Cousins!

Uncle Gregg and Auntie Sunshine came down from Utah for a summer vacation with Zeke and Jeremiah. With Aunite Elizabeth and her family, we had quite the party going! We BBQ'ed a prime rib, went on a fishing trip and to Magic Mountain, and played in the water. Maksim had his first sleepover when all the kids spent the night in the tent in the backyard. Two boys ended up sleeping inside on the floor instead. All weekend, he kept yelling "Fun!" over and over. What a silly, cute and wonderful boy.



All that excitement did kinda freak him out a bit. He couldn't go to sleep the night after going to his first theme park. And boy, was mom ready for bed. It was a great amount of excitement. Maksim got overwhelmed a couple of times but well within toddler limits - but he did AWESOME! Here are a few pictures of all the fun.

Maks loved the big furry characters walking around - especially Sylvester. He wanted to pet him. I think he thought he was a real kitty-kat.


That was right before he bolted off down the sidewalk with Jeremiah. It took Mom about 1 minute to finally catch him. A nice man jumped in front of Maks and held up his hands to stop. The natural consequence for running away from Mama and Papa is a little strict, don't you think?? Yikes!

Maksim wanted to ride on the Tweety Bird spin you around make you kick thing. So we put him in the cage. He wasn't thrilled and Papa ended up in the cage, too.

Finger Painting

Uncle Dave and Ireland
Pine Cones.

Mama and Papa sure love their little guy. He is the most amazing thing ever.

Family!

In the last month, we have celebrated Father's day, went hiking, Mama got done with school and we played with the cousins and had a wonderful time being a family. We seem to take 3 giant leaps (weeks) forward then have 1 step back (a bad week). But we couldn't be happier unless we had a little more sleep. : ) Here are some pictures of the fun!

Maksim's favorite new word...
Family!!
or.. Cousins!
or.. Auntie Elizabeth!
Growing Boy
Maks the photographer
Baking Brownies for Papa
An Airplane! America!
Slip and Slide with Nate and Jonny

Our successes: Maksim's English skills are amazing. He has picked things up so quickly. He knows the whole alphabet and even what sounds each letter makes. His favorite thing is to read signs. For the last month, Maks wouldn't say anything in Russian. This week he suddenly started singing all of these songs. There is a really cute one about Kazakhstan. We have videotaped the ones that he'll let us. (Stinker!) He is learning to color and hold his fork, crayon with his fingers. He is snuggling us, looking to us for comfort AND letting us comfort him. We think that he is learning to trust us. It seems to take longer than we thought it would- but thinking that we have only known him since February 20th and only have had custody since March 29th - he is doing amazingly well. He loves his family and gets very worried when one of them is sick or hurt or leaving.

Our challenges: Maksim likes to be the boss. He wants to decide everything and when he can't (of course) he has a tantrum. His tantrums run from the very mild "no, no, no do I like it, " with head tilt. Then we have the full blown screaming, kicking, "NO, NO DO I LIKE IT." Kinda fun. : ) Maks tests the boundaries A LOT. He likes to try the dangerous stuff to see our reaction - I guess. There are also some days when he just can't seem to be comfortable. It is kinda like it is hard for him to breathe - although medically, he is healthy. He likes to be chased - and that is quite a difficult one when it is time to do something.

But Maksim is wonderful, funny, smart and quite the charmer. Everyone eats him up! They are so impressed by his communication skills. He talks to everyone at the store, in line, on walks, and any place else. If they only knew he had been speaking English for only about 4 months! We know that his willingness to talk to everyone means that his attachment is shaky. But we know with love and consistency our family is getting stronger each day.