December 8, 2007 - Gotcha Day

One year ago today a lovely judge in Astana, KZ officially proclaimed that Serik was our little boy. Our travel partners the Brabsons remarked that it was much warmer today than a year ago in Kaz - for them maybe. The high here in Minneapolis today was around 7 degrees - brrr. As you have seen from the previous posting Serik has changed a ton since we first met him and every day brings more changes. He is talking up a storm 2 to 3 word sentences some of which we understand, some we don't. He dances - swaying side to side with the music or twirling until he falls down. He loves to play hide and seek and is so cute when he's hiding or when he's counting with his hands covering his eyes: one, two, tree, tor, ti, tix, blah blah, eight, nine, ten! Emphasis on the ten.

Other highlights for the Hammonds: In November we celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving just the three of us as every part of Kurt's family was somewhere or other. The day after Thanskgiving Serik had his first real hair cut. Perhaps he was a bit over due...



He definitely didn't like it whe she was spraying his hair wet - think he thought she was going to wash it which he hates - obviously.

But when she finally got around to cutting it he did fine

I think I had a harder time saying good-bye to his hair than he did.


The first substantial snows came to Minnesota when December rolled around and Serik has adapted beautifully. He doesn't always want all the layers (which incidentally make him look like he has the oompa loompa pants since they're too big) but loves to get out and 'play hockey' and make snow impressions - not quite snow angels yet.

As you all probably know we started our paper work for baby #2 and as of today we received our 171-H which is the last thing we were waiting on so hopefully our dossier will go in to our agency and off to Kaz by the end of the week! we hope to travel in the fall and be home by winter so that we get to experience a different season this trip to Kaz - which essentially means a warmer one!

We head to NH for Christmas and are looking forward to the Wachs family traditions: Christmas Revels in Boston, Town Carol sing, Christmas Eve party and of course the holiday with family.

Peace and Joy to all this holiday season.

One Year Ago - Yesterday

One year ago yesterday we held our precious little man in our arms for the first time. I don't think we will ever be able to adequately describe the feeling of finally being a family. It's such an awesome force - even with the 3-4a.m. wake-up calls Serik has been gracing us with this past week. In fact, it was/has been such an amazing experience that we are in the middle of paperwork for baby #2. Kazakhstan again, but this time a girl. We will be fingerprinted for USCIS (Immigration) Friday and as soon as we get clearance for that our dossier can go in and the official 'waiting' can begin. We are hoping to travel sometime other than the middle of winter this time. Especially since Serik will be making the trip with us and we'd love to be able to let him run around outside and not freeze his bits off.

So here's the update:

In September 'school' started back for Serik and me. It's essentially a mommy and me class - where we separate from the kids for 45 minutes so the moms can chat about 'mom stuff'. Here in MN it's called ECFE (early childhood family education). We are also doing Music Together one morning a week as well - Serik loves to sing songs. He's always dancing, singing, and 'playing' various instruments in class. Also in September, I traveled to Newport, RI to celebrate )the impending nuptials of my brother to a wonderful woman) along with the rest of the bridesmaids. We hit the Newport Food and Wine Festival and made Maggie the bride-to-be wear the ever-so-tasteful veil out to dinner.

October brought more travel for us as we headed out to NH to celebrate Mike's wedding to Maggie. The day turned out beautifully. Serik provided some running commentary through the wedding: When Kurt and I were finished walking down the aisle and were up at the front of the church Serik said, "hi mommy, hi daddy" several times. He also said 'hi Mike' to my brother as he was waiting at the front of the church and 'more' when the bridesmaid processional stopped and we were waiting for the bridal processional to begin. Another cute thing he did was when the minister said ' now I bless these rings (or something to that effect - when Mike and Maggie were holding hands with the rings on and the minister's scarf thing was draped over there hands) - Serik said 'oooh'. Yes, loud enough for the whole church to hear.

In October we also went to Sever's corn maze and the maze part was a giant letdown, not what I expected - but sitting in the giant pit of corn kernels, seeing exotic animals and listening to some Dixie land was much more fun and entertaining for Serik and us.

He also has picked up hockey and notice the 'smile' he gives us now every time he sees a camera.

Trick or Treating was a first this year and Serik was a lion. It was cold and the costume was warm and cozy. He figured out how to say 'trick or treat' - "tri, tre" but over the course of the evening it became "bla,la,la,la treat".

This pic is from his our ECFE Halloween party.

The beginning of November brought the time change and along with it bronchiolitis for Serik. His sleeping has been cruddy - sometimes up from 3:30 a.m. until 12noon before he goes down. We're attributing to the meds he was on and hoping that he's slowly getting back to a normal sleep schedule. Thankfully Nana (Kurt's mom) has been staying with us and she's been a life saver - especially with Kurt on the road so much right now. We also went to an apple orchard and had a wagon ride behind a tractor which he loved.

Best to all - Happy Holidays - more later.

August & Early September 2007

Kurt, Grandma and Papa asked me if I was ever going to update the blog - apparently once a month isn't enough. Actually, it's not if we're trying to stay on top of all the things that are happening and changing with Serik. I try to take notes so that I'll be able to remember the things he does...

So -In July and August: We went up to Lake Winnipesaukee to see Grandpa (now called Pa pa) and Grandma Wachs. Auntie Caryn, Uncle Mike and Aunt Maggie. We also saw cousin David, Rebecca, little Lydia and Serik's Great Uncle Herb. We had a great time and Serik revelled in the attention that everyone gave him. First off we had visitors from Kazakhstan - Karina (who stayed with us last summer and we were with her family in Kaz), Gaha (Karina's cousin's daughter whom we met over there) and Alisher (their family friend). They spent five days with us cooking Kaz meals and doing traditional dances for my family. Everyone loved them! Then our friends Andy and Amanda Coelho came up to the lake for a long weekend. We hadn't seen them in five years (since their wedding). Andy and I spent a couple of weeks every year on joint family get-togethers growing up. A lot has changed since then - they have two kids and we have our precious little Serik.

We had a lot of fun introducing Serik to the lake. He loved to sit with Papa and look at the water, boats and the mountains. I don't think he was especially thrilled with his first boat ride - didn't help that it was hot out. He did however, love the water. Would walk out in the water up to his armpits and we'd be saying, ' hang on there Tonto - have to wait for mommy and daddy'.

While there he also learned another fun toddler activity - see right with Daddy and Uncle Mike.

So here's the latest for August and early September:

He is now signing and saying 'poo poo' (or some semblance there of ) when he is about to go and we've started taking advantage of that and introducing him to the toilet. Has his very own little toilet seat now. He was a bit freaked out by the fact that his poop went bye bye when we flushed the toilet but now he looks forward to sitting on the toilet (because we read a fun book) - saying all gone, and bye-bye. If only we can get him before he goes not after :).




*Note: Since I started this draft we have had a successful poop in the toilet. Kurt managed to 'read the signs' (i.e. notice the squinting and contorting of face starting) and got him on the toilet - where we had success. So 9/2/07 was a bit monumental.

So now he's also figured out that after we go to the bathroom we wash our hands. Needless to say he wants to 'wee wee' (that would be wash folks) his hands twenty times a day. Glad that he wants to be clean but maybe we've created an OCD case in the making.

He has also discovered that his mother has breasts - or bubbles (Kurt agrees that they are bubbles - nice - tmi) as he refers to them half the time the other half they're bras. Bras seem to be interesting. Every piece of undergarment is called a bra and he likes to bring me my bra when he sees one laying around.

We've been on a lot of outings:

We went to the Minnesota Zoo - he loved the aquarium section and oohed and aahed about the fish. There is also a dairy farm at the zoo and he loved the cows, pigs, horses and baby animals.




We took in the MN State Fair and got there early to avoid the massive crowds. Kurt took Serik down the giant slide and as soon as they got to the bottom he signed for more. I was glad that Kurt took him on it as I would have been scared that I would have lost my grip on him. I took him on the carousel - a bit more low-key. Then it was off to the tractors and animal barns interrupted only by a few pit stops for food. Serik had his first pronto pup, roasted corn on a stick and a strawberry shake.












Ahhh the animal barns - we were excited to show Serik the winner of the largest boar contest - 1220 lbs. Huge. Well, its weight wasn't the only thing that was huge....










We came around the corner of the pen to see this.... nice huh.

Needless to say after all that excitement he crashed hard as soon as we got to the car. We've had many play dates and our boy likes to run around non-stop. Mommy and Daddy have become horses - Serik comes up behind us and says 'neigh neigh' and grabs our shoulders for a ride (this is of course when we're kneeling on the ground as he's not 5 ft. tall yet).

He has at least 60 words and animal/car sounds (although it mainly seems to be 'mommy and dada' right now) and is beginning to mimic like crazy -for instance: the other day we were in the car going to pick up Kurt from the airport and in MN we have those metered lights that you have to sit at during rush hour before you can merge on the highway. Basically it's merging for dummies - guess they don't think the citizens of the great state of MN can do that. Anyway - the car in front of me kept sitting there through the green and I watched as it went back to yellow and red. Of course, I yelled 'go already' (have really cut down on my swearing thankfully) and Serik immediately said 'go'. Every time I beep the horn he now yells 'go'. Maybe he'll be a northeastern driver like his mama and grandpa.

He loves to give kisses - especially to other little kids and babies - even if we have no clue who they are. The other day at the Galleria he accosted a little girl and gave her a big kiss and hug. Her daddy was very accomodating - thankfully. He's also very fond of grabbing your hand and leading you to where he wants you to go - or pushing you legs to make you get up from your seat and follow him. Lastly, he's getting the hang of the fork and spoon and learning more every day. All for now - it's been an amazing month.

June and Early July Update

An update on the past month or so...
We celebrated Serik's first 4th of July as an American citizen and needless to say mommy got all teary when I started to think about it (at the parade it the blazing hot sun). I continued on my teary streak when all the WW II, Korean, Vietnam War vets went by. Have always been a sap but it seems I'm even more so now.

* Got to love him chowing down at our friend's house after the parade.

Prior to that I had my first weekend away from my boys. Went to Newport, RI to visit Auntie Caryn and then to Boston for a shower for Aunt Maggie (our soon-to-be sis-in-law). It was hard to leave but we had a wonderful time and Newport is gorgeous. It was also a great bonding weekend for the men in my life.

We also went up to our friends the Pecks' cabin (they're in from Shanghai) and little man enjoyed playing in the lake and all the attention he got from the older kids.

We head up to NH and Lake Winnipesaukee the end of this week to see grandma and grandpa Wachs as well as the Aunties and Uncles from my side of the family. We are looking forward to introducing Serik to this special place in our lives. We'll have some guests coming up - The Coehlo's from MD and their parents from NYC as well as Karina from Kazakhstan and her Kaz cousins that we met while we were over there - Gauhar and Azamat.

Have been keeping a running list of things to remember about little man. The notes make sure I don't forget them before I can get them down in the blog here. No amount of caffeine or sleep is helping my brain function the way it used to - oh well.
The past month or so has been a big growing time for Serik. At his 15 month appointment he was 31 3/8" tall and weighed 23 lbs. 10 oz. He's running around like a mad man - bumping his forehead less frequently (keep your fingers crossed on that one) and acting like a boy.

*Note the tennis headband - Mom's attempt to protect his forehead from more bumps.

The other day Mickey and Annabelle were over and she noticed Serik doing his puzzles - putting in the pieces and taking them out. She asked if he was climbing on things yet and I said no. We commented that we heard kids either get gross motor skills or fine motor skills and that must be what he's got going on right now. Well later that day little man was climbing up on the leather magazine box and then trying to climb over the arm of the chair next to it. So am thinking we have both fine and gross motor working full blast.
He's also letting his personality show with foot tapping and twirling to music, lots of mmm-hmms with head nodding, and sign language for eating.
More than the physical growth though has been his verbal. I'm constantly amazed at what he understands. If you ask him to point to the lamp on the page (or fire truck) he can do it.
He makes the normal animal sounds: cow, sheep, horse, pig and lion but also throws in a gorilla for good measure.
Blueberries are his new favorite fruit - he calls them bubbles. And helicopters 'cocker' are becoming more interesting than airplanes. Cars and balls are still high on his list and after a particularly good ball throw he puts his hands above his head and claps and cheers for himself.
He also loves to play with the hose - whether it's watering himself or helping mom and dad water the plants.

All for now more later.

To remember...

A couple of things I want to remember and this is how I'm doing it. Serik's blogging baby book. His latest thing: when you pick him up to hug him he snuggles his head into your shoulder, wraps his little arms around your neck and pats your back. Yup - pat, pat, pat. Then it's a few squeezes for good measure. Not quite sure where he picked that up. Maybe pats on his back to help him burp or to loosen up chest congestion? Hmm. He's also randomly pirouetting. Tonight he did it with one arm in the air and his head against said arm. Kurt and I just crack up. He loves sitting down on the floor in front of us - between our feet or legs and getting 'jiggled'. Daddy does it best; jiggling his feet fast so that Serik kind of vibrates. While this is going on he does the 'ahhh' noise - comes out like when you do the 'pow wow' over your mouth. The other fun/amusing thing he does is this loud inhale/gasp. He and Kurt take turns making the noise. Serik has now combined it with a giant flop on us in bed. So first it's the eek/inhale/gasp and then it's the plop - either on his butt or forward (bellyflop style ) into our outstretched arms. Cracks himself up. I'm sure there's more but at least wanted to get these down for my fading mom memory.

By the way - probably tmi

Have I mentioned how much fun it is to clean #2 out of a bath? Little man has graced me with this twice. I say me because it's happened when daddy was out of town - both times! So fun. He also has had fun peeing (for lack of a better word) in the tub, outside of the tub right before he gets in- or as was the case the other night - after he got out of the tub and was in his room waiting for a new diaper. It was a bit amusing since he was standing in front of me and started a stream like a race horse. Daddy and I both went 'OH' and he stopped mid-stream. Have to admit it was pretty amusing. What else can you do but laugh and clean it up. Also - you might notice the knot/bruise in the middle of Serik's forehead. That's from a few spills he's taking since he's been running around the house. Knock wood we seem to have gone at least a week without one so hoping he'll have his normal forehead back soon.

May Update

Okay, okay...I know that it's been too long since our last update. It truly is amazing how busy your life gets with a little one running around. After our trip to Miami we settled back into the routine with the only exception being that it seemed to change frequently since our little man is growing by leaps and bounds. He decided just after daddy's big 40 birthday party in April (and Serik's 13 month) that he needed to be walking all the time.

He's so pleased with himself and loves to play all sorts of games. For instance - before bath time it's in and out of the bath room running between Kurt and I giggling madly the whole time, before finally being corralled into the bath. He still likes the bath but is not a fan of getting his hair washed so the bath time has gotten quicker as he's afraid he'll get his hair washed (which by the way is maybe once a week).


His vocabulary has expanded (along with the amount of teeth he has). It's now: ball, car (thanks to Jeff for teaching him every high end vehicle in Miami), 'hi', cracker, bath, book, dada, mama, nana (for banana), bye-bye...you get the jest.


He's also gotten two more teeth - bringing the total to 10 in - with 4 more erupting as we speak. The kid is a total drool monster - no wonder.

On Mother's Day I had a nice relaxing day - lolling about. We then went to meet up with Nana Hammond, Aunt Missy and Uncle Russ and cousins Lissa and Isaac at the Como Zoo. Ever think it would be a good idea to go to a zoo/park deal on Mother's day - yeah - well apparently so did everyone else! Besides the crowds it was fun though and Serik got a kick out of his cousins and the animals at the zoo and went on his first merry-go-round.




Grandma and Grandpa and Auntie Caryn came from New England over Memorial weekend to spoil the little man. It was great to see them and we are planning on heading east in July.



We started landscaping on the house this week so now it is almost completely finished - just a few punch list items left - phew. Enjoy the pics.

I know, I know... way over due. Man, this kid thing wears you out and keeps you pretty busy - go figure!
On March 29th our precious little boy turned one. The actual day of his birth we had a mellow evening - just the three of us. On Saturday the 31st was the shindig. Wasn't planning on anything big - said no gifts (people don't listen by the way) - but things got a bit bigger than we had originally envisioned. It was fun with family and friends from nearby - probably had 40 people drop in with their kiddos during the 3 hour span. At one point Serik decided that he had had enough of all these people ands kids hanging around and he went and sat under the kitchen table for some 'alone time'.
He tried the icing on his cake but wasn't very interested in that or the cake itself. Should we have starved him first? I mean if only to get the obligatory cake smeared everywhere pic - hmmm.
The next big thing was a trip to NH to see Grandma and Grandpa Wachs, Aunt Caryn, Uncle Mike and Aunt Maggie for Easter. First off - my folks house is soooo not child proofed. In fact it's filled with antiques so there wasn't much for little man to bang around on. Grandpa did pull out his old glockenspiel and Serik had a grand old time making earsplitting noises on it.
Grandma pulled out the old rocking chicken for Serik to ride (from my childhood) and she stocked up on all sorts of good baby food for the little man. The 'extended' Bedford family threw a get to know party for Serik and he received many cute clothes, a red wagon, and a car to drive.
He was doted on and spoiled but sleep was a hard thing that weekend. Apparently sleeping in a 'port-a-crib' from 1970 isn't all it's cracked up to be. That and the strange surroundings made for an exhausting weekend for mom, dad and Serik.
We got to see Grandma and Grandpa's new house (which is almost ready to move in to) and catch up with the family so that made it all worth while.
Then it was off to South Beach - Miami, FL for a little fun in the sun with mom and dad.
Kurt had a reward trip for work and we stayed at the Loews which was nice and completely accommodating for kids (for future reference).

Serik loved his first time in the pool and had to literally be dragged away from the edge if he wasn't in it.
The beach took a little more getting used to - waves and sand and all - but he ended up giggling and smiling as he was dipped in.Our little man was a hit with the ladies - especially a 12 year old French girl who after meeting him the first day spent the following days seeking him out at the pool so she could play with him. It was like we had our own little Au pair.
Dinners out were a bit of a trick with Serik - the first night we ate early to try and keep him on schedule. No such luck. The whole sleeping in a strange place kicked in and he woke up at 4 a.m. - yeehaw. We got him back down but the next couple of nights he would invariably end up screaming at some random time and it made for some tiring nights. Of course the one night he slept was our last night there and we literally had to wake him out of a sound sleep to leave for the airport (6:30 a.m.) - couldn't he have done that earlier in the trip?
The other dinners were a bit later (7:30) so Serik didn't get to sleep til 9:30 ish EST (I know, I know - bad on us)... which brings us to a painful reentry in Minneapolis.
Got home yesterday and he slept brilliantly last night - basically 7 to 7. Today - not so much. Naps - hmm don't think so. Going down without wailing - nope. So we'll see what today brings.

As far as updates - Serik continues to make the cutest and funniest new faces, he's really getting the hang of walking and we expect him to forgo the crawling completely soon. He'll stand and drink out of his sippy cup without holding on to anything. He holds on to a wall and then lets go and walks to mom or dad. He's making new sounds and adding to his vocabulary on a daily basis but at the moment it's still a lot of ba,ba and da,da and ga,ga and th's.