It’s time for another exciting update!

We have Kittens!!!  We had talked about getting cats before but since we had roommates it was kind of out of the question. But now since we don’t have roommates we have finally been able to adopt some very CUTE kitties! We got them last week. I responded to an add on Craigslist and they were $10 a piece, which I had been looking for cats through the human society and through rescue shelter here in Kenosha, however they were $60 a piece. Of course they came fully vaccinated and fully fixed. But still $120 for cats… yikes! So we just kind of waited around to see if we could find some cheaper. In the paper there were two ads on for $5 and one for $10 apiece for them but at that point we weren’t ready to get them yet. So we just waited. And then I saw the ad and responded and here we go, kittens! They are VERY little they are 7 weeks old. They are so very little. The girls are OVER THE MOON over them. Nikolai is just so sweet he just SCREAMED at them when he saw them, in excitement of course. Now we are teaching the girls about being gentle with the baby kittens and not picking them up 24/7. They love them so very much and I have to tell you the kitties are just so cute. They are just little babies so we have to be very careful with them so they don’t fear people. So we do a lot of, now Maya leave her alone… Maya you need to stop… Maya please don’t lift them up… Maya be gentle, do you notice a theme here?



So we have been working with both girls, and Nikolai to be nice to the kitties and really gentle. Maya gets upset when the kitten doesn’t want to sit on her or doesn’t follow her around like Lehna’s kitten seems to. Oh Maya named her kitten Princess, and Lehna named her kitten Caesar. I think they match up but I think Caesar should be Casanova b/c he is just a LOVER he wants to cuddle and get really close to you heart, it’s very sweet. I also think he’s having the toughest time with leaving his mommy. He cries the most I think. They really should have been with their mommy another two weeks but the person wanted to get rid of them now. So I told them we would take them. I’m so glad that we got two b/c they do seem to keep each other busy during the day. The kittens are being potty trained. They have figured out how to get out of the big box and they did so well using the litter box. So now they have free roam of the house and so far they are doing well. They look so little compared to that big litter box but we are keeping our fingers crossed that we don’t have any accidents. The kiddos are really doing a great job with them. Since they have been able to jump out of their box we allowed them to go in the girls room at night, if they desire to sleep. The girls were up half the night trying to “keep” them in their room without actually shutting the door. But they did fairly well last night. Lehna actually shut her door last night and was fast asleep. The kittens crawled into our bed for just a few minutes than left, I guess we were too boring for their liking.



Anywho. So that’s the new and exciting news as far as new additions to our family. Well Tait and I have finally broken down and called Birth-Three. This is a program in our city that helps families with children between those mentioned ages with different things. We called them for a consultation because Nikolai isn’t talking. He has 6 words in his vocabulary: There, Bye, Woof, Car, yeah, and Got. So they told us that between the ages of 12 months – 18 months he should have 10-20 words. Than between the ages of 18 months – 2 years there will be an “explosion” of words and he should have 100 words or so… we were like, nope. So they asked us as far as following directions does he do that, and he does, you can ask him to get his shoes, put this in the trash, where are your eyes? And he knows all of those things, but he just doesn’t talk. So the lady I was talking to said that it is good that he is doing half of what we need him to and she said that he just may need a couple round of speech therapy to get him going, and then he’ll take off. But we have a consultation with them next Monday. I’m kind of nervous about it, but I think it will help him. I didn’t realize just how FAR he was behind until I was reading my old postings of Lehna and Maya and how far they were when they were his age. Lehna and Maya could both count and say their alphabet by the time they were 2 and he has 6 words. So I think it will help. Part of it doesn’t help that we do things for him, and he does have a lot of “mommies” in his home. But he’s starting to get frustrated because we don’t understand what he wants, so it’s kind of frustrating for us too. So I think it will help. The lady wanted to know if Monica would be willing to have Nicolai do services in her home, and I was like… hum I have never talked to her about that but I would prefer we do it with him, verses Monica. So they said that they have an agency that will work with us after hours. So that was a positive. I mean I think Monica would be open to having the services come to their home, but I kind of feel like it’s our responsibility as he is our son. I mean we can also direct Monica how to work with him and she would be VERY open to that I’m certain. She’s mentioned to us about his speaking as well. He definitely has started to babble more going to Monica’s b/c there is another boy his age for him to play with but still nothing significant. As she calls him “her little Russian boy” as he only says “Yah” most of the time. So we’ll see. Tait has become more anxious of his speaking as well so hopefully this will help calm us all down. I think part of it is he doesn’t go to a daycare where he has lots of kids to play with and hasn’t gone to a public daycare. I mean he’s always been in an in home setting. Not saying it’s not something we aren’t considering but we haven’t had the need as we have found an in home. So we’ll see what happens.



So that’s the exciting stuff going on right now. Oh I did get my second interview with the city and I’m sad to say that I was not offered the position. They went with another candidate. It is sad but it just means that something else is in store for me. Although I have to admit I’m tired of saying that. And don’t think I’m unhappy at my current position, b/c that is not the issue at all. Quite the opposite I love what I do, I love not having to take any stress home with me. The only thing I don’t like is my pay rate. I’m so lowly paid that I wish I could contribute to our monthly bills more and costs of living. I feel kind of a failure in that arena. I know I know it has nothing to do with failure. But hopefully the position here will be posted and I’ll be able to move into a permanent position here instead of the temporary status because the pay is painfully horrible. I guess pay isn’t everything but it is painful to have my family do without because we just don’t make enough. So we hold onto hope.



So anyway that’s life I guess.