Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

I was passing through the office at work and saw a photo album lying open. The picture was of 2 child-size tables, with 3-4 kids around each one. Each child had just underwear on, a couple had kerchiefs on their heads. I stopped, paused for just a few seconds and said, “that looks just like a baby home in Russia.” The secretaries looked at me, surprised. In fact, it WAS a baby home in Russia. Turns out a student who was adopted from there had gone back recently and was sharing her photos with the ladies. It sure made me think. We want to take Roman back - we WILL take Roman back – but I wonder how the experience will be. I have lots and lots of questions. I flipped through the album, both wanting to study each picture and yet already familiar with each one. The crumbled building of the baby home. The yellowish paint color. The playroom. Looking at one photo of the staircase, I swear I could smell the cabbage. This student had a lot of pictures I had been afraid to take, as well. Th...

Taking a posed picture with a 20-month old? Refer to title above! Eventually, however, I was slightly successful. The boys in their "fall" jammies since today really felt like the first day of Autumn (rainy, in the upper 50s...). Roman in long sleeves, cozy fleece bathrobe, and Charlie in a bunny-suit. He was really pleased with it, kept showing us his feet and saying "sock."

The boys were fooling around last week - I had put Charlie in his crib to calm down, and Roman decided he'd try to cheer him up. By the end they were wrestling, climbing on top of each other, and laughing like fools. True brothers.

It's a good thing you can't see this picture too close - it would gross you out. Charlie went tumbling on concrete at daycare on Wednesday, landing on his upper lip. Only. Seriously, the boy is getting clumsier and clumsier. He walked into a wall at McDonald's tonight. Really! (this picture was taken Friday morning, 2 days after the fact) Anyway, this particular trauma caused Doug to be called because of all the bleeding, and he took C to the dentist to check his teeth. Sure enough, left incisor was "wiggly." Nothing we can do but watch the color and return in 8 weeks for another x-ray. Charlie, meanwhile, cracks & bleeds a little at night and gets pus-y during the day. It's really quite icky. In completely unrelated news, he has begun the fun age of hitting. He's also begun the fun age of spending lots of time in his crib during his temper tantrums. Roman has not been immune this week either. For him, of course, it's behavior. Got an email from h...

It's apparent now that Charlie knows more words than he actually lets us hear. He picks and chooses. Often he prefers to grunt (a second-child habit, I'm sure). Many times it takes us awhile to understand his version of a word, too. In the video below you will clearly hear him say "wet" but when I ask him about outside , the high pitched "die" sound you hear is actually him saying "outside" in a very excited tone. And then, he just looks cute at the end. I post this because today he let fly with 3 words we didn't know he knew - baby , hug , and pink . This follows the last few days, where we have heard guy , purple , and finally the long-awaited word NO as a response. Amazing. Clearly he's going to be the strong, mostly-silent type.

Boys watching tv and having a snack. Too adorable. No training wheels! This just happened last weekend. First day of school for both of us! What has become the traditional picture-taking spot. First day of the first grade!

Back to work, at least the first week, is all about catching up with coworkers about their summer, flashing pictures of our kids, and just enjoying the fellowship. (me & coworkers at a Coney Island for lunch!) But all too soon Tuesday will come, and with it… the students. Roman also returns to school Tuesday and I am sad that I will miss the walk & dropoff. Thankfully I have an awesome husband who took the day off work so he could be there to take the pictures. We finally got the letter in the mail & learned that his teacher is the one that had been recommended to us by his kindergarten teacher. Loving but firm – what Ro needs. However, his best friend is also in his class so BF’s mom made sure to tell the office to warn the teacher! I agree, I’m not sure what kind of year that’s going to be. Otherwise our wind-down from summer has been a little hectic. Because I had schedule handout and meetings, Roman was bounced around to grandparents, our neighbor, and a babysitter. Ch...