Toilet Training Begins

AB recently started his first lessons on toilet training. This is going to be a challenge.

Luckily for us he likes M&M and flushing the toilet. So here is the deal, Mom or Dad puts AB on the potty, and he goes, AB gets a few M&Ms and gets to flush the potty all by himself as a reward.

Mom puts AB on the Potty.

Doing OK to start out.

"Hey, help me, I can't reach that book. And can we gt a better selection? Something good like Dinasour Roar, or something by Sandra Boynton or Joseph Heller? All you guys have here is old issues of Parents Magazine!"

"Mom!! I've had enough!! Get me down from here!!"

ICA Family Picnic

In June of each year the adoption agency Nungesser and DW hired holds a picnic ge-together for their client families to meet. It's a great opportunity for families to meet each other, for prospective parents to talk to parents and get a personal account of what the adoption process is like, and for the agency staff to see AB in person and see for themselves how he's grown up in the last year.

We got AB a shirt from Cafe Press with Orenburg (Оренбург) written in Russian on it for the picnic. It looks cute, plus anyone there who can read Russian doesn't have to ask where AB is from. OK, just about everyone there who spoke and read Russian already know where AB is from, so it was mostly just cute.

There were a lot of toys, games, and activities for children of all ages. AB liked teh inflatable crawl-through tube.



He is still captivated by doors. He can spend hours opening and closing them, even big heavy ones like they had at the picnic.





And by the end when we got in the car to go home, AB was wiped-out.

A Summer Day at the Grandparents'

Today we took a trip up to Nungesser's parents' house to spend a day with family while Nungesser's brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Brasil.

AB enjoyed "playing" the paino.

Posing for a photo with DW.



Playing on the slot car track with his cousins.



Acrobatics with Nungesser's brother.



And challenging Nungesser's brother to a saber duel.

AB and the Vacuum

One of AB's favorite things to play with is the vacuum. If you take it out, he insists on pushing it around the floor. Unfortunately, he usually doesn't clean up very much and you have to go back over it again, but he has a good time.

AB displays his prowess meneuvering the vacuum about the kitchen.

DW shows how much she appreciates AB's help...

Pet Parade

Every June there is a Pet Parade near our home. We took AB out to see the parade. In honor of the the World Cup football tournament about to start, AB wore his Ronaldo Brazillian football player uniform that Nungesser's little brother and sister-in-law (who live in Brazil) brought for AB on one of their trips to the States.

After the parade we headed home and got some shots with the toys and play house in the back yard.

Nungesser's parents arived with a new pop-up toy.

And at the end of it, AB was really tired.