Meeting the Cousins

This last week, we set off on a little adventure to meet the cousins. On Friday, we trekked over to Boone, NC and stayed the night in a Best Western with the worlds firmest mattresses. No kidding, these puppies were like boards. I was participating in a little bike ride called Blood, Sweat and Gears, a fifty mile ride in the mountains around Boone. After the ride, we headed over Knoxville to visit the newest cousin, Jack. Somehow, we did not get any pictures of Jack, but this is one I stole off my Moms blog.



He is a cute little dude, only a week old(almost two weeks now) and we had a great time there. He sleeps alot, and poops even more. After a few days in Knoxvegas, we rolled up to Louisville to meet Kate, our other new cousin from China. She is a dollbaby.



Of course we also saw our favorite Cousin, Leah



Sam loves to talk about Leah and playing with her, they have the best time when they get together. We stayed in Louisville a couple of days, went to the zoo and had a great time with Gramma Re Re and Pop Pop. Here are some random shots of the boy.

Leave Daddy

Today, Sam started a new program for the summer. His old school closed for good on Friday and we are in between schools at the moment, so we signed him up for a summer program at church. The cool thing about the program is that is less expensive and much much closer ie: walking distance. He gets to bring his lunch everyday now and yesterday we picked up a brand new Spiderman lunch box.

He was very excited this morning when Mommy packed the lunch and put it in the fridge. Just as excited as we were walking down the driveway and he was yelling at her how excited he was. When we got to school we went into the big room that all the kids gather in before the actual program starts. I went in with Sam and while I knew he would be OK, he was a little skittish, understandable. So as I am kneeling with Sam, the teacher comes in to get the kids. They all line up with their lunchboxes and I stand outside the room to follow Sam down to the classroom. When the kids file out of the room, he looks up at me and says...

Leave Daddy.

So I left.

He had a great day and met a bunch of kids and is excited to go back tomorrow. What more could you ask for?

Gotcha!!

Today is Sam's Gotcha Day, which is the day that we were given custody of Sam in Russia. This is his two year anniversary and he is super excited. We are still trying to differentiate between a birthday and a gotcha day right now, kinda tough to grasp for a 4 year old. We did get him a big boy bike this weekend, not the one pictured below (it was too small), to celebrate and though it was tough the first day, yesterday he rode all over the neighborhood by himself.





Sam has come leaps and bounds since we first saw him in Russia. He is such a sweet and lovable kid, always the first to drop a complement when he sees something he likes. He loves puzzles and going anywhere with anybody. His english is getting better and better each day, now if he would only sleep in a few days a week.

He is funny, sweet, handsome, loving, caring, and so many more things. We are so thankful that he is in our lives.

Dentist!

Rejoice!

Well, we are at week 4 officially on the cast, we are over it. Really. That little orange thing is so gross now, it smells funky and everything that was white is now black. Good news is we have an appointment next Tuesday to saw it off his arm. I wanted to keep the cast as a souvenir, not so much anymore. Sam does not let it slow him down at all, he still tumbles, and climbs like normal. And, the cast is a good place to keep your french fries.

Sam had a moment Sunday at church. We are trying out a new church near the house and on Sunday we went to the early service. Sam did not want to go to the nursery/children's church, so he went in the big room with us. He said he wanted to sing. So, the service is moving along nicely, the message this morning is on gratitude. Sam is being pretty good, mostly coloring and eating snacks. Had no idea he was paying attention to the sermon at all. At some point the preacher starting talking about rejoicing and celebrating with others. That was Sam's cue to say "rejoice!" out loud without even missing a beat in his coloring book. We got some smiles out of that one.

First Broken Bone!!!

Well actually just two fractures, but hey, a kids gotta start somewhere right?

He was playing out in the yard on Sunday night with us. We were sitting on the back deck about 1 foot away from the boy. He was doing some tumbling and flipping and did a flip and came up screaming. It did not seem too bad, he was crying a bit, but it did not seem to hurt him when I pushed on his hand. I figured it was just a sprain. We put some ice on it and let it go.

He had a tough night Sunday. He was up and down all night long complaining about his hand. His hand was a bit puffy and swollen. So Monday we made an appointment to see the doc. She told Sam and I that it was most likely sprained but ordered an x-ray anyway. We then went down to CHKD and got a picture of his hand. She called back at 4 and told me that he had two fractures in his thumb/palm area. Bummer dude. At this point she said just wrap an ace bandage around it until they could cast it. That was fun. He does not like the ace bandage. It likes it better when Mommy puts it on.

So, Tuesday we had an appointment with Dr. Fox for the casting. All the way over to the doctor he tells me he is getting a purple cast. We called Mommy and we told her he wanted a purple cast. We called Grammy too, purple cast. Just as we pull up to the office, he switches over to orange. Yes, orange. Orange is the new pink. He could not be swayed. The nurse took about 10 minutes putting the cast on and then we left.

He does not seem to mind the cast now. The biggest problem we have or had is he usually sucks on two fingers of his left hand when he goes to sleep. He has probably done this since the orphanage. He realized he could not do that last night and had a fit. Maybe this will be the end of that habit!

If it kills me

So, imagine you have to fix a plumbing leak under your bed, for 5 hours. Yes, that was my Sunday/Monday. Here's the story.

Sunday, Cheri asks me for help in moving the cable connection in the spare bedroom. No problem, just jump under the home, disconnect the cable and move it to the new hole. I don't mind getting under houses and our is a relatively nice crawlspace. So, I crawl over to the bedroom and on the way over I notice water running down the wall between the kitchen and the laundry room, under the house mind you. Things that make you go Hmmm. Well, the cable gets reconnected and I turn to investigate the leak. I find that the leak is actually on the other side of the wall in the crawlspace under the laundry room. A little relief that its not running down the wall from the 2nd floor, which would have been yucky.

Let me interject here that the crawlspace under the laundry room is much smaller than the one under the main house. When this house was built in 1938 the laundry room was a room you stepped down into from the kitchen. At some point during the renovations the floor in this room was raised to be level with the kitchen floor. The space under this room is like crawling under a bed. Tiny.

I am not tiny.

To enter the space under the laundry room I have to exhale to get my chest in and then inhale to get my hips in. Sound like fun? Oh, also, in order to get to the pipe that was leaking, I had to go in on my back.

I make it over to the leak and because of the size of this space, I can only use my right hand to take the pipes apart. The left hand is useless in this drill. I determine that the best course of action is to take out the bad part and go to the Home Depot and get new parts. Nice idea. Home Depot had the right parts, wrong sizes. This will come back to bite us later. So, I get the parts I can work with, reducers and all. Go back to the house determined to make this work. Did I mention you have to slide on your back and only use your right hand in this drill?

I get back under and go to work. OK, looks good, lets turn the water back on. Cheri is in charge of the water turning off and on. So she goes out and turns it on. Please turn it off. Please. Hmmm, that didn't work. Lets try again, redo this, reconnect that. Still leaks. Hmmmm. After a couple more tries, the leaks are gone, calgon take me away.

I go up to shower all the crawlspace off me and about 5 minutes into the shower, the water completely shuts off! Oh no you didn't! I run downstairs and Cheri again runs out and turns the water off. Great. I go back and put on my dirty clothes again and take a gander under the house. Oh good. 40 gallons of hot water is now under the home. Yes, you know what's coming.

Back I go into the crawlspace. Snorkel and mask optional. You know that whole "wrong size" thing I talked about, this was it. The pressure from the water heater blew out the fitting. Just blew it out. OK, readjust this, tighten that, tweak those. Leak test? All good. Yeah!

Shower with no problems, dishwashing with no problems, problems solved. Until about 10PM that night. Cheri was walking through and heard water spraying under the home. Joy Joy. Again the water goes off.

Monday morning bright and early I am at the plumbing supply store to get the right stuff, having the right stuff is so underrated. Back to the house, dryfit everything, looks good, here we go. Hook all of the new stuff up and it still leaks. You may think this is rocket science, but it really is not. All of this plumbing screws together. Problem is I only have my right hand and its super hard to tighten fittings with one hand. Long story short, on this morning, another 40 gallons was deposited into the crawlspace. Really?

You may have called a plumber at this point, heck, you may have called one yesterday, Sunday rates be damned! Not me. I'm the guy that circles the restaurant to get the prime parking spot on the street. I'm the guy that does not flinch in this situation.

We finally got to leak free status around 8ish on Monday morning. I took a shower and yes, you guessed it, leak city. Again the water goes off. We decide to reconvene the water stop loss program after work.

So, finally, all connections are tight, retight and re-retightened. Cheri turns the water on and we run it all over the house for 5 minutes. No leaks. Whats that? No leaks. Say again? No leaks. Thank you very much.

So, yes after 5 hours and $25 worth of parts, the problem is fixed. The people said yeah!

Oh, Sam was so cute. He sang to me through the floor when I was under there.

Craigslist Miracle

So, I guess everyone probably knows about Craigslist around here. If you don't, it is like a big yard sale online. You list your stuff, or what you want, or what you want to trade your 74 Dodge Dart for.

We were doing some house cleaning and had two of Sam's carseats in the garage and put them up on CL. Didn't get much action for a while, not even the standard "hey, I'll give you 20 bucks for both, pick them up now" e-mail. Until yesterday...

I get an e-mail from a woman who says she would love to by the seats because she is adopting a boy from Russia soon and they would be great. Ok, nothing weird so far. I write back and tell her that yes, we still have them, and guess what, we also have a son from Russia.

So she calls me and I ask her where they are adopting their son from...Moscow she says, wow, that's where Sam is from. What baby house is he at? Baby house #2, wow, that is where Sam is from. I don't know how many baby houses there are in Moscow, but these odds are crazy. So, we arrange to meet to exchange cash for seats.

In the meantime, she e-mails me with some questions about the orphanage and the process and tells me that they are using Adoptions from the Heart and Children World Adoption Agency. Now, this is going to sound weird, but yes, those are our agencies too. So I ask her if she knows Alla and Igor, you may remember, Alla is the facilitator in Moscow and Igor is the baddest driver in all of Moscow. Bang, next thing in my inbox is a picture of Alla and Igor in front of Baby house #2. Get the heck out of here!

So they came over tonight with their family and got the seats. We talked for a long time about the process and they were happy to see Sam in full "Sam" mode. They are preparing to head back to Moscow in two weeks for the court process. We figured that their son Ben was born about a week after we left Moscow.

Crazy.

You can meet them here

The moon

Tonight when I picked Sam up from school tonight the moon was bright in the sky. Sam saw it and told me that Grammy Re and Pop-Pop were looking at the same moon and stars.

Grammy Re told Sam when she was here on Thanksgiving that whenever he saw the moon, Grammy Re and Pop Pop could see the same moon and were thinking of him.

Too Cute

A big horse, a big house and baby Jesus

Sam was very restless on Christmas Eve. The last time I put him back in bed he said to me" Santa is going to bring me a big horse, a big house and baby Jesus". Santa did not deliver on the house or the horse, but baby Jesus was there. He loved seeing the Nativity scene at the beginning of our block and the living nativity at the church across the street. He still asks about it and gets mad when we don't go down the right block when coming home.

He did very well this Christmas and you can tell he is very loved by all of his family. Everyone sent the best gifts and Sam has played with them all. His favorite gift from Santa was a little puppy that has its own food, ball and brush. Running a close second is the Kung-Fu Panda DVD, followed by a large stuffed bear wearing a snappy little striped shirt. Sam was so good, he even helped Mommy pick out some toys he did not play with to give to other kids. He does however think that Santa is coming back every night and is still looking for that big house and horse.

We did get some sad news over the break. Sam's school that he has attended since October of last year is closing its doors. We always thought he would be at the school until he was 5, but it is not to be. So, we are school searching. I think it is gonna be hard on him to leave his friends and teachers that he loves so much.

Cute Overload

Try and tear yourself away!

Renovation Update

Just wanted to post a picture of the before and after of the living room. The cabinet we built is all finished, paint is all done, and it is in use. A friend is building doors for it and the glass is on order. Getting close!

Getting Chilly

We usually have a very mild fall and winter here in Virginia. The leaves are starting to fall and the air is crisp. Took Sam out on the porch for a few pictures this morning. He recently had his one year check-up and everything is good to go. He grew almost 7 inches and took on a little over 2 pounds. He is really starting to use his words well and is very independent. Today when he got dressed he pulled on a long sleeve t-shirt and then his pink polo paired with a fresh pair of Khaki pants, all on his own. His new favorite stuffed animal is Donkey, with tiny donkey running a close second. Our best friend Doggie has a new home in the toybox and is no longer invited to bed. TImes they are a changin.

Sam Shopping

Whats in your bed?

Today we had a Nor' easter blow through town, still blowing actually. We usually get these storms 4 or 5 times a year and they usually bring a ton of rain and high winds. So, not only do we have to worry about hurricanes from the coast, we have to worry about these storms from the west. I had a little time to myself today and decided to change the sheets on Sam's bed and give them a wash while he was at school. This is what was under the top sheet...



You can see several books, Sam likes to read at night, you can also see a moose, Ernie, a horse, several train parts, a puzzle piece, and a dustpan, yes he is a clean kid.

Renovation update:

Yes, I too thought that we were almost done. Wrong. Turns out we decided to build some built-in bookcases just to the right of the fireplace, which we just got done with on Sunday. Here is a great pic of the before and the finished fireplace surround.





And one more of Mr. Cute Stuff

Hey Hey

Yes, I am going to start updating here again. More importantly: It is time again for the Race for the Cure. It is a 5K run walk with all of the local cancer survivors. Nationally its a campaign against breast cancer. Locally, I am on team Mo-Glo. Mo is a cancer survivor and the mom of one of my friends. The least I can do is ask for your support. Cancer is no joke. I have a modest goal set, and really anything will help. Thanks!


Click here to lend your support

Ironman

Yes I am, heres the details

Click Me

Going to Pop Pop & Grammies

Sam is super duper excited to be going to see his Pop Pop and Grammie Re tomorrow. As soon as we got home from school today he rushed upstairs and packed a pair of shorts, a shirt, a pair of underwear and doggie in his backpack and came downstairs. It takes a lot to explain "time" to a 3 year old. All night he ran around saying "Pop Pop"! At bedtime he giggled for minutes when he and Cheri were talking about the trip. I am sure he will get up at 5ish tomorrow, fun fun.

Well, the race is finally here. There is a mix of excitement, anxiety, worry, joy and fear in my head. I am glad to be getting to Louisville on Wednesday to really psych myself out, I mean up for the race. Yes, I do have goals, none that will be published here. This race has been a long time coming and everyone has sacrificed something for me to be able to run it. It means a lot. Here's to 10 hours on the road with boy wonder tomorrow!

Olympic Fever!

Wooo Hooo, how bout them swimmers! If you have not seen the 4x100 mens relay yet, go here and get ready to be moved. Stop reading now if you don't want me to spoil it.....

100 meters in 46 seconds! This is what the anchor of the US team swam his 100 meters of the race in. Just to give you some reference, I can swim that same distance in 1 minute and 40 seconds. They could cut to commercial and come back to see me finish. 46 seconds is faster than anyone has ever gone at that distance, and he beat the current world record holder in the 100. The best part of this video is at the end when the US swimmers are on the deck when their anchor hits the wall. There is a 2 second delay before they find out they win the gold and you can feel the anticipation. Amazing.

Sam loves the olympics. We discovered this on Saturday when I got him to watch volleyball with me. He loves volleyball! He does not even have a preference between indoor and sand. He also watches soccer, swimming, and gymnastics. The best part is you can go to NBC and watch any olympic sport you want to. He probably watched 2 hours of olympics today. Oh, he was home sick, nothing major just a little fever. I also took down the "happy birthday" video because we are submitting it to Americas Funniest Videos, and they don't want me to post it anywhere.

Go USA!

Mt. Mama and ugly shirts

Saturday, I went out to a little town in western VA called Monterey for a bike ride called Mountain Mama. It was just another prep for IM Louisville.


I camped out the night before in the pouring rain and they delayed the start of the ride an hour to let the rain clear up. It finally did and we rolled out in a slight rain that cleared right up. Riding in the mountains is cool because you get to see all of the scenery from the top of the mountains.

One of the cool things about doing races is T-shirts. I love T-shirts as Cheri will attest. Normally the race shirt is a cool design on a regular cotton shirt or technical shirt. I like these shirts because they are fairly unique and they remind me of the race. The shirt for Mountain Mama takes the cake. This is one ugly shirt. I will still wear it though.