointing to my eye and saying "eye". When he points to my ear he will yank it a couple of times instead of pointing to it. It's funny sometimes lately when he wakes up from his nap he will be crying for me to get him out of his crib and when I pick him up he immediately stops crying and points to my nose and say the word nose and smile. Too cute.


Here is my nose. 





Another cute memory which melted my heart was when Barney was on the television and the ending theme song came on and Andrew jumped up and ran over to me and took hold of my hands and was swaying back and forth as he started singing "I wuv" along with Barney. Tears welled up in my eyes since this was one of the songs I used to sing to him when we were visiting him in the orphanage. Now he is starting to sing it to me.


Love the Teddy Bear. 




Okay are you ready for a funny Christmas Eve wake up call? Well usually every morning when we wake up on a Saturday I will pick Andrew up out of his crib when he wakes up and will bring him into our room and place him between us on the bed until we finish waking up. So when we were ready to get up I took Andrew and put him on the changing table to take off his diaper so I can put him on his potty chair to go poopies on the potty. Well I wasn't expecting his diaper to already have the poopie in it so when I took his diaper off Andrew was in the process of wiggling and rolling around on the changing table and decided to stand up just as the diaper fell off of his butt. Andrew was excited as ever and started running in place and squished his foot in the poop. I grabbed his foot quick enough so he wouldn't leave poopy tracks all over the changing station and with the other hand I held his upper body. Well let's just say that Andrew was still wiggling and squirming in my arms and proceeded to press his poopy foot against my face. He was so quick about it I didn't even see it coming since I was trying to calm him down. I quickly yelled for Robert to come in and help me with the messy situation and of course when he saw the poop smeared on my face he fell over with laughter. I quickly yelled for him to grab the wipes so we could all get cleaned up and have some breakfast. Yeah...that is just what I want after having poop smeared on my face. How nasty is that?!! If that's not a wake up call, I don't know what is.


All wrapped up for Christmas. 




Another cute memory is when Andrew decided to redecorate the Christmas tree...or himself I should say. One evening, Andrew noticed the garland of beads on our Christmas tree and decided to get a closer look. He picked up the end and wrapped it around his neck loosely with the other end of the garland still attached to the tree. I grabbed the camera to get a few photos of the incident and then noticed that Andrew started to twist his body around and around to continue wrapping the garland around himself. It was cute and funny until the Christmas tree started to lean. Okay, Andrew let's put the garland back on the tree and get ready for bed instead of taking the tree down. We like to keep it up at least until Christmas anyway.

Toys R Us & Billy's Birthday Party

About a week ago, we were invited to join our nephew, Billy to celebrate with him and his friends at Chucky Cheese. So when it was time to go to Toys R Us to get a birthday gift for Billy, I figured it would be a good time to also get some ideas for Andrew for Christmas. As we were going through Toys R Us and getting ideas of what to get Billy for his birthday, I had Andrew in the shopping cart and I was tickled to see and hear of his reactions to the toys around him. When we went down the isle that had stuffed Barney's and Winnie the Pooh, he recognized them right away and started gruntinga and reaching for them. I pulled the Winnie the Pooh Bear off of the shelf and let Andrew hold it and he smiled as he hugged it and rested his head upon it. I then put it back after gave him some love and continued on down the isles. When I went down the isle of all of the Thomas the Tank Engine, Andrew about jumped out of the cart to grab the toys of Thomas off the shelf as he yelped. Ohh my...I guess I know what Andrew likes for sure. He was too funny making all of his verbal comments and reactions as we went through the store.



Andrew had a great time celebrating cousin Billy's birthday at Chucky Cheese. There was a separate room for toddlers to climb on slides and sit on a ride with Barney and on a Bulldozer with Bob the Builder. Andrew was approached by Chucky Cheese himself in his mouse costume and when he stopped to wave at Andrew, he froze and stared at him and then his face got all distorted and the tears started to flow. My sweetheart was afraid of Chucky Cheese just like I was afraid of Goofy when I was his Andrew's age at Disneyland. I picked him up and comforted him and then he was fine. What surprised me though was that Andrew liked the adult size animals that played different instruments later on when we had cake in the dining area. He was dancing and going up to the animals at that time. Andrew had a great time and played as much as he could before Mommy and Daddy decided to go home.

Putting up the Christmas Tree

Daddy's little helper 




Boy this Christmas is certainly going to be a memorable one for us this year. Having a child in your home at Christmas time makes the season much more exciting for everyone. We decided to put the Christmas tree up a little earlier this year than we normally do since we couldn't wait to share the excitement of putting up the Christmas tree with Andrew. On December 3rd (yes, I'm still catching up on my journal entries) we put up the Christmas tree. Andrew was intently helping Daddy put the tree together. He would grab a branch of our artificial tree and walk it over to Daddy as he put it together. Back and forth he would go from the box of tree branches to Daddy to give him the branch. Andrew is quite the helper in everything and anything we are doing around the house. But as we put together the Christmas tree he knew that he was helping to doing something extra special. After they assembled the tree Robert took out the string of lights and started stuffing them into the tree branches and following behind him every step of the way was Andrew picking up and carrying the tail of lights that Daddy had dragging on the floor. As Robert would walk around the tree stuffing the lights into the branches, Andrew waddled around the tree following him every step of the way. It was precious to watch Andrew so engrossed in helping that I just sat back and took the moment all in...as I was taking pictures of course. Thank God for digital cameras.




Decorating my first Christmas Tree 

Andrew's First Haircut & Thanksgiving

Andrew's First Haircut 




Since Andrew's hair was looking quite shaggy I took him to get his first haircut. His hair was really growing in thick in the back and was growing over his ears. It was time to get his first haircut. There were many opinions otherwise that I should let it grow longer to let his curls grow in, but he already had some curls in the back and that was enough for Mommy. We have a little boy and not a little girl so Kid's Kuts here we come. Yes, I took him to Kid's Kuts to get his haircut since they are experience with cutting young children's hair. Surprisingly Andrew held still for the most part, up until they took out the electric clippers to shave up the back of his hair and around his ears. Boy how handsome he looks. Robert like his longer hair, which surprises me that he does. I guess because he looked like more of a baby with his longer hair instead of a little boy with his haircut. Kid's Kuts had a video playing of Elmo to keep him still while the lady cut his hair. When the electric clippers came out Andrew stood up in the car he was sitting in and went right to me to protect him. So I held him as the lady finished trimming the back of his hair. They saved some of his hair for me and gave Andrew a certificate for his first haircut for his scrapbook.


Handsome Andrew 





This year we have had a lot to be thankful for at Thanksgiving. We are so thankful to God for bringing our family together with Andrew our son. He is a blessing, an answered prayer and a dream come true. Each day as I put Andrew down for his nap or for the evening I am so thankful for him and I thank God for our precious son. I look down at him in his crib and am amazed at how he has grown and each day he seems bigger than the last. When we brought him home from Ukraine, Andrew was wearing a size 9 months clothes and now his is just getting into 18 months size clothes. I measured him the other day at the doctor's office and he has grown 4 inches since we met him in August. We also just got him new shoes at Stride Rite and realized his foot grew a whole size and a half since we brought him home. He was in a size 3 shoe and now we have him in a size 5. He still seems little to many people but he is certainly growing quickly. We have been home for 2 months on November 21st which was the same amount of time we were in Ukraine and Andrew has amazed me at how much he has learned, grown and bonded with us and our family in such a short amount of time.


I'm a BIG kid now! 

November Developments and Playmates

November certainly flew by and I got a little slack on keeping up with the blog. We're certainly enjoying parenthood and watching our Andrew develop this past month. He has been an absolute joy to be around and is getting more and more active each day. By the end of the day, I am exhausted and usually go to bed the same time Andrew does.



Last month Andrew has been learning a few new words and phrases. Now he can say, "Awe done (for All done), Ne No (for no no), a NO (for OH NO!), Mi (for Milk), Waz tha (for What's that?), ba bye (for bye, bye), Mama, Da da (for Daddy), dugh dugh (for doggy), Pee Boo (for Peek-a-Boo), Roun ba (for round ball-a game we play), Bi Bi (for Big Bird), Nana (for banana or Nana-his grandmother), Awe (for Awe), Apa (for Apple), Di Dow (for Sit Down), or Gi dow (for get down) and Ame (for Amen). Okay, so he doesn't quite have the full pronounciation of the words and or phrases yet, but for only hearing the English language for about 4 months I'd say he is doing exceptionally well.



Andrew can be quite expressive when he wants to be heard. Andrew does not like the vacuum cleaner. Every time I go to vacuum he will run away from it like it was some kind of monster. He usually doesn't cry he just has this terrified look on his face and bolts into the room furthest from where the vacuum is. As soon as I turn the vacuum off, Andrew will yell "AWE DONE"!! Hoping and praying that I'm finished with the vacuuming.



Since I know that Andrew knows the word for "milk" I've been teaching him to say the word "milk" when he wants some milk instead of grunting over and over again as he is reaching for it. After about a few days to a week of repeating over and over again "milk" whenever he grunted and reached for his glass/sippy cup he is starting to say "mil" when he wants some milk to drink. I am teaching him the same for when he wants to be picked up (which is quite often). He knows how to say "up" so he motions that he wants to be picked up I'll repeat "up" or "Mama, Up", but that one he hasn't quite picked up on yet. I guess because it doesn't have a food/drink reward after he does it. Sometimes he will say "up" after I give in and pick him up, even though he didn't say it before I picked him up. Either way, Andrew's speach development is coming along quite nicely. Robert and I were crying because we were laughing so hard last week when a toy fell off of the ocuch and Andrew said "Ah NO! Ah NO! He was saying OH NO??!! He was saying it with such expression and tone and since Robert and I were cracking up laughing at him he kept repeating it. I wish I had that one on video.



Another amazing thing that Andrew did a couple of weeks ago was on a Saturday morning when Andrew awoke since Robert and I were still in bed asleep, I woke up and brought Andrew into our room to hang out on the bed as we were waking up. After about 15 minutes of him bouncing on our stomachs and him rolling all over us he suddenly stopped, stood up on the bed, hunched over a bit and grabbed his butt and gave me this look like he was trying to tell me something. I wasn't sure if he had a diaper full or if he was trying to tell me that he needed to be put on his potty chair. So I took him into the bathroom and took off his diaper and put him on his potty chair and he immediately pooped. Talk about amazed! I was shocked that he was actually telling me by his actions that he had to poop. I was jumping for joy and calling him my Amazing Andrew. Now if he can just do that all the time.



Andrew has been getting to know some of my friends children that are only a month and a half younger than Andrew. Kenny and Kevin are Andrew's new buddies that are twins of my girlfriend and former neighbor Jen and Ken. We spent some time with them at their house one day and all of the boys played together nicely with their toys. We also got together another week and checked out a Tumble Times class for kids 18 months to 36 months old. They all had a ball with the class bouncing on the trampline and playing in the foam pit. Andrew didn't want to get off of the trampline he was having so much fun and he didn't want to wait until the other children had their turn before doing it again. Andrew had a blast playing at Tumble Times with Kenny and Kevin, but I think he is a bit young for all of that right now. It's more of an instructional class which is fine for the older children, but for Andrew's age he is wanting to do his own thing right now. It might be a good place to have his birthday party, which is another reason why I wanted to check it out. Andrew's birthday is in February so I need to decide on something soon if we are going to have a party for him outside of our home. We'd like to do something special for him for his birthday because it will be his first and second birthday we will be celebrating. They don't celebrate birthdays in the orphanages of course so because of that we'd like to do something special and fun for Andrew.



We also spent some time with Andrew's cousins Nicole, Billy, Christina, Maria Clare and Julia. When we got their they were all very excited to spend some time playing with him that they were arguing over who was going to play with him first. Maria Clare kept saying that Andrew was her favorite boy cousin.



Andrew also attended another birthday party for his other cousins' Anthony and Vincent (his twin cousins just turned 5yrs old). Towards the end of the birthday party, Anthony didn't want Andrew to leave because he was having fun playing with Andrew. I told Anthony that we would talk to his mom to arrange another time we could get together so they could play. Anthony was happy with that answer so he said goodbye and sent Andrew home with one of his squishy balls to remember him by.

Surprise, Surprise...Another Baby Shower!

Wow! What a wonderful surprise...our friends from church gave us a baby shower on Saturday, November 5th. Just when you think the celebrating is over with, our friends surprised us with a Welcome Home/Baby Shower for us. What a blessing it was! Thank you all for all of your blessings and gifts to our family. We appreciate all of the people who put the showers together and want to thank them for their thoughtfulness in doing so. Cecilia White, Kathy Jakubowski, Denise Trapp and Trudy Paine, Maria Millilo, Sherry Winser, Karen Festa, Rita Hagerty, Karen Vick, Maria McMahon and Alyssa Irwin thank you for all of the preparation, time and money you all contributed to make both showers a success.



It was a great time and we were blessed with many clothes, toys, necessary items for toddlers, and gift certificates. God is so good with His abundance and overflow and we praise Him for the overflow of love we have in our friends and family and especially our son Andrew. He has certainly blessed us with a loving, inquisitive, intelligent, active and silly little boy.



Boy oh boy, Andrew is a popular boy I must say and is loved by all who meet him. He had a ball that day and kept Mama and some friends of ours on their toes chasing after him as he sprinted all over the restaurant. He especially enjoyed slapping his hands in the water from the fountain inside the restaurant. He was ready to dive right into the fountain of water he had so much fun.



We also want to thank you all again for all of your prayers throughout our adoption...before, during and after. It has meant a great deal to us to have a large family of people praying for the union of our family come together so divinely. We certainly felt and experience the power of your prayers when we were in Ukraine. The favor of God was upon us and our adoption of our son Andrew and God had His hand upon our experience orchestrating it from the beginning the whole time. The month that God had given me the vision of adopting was the same month and year that Andrew was born February 2004. Fancy that! God knew our hearts were ohh so desiring a child of our own and planted the seed to adopt and guided and directed our steps to Ukraine and placed Andrew's file in our hands the day he came off of the ministry to become available for foreign adoption. How amazing is that? It's all in His timing for sure.



May all of your seeds sown be multiplied back to you 100 fold...in Jesus name.

Yummy Cookies and Buckwheat

Anticipation...It's making me wait. 




Wednesday evening Andrew and I baked cookies for the first time together. When it was time to roll the dough out in a ball and put it on the cookie sheet, I sat Andrew on my lap and showed him to squeeze the dough from one hand to another and put it on the cookie sheet. After I rolled a cookie out to show him what to do I gave him a handful of dough and closed his hand to show him how to squeeze it in a ball. Well, he did not like the feel of the sticky, greasy dough in his hands at all. He barely let me close his hand around the dough and he just wanted it out of his hand. So I squeezed the dough into the balls and placed it on the cookie sheet in front of us and told him to pick it up and move it to another spot on the cookie sheet. He had no problem touching the dough for a second or two and after he moved the dough balls in the spot that I asked him we both cheered with delight. He was so tickled with himself that he touched and moved the dough ball like he did. After getting all of the cookie dough rolled out and placed on the cookie sheet they were ready for baking. After I placed the cookie sheets into the oven, I turned on the oven light so we could watch their development into hot, scrumptous cookies. Andrew would intently watch the cookies baking with Mommy and when they were finished cooking and cooling a bit we had a tasty treat. Andrew doesn't really eat too many sweets other than fruit so he cautiously took a piece of the cookie and put it into his mouth. Just then his eyes lit up and his eyebrows raised and he smerked and said "UMMMMMMMM" each time he ate a piece.


Hey Mom are the cookies done yet? 




Since we've been home we have had a few food issues that I mentioned before. One day he'll eat scrambled eggs or whatever and a few days later he won't want any parts of them. It's funny though, I'll have a couple of different food groups in front of him and instead of him reaching for the meat or potatoes he'll want to eat the grean beans. He always seems to favor to eat anything green. He likes eating Mommy's homemade split pea soup or homemade lentil soup, however, he pushes away ice cream. Go figure. He certainly get that trait from me. I'd rather him push away the sweets anyway, don't get me wrong. I have noticed though that most foods that are not ground up or really soft to eat he will spit out. Even if their are a few fruit pieces in a yogurt (which he is used to eating baby yogurt, that is smooth..no chunks). He does eat cereal bars, bananas, peaches cheerios, however, lately he has been rejecting the banana (unless it's pureed), cereal bars (he used to love them), and eggs (which he used to eat all of what I put in front of him and then move on to eat Mommy and Daddy's eggs). I hesitate anymore when I go to feed him since one day he'll eat a particular food like it's going out of style and another time I go to feed him the same thing and he refuses to eat it, even if I put a little in his mouth to taste it at times he'll spit it out and at times he'll eat it.



My Mom thought she'd get Andrew a familiar food that was commonly served in the orphanage which is buckwheat. She picked some up at the store for me and I cooked it tonight with some butter, mushrooms, onions, chicken and water. I took his share of the chicken and ground it up and mixed some ground up carrots into the cooked buckwheat. After it cooled I gave him a little taste not knowing what reaction I was going to get. Andrew made the same face and reaction as he did eating the cookies. He raised his eyebrows and his eyes got real wide and he smerked when he said "UMMMMMM" after each bite. Of course he spit out the pieces of carrot that weren't ground up enough for him but all in all he ate most of the large helping I gave him. After he was finished with his dinner, I was able to eat my chicken, carrots and buckwheat. Andrew came over to my chair as I was eating and wanted to sit on my lap. So I picked him up and discovered his mouth open as I scooped up some buckwheat for me to eat. Well needless to say he ate another portion of buckwheat since he didn't get enough of it. Hopefully he'll eat the leftovers tomorrow. I don't think I have ever had buckwheat before traveling to Ukraine, but it is quite tasty and very healthy for you.

Great Grandma's Birthday & Smiling Pooh Bear

The Next Campbell's Soup Kid 




The Millilo household has had some excitement over the past week. Last Tuesday, Andrew had his flu shot and one of his immunization shots to bring him up to date. Of course, Andrew was not happy about getting them, but it needed to be done. Andrew also had to get bloodwork redone again for his thiroid to make sure that the test showed him to have normal thiroid levels, which we found out that it did. So Praise God for that. We are still waiting to see about his updated stool sample test to see if the Giardia is completely gone. I think it is since Andrew's stools are much more formed and his appetite is coming back. That might have contributed to him not being able to gain as much weight as he should be gaining. So hopefully he'll be catching up to kids his age in height and weight soon.


Andrew, Papa & Great Grandma 




Sunday, we celebrated Andrew's Great Grandmother's 90th birthday with the rest of the extended Millilo family. Andrew had fun climbing up his grandfather's chest as you can see in the picture below. Papa got a real kick out of it when Andrew was practically standing on Papa's shoulders as he was holding Andrew's hands. He is quite the active little boy with a lot of energy for sure. Great Grandma enjoyed watching Andrew exploring cousin Stephanie & Joe's new home and playing with his cousins. Andrew had everyone laughing when he was showing off showing everyone how he dances by stamping his feet and shaking his head real fast, and then switching to slow dancing with Mommy by holding my two hands as he is standing and teetering slowly back and forth from one foot to the next. He also surprised everyone by giving out kisses as we were saying goodbye and waving and saying bye bye to everyone. Such an entertainer Andrew is.


Climbing up Papa 







Smiling Pooh Bear with Nana 



Monday evening I dressed Andrew as Pooh Bear for his night out at our church for a fun night collecting candy at Hallelujah Night. My Mom and sister, Marli joined Andrew and I as he was experiencing what fun it is to collect candy from such generous strangers. He knew exactly what to do with it too. My friend, Regina saw us first and came right over to us and just had to find two handfuls of candy to give to Andrew. She showed him the candy in one of her hands to see his reaction. Andrew's eyes got real big and he then smiled real hard and grit his teeth together and squealed with delight. He never saw so much candy in so many colorful wrappers at once before. Then she showed him her other hand after he put the candy from her first handful in his bag and he squealed even louder. He was estatic and was walking all over the sanctuary having a ball getting more and more candy from anyone he saw that had a bucket. As soon as he saw someone with a bucket of candy, he would go directly over to them and get their attention until they squatted down to his level and then he'd dive into the bucket and take out as many as they would allow him. On the ride home, Andrew fell asleep in the car. So when I took him out of his car seat and into the house, he was still asleep on my shoulder. Since I had to get him out of his costume and into a new diaper and sleeper outfit to put him to bed, I laid him on the floor to change him. When I took off his costume, he turned over on his stomach to sleep with his butt in the air, I noticed he was smiling real big as he was sleeping. I leaned over him to give him a kiss on his cheek and was still smiling. It was so sweet to see him dreaming of the fun he just had that night at church collecting so much candy.


Having fun pushing my stool around. 

Hello there. 

Kissy Face

All is well here at the Millilo household. Andrew and I are feeling much better. Andrew is completely over the bronchitis and has finished his medication for the Giardia. What a task that was giving him his medication these past couple of weeks. It got to the point where Andrew would know that he was about to get his medication and would run from me...just like the kid in the Robitussin commercial. If the doctor this week for his check up gives a full bill of health then Andrew will get his flu shot on Tuesday. I'm sure he will be excited about that.


Fun with Andrew 










The past couple of days Andrew has been giving Robert and I kisses. It's funny to watch him since he will clench his lips tightly together, stick out his chin and raise his eyebrows high as he is approaching you. Such a sweetheart. One day last week I was sitting on the floor playing with him and all of a sudden Andrew makes his kissy face and plants one right on me. It took me by surprise since he only used to blow us kisses before now. Well after he kissed me I reacted by saying "Awe"! He then walked away from me and turned around real fast and rapidly approached me again with his kissy face to plant another kiss on me. I was tickled watching him with the intent look on his face each time he went to kiss me. Since Andrew imitates us so much, it makes me wonder if that is the look that I make when I kiss either Andrew or Robert. Robert gets a kick out of Andrew as well when he goes to kiss Robert goodnight. It really tickles me to see Robert connect and bond so well with Andrew and visa versa.


Mr. Smilie 

A Bit Under the Weather

This past week Andrew has had some health challenges. He had a bit of a cough and a runny nose so we got him checked at the pediatrician and discovered he had a touch of bronchitis. The doctor perscribed an antibiotic and we've been doctoring this past week. It's been a rough week for both Andrew and I since he has been waking up 3-4 times in the middle of the night coughing or with gas pains. Either of us has not had much sleep because of it. Last Tuesday when we got home from the doctors office, I was feeling nausious for about a day and a half and ended up vomiting up my lunch and dinner. Those 2 days were even rougher taking care of Andrew in the middle of the night. I'm not sure as to whether I had a stomach virus or something else.



The evening that I was feeling nausious, Robert and Andrew were in the office while I was cleaning up from dinner. When I finished in the kitchen I went into the office to see what was going on and discovered Andrew in a pile of old mail that covered the office floor. Robert let him practically turn the trash can upside down and play in the paper mess, while Robert was doing the bills. I took one look and said, "Oh Andrew". Mama feeling the way I did barely had the energy to deal with the mess so I sat on the floor with Andrew and taught him how to clean up his mess. Each time Andrew placed a piece of paper in the trashcan Robert and I cheered. Andrew thought it was the funniest thing and started cheering along with us, except his cheers were the loudest and longest of all. He would let out this squeal of a cheer and clench his fists together and grit his teeth as he was squealing or cheering after each time he threw away a piece of trash. It was the funniest thing.



This Tuesday, we had a follow up visit to the pediatrician, which said that he is doing better and his bronchitis has just about cleared up. The pediatrician went over the report and lab work that was sent to him from Children's Hospital and said that his titers from his vaccinations look good so we don't have to redo them and all of the bloodwork came out as a healthy as could be. The only issue he discovered were the positive reading from his stool samples for giardia, which are parasites in his stool/intestines due to drinking the water in Ukraine. He asked me if Andrew has had any vomiting, diahrea or stomach pains or nausia. I told him that he has had diahrea over the last day and has had some stomach pains (which I thought was gas pains). He then gave me a perscription for flagyl for Andrew to kill the parasites and said for both Robert and I to get checked from our family doctor for giardia. Even though we didn't drink the water while we were in Ukraine we could have gotten it from Andrew by sharing food and the same drinking glasses etc. Just when I thought the stool samples were over. Now that I think of it, maybe that is why I was vomiting and felt nausious last week.



Here Daddy, give Sasha a kiss. 




Last Saturday, Andrew was invited to his first birthday party for his cousin, Maria Clare at the Build-a-Bear store in the mall. He made his first teddy bear and Daddy named it Sasha (a common Ukrainian name). When we got home that day Andrew played with the bear for a while but played with the box the bear came in for the rest of the evening. He was dragging the box around the house with him the whole night. I was about to put the box on the back porch for trash and when I went out on the porch later with Andrew to chat with my mom on the porch Andrew took the build-a-bear box and played with it all night.



This past week, when I put Andrew in his crib for the evening I usually lightly rub his chest to relax him before he falls asleep, however, this week he has been taking my hand off of his chest and holding my hand until he falls asleep. So precious. Another precious thing he will do, when I have him in the shopping cart the past couple of days getting groceries and his medication, Andrew will take my hand and place it against the side of his face and then lay his head on my hand for me to hold his head and then he will smile at me when he is doing it. He the same thing when I was cooking dinner one night, he would whine to get my attention and I would bend down to see what was up with him and he would take my hand and place it against the side of his face and lay his head on it and smile at me. Such a cutie. Be still my heart. Such a precious little boy God has blessed us with.



This past Thursday was my birthday and I was so excited when Andrew gave me my first Mom present a necklace with a little boy charm on it with Andrew's birth stone in it. My eyes filled with tears of joy to receive my first "Mommy" kind of present from Andrew. Last Saturday, my mom, brother and sister came over to celebrate my birthday. The funniest part of the evening was when Andrew was sitting on my mom's lap while she was sitting on the floor and I was sitting about 5 feet away from them on the floor facing them. Andrew would point to me and I would slowly point to him back and make a noise as I pointed to him. He started giggling when he saw me react to him. So he would point to me again and then I would quickly point to him and make a louder sound and he was belly laughing like you wouldn't believe. He had the everyone laughing at him. Of course we played that game for about 15-20 minutes and I was able to get some of it on video. Andrew is quite the entertainer.

Welcome to the Family Andrew - Baby Shower and Doctors Exam

Welcome to the Family Andrew!








Things have been busy..very busy here with Andrew. This week his schedule has been messed up since the weekend and the past few days hasn't had much of a nap during the days except for in the car or maybe an hour nap at home. He has been giving me some sleeping problems that we are soon to be resolving for nap time. We are working through it. He used to go down at least for one nap in the afternoon for about 2-3 hours. I could then get something done around here. He is quite the active little fellow and I'm right behind him most of the time.






Andrew is still excited even after the party.








Our family had a Welcome to the Family/baby shower over the weekend at my cousins house. It was nice to see everyone and we got some wonderful gifts to prepare the house for a toddler, which is great because our speed racer seems like is getting faster and faster each day. We want to thank all of you who contributed to all of the preparations for the party and for the BIG Welcome to the Family and love that you gave to Andrew. He was excited to be opening his FIRST presents. It was fun to watch his excitement as he was pulling off the wrapping paper of his presents with his Ukie cousin Allison that lives in Mickleton, NJ. We thank you all for all of your gifts. They all are a blessing to us and will make our transformation into parenthood much easier. Andrew especially loves his new books, puzzles and surprisingly his new HUGE monkey. I thought for sure he would have been afraid of it but when I sat the monkey facing him on his lap to honk his nose and to prompt Andrew to give the monkey high fives he took to him right away. Now he carries him around the house and lays on top of him with his arm around him. It's histerical, since the monkey is as big or bigger than Andrew.






My huggable monkey. Thank you Aunt Patt, and cousins Donna, Kim, Meredith and Mimi.









This week Andrew has had a few new changes. First of all he very much dislikes his diaper on and is this week has been pulling off his pants/shorts and socks. He would run around the house naked if you let him. No, no, no...not in this house he won't. I could just see his new paint job and floor covering via Andrew, if I did let him run around foot loose and fancy free. I have to pin him down in order to put his diaper and pants on him. What a wiggle worm he is. But the joy of our lives. Second, Andrew has been saying a few new words, such as Bye, Bye as he waves goodbye and yesterday when I answered the phone and said hello (to the telemarketer), Andrew said "Hawro" over and over again like he was a parrot.Another cute memory from this last week was the other day I was sitting on the floor and Andrew came up to me and straddled me as he was facing me. He started to blow bubbles with his saliva so I started doing the same thing to see what his reaction would be. Andrew then saw what I was doing and took his index finger to burst my bubble. When it popped I purposely jumped and acted surprised and the funniest belly laugh came out of Andrew. Of course he wanted to keep popping my bubbles and each time he would burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing he ever saw. I had to bust out laughing myself when I saw his reaction.







My mom and I took Andrew to his visit to the International Adoptions Pediatrics Specialist at Children's Hospital yesterday. We met with Dr. Abigail Farber and her Occupational Therapist, Michelle and her assistant. They were WONDERFUL! Andrew was evaluated by the Occupational Therapist which said he is absolutely precious and is doing excellent developmentally for being just adopted from an orphanage. They were surprised and shocked when I told them we were over in Ukraine visiting him for a month and a half everyday for 5 hours a day and quickly understood why he is doing so well developmentally. They said he is right on developmental level for his age and both the doctor and the occupational therapist were eating up his adorable personality. I was surprised he wasn't shy around them like he usually is to strangers. As soon as they started evaluating him, the therapist put a mat and then a sheet on top of the mat on the floor and Andrew walked right over to the sheet and sat down and was ready for play. I watched his reaction and smiled when she placed the mat and sheet on the floor, since we did that every day at the orphanage before we started feeding him and playing with him, as well as I still do it now in front of the couch in the living room before we play or read books. When the doctor asked me how Andrew reacts to a toothbrush in his mouth I told them that we have been teaching him to brush is teeth and that I make a "SSS ...SSS...SSS..SSS sound when I show him to move the toothbrush back and forth over his teeth. Just then, Andrew immediately put his hand to his mouth (like he was holding a toothbrush) and smiled as he moved his hand back and forth motioning that he was brushing his teeth. Everyone in the room busted out laughing at him and said that was a very clear answer to our question. The doctor said that he is 19.4 pounds and 28 inches tall, which comes out on the growth chart as the 5th percentile for his age and size. She said that is from lack of nutrition and will quickly grow now because of his new diet. After evaluating him and the doctor examining him (which she said all of the items that were on his medical records were false and untrue), which we already knew, she sent us to the lab for blood work. What a battle that was holding our strong wiggle worm down as he horrifically cryied, while they were trying to drain some blood out of his veins. Mommy and Nana were just about in tears ourselves. After the third stick they finally filled the tubes they needed to fill and we were out of there. While they were draining his blood, my mom diverted his attention for a bit by showing Andrew the picture of his Daddy that I have saved on my cell phone. Andrew stopped crying for a bit and started to babble something to his Daddy's picture. What a stressful day for all of us it was.







The doctor also sent me home with 3 packs of little bottles to collect samples of his poopies to check for parasites (due to drinking the water in Ukraine or playing in the dirt and not washing his hands and then putting them in his mouth). They said to place the samples into the plastic jars and fill to the red line and then shake the jar (with the lid on of course) to mix it with the liquid or preservative until it is completely mixed and then pack them in bubble wrap and mail them back to them. How nasty is that. I just hope and pray that those packages are not crushed by other packages when making those special deliveries. It wouldn't be a pretty site or smell if it did.







When we got to the van I gave Andrew his lunch and we stopped by Catelli Brothers to visit our extended family. I was shocked at how friendly, social and pleasant Andrew was after that ordeal at the lab. I guess he was just so happy to be out of there and meeting new friends. Everyone loved Andrew and Tony Catelli gave him his first golf lesson with an official Catelli golf ball of course. Tony had so much fun with him I think he might want another little one of his own running around his house again. I'll have to mention that to his wife Ellen....maybe she would want another little Catelli running around their home again as well. Hehehee!! It was great to see everyone and spend some time visiting with our extended family members.


More pictures of Andrew from the last week. www.kodakgallery.com/PhotoView.jsp?&collid=59592185309&photoid=49592185309 More pictures of Andrew from the last week.

Precious Memories

Slam Dunk 






So many wonderful memories I just have to share with everyone that happened this week with Andrew. When we arrived home last week, I forgot to mention that there were framed pictures of Andrew all over the house, like he has been son from day one. They were in the living room, dining room, bedroom and even on the refrigerator thanks to Uncle David. What a nice surprise for us and Andrew. Andrew would see his picture and point to it and say something we couldn't understand. Some of the pictures that are on the end tables he reaches for and walks around the house holding his picture in his hands while he is babbling something or another.



While sitting in Andrew's high chair I taught his how to fold his hands together so we could say a blessing for our food and now I don't have to show him anymore he will just follow me and fold his own hands. Too cute! Also, another day I taught him how to give me a high five. He now holds his hand or hands up in the air and gently touch my hand or hands with them and smile. It's amazing how much he is picking up and learning at this age. Any time I sit down with him and play or teach him something he usually picks it up right away and follows along.



The past couple of days we've been coloring together. Before I get out the coloring book and crayons I take a blanket and lay it down on the living room floor(to protect the floor). Andrew watches me lay it down and gets all excited and goes immediately over to it and sits down on it like we were playing in the orphanage and looks up at me with an expectant look in his eyes enough to say, "Well, what are we goign to play with today". So I bring out the coloring book and the crayons. He gets so tickled over coloring. He loves it.



We have had some food issues this past week. I can tell he doesn't like certain foods since he will get a chill down his spine and make a face when he is shivering. It's funny to watch. Mama was getting a bit frustrated, because he wasn't eating the foods he was eating in Kiev. One day he'll eat scrambled eggs like it's going out of style and a couple days later he push it away. So I've been trying different foods, baby food and table food to see what he'll eat. He has been eating his oatmeal with bananas, raisons and some brown sugar, canteloupe (which he loves), apple pieces (another favorite), sometimes mashed potatoes mixed with chicken soup(bulletized), yogurt, ground beef and or meatloaf and we just discovered how much he enjoys cheesy fishy crackers. Not sure if the food issues were texture related or just the fact that it's just a new taste to him. He has been much better the past couple of days with eating so hopefully it will continue.



One day this week when Andrew was clawing at Mama's legs for me to pick him up while I was making dinner, I opened the bottom drawer of the cabinet to get a tupperware bowl out and his eyes lit up. Oh Boy, what is in there. So I let him play with all of the tupperware bowls (which ended up all over the kitchen) while I finished making dinner. WHEW, what a good diversion so I can get dinner made. He was a happy little boy playing with all of the tupperware bowls. After dinner, I told him that he had to help Mama clean up the bowls and put them back in the drawer, and of couse he helped put them back in the drawer. Such a good little boy.



Help! 





Andrew surprised us by saying a couple new words to add to his vocabulary. While he was pulling the lens cap off of the camera (a game we played at the orphanage) he said the word "Off" on Saturday, as he pulled it off. He loves to put the camera lens on the camera and then pull it off and each time he does I say "ON" or "OFF" (which ever is happening at that time). We were surprised since he said it so clearly just like I always say it to him. Another word he says now is "UP", occasionally when I pick him up, I will say "UP" and he will repeat it. Now we are working on the word "MILK". Everytime I give him his milk to drink I will say, "MILK". He is starting to say it but not completely yet. He says, "MIL" immediately after I say it.



Another precious memory I just have to state is the last couple of nights when putting him in his crib for the night he will lay there ever so calmly and as I am rubbing his chest he will slowly and sweetly blow me a couple of kisses. Ohhh, Andrew what a precious boy you are...you know just how to tug at my heart. So I blew him a couple kisses back to say good night.