I Am A Genius!

Artem has a love/hate relationship with his pull toys. He loves to pull his helicopter (one of those toys that I'm praying the batteries die very, very soon) and old fashioned phone (the one with the eyes that bounce up and down) around the house. He takes Bella's leash and pulls that around the house. He pulls Bella's rope toy all around the house. Basically anything that he can pull behind him, becomes his toy. The problem is, he doesn't just pull it on the flat floor, he wants to pull it over the elliptical, over Bella's bed, under the kitchen table and he gets his toys stuck on things or his helicopter falls on it's side and then Artem gets frustrated and usually ends up throwing said toy or comes crying to me signing, "please" so I will go help him fix his problem. Tonight I went to Walmart with Artem (might I add, our first trip to Walmart that didn't involve screaming or fussing of any kind) and I saw the answer to his problem. Remember the Fisher Price push toy that has the bells inside? They still sell those and I figured, in a brief moment of genius, that Artem could pull it around the house without it falling on it's side since it is so wide, and there is no string to get stuck on chair legs. He had so much fun with it when we got home and didn't have one problem with it which meant no meltdowns for mama to deal with. Why didn't I find this toy earlier?

As some of you already know, Randy is quite the funny man and really enjoys being in the spotlight making everyone laugh. Some of our best times were spent with Randy dressed in various wigs clowning around, goofing off. When we met Artem in February we knew right away that he liked to be in the spotlight too and would do something funny and then look at each person in the room, waiting for their applause before he moved on. This past Monday I had to take Artem to the doctor for a consultation appointment. We waited for 1 hour and 45 minutes to be called back to see the doctor but Artem did really good in the waiting room, matter of fact, he was quite the showman and kept everyone in the lobby entertained with his antics. I just kept shaking my head thinking, "between Artem and his father, I'm in sooo much trouble." Yesterday I was sorting through my classroom stuff that I had basically hurled into a spare bedroom last week and Artem was on his own to entertain himself. I went out to check on him and discovered him parading in front of Bella with my worn-that-morning running shorts on his head, fake falling down, and laughing for Bella. Bella apparently was not impressed but I died laughing and grabbed the camera to photograph my silly man. I'm 100% positive that I will be on the school principal's speed dial in the future!

We gave side walk chalk a try this week. Artem was not really impressed with it. I showed him how to color on the ground but he was more interested in tasting the chalk and taking the lid on and off of the container. I guess sweaty running shorts are more his thing right now.

Last week when I moved my classroom things home, I showed Artem how to stand on the dolly and I gave him rides around the house and garage. He saw it again in the garage and started signing "please" wanting to go for a repeat ride.

We are still seeing good progress on the attachment side of things. In the past when I would hold Artem he didn't hold back. It was like carrying a sack of potatoes on my hip. Over the past two weeks he has started holding on and holding on to the point that I could let go and he would stick to me. My girlfriend Kim, carried him last week and she commented on how tightly he holds on when he's carried. It sure has made it a lot easier to carry him vs the sack of potatoes that I've been carrying for the past month and a half.

I've also seen a change in Artem during our bedtime routine. In the past he wouldn't let me rub his back while I was rocking him and would arch his back, shake his head no, and make a grunting sound. Now he lets me rub his back and actually does this little wiggle if I start rocking him and forget to rub his back. He used to flop his arm over my arm when I rocked him and now he wraps his hand around my arm and holds on to me as I rock him.

I sing to Artem when I rock him; the same three songs every time; ABC's, Ba Ba Black Sheep, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. They all have the same tune and they are the only ones I can sing without making the paint peel off the walls. Have I ever told you when I was young and in the children's church choir, the director didn't think I had a good voice and just told me to lip sing the words to the song during the choir performance? Anyway, I sing the same songs to Artem every night and thought he might like a little variety so I decided to tell him a story instead of singing. I got out, "There was this little boy that lived in Russia..." and Artem lifted his head, looked at me, put his finger over my mouth, and shook his head "no". Bless his little heart, he likes my singing, even if it is the same three off-key songs every single night.

One final note, we mailed our adoption announcements out this week. My friend Katie designed the announcement for us using pictures we already had. We printed them on a linen card stock and they turned out beautiful!! Thank you Katie for your talent!!