Donkey

The switch has been flipped. We had a 3 year old who would not spend 2 minutes watching anything on TV. Which is what you want right? Well, I think all parents dirty little secret is YES, it is ok to spend a little time in front of the tube. Well after our trip to Geneva two weeks ago and the "family entertainment system" was discovered, he has not slowed down. His favorite shows thus far are Shrek and Elmo, any Elmo. He will ask to watch TV in the morning, when we get home and after dinner. Crazy. Oh, and baseball. I flipped on ESPN and a baseball game was on. He came running into the room screaming "ballgame" and sat on the chair watching the game, I was amazed just watching him. When the commercials came on, he would yell at me to put the ballgame back on. Oh so much to learn.

The Dark Knight

One of the great things about living in this area is the history of all the 7 cities. One of those historic places is in Old Towne Portsmouth, which is just across the river from us. The Commodore theater was built in 1945 and was beautifully restored. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and the tickets to the movie are only $7. They have tables down front where you can eat dinner and have drinks, as well as a balcony for enjoying the movie on a 41 foot screen with great sound.


Grammie volunteered to have a sleep-over with Sam, and we usually do not turn those down. He was a little low on Grammie time anyway after not seeing her last weekend. After dropping him off, we shot over to Bed, Bath and Beyond because, yes, we did have time. After that, we went over to Old Towne and had dinner at Baron's Pub, which is just across the street from the theater. We sat outside and enjoyed all the people walking by and some dinner. The feature this evening was The Dark Knight. See this movie. The joker, played by Heath Ledger, stole every scene he was in and was the highlight of the movie. He had all the good lines anyway. I would give this movie 4.5 stars out of 5 and two thumbs up.

20 Hours in a car

I will not apologize for not updating this blog! Life happens.

Anyway, when purchasing the new vehicle, I opted for the "family entertainment system" for the rear passengers. The "FES" consists of a drop down LCD screen, DVD player and wireless headphones. The FES paid off this weekend when we made the trip up to Geneva, NY for yet another triathlon. Sam,the kid who will watch 2-3 minutes of anything and then ditch it, spent many many hours glued to the FES. Every so often we would hear "mommy, Elmo", or "mommy, donkey" (donkey is code for the Shrek movie), or "mommy, Diego". He looks so cute back there leaning on his hand and laughing when the donkey comes on.

The trip was pretty good. Geneva is a beautiful place and the weather was good at least on Saturday. We stayed at some townhouse dorms on the site of Hobart & Smith, which is a private college in Geneva. The dorm was sparce. There was basically 4 rooms with single beds and dressers. No couches, comfortable chairs, or electronics. The Hampton Inn, it is not.

What did you do this weekend?

Thats right, Cheri and I dropped it old school. Let me splain. Before Sam came along it was not unlike us to pick out a project and knock it out with the quickness. This included the deck at our old house, hardwood floors, and other little projects. Since Samuel came along our projects have still been scheduled, but the time to do them is missing.

This weekend we decided to start the "back stoop" project. This is something that Cheri has wanted to do since we moved in here 4 years ago. I knew that this could be done in a weekend and vowed to do just that. So, with Sam occupied chasing bugs, which is his new thing, we set forth and built the stoop. He did help a little bit here and there, hammering and drilling. Mostly his skills were utilized in the dirt digging department. We knocked out the stoop in 2 days, no sweat.

Yesterday was Sam's official homecoming anniversary. June 2nd last year he landed on US soil for the first time. He came home to find Daddy, Grammie, Grammie Re, Pop Pop, Uncle Joe, Aunt CoCo, Bella, Aidan, and Evan at the airport waiting to see him. He was so tired and spent a lot of time on my shoulder. His first American meal that night was lasagna, and he even slept in his big boy bed. The next morning he woke us up at 5ish standing in the toy box at the end of his bed crying. I think that is the last of the anniversaries for a while.

Gotcha!!

Today is Sam's "gotcha" day. This is the day, exactly one year ago that the country of Russia gave us the keys to Sam. We had a party with all of his closest friends and right now he is coming down from a sugar high. He walked around all day knowing we were going to have a party for his gotcha day, and some how thought we were supposed to go to Chucky Cheese for all parties. Maybe next year. Its been a great year and that little guy has grown so much. He loves to play with all his friends so much.

He and Mommy had a whirlwind weekend together as I was riding in the mountains of western VA. The ride was called "mountains of misery" and it was. There were several brutal climbs where I was going only 3 MPH, but some great descents where I got up to 44 MPH. I highly recommend it if you are looking to kick your own butt.

Table for 3

Yesterday we loaded up the car and went to the Parade of Homes. The parade is a tour of brand new homes that are fully decorated and landscaped. We took Sam with us and knew it would be a nice little challenge. He was branded a terrorist and banned from Parade of Homes till he is 18.

So afterward we set out to find some dinner. After passing by some several nice prospects we settled on a Japanese steakhouse. This place took reservations, but we didn't have one. So, after waiting what seemed like an eternity we were seated at a nice table near the sushi bar. I'd say it took Sam 4 minutes to spill his apple juice. Turns out the restaurant is not really set up for kids. Sam is normally very good in restaurants, but he does require some attention. The rest of the meal was pretty uneventful and Sam had a great time sampling the food. He even tried sushi and after initially spitting it out (on Mommies plate), he regained his composure and finished it. The best part of the evening was watching him eat with chopsticks. He had a fork, but we were using chopsticks, so he was going to use them. Did pretty good too.

Lastly, this is Cheri's first mothers day. Sam and I got her some flowers and chocolate covered strawberries, and Sam made her some things at school. She is our favorite Mommy, and we love her.

One year anniversary

Exactly one year ago today, our little family met for the first time. Its strange to think we mark things in years when so much happens every single day. I can't even begin to think of all the things we have done, things we have seen, things we have learned, or things we have heard in the last year. Before this day a year ago, Sam, otherwise known as Petr was a friendly little guy living in a baby house in Moscow. We knew about him on paper, deeply searching his scarce medical records for any signs of anything. We had a 5 minute video on VHS that showed Sam at two stages in his life. It was a whirlwind leading up to this trip and when we finally got on the plane to Moscow, it started to come together.

I still remember clearly standing in the little locker room outside of Sams classroom waiting for our first encounter. He came out of the room wearing a spongebob squarepants shirt, blue shorts with pink leggings underneath, and a pair of hard shoes. Cute as can be.

and thats as quiet as he has ever been!

Love that kid!