Of Bassets and Toddlers ...

Our big news comes in the shape of a four-legged, floppy-eared member of the family named Holly. After Missy passed away so suddenly, our house felt empty without the "clip-clop" of a basset's claws on the floors, the gentle snoring, and the soulful howl. We thought we would wait for a while and enjoy the peace and quiet, but something was missing ... we're a family of 8, mummy, daddy, toddler, 4 cats and a basset...we needed another basset! But not just any basset, we couldn't have a puppy because Roman is too young for one, and we wanted a young dog this time so we could spend many years together. We found a wonderful tan and white girl called Holly at Oregon Basset Rescue. She was a stray who was found two days before Christmas and has white patches that look like a snowy Christmas tree on her back, so the basset rescue named her Holly.

Roman was eager to meet our new dog but by the time we got to the Basset rescue, he was fast asleep. Holly jumped into the backseat and licked his face (and he still slept through it!). On the way home, we stopped for a bite to eat, and Holly stole Roman's sandwich, we knew things were back to normal in the Green family.

Holly soon made herself at home in the Green "pack." She is a lot more rambunctious than Missy (there's quite a difference between an 11 year old dog and a 1 year old dog!) Harry and Holly are best friends already (Harry was best friends with Missy too, and really seemed to miss her). Brother Tom gives Holly disdainful looks and the occasional swat. Aretha is gradually warming up to her and Sally thinks she is even more annoying than Roman and must be avoided at all costs.

We still miss our beautiful old girl Missy, but we don't have that sad empty feeling when we come home. Once again, there's the good old hound smell, the melodious snoring ... but not the howling. Holly is a barker, Missy rarely barked, Holly barks too much (at the mailman in particular) but she's still a pup so that is something we'll be working on. Despite our attempts, poor Holly does not yet know how to howl, although we almost got a howl out of her today. We used to have family howls with Missy (Roman is a good howler).

On February 12, we celebrated Gotcha Day (wow, it has been a long time since we updated our blog), which is the anniversary of the day we adopted Roman ... the day the orphanage workers handed him to us in little green tights. We have decided that we will spend each Gotcha Day together as a family doing something fun ...whatever Roman wants to do. It's our time to celebrate being together as a family.

For this Gotcha Day, Roman said he wanted to go on a boat with a loud horn ... well, a Washington State Ferry fit the bill. We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island and went to the Bainbridge children's museum, then had lunch at JJ's Fish House in Poulsbo.

We checked out all the boats at the Poulsbo Marina (they provide free life jackets for kids ...great idea) and visited Roman's friend Sam the octopus at the Poulsbo Marine Science Center. Sam is the same age as Roman and will soon be returned to his natural habitat as it is almost time for him to mate (octopuses mature a little faster than humans). He'll be replaced with another octopus though and we'll look forward to meeting him or her. Roman is also rather fond of Olive Oil the Seattle Aquarium's octopus, but Sam is his favorite.

Our Gotcha Day celebrations continued the following day when we went to the Pacific Science Center to visit the dinosaurs. Roman's favorite dinosaur is a T-Rex. Helen was sad to discover that her favorite dinosaur as a child, the Brontosaurus, is no longer an "official" dinosaur. Apparently, scientists thought they had discovered a new dinosaur back in 1879 but it was just good old Apatosaurus all along. So sad ... now Pluto isn't a planet any more and poor Brontosaurus never existed!

One of Roman's favorite adventures, and one we'll be telling for many years to come, was quite scary for us. He went through a two-week period of having nose bleeds, one so severe that our neighbor JoAnn who's a nurse at Harborview Medical Center couldn't stop it and recommended we call 911. Next thing we know, a fire engine showed up outside our house! Roman, who absolutely loves fire engines, screamed "FIRE TRUCK!!!!" and the nose bleed abruptly stopped. Several paramedics came rushing in, only to find that their mere appearance outside our house had stopped the nose bleed. Roman has now been invited to visit the fire station any time, and makes us take a detour by it whenever we are heading in that direction!

Back in March, we spent a fun morning sight-seeing with our friend Joel who was visiting Seattle on business. We met Joel and his wife Clarion at the Vlad Inn in Russia when they were meeting their sons for the first time. They adopted their boys Slav and Sergei last summer and live in St. Louis. Here's a link to their blog: joelandclarion@blogspot.com.

Helen, Roman and Joel on the monorail (Roman always tells the driver to go faster!)

Also in March, we had a reunion of the 3 Far Eastern Russian Rascals: Polina (3) from the Vladivostok area, Roman (2) from Vladivostok, and Luke (4) from Sahkalin Island. We will all be meeting up at WACAP Family Camp this summer, along with lots of other kids from all over the world.

Helen's mum, British Grandma, came to visit for almost three weeks at the end of April. Luckily her visit coincided with a bit of a heatwave so we spent much time on the beach building sandcastles, skimming stones, and paddling. (You'll notice that some of these photos look like they were taken in the middle of summer. That's because Seattle's weather has been very British lately - shorts and t-shirts one day, sweater the next!)

While Grandma Linda was visiting, we took Roman to his first baseball game. He loved every bit of it and is now a big Mariners fan! His favorites are Ichiro, Griffey, and the Mariner Moose. We've since been to two more games (Rich gets free tickets from Fox Sports) and Roman enjoys the whole experience. We only make it to the 7th inning stretch then it's time to go home to bed.

We got up to all sorts of adventures while Grandma Linda was here, including a visit to the museum of flight with Roman's friend Dawson and his mom. The boys had fun checking out everything from biplanes, to Concorde and the space shuttle.
We also took Roman for a haircut (always an adventure with a toddler). This was his third haircut but the first one at Kids Club in University Village. He likes to sit on the tractor at West Seattle Kids salon but we thought we'd try somewhere different this time. He enjoyed the yellow taxi but was disappointed there wasn't a tractor. He usually makes a big fuss and doesn't want his hair cut, but then the hair-stylist presents him with a box of cars and before long he's so engrossed he doesn't even notice them cutting his hair.


In this photo Grandma Linda and Roman are feeling sorry for Brontosaurus.

Since our last blog update, Roman had his first hearing test. We had no reason to be concerned but he had never had one as it isn't standard procedure in Russia. He actually enjoyed the experience. We went to Children's Hospital and it was so much fun for him because it was set up like a game where teddy bears play drums and tambourines. He even let them put headphones on him. His hearing is perfectly normal with no cause for concern.

At the end of April, Roman had his last day at speech therapy at Boyer Children's Clinic. He was kicked out because he was too good! He is a complete chatterbox who is constructing some quite long sentences, and his pronunciation is excellent. His longest sentence so far, and our personal favorite was delivered with an intensely serious expression:

"Mommy, recycle truck no come on Monday ... come on Tuesday, now"

and another favorite:

"Daddy took you Safeway last night ... tractor-trailer truck backed up to loading dock" (pronouns are still mixed up, he meant "daddy took me")

Roman with Heather, his speech therapist, on his last day at Boyer Children's Clinic.

He picks up words really quickly, in fact we've discovered that every word he hears goes into his brain, swishes around, and comes out in the next few days. It's fun to see who is contributing to his vocabulary. While Helen's mum was visiting, she said "don't kill it" when Roman was squeezing a worm a bit too hard. Now, for some reason we'd avoided the word"kill," it just seemed such a harsh word for a toddler and it wasn't one he'd picked up. Anyway, Helen's mum said"oh don't worry, he won't remember" Sure enough, the next morning Roman strolled out in the sunshine and saw a spider spinning her web right by our front door. "See spider" said Roman, "kill it!" ....thanks mum.

It's a joy to hear him talk because his accent is a mixture of American and English. It's not a blend of the two; each word is either pronounced with a completely American accent, or a completely English accent (having Helen's mum stay for two weeks helped get a bit of Lancashire in there). This way, we can tell which one of us he got the word from. The funniest thing is that he pronounces squirrel the English way. When Helen was Roman's age, she couldn't say squirrel properly and it came out "sqwirl" Her dad spent ages teaching her to say it properly. Well, it turns out that Americans pronounce squirrel "sqwirl!" Roman, however, pronounces it "sqwa-ir-rel" the English way. So we have something like, "mommy, mommy, sqwa-ir-rel ... mommy, mommy, car trans-pord-der!" Yes, daddy taught him the motor vehicles, mommy taught him the animals.

He now calls us mommy and daddy rather than mama and didda (we were so sad to see "didda" go, fortunately we have lots of recordings of it). Helen clung to the hope that he would call her "mummy" the English way but of course he has picked up "mommy" from all his friends who are starting to say "mommy" too, and of course Devlin, Kaysan and Lauren and his other big kid friends.

We just got back from visiting Rich's Grandparents Harvey and Mildred in Mondovi, Washington. It was Roman's 3rd visit to his Great-Grandparents. He enjoys being a "cowboy" out in the countryside, with Vali the horse who lives opposite, and lots of wide open spaces.

Missy loved Harvey and Mildred's and could quite happily of lived there. Allowed to roam off leash, play with other dogs, smell those country smells and be spoiled...what's not to like? We wondered if Holly would love it too. Sure enough, we got the impression that Holly could easily adjust to the country life. She had a ball playing with the neighbor dogs Scout and Skyer and even bonded with Vali.

Holly ... Farm Dog

We'll end this blog update with two exciting things! The first happened last week and caused almost as much excitement as the arrival of the fire engine at our house. Helen and Roman were taking Holly for a walk when two of Roman's most favorite things in the whole world pulled up right outside our house. A FLAT BED TOW TRUCK WITH A DIGGER ON IT! Here Roman is posing with his own digger (a Christmas gift from Grandma Victoria and Grandpa Gene). We watched that digger for more than an hour (I am not exaggerating). We then had to inspect the hole dug by the digger and were given an honorary pair of earplugs by the digger driver.

Then today, Roman pedaled his tricycle down the street for the first time! We got him the tricycle for Christmas but up until now he's mostly wanted to push it rather than pedal it. But just today, he really got the knack of peddling and now that's it ... he's off! He loves going everywhere under his own steam and doesn't want mummy or daddy to push him anymore. He was getting a bit frustrated as he found it difficult to pedal uphill. So we were trying to explain that even Lance Armstrong finds it harder to pedal uphill!

The last day of preschool is coming up next week. Roman really enjoyed his year with Teacher Ingrid. We're staying with South Seattle Community College Coop in September but moving to a different location. He'll be going to the Admiral Preschool, along with his friend Sebastian. He'll be in the 2 day class. One day Helen goes with him and the next day he's on his own.

We have all sorts of things planned for the summer including swimming lessons at Colman Pool (an outdoor saltwater pool), WACAP family camp at Sun Lakes, Day Out with Thomas the Tank Engine, and of course Lil Kickers soccer. But our biggest plan for the summer is POTTY TRAINING. Our goal is to have Roman potty trained by his 3rd birthday. Of course, the big question is ... will the Diaper Monologues become the Potty Monologues? Wait and see...

Goodbye Missy

Our sweet, stubborn girl passed away today.

Just this morning she had been chasing Roman trying to steal his cheese and playing happily in the yard.

But this afternoon she started breathing heavily and was very lethargic. Helen and Roman rushed her to the vet, who told us that a tumor in her spleen had burst, and that we would need to put her to sleep. The vet was very sensitive in the way he explained her condition so as not to upset Roman.

Rich hurried home from work to say goodbye, and our friends Mari and JoAnn also came to give her a kiss (they looked after her when we were in Russia, and loved her very much).

Roman gave Missy a goodbye kiss, then Rich took him out to the waiting room, and Helen stayed with Missy while the vet put her to sleep. It was very peaceful and everyone at West Seattle Animal Hospital was so kind to us. 

Roman doesn't really understand what happened. We've explained that Missy has gone to heaven (in fact, we're sure she is right now slobbering all over Helen's dad), and that we won't see her again. Roman has been his usual happy self but he has seen us both cry tonight and he knows how upset we are. He said "Mama upset...Missy gone," he's a very perceptive little guy.

The vet recommended a children's book to us that might help explain it to him. We're not quite sure if he realizes that she won't be coming back. 

Missy joined our family in May 2007. We were cat people, who had never owned a dog. But then this beautiful old basset ambled into the studio at Helen's work to be "Pet of the Week." Their eyes met and something in her expression said "please be my mom." Before Missy had even appeared on TV, the woman from Pierce County Animal Shelter had promised her to Helen. Now all Helen had to do was convince Rich!

Needless to say, the next day we drove down to Tacoma to pick her up. We had no idea what the cats would think of her, or what she might make of the cats. But Helen's instincts were right, she was perfect for us ... within half-an-hour everyone was getting along famously. The cats accepted her just as long as she knew her place - and Missy happily accepted her role at the bottom of the totem pole.

The rules in our household were as follows:

1. If a cat wants to sleep in Missy's bed he can, and Missy must try to squeeze into a cat bed instead.

2. Sally gets first dibs on all scraps. If Missy tries to butt in she will be swatted several times on the nose.

3. Missy is not allowed to eat cat food. 

4. The cats are allowed to eat Missy's food.

5. Cats rool, dogs drool!

Over time, Missy even started behaving like a cat. She would circle her bed several times and kneed it before going to sleep, she sat on our laps (she couldn't see why she shouldn't sit on us, all the cats did ... she was 62 lbs), and she even "purred" (a mysterious rhythmic snoring that sounded very purr-like).

We spent a wonderful 22 months with Missy. We knew we might not have much time with her, but we wanted to give her a good retirement. She taught us all about dogs...and now we can proudly say we are "cat AND dog people." 

We already miss her so much. As I write this, the house is so quiet and I realize that what is missing is Missy's snoring. This time last night she was asleep on Rich's lap, her head resting contentedly on his shoulder. Although Missy was Helen's dog, she adored Rich, and she secretly loved her feline companions and the young human she thought of as a puppy!

An Inaugural Diaper

Roman has announced his candidacy for President in the 2048 election. On the ticket with him is Bubba the Penguin and, in a controversial move, he has selected Skunky for Secretary of State. He will, of course, be representing The Green Party.

                  

We would like to wish everyone a very happy 2009! We hope your holiday season was as wonderful as ours. As Roman opened his presents on Christmas Day we couldn't help thinking back to last Christmas, when it was just the two of us, and our thoughts were thousands of miles away in Russia ...wondering whether they were celebrating Christmas at Roman's baby home, and hoping our little boy would be safe.

This year was so different. It was magical to see Roman's face light up when we turned on the Christmas tree lights, hearing him trying to sing "Jingle Bells," and laughing with delight at our neighbor's giant inflatable Santa.

We went to Trinity Tree Farm in Issaquah to cut down our Christmas tree. Roman helped pick it out, and rode on a tractor with Helen. There was also a little red train to ride on, and an old fire truck just perfect for climbing.



Roman hung the first decoration on our Christmas tree, and loved helping to decorate. You will be surprised to know that our tree survived a toddler, a basset hound, and four cats relatively unscathed. However, we often came home to find the tree skirt out in the middle of the floor, but we're used to that ... the cats like to attack it.


We will always remember that our first Christmas together as a family was a White Christmas, which just added to the magic. It started snowing in mid-December and never really stopped. Helen and Roman were snowed in as Rich took our 4 wheel drive vehicle to work (our other vehicle is a Mazda Miata), but we had fun playing in the snow, and exploring the frozen tundra with Missy the Arctic Basset to guide us.
























We picked the perfect day to visit Santa at the Issaquah Reindeer Festival. We took Roman's friend Sebastian and his mom Helena with us, and there were only two other families there. A fresh carpet of snow had fallen the night before, and it looked like a winter wonderland. Several reindeer live there year round and are named for Santa's reindeer (we think this one is Prancer).



We followed a little trail up to Santa's house, feeding the reindeer along the way. There was a warming fire place and cuddly lions and tigers to hold. Santa was great and spent a lot of time with Roman and Sebastian.



The weekend before Christmas, we all ventured out in the snow to Sebastian's 2nd birthday party. It was a lovely winter-themed party with snowflakes and a snowman, and homemade ice cream!

On Christmas Eve we read a children's version of the Christmas story and put out sherry and a mince pie for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph. Rich told Helen that Americans usually leave milk and cookies for Santa but we Brits know that Santa likes a tipple (bet he was happy when he got to our house).

Roman was excited and a little bewildered Christmas morning as it was all such a new experience to him. He loved opening his presents and, after opening all of his, our sweet boy helped us open ours and jumped up and down excitedly when we opened our gifts. He enjoyed having the job of handing gifts to us.

Mama and Didda (that's what he calls Rich) bought him a tricycle, and he was so keen to ride it that we set out in the snow (with Missy leading the way). Missy and Roman are now in training for the Iditarod.

We had a quiet Christmas Day, just the eight of us (Mama, Didda, Roman, Harry, Sally, BT, Aretha, and Missy). In the evening, we went to Aunt Mari and Aunt JoAnn's. They gave Roman a fork lift truck which he is just crazy about. Helen made her traditional trifle, with a special non-alcoholic version for Roman. And Roman visited his kitty pal Ally (Ally is the only cat that absolutely loves Roman, we think it's because she's a kitty version of a toddler herself, we wonder if she will still like him in a few months when she is a grown-up cat.)

Helen's famous trifle (with a special one for Roman)

At Aunt Mari and Aunt JoAnn's.

With Ally the kitty toddler!

Kisses...

Truck!

Other news since our last blog update....Roman began taking a weekly speech therapy class at Boyer Children's Clinic in November. It's a fun class with just four kids. It's different from pre-school in that it's focused on language and taught by two speech therapists. The kids do art projects, play games, and run and tumble in the gym. Roman loves it ...it's just great fun for him (and mum and dad go to class too).

Roman's spoken language is behind where it should be and it was frustrating him. He's an intelligent kid, and we felt that his language just wasn't keeping up with his cognitive abilities. It's not surprising for two reasons: firstly, after hearing Russian exclusively until the age of 17 months, he switched languages. Secondly, he didn't get much one on one verbal interaction at the orphanage so the speech centers in his brain weren't stimulated as they should have been. His comprehension of Russian was way behind where it should have been when we adopted him, and he could only speak two Russian words.

Well, Roman is a real chatterbox now. He's just starting to put three words together but that's amazing since he only started putting two words together a month ago. Here are some examples: "Man...in .....truck" "Box, mama, box .... those ... in box" (not exactly sure what "those" are), "feet...my feet", "mama's feet." He's very good with "me" mine" and plurals, adding the "s" at the right time, and saying "feet" for example instead of "foots". 

There's just been this language burst, and he loves talking. He never, ever, stops, he even talks to himself when he's asleep. He's only this chatty when he's at home though, he gets a lot more shy about talking when he's out and about. Every third word is "mama" ..."trucks, mama, in there, trucks, mama, Awa (Aretha the cat) in there...." and when mama isn't there, every third word is "didda." We would also take a guess, that every fifth word is some kind of vehicle (whether it be a truck, car, choo choo, or "airpace").

"Bear! Mama ... bear....big bear, mama!"

Now that he is talking a lot, we've started to notice something (and we did wonder if this would happen)...Roman has an English accent! Most words he says sound just like his mum. However, there are some words that sound just like dad and other words that we wonder ...where on earth did he get that? We usually conclude that he picked that up at Uncle Don and Aunt Carri's, as he spends most Sunday afternoons with them while we are both at work ... he's definitely picking up some cool first-grader terms from the triplets such as "yup" "yeah" and "pigout!"

Every Saturday morning, Rich takes Roman to "Lil Kickers," a soccer program for kids 18 months to 12. They play games like kicking the balls into the hippo's mouth, and building towers out of cones. Roman likes to practice kicking and running backwards at home. It's funny to think that we taught him how to kick a ball last March in Great Grandma and Great Grandpa's yard in Eastern Washington. Now, he's quite a skilled soccer player ...for a 2 and a 1/3 year old!

Last week, we went to a family night at the YMCA and Roman made Valentine's Day cards for Kaysan and Lauren (he already made a Valentine's bumble bee for his girlfriend Kennedy). When Helen asked him who he wanted to marry he said "Lauren," Helen said, well maybe in a few years. Maybe when you're 26 and she's 30...

Our plans for this year include British Grandma's visit in April, visiting Grandpa Gene and Grandma Victoria in Georgia, WACAP Family Camp, visiting the UK sometime in the late summer, and of course going to see Great Grandpa Harvey and Great Grandma Mildred. We also plan to have Roman christened this year (we haven't picked the date yet, Uncle Barry and Aunt Mari will be Godparents).

We thought we'd let everyone know Roman's current clothes size because people are always asking us.

US Sizes

Pants: 18months-2 years

Tops 3T (he's still wearing 2T right now but he's on the brink of being a 3T)

Shoes 8 (he's actually still a 7 right now but almost an 8)

UK Sizes (British kids must be taller than US kids judging by the size differences... must be the Marmite)

Pants: 1-1 1/2 years

Tops: 2 years

Shoes 7.5 UK/25 EUR

"Digger, Mama....big yellow digger....dirt, mama...dirt!"



Roman and Polina. We met Polina's parents Sonia and Shah in Russia (and they live in West Seattle). Polina is 3 and also from the same area of Russia as Roman.

As we are fast approaching the first anniversary of our "Gotcha Day." Here are some things we have learned about our little guy in our first year together.

Favorite things: Cars, trucks, dump trucks, tow trucks, fire engines, police cars, choo choos, "airpaces,""atoos" (helicopters), race cars, diggers (particularly backhoes), boats, bubbas (penguins), ala (lion), kitties, doggies, horses, ooh ooh's (monkeys), soccer, basketball, tae kwon do (he imitates Rich), brown sauce (British delicacy), books (total book worm), stickers, jigsaw puzzles, skateboards (loves to watch the neighbor kids, tried to turn his flatbed truck into one), Thomas the Tank Engine, Elmo, Bob the Builder, Noddy (he doesn't watch tv but he already loves the characters from the books).

Favorite songs: Elmo's Song, the theme to Balamory (a British children's show,) Scoobydoo, Waltzing Matilda, Bob the Builder, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells, Sleigh Ride.

Favorite Books: The Going to Bed Book, Pajama Time, Goodnight Moon, Lucky, Monkey Puzzle, Where's Spot?, Dig, Dig, Digging, The Little Red Hen, Owen and Mzee, Cool Cars, Dazzling Diggers, The Gigantic Turnip, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Hop on Pop, anything Thomas, Pooh, or Cars (the movie).

Helen is excited about our new president and looking forward to the next 8 years! Pleased to think that Obama will be the first president Roman remembers. Rich is just hoping Sarah Palin will run in 2012 and drowning his sorrows with other Republicans (he often posts to the West Seattle Blog under the name Heavy Metal Conservative). Our son, on the other hand, doesn't care just as long as there are still trucks and diggers on the road, airpaces in the air, and choo choos on the tracks.... wouldn't it be nice to be a toddler again, just for a day?

With much love,

Helen, Rich, and Roman

Some recent Romanisms ....

Rich has been teaching Roman to stand when he pees in the big "potty." The other day Roman followed Helen into the bathroom:

Roman: Mama up!

Helen: No sweetie, mama sits to go potty.

Roman: Mama up, mama up!

Helen: Sweetie, mama sits because mama's a girl, she doesn't have a "pee pee."

Roman: (sad look crosses his face, he reaches over and pats Helen gently) ah, poor mama, poor mama.

We tried to let Roman know the real meaning of Christmas, while also enjoying Santa, presents, and the Christmas tree. So each night we opened windows in an advent calendar and read a little book called This is the Stable, a children's story about the birth of Jesus. Once all the decorations were down the book was still around and Roman asked us to read it to him. When we got to the page with a picture of the stable Helen said "Who's this in the manger?" "Santa!" shouted Roman.

Helen: Sweetie, mama and didda love you very much. We traveled all the way to Russia to get you. We will always be your mama and didda and you will always be our son.

Roman: Race cars!...

While visiting Sebastian and Helena

Roman (to Helena): Cheese ... pease!

Helena: I'm sorry Roman, we don't have any cheese.

Roman (goes to get his coat): Mama! Home!