The Terrible Twos Have Begun!

With November came Cameron's second birthday and the terrible twos (which we understand are followed by the even worse thrashing threes). He's two, he's asserting his independence and he isn't afraid to throw a tantrum to let you know that he wants to have his way. So, Mama and Daddy are learning new patience they didn't know they had and Cameron's throwing the occasional fit for 5-10 minutes at a time when things don't quite work out like he had planned. Even with that, we have a fun time and he makes us laugh every day.

What's happened since August? Well, Cam was dedicated at church on Mama and Daddy's 7th wedding anniversary. He did pretty well throughout the ceremony and wore a traditional Kazakh hat. There was a moment of nose-picking - of course, this was a new thing that he decided to try as we stood in front of about 20 members of our family. All in all, it went well though and we had a brunch at our house afterwards to celebrate. Uncle Kevin and Aunt Cathy are his Godparents.

We travelled to Minnesota over Labor Day weekend to visit Grandpa Bollin. We all had a lot of fun and got to do many things while we were there. Grandpa lives near Lake Harriet and Cameron started singing "Row, row" as soon as he saw the water from the car. Genius! We played at a couple of local parks and also got to ride on the restored Trolley that runs near the lake. The big event though was going to the Minnesota State Fair in St. Paul. We saw lots of animals, drank the free milk (white and chocolate) that they were giving out at the milk bar, went down the big slide, went on the Merry-go-round with Grandpa and danced with Mama to some music performed by a band from South America. Cameron also really enjoyed riding the bus to the fair. This kid is very much into public transportation. A good time was had by all.

Cameron has gone to Memphis Kiddie Park a couple of times and enjoyed the rides. Though, it seemed that the rides sometimes lasted a little too long for his liking. However, he did like the train ride around the park and would stay on it all day, if he could.

Mama and Cameron made a trip to Mishawaka, IN in September to visit our close friends, the Holups, and to attend Elizabeth's 5th birthday party. We had a lot of fun playing "choo-choos" at the birthday party and also playing with the sand/water table. We went to the South Bend Zoo for Member's Night and enjoyed ourselves in spite of the pouring rain. We took shelter under a tree while eating dinner and did manage to get a ride on the train before we all declared ourselves drenched!

Cam the purple dragon had a lot of fun on Halloween. We went to about 20 houses and he was consistently saying something like "Bop-bop-ba-dop" for "Trick or Treat". People seemed to understand what he meant though and he did say "Tank you" before leaving.

Cam's second birthday party was at Malley's, a local candy and ice cream shop. We had cake, ice cream and he opened gifts while we were there.

We went to Chicago a couple of weeks ago. The Children's Museum is great and a can't miss if you go there with anyone under the age of 10. Cam and Mama also went to the top of the John Hancock tower while Daddy took a nap and we walked up and down Michigan Avenue and also stood in line for Garrett's Popcorn. Daddy found us later and we went to Pizzeria Uno to try out the Chicago deep dish pizza. Later that evening, we took a carriage ride around the Michigan Avenue area. Our driver was Bruno and the horse was Cisco. Apparently, they had both been on vacation for about 2 weeks and Cisco was not happy to be back at work. He kept disobeying Bruno's commands - we ended up on the sidewalk at one point because he refused to turn. He also sort of freaked out when we came up behind a FedEx truck that was unloading. Cisco reared up a bit and Bruno got down off the carriage to lead him on foot past the truck. It was a little scary, but we were in good hands. Cameron had a great time on the ride and went and gave Cisco a pat on the nose at the end of our tour. The next day we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo and saw about half of it. Cameron was in rare form and at one point, took the hand of a little girl who appeared to be about his age and walked her over to where the gorillas were going in and out of the building. She wasn't entirely sure that this was the thing to do, but went along with it. We stayed with our friends in Mishawaka on the way home and they had a mini-birthday party for Cameron, complete with cake. He had fun blowing out the candles again.

Cam's 24 month appointment at the doctor will be on Christmas Eve, so we'll have more statistics then. However, he is just about 36 inches tall and weighs almost 29 lbs. We went to his last adoption health service appointment back in October and they said that they are very pleased with his attachment to us and they said that developmentally, he's at or above where he should be. We were pleased with the news! He's saying new words everyday and is probably approaching 75-100 words in his vocabulary. He's also stringing sentences together like: "What is that?" "I catch." "I don't want that." His inflection when he says "Oh no!" and "Oh my!" are dead on. He loves to throw, catch and kick balls and he's still very enamored of trains. Oh, and in October, he moved into his big boy bed and hasn't looked back since!

Hopefully, we'll get another post in before the end of the year. Happy Holidays!

Gotcha Day

July 31 was our first gotcha day - the anniversary of the day that the 3 of us became a family. We all took the day off and went out to the Holden Arboretum in Lake County and checked out the train garden. Cam had a lot of fun watching the trains and listening for the whistles. A couple of times he grabbed Buffy's hand to steady him as he attempted to jump the fence!! We got him back on the right "track" quickly - don't need to be thrown out of the arboretum! He suffered his first bee sting while we were there, but recovered very quickly.

Looking back at some of the pictures from a year ago, it's amazing to think and see how he's changed - and also stayed the same in some regards.

• He's so much bigger and looks healthier now.
• He still drools a lot.
• He sings songs (we don't know what he's saying, but he's singing) and likes to sing along with Mama when she sings "Moon, Moon, Moon".
• He says "uh oh" a LOT.
• He's been saying "yes" for a while now. He just started saying "no" a few days ago. "Yes" is much nicer.
  
• He says other random words and babbles.
• He likes to jump (including when he's going downstairs - eek!).
• He's mechanically inclined and will drop whatever toy he has if it means he can help you fix something.
• He loves books - especially ones about trains, trucks, farm equipment or cars.
• If you are sad, he'll come over and tell you "Alright" and give you a hug.
• The Nemo ball is no longer with us since he put it in the dishwasher and it went through an entire cycle unbeknownst to Mama and Daddy.
• He doesn't like to have his hands dirty. Often during meals, he holds up his hands to one of us asking to have them cleaned up.
• He loves to be chased.
• He has started asking us to sit in specific places when he's playing. He'll start on a puzzle and realize we're not there, come and grab the missing person and then tap the spot where we should sit.
• He tattles on things that hurt him. If he bonks his head, he'll cry and then show you what he hit his head on by pointing or tapping it.
• He likes talking to Grandpa Bollin on the computer and often tries to share his milk or food with him.
• He impressed Grandpa DeWitt back in June when he helped replace a tractor wheel on a real tractor and managed to get the bolts threaded.

All in all, it's been a good year for the 3 of us. Perhaps, the best ever (so far).


Meet the trucks in Lakewood in early June.


















On the beach at Currituck, NC (OBX).















Currituck Lighthouse in the background and a cute little boy who sees geese in the foreground.








At a tractor show in Plain City with Grandpa D.



















Same tractor show, playing in the straw.















At the Holden Arboretum.


















Thinking about hopping the fence.

















Making a break for it!

















B&B&C at Jockey's Ridge State Park in NC (OBX)

Spring is here!

Spring is here at long last, and Cameron can’t get enough of it! We’ve had lots of fun in recent weeks...
Uncle Mike visited a while back and got to spend time with the Cam-man, and they both had a lot of fun. The little guy loves trying his hand at a little bit of everything – like cooking (see him frying up mommy’s iTunes Gift Card), driving anything with a steering wheel that makes noise (here he is taking grandpa’s little Farmall A for a test drive down on the farm) and generally just fooling around. He does everything full-tilt, and finds joy in everything he does – and brings joy to all he meets.

What a difference a year makes!

A year ago today around 3 p.m., we got a phone call from our adoption coordinator telling us that they had matched us with a baby boy named Sasha. He was on the small side, but appeared to be fairly healthy and quite smiley based on the pictures we received. Five days later, on his cousin's birthday, we accepted the referral and by then had decided that his name would be Cameron Aleksandr DeWitt.

Fast forward a year and Cameron is an active little boy who just turned 18 months old. He has caught up in weight and height, is on target or ahead for his developmental milestones and is starting to use words to express himself. He brings joy to us every day and every day we are grateful to have him in our lives.

A more detailed update is on its way, but we wanted to get something posted today because it's a special one.

The rest of January all of February and part of March!

Despite a persistent cold, Cam's doing very well. When cutting teeth in January, he went for broke and decided to do 6 at once! You can't call him an underachiever. He's now the proud owner of 12 teeth, including 4 molars. It was a brutal couple of weeks at night, but he's making good use of them. He continues to make good progress with the silverware and he really likes to eat fruits and so far, he eats more veggies than his mom. The Adoption Health Service people were pleased with his developmental and attachment progress. He's 75th percentile in height and somewhere between 25th and 50th percentile in weight - tall and skinny, not all bad! He's been pointing out various body parts and then clapping for himself. He is definitely saying Mama and he's using it appropriately! We've also heard an occasional "Yeah-ya". We can ask him to do simple tasks and he knows what we're saying which is great when he does what we ask. Did we mention that he can be a little headstrong? Yes, Cam does the limp noodle and will throw a tantrum when he doesn't get his way.

We made a trip to the zoo in January and Cam was fascinated by the elephants. He also liked the orangutans and the various birds at the rainforest. We also went to the zoo today and he got to see more of it this time since it was sunny and not as cold.

We have also been having fun seeing friends and family fairly frequently and Cameron had his cousin, Kenny, over for an overnight a few weeks ago. We think a good time was had by all.

We went down to Brent's parents' house recently and Cameron got to see the lambs. He was okay with looking at them from afar, but when he and Daddy got near the mama sheep, he started crying. Apparently the ewes are frightening with all the thick wool (you can't see their eyes), and they move really quickly when frightened. He did have a lot of fun playing piano with Grandpa though.

Cam had another visit to the ER in February due to breathing problems. He tested positive for RSV (which basically is the virus that causes the common cold but can be serious with little tykes) and they did some heavy duty breathing treatments, put him on a steroid and sent us home. That was followed by round the clock breathing treatments at home for a few days - and the Xopenex made him a crazy man. He just couldn't sit still, or cooperate, or sleep.

We had a heck of a snow storm on Valentine's day and got a few feet of snow which then drifted all over the place. Buffy still had to go to work, so Brent got out there early and cleared the drive as best he could. Then, Buffy put the Blazer in 4-wheel drive, punched the gas pedal and was able to get out onto the street. It was quite a feat! Only to arrive at work and receive an e-mail from her boss 'just to work from home' that day. arrgh....

We've made plans to go to the Outer Banks with some close friends in June and we're anxiously awaiting the trip. Spring isn't far off now!



On the big pile of snow on the treelawn.

With the dogs in the backyard. That's our patio table and the cylindrical thing is the top of the chimenea.


Playing piano with Grandpa.

Baa, ram, ewe!

Daddy and Cam at the farm.

December and a little bit of January

December was a fairly quiet month for Cameron until the holidays hit and then we were go-go-go. Mom and Dad had a heck of a time keeping up with trying to get Christmas gifts purchased (and then wrapped) and putting the tree up, but they managed to do it (though the tree is STILL up). Cameron gave his grandparents a hand-print trivet and a calendar with bunches of pictures to remind them of him. He was not at all happy about making the trivets - painting his hands just was not on his to-do list that day. Even so, they turned out pretty well. We spent much of Christmas with family and close friends and were very busy the last week of the year. Cam even had his first official play-date with the sons of 2 of Buffy's co-workers. Good times!

Unfortunately, Grandma DeWitt was admitted to the hospital mid-December and spent Christmas at the OSU Medical Center. We went to visit her there and Cameron held up pretty well considering the circumstances and the fact that it was a day trip (2+ hours to Columbus each way). On a brighter note, she was discharged on Jan. 5 and is recovering at a facility closer to home.

Also in the health arena, we managed to get through the month without an ear infection and Cam had ear tubes put in just before Christmas. He did fine with the surgery and was a little off the rest of the morning due to the anesthesia. However, after a good nap, he was back to his usual self and ready to take on the world. The hardest part of the whole thing (at least for Mom and Dad) was handing him over to the nurse to take back to the OR.

Jake-dog had surgery the day after Christmas to remove a couple of cysts. It was quite a challenge to keep the cone-head dog (he had to wear the cone or he'd be constantly licking) away from the kid and the kid away from the dog's open wounds. However, we managed and Jake is on the mend.

Cam continues to walk and as his confidence increases, his arms are slowly dropping. He started out with them over his head when he first walked and then they dropped to a Frankenstein pose. He's not quite to the point of having them at his side, but he does like to pick things up and walk with them. Doesn't matter what they are or how heavy (like a ceramic dog dish!), if he can pick it up, he takes it with him. Another tooth emerged on the bottom during December and so far in January, it looks like he's getting molars on top and the other bottom tooth is coming in. That makes 10 teeth in all! Cam has also been showing off his silverware skills. He really likes using a spoon and he's mastering the fork as well. Most of the time he gets it to his mouth without any problems. That's not to say that squash and other assorted bits of goo haven't flown across the dining room, but all in all, our white area rug is still white. He also likes to drink from a cup (not a sippy cup, a cup cup). Though Mom and Dad aren't to the point where they're willing to let that go unassisted. Within the last few days he has started pointing out his nose and the noses of others. He also likes to do some of the hand motions to "The Wheels on the Bus".

Last weekend, he had his first real haircut at a barber. Grandma B. and Len took him and he did very well - no tears whatsoever. The people at the shop were saying that with the cut he looked more grown up and could be mistaken for Putin.

Cam will be moving up to a new class at school this month. It's still considered an infant room, but they spend more time doing structured activities and we should be getting some creative art as well. We visit the Adoption Health Service people at University Hospitals tomorrow for a quarterly check-up. We'll continue to do that for the next year. They evaluate where he is developmentally and help us out with any child-rearing and adopted child-rearing questions we might have.

That's the latest from here. Happy 2007 to all!

Cam borrowing Russell's Batman mask.














Opening the Retro Rocket from Grandpa on Christmas day.














Helping Daddy (and Maizey) assemble the rocket.













Again, more assembly.
















Eating spaghetti on New Year's Day.














The first official haircut with Len and Bob the barber.