Na-Na-Na-Na-Na BATMAN!

JJ is going as Batman this year at Halloween. He is so funny in his costume and will go around singing the song - Na-Na-Na-Na-Na- BATMAN! (I'll have to get video).

We took JJ trick-or-treating at the local nursing home where Aunt B's in-laws live. I am glad that she takes him and gets him used to being around other people who might look a little "different." Many of the residents and staff know him by name and even saved special candy to give him in his bag.

Here is a pic of JJ with his cousin Kalib. He was so scared of Kalib in that costume that he didn't even want to stand next to him.

Pumpkin Time

We have yet to pick out a costume for Halloween this year, but are still preparing in other ways. JJ helped carve his first pumpkin last night with Daddy. The funniest part was when we cut into the pumpkin and took the "lid" off. I don't know if he was referring to the smell or to what he found inside, but JJ made the craziest face and said "Ewwww...poo poo Mama!"

And this is what happened when we were all done with the pumpkin and JJ still wanted to play with his plastic knife...

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

Watch JJ's version of the song...he's too cute.

JJ's Real Big Boy Bed

We transistioned JJ into a "real" big boy bed this time, not just a toddler bed. He was so funny when we went to Wal-Mart to buy his bedding. We painted him an Ohio State Buckeyes room last year when he came home and are definitely not ready to re-paint so naturally I wanted to buy OSU bedding.

While shopping, I was trying to get JJ excited about his new blankies and he kept on saying "No, mamma, don't want" And then he made it clear that he instead wanted "Boom, Chow" blankies, which is his code for Cars. So I quietly put the Ohio State comforter set in the cart thinking he wouldn't realize it was in there, but when we got to the checkout he let out a loud "Don't want football! Boom Chow, Boom Chow!"

Luckily, by the time we returned home and put the bed together, he was in heaven and loves the big boy bed, Ohio State blankies and all.

Super Happy Fun Land

JJ paid a visit one of his favorite places over the weekend...the John Deere Store. Or as we like to call it, SuperHappyFunLand. Jerret had to return to the store again today and JJ was in heaven playing in the John Deere toy area. He tried to carry out 5 boxes thinking he was taking all those toys home and was very upset when Daddy put them back.

His vocabulary is growing like crazy and his teachers have commented to us that he is the most polite little boy. Although, I must admit that this past weekend had us cursing the terrible twos as he showed us that he definitely knows how to throw a tantrum or two!

No! My Baby!

This is a video of JJ manhandling the poor little baby that my sister-in-law babysits. He was actually being very cute, but the poor baby starts to look a little confused. Either way, I can see that he is going to be a very overprotective big brother...

JJ's First Wedding

Jerret's cousin Lisa was married down in Bluffton last weekend and JJ got to attend his first wedding. He actually did really well during the ceremony. I guess I consider doing well not making any noise and no loud interruptions. He mopped the floor with his sweater a few times and kept going back and forth between us and Jerret's parents who were in the pew in front of us. He had a ball dancing in the middle of the dance floor, all by himself. He found a little friend and decided to dance with her too. We stopped at McDonald's between the wedding and the reception and tried to work out some of the kid's energy. He loved it.

JJ's Pink Eye

I had been at work on Monday for a little over an hour when I received a phone call from JJ's preschool teacher. She requested I come back and pick JJ up immediately as he had pink eye, and it was apparently oozing from the corners. My first reaction was surprise, because I hadn't noticed any "pinkness" to his eyes that morning, followed by embarrassment that I could possibly be one of the worst mothers in Northwest Ohio for not knowing when my kid was sick.
And then I got over it - rather quickly - and became angered when the teacher told me that they had 3 reported cases in their class last week.

Isn't this something that should be shared with parents? Did they possibly tell Jerret when he picked JJ up one afternoon and he forgot to say anything? I was very surprised to hear that they in fact did not mention this to parents. JJ goes to a very reputable school and I would think it their policy to share such information.

Anyway - a call to the doctor, a day off of work, and a $60 prescription later we are rid of the pink eye. Getting those drops in his eye was a chore and a half. JJ hated the medication and would close his eyes as tight as he could, with both hands over the eye so that we could not get the drops in. It took Jerret to hold JJ and his hands down while I tried to force open the super-closed eye and squirt in a drop or two. JJ was usually in tears by the end of the whole ordeal and then I wondered if he was just crying out the medication I had just squirted in. All in all, it only lasted about 24 hours and then he was as good as new.

JJ's New Ride

Jerret was finally able to figure out how to get the bike seat onto my bike so that we could take JJ for rides. ...Well, he can. Obviously I cannot get my butt up on a bike at this point in time. JJ was in heaven and very excited. He was not so excited about wearing the helmet, but he kept it on after all.

I was outside taking pictures of the two of them as they rode around the block and waited and waited for them to come back around, and then decided to start walking to look for them (thinking maybe the chain broke, or the seat didn't stay put or something...) Anyway, little did I know that Jerret decided to ride all the way to his parents house - 3 miles away!





And here is a picture of JJ entertaining himself with an empty box at Jerret's work party...

It's Almost Fall?!

We had a party last weekend for Jerret's grandfather's 80th birthday. It was a good party and everyone enjoyed the good weather, swimming, food, and company of family that we only get to see a couple of times a year. Here is JJ and his cousin Alexander playing together like good little boys.......

JJ really has been doing well playing with other kids. We did, however, have a minor set back two weeks ago when JJ changed classrooms at preschool for the new school year. He ended up biting someone two days in a row. The teachers didn't make a big deal of it and said that the first kid tackled JJ over a toy and the second day they didn't even fill out an incident report. The funny thing was that JJ told me about it as soon as I walked in the door that night. He ran right up to me and said "Mama - right there" and pointed to his arm where he must have bit the kid. So we had a little talk and now every morning I ask him to be a good boy at school and he answers me with "Oh Tay."

His speech is also improving greatly. He has added all sorts of new words and phrases. He now says "right there, over there, love you, nite nite, and elbow." I'm not sure how we taught the kid elbow, but he knows right where it is.

And I know I say this a lot, but you have got to see this kid swim. I am going to take a video this weekend to post because he really is amazing. He can float on both his front and back sides, go under water, and actually swim across the entire pool. On his last day of swim lessons he even jumped off of the diving board at the Y, into the 12-ft-deep water...all on his own. Jerret just stayed in the pool to catch him and JJ climbed the ladder and walked the plank twice! There were 6 and 7 year old kids who got up there and started crying, but not our JJ. Yes, he took swim lessons, but they weren't actually taught to "swim." It was a parent/child class where the kids were taught the basics of kicking in the water and learning to reach out in front of them. The motions were all there, but the kids were never taught to put it all together - after all, they were just babies. He learned the most by swimming at Jerret's parents house and we would just tell him what to do and he did it for the most part. We will sure be sad when the fall weather starts to hit us and we can't swim any more. And we'll all be asking - where did the summer go?

In other news, Jerret bought a new John Deere. He and his dad were at a tractor show and got the "deal of all deals" so of course, had to buy it. The two of them have made quite a hobby of refurbishing tractors. They prefer the older ones and say you can't buy one these days that is made like they used to. He was very excited to tell me how big it is and that it has a 60-inch deck, perfect for mowing a our land - 2.5 acres that we will not be building on for another couple of years. But in the meantime, he admits he will look rather silly mowing our lot at home, in our subdivision.

It's A....

So today was ultrasound #5 and we finally found out the JJ is going to have a baby sister!! I am so excited that I get to buy cute girly things. I'm thinking we need another baby though to give JJ a little buddy to play with. I guess then we'd need a fourth to give the baby her own little sister... but what if it didn't work out that nicely...then we'd need a 5th....

Who Doesn't Love the Fair?

I' ve been in a serious blogging funk lately. It's been a busy couple of weeks and I must have had some sort of writer's block, becuase nothing seemed noteworthy.

My cousin and I took her son and JJ to the County Fair and had a blast. JJ was so hilarious when we went to check out all the animals. He was very timid around the larger animals and wouldn't even get out of the stroller to check out the cows or horses, although he was facinated by them.

We finally coaxed him out of the stroller and got him to pet a lamb. While we were checking out the sheep a couple of little girls, who had animals at the farm, approached us and asked if we wanted to by a tiny ball of wool. It was 5 cents. We bought two.

JJ also enjoyed his first snowcone at the fair.

Grave Digger

The Auto-Rama is coming to town and one of the trucks was parked at a local store until showtime. Jerret's dad took JJ down to see the truck and boy was he impressed. everyone is always saying how big he is, but he looks so tiny compared to that tire!

The Reunion and The Tourist Trap

We had a great time at the CWA reunion in North Carolina last weekend. It was so great to meet our Kyrgyz bloggie friends - Gen, Andrea, Shea, Jamie, and Esther. We also got to reunite with the Estes family who we have not seen since we traveled to Kyrgyzstan to pick up our little ones. Here is a pic of their son Ben and JJ giving each other a high five.

This is a pic of JJ and AP who were in the Tokmok orphanage together. JJ knocked her down shortly after the hug.

And this is one of our favorite little girls, Aliya. Her family traveled with us on our journey to Kyrgyzstan.

After the CWA picnic, we took my nephews to Gatlinsburg, TN for a little vacation. So many people told me it was a tourist trap and I had no idea what that actually meant until we were there. We had fun anyway though. The boys seemed to enjoy themselves. Here is a pic of the boys and I in the garage before we left on our trek.

JJ loved having the big boys around. He wanted to be one of them so bad. The boys were taking their suitcases into the hotel and JJ had to do what they were doing, so he began pulling his backpack behind him. The handle on his pack is broken though so it was hilarious to watch him pull his broken-handled bag everywhere he went.

JJ's Pool

I haven't downloaded our pics from the 4th yet, but here are some pics of JJ doing his favorite summertime activity - swimming. He will miss swim lessons this weekend b/c we will be out of town for the CWA reunion, but our hotel has a pool, so we will work with him there. The kid is getting WAY too brave. He was jumping off of the diving board the other day!

Puddle Hoppin

We had a crazy busy 4th of July weekend, but it was super nice to have the time off. JJ stayed at his grandparent's house while Jerret and I went to a party Thursday night. We've had quite a bit of rain lately and he found some water in the yard.

Funny...

This morning while I was getting ready for work JJ came up to me and patted my belly, saying "Baby?" Then he lifted up my shirt and put his eye all the way up to my belly button, searching, as though he might be able to see a baby in there.

We'll Be There!

Next month is the CWA reunion and we have decided to make the trek from the Buckeye State all the way down to North Carolina. I am very excited to see some of the Kyrgyz pioneers who we have come to know since our adoption. So Martins, Blacks, Hatches, and Collingham’s – get ready to meet our little handful JJ!

We have decided to tell JJ that he is going to be a big brother. And while he doesn’t really get it, he will pat my belly or kiss it and say “BABY!” Our favorite is when we ask “Where is the baby?” and he will lift up his shirt and show us his own belly, pat it and say “BABY!” So JJ thinks he too has a baby growing in his belly.

Father’s day was nice and we started the day with JJ giving Jerret a gift of new swimming trunks and 2 large bottles of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (his favorite). After that we made the rounds visiting our fathers and ending up at Jerret’s parents for a cook out. Jerret’s dad has an old Chevy truck (maybe 1954 or something?) that he refurbished and JJ thinks it is the coolest thing ever. He was putting it away in the barn and let JJ help.

Finally...

Guess who's eating for two ya'll?



Yeah, me.

AAH.....

I wish I slept this good!...