My precious Romeo

I started this blog to keep my out-of-town family & friends in-the-loop with Roman and so far I've been wishing people Happy Birthday and making fun of myself, etc... So here is a post all about Roman. Tuesday 8/26 will mark the 6-month anniversary of getting custody of Roman and 9/1 is the anniversary of bringing Roman home. On that day, the only English word he had mastered was "dog" and "no" {but no is no in Russian}. When I asked him yesterday if he was finished with his yogurt, he amazed me with a clear & distinct "almost". When I asked him to find his shoes and I hinted and where they were {under the chair} he squealed "under!" This morning when I woke him up he named off all of the stuffed animals in his bed and proceeded to make the sound for each {with the exception of the giraffe, which I was stumped on and I just made some completely weirdo & undoubtedly wrong sound}. I was even impressed because it was the first time he had said "rhino" {yes, he has a stuffed rhino... it goes with the Sandra Boynton books}.

Not only has he become a full-blown chatterbox, but his social skills have changed - he no longer sits on the sidelines of playgroups... he is now in the thick of it and sometimes the instigator. The Y used to freak him out and now when we walk in, he's like a celebrity waving to all his adoring fans. I used to have to drag him outside to play and now if he sees anyone outside {child, adult, dog, UPS guy, door-to-door salesman} he yells "play!"

His memory is also amazing, which makes someone like me {with a freakishly amazing memory} proud. Well.... let me digress... so far his memory is exactly like mine meaning we both remember extremely insignificant details. I remember details about people's outfits, lyrics to songs, people's birthdays, etc... but I rarely remembered the important facts for tests. He knows the pig is coming up on the last page of the book and he chants "pig" over & over again until we get there {but if I'm trying to get him to learn his colors, I overly review them with him, but he still calls everything yellow}. He always remembers where he left something (shoes, cup, toys, etc...). When Roman first wakes up in the morning, he always says the last thing he remembers from the night before {even after his 11 hours of sleep}. I love it... our friends Alan & Sara were over one night with their baby, Anna, and we put Roman to bed while they were still here. The first thing he said the next day was "Baby?". When we drive by Price Chopper, he says "car cart"; when we drive by Nana & Pop's subdivision, he says their names. He even knew that the white Honda SUV in the parking lot at the Y was Jenny's - it could have been anyone's! He knows that when we get to 9 Hwy by the river that we'll see trains and he starts doing that "chain pull action" {like when you want a semi-truck to blow its horn} and says "chooo chooo". Roman associates the golf course with daddy and usually says his name when we drive by. One time he said it and he was right... there was Jason at the driving range!

Back in March, I probably had the equivalent to post-partum depression. I had lived this care-free, nothing-on-the-agenda life and then BAM! Instant 2-year old BOY. I suddenly couldn't just pop over to Target if I wanted {Visa probably thought I'd switched to Mastercard}, I couldn't go to Hobby Lobby at all {tight aisles w/breakables - yikes!}, I couldn't even vacuum when I wanted to because he was afraid of it, but if I ran it while he was asleep, it would wake him up. It sounds bad but he really cramped my style for a while. Now I can't picture it any other way. He's my little buddy, my little helper {this morning I brought the laundry basket of clean clothes up to his room and he said "Help?" Even though he totally messed up my folding job I had to nurture this quality} Roman is my "everything". I love singing the lyrics to Michael Buble's song "Everything". I know its about a girl, but it is also fitting for anyone you love:

And in this crazy life, and through these crazy times
It's You, it's you; you make me sing
You're every line, you're every word, you're everything...
... And I can't believe (that you're my man)
And I get to kiss you baby just because I can
Whatever comes our way, oh we'll see it through
And you know that's what our love can do...

Here is a recent pic of Roman on his new waterslide from last week {and YES! I'm working on getting the Lewau pix up for public viewing!}