The cutest giraffe you ever saw

Here is Oliver at Trunk or Treat this past Sunday night! He was so good and so sweet. He wasn't even afraid of Mama in her scary costume for the haunted house. My friends were disappointed, they thought he would be afraid of me and he would finally willingly come to them. But no luck there! He is one lil' mama's boy!

Six months ago today

Oliver Maxim became a Baer! It was one of the best days of my life! Sadly, we didn't get to see Oliver that day, which is a long story but he truly became a part of our hearts on February 4th, the day we met him! We knew in the first minutes that Maxim was our son, never a doubt for either one of us!

February 19th:

August 20th:

Walking update

I think this video speaks for itself!

Our other big accomplishment is on the sleep front! We are in the process of doing sleep training, thanks to my friend, Amy! She has been such a great help, she works at an international adoption clinic and will hopefully soon be a new mommy to a baby boy from Russia too! We are making major progress and hopefully nighttime issues will be a thing of the past. Thanks, Amy!

Two months since last post!

We have had the craziest summer! We were pretty much gone for 4 weeks on two different trips. The end of June we took off for a week to Greenville/Spartanburg, SC area and had a great time! Stephanie and Brynn both came and we got to meet Oliver's second cousin-to-be, Malachi. Don's neice, Erin and her partner, Amy are fostering him with the hope of adopting him in the near future. Aren't they so cute together? Malachi is 3 months to the day older than Oliver. We also got to see Aunt Connie, Uncle Dean and Cousin Nick. We also threw some sight seeing in with them and by ourselves. It was vacation and family time all rolled in to one.

This is Oliver and his Kirov buddy, Evan! We traveled to Kirov and back with his parents, Brian and Jackie. Acutally Jackie and I set a world record for talking on a Delta flight. According to Don and Brian, Jackie and I didn't stop talking the whole way from Moscow to Atlanta. Not true we both napped! What can we say but we were excited moms to be! Brian and Jackie have two beautiful older kids from Russia as well and it was great to meet them too! We had a great trip to Greenville!

Oliver learned to climb up and down stairs at our hotel in record time!

We got home on a Sunday and the following weekend Brynn, Oliver and I were off to Omaha for 12 days! Poor Dad home alone with the animals!! My mom and step-dad spend summers there and my dad and step-mom live there year round. Grandpa and Grandma Keech hadn't met Oliver before and Grandma and Grandpa Brittsan hadn't seen him since the end of March. So everyone was new to him. He is finally going through some separation and stranger anxiety, both excellent signs of attachment! So it took a little time for him to warm up to everyone! He got to meet my nephews and nieces, it was so fun. My step-mom had a kids hair salon, Ponytails and Buzzcuts in Omaha and Oliver had to try out all of the "chairs". He doesn't have enough hair to cut but he is practicing!

The final leg of our whirlwind of trips was going to orientation at the University of South Florida in Tampa for Stephanie. She is following in Michelle's footsteps and going to school there! She moves in tomorrow, August 17th! She was just 6 when Don and I started dating, it is so hard to believe she is going to college. While we were in Tampa we got to see our friends Marie and Bryson. The boys are so cute together too!

Happy Father's Day - First Steps

Oliver took two steps for Daddy yesterday unassisted. Here is some video a couple minutes later of Don trying to get him to do it again. In no time flat he will be off and running!

A day in the life of Oliver

We had a fun day today! We went to lunch with Daddy and Brynn then took off for the beach in Naples. After Oliver's nap the power was out and it was overcast and cloudy so we ventured out on his new Little Tikes climber. He and Theo were having too much fun.

Baby teeth

My two boys brushing their teeth together! Don was brushing his teeth yesterday morning when Oliver crawled up to him and said "up". Don proceeded to take him to the bathroom for his own toothbrush and Oliver just brushed away! He now has 8 teeth, all since our first day with him on trip 2, April 19th. For those of you don't know.......when we were on trip 1 Oliver was teething, he drooled everywhere and chewed on anything. I had whispered in his ear "Can you wait for Mama to come back before you cut your first tooth please? I promise to hurry back before then!" and he waited for me! The 1st day of trip 2, I immediately checked and the gum was just barely starting to open up for the tooth to come through! It has been hard for me to have missed Oliver's first 10 months of life, so many firsts came without anyone noticing and documenting and I just want to be able to celebrate everyone that I can with him.