November is Adoption Awareness Month

I love that November is Adoption Awareness month, as it is the month I met my little guy. 3 years ago last Sunday I met Denis for the first time. I can't believe it has only been 3 years, at the same time I can't believe that 3 years have already passed.

Denis and I celebrated our anniversary by going to the Toronto Santa Claus Parade with our good friends Alex and Loretta. It was a fun day even though it threatened heavy rain.

Denis loves taking Selfies, but hates when I pull out the camera. Here are some silly poses he made as we watched the parade.

This Sunday we went to the Maple Santa Claus parade. We've been home over an hour and I'm still feeling chilled. Boy was it cold out there today.

Here is Denis when we saw Santa. I think Uncle John and I were happier than Denis.

We do love the parades and hope to attend 2 more before they end for another season. I am proud to say that I've actually put up the Christmas lights this year. They didn't make it up last year and poor Denis was still asking me in February when we were going to put them up. Next up is the Christmas tree, and this year it won't be Mom's macrame tree, it will be a real artificial tree. Darn day care has shown him what most people have as a Christmas tree.

But I loved putting up Mom's tree, it took all of 5 seconds. Ah the memories!

2 years Thursday

It was 2 years ago that I returned to Uralsk and brought Denis out of the baby house forever.  Here is my blog post from that day.

As I write this blog, Denis is going around the house with a Kazakhstan flag and singing O'Kazakhstan, talk about blending two countries.

It has been a wonderful 2 years. I marvel that this little person is my son. There have been hard days, and even harder nights. The night terrors, which started at the 3 month home stage, ended almost a year ago. He still needs to sleep with me for at least a part of the night as he will have a nightmare when he doesn't. We have finally reached a point where he doesn't throw a major temper tantrum or run around the place like a mad man when I pick him up from day care. We are still working on his temper, he no longer throws a major kick, screaming and biting tantrum, but he still throw something or slaps me.

Denis' health has been great since the day he came home. Next week we go to see a doctor about tubes in his ears, but I would never have known about the need except for a routine check of his hearing, as Denis came home with no language skills. I'm amazed at his language skills. January last year we went to see the speech pathologist and she said at the time he was meeting less than 1/2 of the typical benchmarks of a three year old. By June Denis was meeting 85 per cent of a 3 1/2 year old. And last month the speech pathologist signed off on his file as she no longer has any concerns with his speech. Actually, at one point during the assessment she turned to me and whispered "WOW" to me, and later she told Denis to slow down as she couldn't write notes as fast as he spoke.

And I'm so glad as I approach 2 years home that I read on the blog of S and P are awaiting news of a referral. Soon another family will be traveling to Uralsk to bring another wonderful child of Kazakhstan home to Canada.

Here are some recent pictures of My Little Man

Tobogganing during the Christmas holidays

Loving the snow

All the comforts of home in my wonderful laundry basket

Night time snow removal equipped with headlights

Denis' first protest rally (against Bill 115) and his first television interview. Too bad Uncle John and Denis didn't make the news.

Uncle and nephew with matching mustaches.

A Blast from My Past

As an elementary school kid a century ago, I borrowed this book from the school library. I loved the story of a witch who tried to beat the perennial winner of the best original cake at the county fair. The witch (as I remember the story) wanted to use magic to win, but then decided that wouldn't be right, so she just tries her best. Eventually, she discovers the rich lady who always wins actually buys her cakes.






The story was fun. But to me, the best part was the recipe on the back cover of the book. This was my staple, go-to recipe for years. My mother and I once lost the recipe and I had to go back to the EASY section of the library to borrow it again to get the recipe. This was back in the days before photocopiers, so we had to hand write out the recipe.

For some reason I decided to use Google to see if I could find the recipe and there it was on someone's blog from 5 or 6 years ago (that's where I found the pictures of the front and back of the book). I understand the book is out of print, but I once again have the recipe. Of course now I'll have to make it nut free if I plan to take it to school.

Those of you who like me who can barely see the print, I found the recipe on a few places. On Food dot com  it is written exactly as it is on the back of the book.

Now my next job is to make the cake again and see if it tastes as good as I remember.