2008!

The past several months have been so busy for us with the holidays and turning in our dossier for baby #2. We spent Christmas in New Hampshire with my family and enjoyed a nice long visit jam packed with activities: Christmas Revels in Boston, Living Nativity, our family's annual Christmas Eve get-together and of course all the relatives who were able to join us for our first Christmas in the states with Serik.
As of January 10th we have been home one year and the time has flown by so fast.
The changes in Serik are amazing and I will try to highlight some of those for you and for my future memory - which is diminishing rapidly :) . Consequently I'm constantly jotting down notes so I don't forget things for the blog.
Here goes:

• At Christmas time I had to watch one of my favorite Rankin-Bass shows 'The Year without a Santa Claus' (it's the one with Heat Miser/Cold Miser). I had it on in the den by the kitchen and Serik looked up and saw Santa and immediately pointed and said 'Papa' - cute - he thinks my dad is Santa. Then Mrs. Claus popped on and it was 'Mama' - not sure how my parents are going to like being compared to them size-wise - in all other aspects though how can you go wrong.
  
  
• He is chattering up a storm - when he cries about something he'll say 'baby cry' and then 'baby happy' when he's done crying. He also loves to point out 'mommy car, daddy car' etc. and every piece of automated machinery we pass especially diggers, dump trucks, school buses, cranes, tow trucks, airplanes (which by the way are 'daddy airplane' since kurt flies so much) - you get the idea.



• When we're in the car and we beep the horn (it's a left over habit from New England) - Serik says 'go' and has now added a 'come on' to that - hmmmm wonder where he heard that?!



• Christmas carols were a big hit especially Jingle Bells which he performed with his fellow Kaz buddy Annabelle. They shook their little bells and were just adorable. Every time he picks up his bells he still sings it and stands in the spot where they performed it for us.



• He walks around talking on the phone (real or fake) and has managed (on his own) to pick up the extension when i'm on the phone and press the right button to join the conversation.



• He is singing the ABC's and counting to 14. He can also spell his name and is pointing out letters on signs. Think we may have a genius (if I do say so myself) on our hands. He'll probably be way smarter than his parents.



• Other favorite phrases: 'Here you go', 'Oh no!' (usually preceded by his throwing something of his tray at dinner), 'I see you' (while looking through any sort of object', 'Come on - let's go', ' go ride mommy car' and lau u for love you.



• His papa introduced him to PBS Kids.org and now he wants to play the choo choo/baby game whenever he sees one of his parents on the computer.



• He sometimes maniaclly laughs - literally sounds like an evil genius planning his takeover of the world. Comes complete with hand gestures - hands in front of his body, palms facing each other and shaking, while he sort of bends at the waist. Have been desperately trying to get it on video - no luck yet.



• He's still our little love bug and randomly accosts strange little kids/babies in Target to give them hugs. I try and prevent it but am usually not quick enough. Sometimes the parent (usually a mom) is a bit chagrinned, while the dad's are like ' you go kid'. Hmmm.



• He gets to see his Nana (kurt's mom) several days a week and we go to 'school' one morning (11-12:30) and music class another (no it's not piano lessons or something hard core) more like random spinning in circles while singing songs and shaking maracas.



• Speaking of spinning - he happens to love ring-around-the-rosie right now and will spin and spin saying 'ashes, ashes, all fall down'. Of course our kid loves the most dramatic part which would be the falling down.






• We had our first sledding in adventure in 2008. Took on the little hills as we have some good big sledding hills nearby.

• Also - Serik has become a photographer. He loves my digital camera and even takes self portraits (see right).
  

We've also attempted swimming class which we ended up bailing on. Too much work in the winter to get him all bundled both before and after class. We'll give it another go in the Spring. Kurt and I head to the Bahamas for our first getaway alone since we came home. Just a long weekend and my folks will watch Serik. Our dossier is now in the consulate in NY for about 60 days and then it's back to Kaz to the various ministries so we're not expecting to hear anything until late summer but we'll keep you posted. Paka paka (bye, bye).