Zac's Latest Accomplishments

As many of you adoptive parents know, it is a joy to watch your new toddler do and say new things every day. Zac is doing remarkably well verbally expressing his needs, wants and affection. Here's some of his latest...

Today he got something in his shoe at the park and said, "Mommy (which is new instead of Mama), somethin' poky, shoe." Poky? Where did he learn that? This is just one small example of his ability to use descriptive adjectives to tell us what he thinks and feels. He also says it in such a way that others can often understand what he is saying, not just mom!

This week he also started using "me" to answer questions instead of refering to himself in the third person as, "Pasha".

Another fun thing to hear from Zac is his answer to the question, "what's your name?" He says, "Zac Pavel Corney (his version of Horner)."

Zac also can tell you his mom, dad, sister and brother's names when asked as well as his birthday.

One of the sweetest things to hear him say is, "in Jesus Name, Amen." at the end of his mealtime and bedtime prayers.

It's obvious he is a sponge and we are so proud of him!

Well, the next post will be coming soon as Hallie starts Kindergarten in less than two days! We will be sure to include some pictures of our sweetheart!

Most expensive Cities

I was thumbing through my Wall Street Journal yesterday and I came upon the 10 most expensive hotel cities in the world. I thought I'd share them.

10. London $305
9. Hong Kong $306
8. Bangalore $316
7. Mumbai $317
6. Stockholm $318
5. Milan $325
4. Dubai $326
3. Paris $339
2. New York $384
and the number 1 most expensive hotel city..... You guessed it right!

1. Moscow $540

(not just alittle bit more either... a lot more)

Bed & Birthday

We moved Zac out of our bedroom and into "the boys room".  Zac and Jake are now sleeping together and it is going extremely well!  I can't believe our wild boys actually stay quiet and go to sleep so well.  We were concerned that Zac would feel scared or that Jake would not be able to go to sleep and he would keep Zac up.  Fortunately, neither has happened and the transition went very smoothly.

(See below)

In addition to this, our big news is that Jake turned 4 on Saturday!  We had a handful of friends and family over for his birthday party.  (We got a little carried away with the yard toys).  He had a great birthday and we are so grateful for our adventurous, determined, athletic, spirited, sweet son!

(See below)

All the kids got to attack Ryan with water balloons to end the party!

Not much Russian Left

I'm not sure how these things come about, but sometime in the last 24 hours, Zac has stopped saying "Da" and started saying "Yeh".

He really only had 3 Russian words left. (1. Pasha - his name that he still calls himself. 2. Da - which is "Yes" in Russian, for you novices out there. 3. Ah-Boo-Doo - Which he only uses once in awhile. (See previous posts about the story of Ah-Boo-Doo) Thankfully, he lost the Nyet (No) thing really fast. We decided that Nyet is a much nastier sounding word than No. (Especially coming from a 2 year old).

So now, I guess we're down to just Pasha. Even though he responds when we call him Zac, he chooses to refer to himself as Pasha.



Here's picture of his latest and greatest funny face. He does this face and pose usually right before he puts a wrestling move on his big brother.

Cheyenne Frontier Days

This weekend we spent time in Cheyenne with my whole side of the family (Katie). My sister and her family lives out there so we stayed with them. We had a great time at Cheyenne Frontier Days riding the rides, watching a parade, seeing the Indian Village, climbing and hiking in Arapahoe National Park and roasting marshmellows in the firepit that was recently added to my sister's backyard. We were definitely in Cowboy country and loved it!

Every time we do something new like travel to another state, go to a fair, watch a parade, hike up some rocks or even roast marshmellows I marvel at how Zac seems to assimilate to his situation like he is familiar with all these things. He is so adaptive and enjoys new experiences so much. He has only been home with us three months...sometimes I can hardly believe it!

Hallie and Jacob also had a great time! Jake made it to the top of the rock with his uncles and we finally got to see Hallie after she had been away with her grandparents for a week.

Here are some pictures and video from our trip to Wyoming.

Funny Story, Great Bonding

This is Katie with a funny Zac story.



Yesterday I was drying my hair in the bathroom and Jake comes into my bathroom laughing. Zac follows him in with a wet head. I said, "Boys, don't play in the water," thinking they had turned the water on in their bathroom and were making a mess.



They leave and due to my incredible parenting decided to keep playing in the water (Grrrr). A few minutes later they come back both laughing and this time Zac's head in drenched in water. I ask Jake, "Jake, is Zac playing in the water in the sink?" Jake says, "No, the toilet!" YUCK!

Needless to say, I didn't kiss him on the head a lot yesterday!

Speaking of kissing...this kid is so affectionate. Each morning I wake to kisses on my arm and a sweet snuggle. Throughout the day he loves to be held and often wants to pretend he is a baby. I sing to him and he just rests so sweetly in my arms listening. When I finish a song he often says, "More please." We have come so far from our beginning with Zac three months ago. He even wants more comfort from us when he is sad or in trouble. Before he tended to isolate himself and try to deal with it on his own. So much progress in such a short time! We are blessed.

Busy Summer Days

We've been so busy having fun this summer that there isn't much time to blog. Nevertheless, we try to keep people up to date with pictures.


We are so thankful that the "adoption drama" is winding down and we are settling into "normal". The following are some pics from a day at the zoo.