One year ago today we busted little/big man out of the baby house!! I know that I am behind on the posts but pretty soon I will get caught up for Oct/Nov/Dec! Until then we hope you'll have a happy holiday season! I just couldn't let this one day go by without posting something as it has been on my mind all day long. Gena

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With anxious hearts
and open arms,
we sought you everywhere.
You dear child,
are a gift from God.
The answer to our prayers!
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November 13, 2006
This was the first day we met you. We fell in love with your big brown eyes, little lips, chubby cheeks and curious personality. You melted our hearts!!!!!!!
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Today we celebrate you!! This past year we have had more joy, laughs and good times than we could have ever have imagined!! You are getting bigger by the minute growing by leaps and bounds and learning new things each day. You are the sunshine of our lives!! Love, Mommy and Daddy

Getting bigger by the minute!!!!

Berik is getting bigger by the minute and now weighs 32lbs, is 34.5 inches tall and wears a size 8XW shoe. It amazes me to see him grow up so fast. Just look at the fraction of clothes that he has already outgrown, (too many to show) and the shoes that we have gone through since January. It just amazes me! A special note of thanks to the generosity of our friends and family for making all of these clothes possible as we have hardly had to buy any at all. Yesterday was his 1.5 yr birthday day and we used a kit I had received as a gift to make his hand print impression in plaster. This will be a special memory for us for years to come, thanks Tracy for the kit!
While taking the usual hundreds of pictures of Berik, I began to wonder what I was going to blog about ,seeing how we haven't been anywhere or done anything special to speak of. Berik, like most toddlers is busy, busy, busy until he falls out, which brings me to the first pics of the blog. The setting is lunchtime in the highchair . The last of the chicken nuggets are yet to be eaten. Mommy turns to get something to wipe off B's hands and turns to see B is asleep in the chair. Just then the phone rings and B , startled, wakes up, grabs the nugget but falls back to sleep before getting a chance to eat it. Mommy then removes the tray so you'll can see the uneaten nugget! Too cute in my opinion. After searching through the other pictures Berik may have a promising career as a band member, shoe model,

shoe repairman,



















safari hunter,or animal trainer! As I








mentioned before he is very active. Just look at what he can accomplish in seconds just beyond the watchful eye of mommy and daddy. Then, look how clever he is about an hour later when he returns to finish unrolling the roll of tp while sitting "in" the bathroom sink!!! Mind you he really wanted the rest of the roll as it was on the back portion of the sink. So that means he had to climb into the sink via the toilet, lovely. He continued to play "in" the sink as we captured yet another Kodak moment and could have cared less that we were there. We initially discovered his climbing skills earlier in the day as we removed him from the middle of the dining room table. Then later in the week he "needed" his rocket cup so he used the dishwasher door to give him a boost up to get it. Yes the camera is never far away in fact if you must know we have 2 that stay out all the time. :) and yes one is a Kodak! Later daddy got to fix the dishwasher as the whole unit fell out as I tried to load it. Apparently there is a weight limit on the door :) as B had knocked both screws out. Yeah!!! Daddy to the rescue!! The dishwasher always seems to be a source of entertainment right now, (which will fade as a teenager I'm sure) as he likes open and shut the door and load and unload the dishes. The other day it was especially entertaining as I heard what sounded like "tooting" well maybe "pooting" ok.. farting sounds coming from the vicinity. Upon closer inspection I found that
he was blowing raspberries on the dishwasher. How funny!! The raspberry entertainment continued on various other flat surfaces around the house for a couple of days but have since subsided. He is quite the momma's boy as he is usually wrapped around my legs so I decided to enlist his help loading clothes into the washing machine. He thought this was great fun throwing them in, which I know will also fade as a source of entertainment. He tries to help at the grocery store but ends up eating the corners off the boxes, this time the mac and cheese box and then the little turkey wouldn't even eat it. The only thing he will absolutely NOT help with is the vacuum. Just look how he looks when he is in the empty garden tub , in "his safety zone" and the vacuum is in the other room, lol!! With all this said I hardly need to say more but the following came to me the other day and it goes something like this... You know you're a momma when....................................... the top two rows of your pictures look like this.... and the bottom shelf looks like that.











you forget everything you need for work but have extra for the baby..

you carefully consider each and every gift you take to someone else's birthday party as payback's are hell!!

you wear oatmeal or mashed potatoes in your hair..

you put bubble wrap down on the floor to entertain baby so that you can fold clothes and pick up your room.. but end up stomping on the bubble wrap yourself..

and finally ( for today anyway) you end up eating with the baby's little bitty fork because you can't make him give yours back :) Enough said , as you can tell we are busy without even leaving town. Berik is the utmost joy in our lives and we thank God everyday for our "special delivery" .

Just having some good ol' fashion fun!!

Hey there everyone!! It's me Berik showing you how much fun I'm having! I love my swing can't you tell?








Teasing the cat is super fun and look at me, I can finally climb up my slide all by myself without falling off!

I am trying to get the hang of the rocking horse but I am too small to get on it by myself yet but I do know how to make it rock!! This was Grahams (my cousin) horse when he was one, which was 16yrs ago. I sure am glad that they kept it around for me to play with. As you can tell they are feeding me good around here and keep me entertained really good too! Stay tuned for further updates about me and my adventures!!

Growing up so fast!!!!!!!

We have been busy with work etc so no real good time to update, sorry. Currently the boys are asleep as it is early in the morning so I am going to try to update this now while everything is peacefully quiet.

We finally got his first haircut but it was a little short above one ear but with squiggly wiggly I guess that is to be expected. One of us forgot the camera, (won't say who), but the lady had one so she took the ceremonial pics and gave us a piece of his hair and a cool kid haircut certificate so it was all good but no pics to post as she just gave us the printed ones. As his hair grows so fast he has already had cut #2 and it turned out really cute, trimmed with clippers rather than scissors, so it is very noticable that he is changing into a little boy (toddler) instead looking so much like a baby. He has been pretty healthy since I last wrote except over the 4th of July he decided to get Thrush and an ear infection, while teething of course. This is the most drool ever, soaking through the "waterproof" drooling bibs, through his shirt and running down his chest, YUCK! We were changing bibs and shirts about 4 times a day. All better now. Only 2-4 more teeth to go before we have all 20. I haven't been able to get a good enough look lately to count as I usually take advantage of counting when he is screaming/crying but there hasn't been that much of that and feeling your way around in his mouth is risky and he still likes to chew your fingers up. It rained all day on the 4th and finally quit in time for fireworks. Luckily we watched the fireworks from our house as they shoot them off from a park which is 1/2 mile from our house.

He is growing up so fast! At 15 months he is 33inches tall and weighs 30lbs. His shoe size is 6.5 XW. Yes, once again, went to Stride Rite and looked at all the shoes and then accepted the only pair in his size, which just happened to be the one pair we didn't want when we first walked in. They had some sports theme on them and we just didn't want that but we have it now. He has outgrown his pants in the length so I was saddened to have to give up his camo Kaz pants. Bedtime is wonderful as he knows the routine, goes to sleep like a dream and still sleeps through the night from about 7:30pm until 5:30am, has a bottle and goes back to sleep until 7am. Naps are usually great too, anywhere from 1-2 a day and anywhere from 1-3 hours. The rest of the time he is on GO!! Notice the first official band-aid below after a crash with a door frame.

Eating is going good. Loves any kind of bean, especially, Lima, good on veggies, loves chicken, meatloaf, fish, but not turkey?? good with fruits too and even pickle slices!! Mama's boy, we assume :).

Berik is developing and hitting milestones either ahead or right on time so that is great!! We did have him assessed just to be sure though and the lady told us we could teach him baby sign language to curb some of his frustration when he is trying to speak, thus far that has proven to be working! At the present time he is fascinated with toys that you drag along with the pullstring and any shape sorting toy. He still plays with the broom, measuring cup, clothespins etc that seem to be, at times much more exciting than any regular toy. To date I think we may have purchased a whopping 3 toys. Thanks for everyone elses generous donations and hand me down toys. HE CAN/WILL FINALLY WAVE BYE BYE!!! I was begininning to wonder if we were going to have to shake his arm off. He shakes hands now and blows kisses with great big mmmmmm,mmma sounds effects. He randomly spins around and around and falls down and cracks himself up? His version of ring around the rosey we assume. He can finally get on all the furniture unassisted, and has mastered climbing up the stairs to the house without scraping all the hide off of his tennis shoes. Even though he is fearless, the going down part may take a bit to master. He continues to love outside more than anything and loves swimming, once again, no fear, sticks his head/face in, no crying just wipes off the water and goes on splashing and cracking himself and us up. He is the laughingest boy and we enjoy that so much. He dances to music and loves the Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog song portion of the Mickey Mouse clubhouse show. If he hears the music he will literally climb over, under, or push you out of the way to see it. After it is over, then business as usual. He says Mama, Dada, Ba (which we think is yes) bye bye and nite, nite. Other than that we are still doing the ba ba ba, and the assortment of other sounds he can make. He seems to understand dinner time,bath time, bedtime and going for a ride, etc... but it just isn't coming out verbally yet. The daycare lady's husband is ex-military and when he gets home from work all the kids salute him and to see Berik do that is funny!

We went to court in May, in San Antonio, to re-adopt Berik here in Texas and that was the quickest easiest process yet! He now has a Texas birth certificate and an official name change from Evan JamesBerik Lloyd to Berik James Lloyd. The judge had him come and sit up on her desk and she was really happy for us. Much different than court in Kaz.

I had a good mother's day, although Berik fell twice and had a bloody nose each time, not to mention that he soaked thru his diaper ( peeed on me) as we were going into Pappadeaux's. Not quite the day I had envisioned but special none the less. Fathers day Jaimie spent driving home from Alabama with Jessi but they did make it in time to go out to dinner with my parents. No drama that day, so all in all a good day.

Jaimie as you know has a tattoo for everything and now he has one for Berik. It is the winged panther of Astana where Berik was born with the castle behind it. He got the design from the seal of the city, Astana.

We had a good visit with Pam and Zach in Dallas while she was there for a doll convention. Pam and Kevin (who couldn't be there) adopted Zach at the same time we did and it was really neat to see how much he had grown. He is so cute and funny too! Berik is about 6wks older than Zach and they played well together and climbed through the table in Pam's hotel room over and over again even though yes, they had toys.

Last but not least, Jessi (Jaimie's daughter) has been visiting us since mid June and Berik loves her.

He goes to her room each morning and burst through the door if not closed and trys to wake her. He climbs all over her and she is really good with him. We took family pics the other day and they really turned out good and it was alot of fun! Jessi is currently on a camping trip with a church group and they went rock climbing/repelling so it should be interesting to see how everything went tomorrow when she returns.

That's all for now. I guess I really shouldn't wait almost 3 months to post as this is really long. We have truly been blessed with Berik and enjoy him so very much and of course love him him to no end!!!!!!!! I hope you'll enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Gena

Some firsts, seconds, thirds and more

Well this month brought our fourth ear infection, third round of cough medicine, second round of pink eye and our first birthday, shots, and completed post placement report. We have been really busy. Berik , at the present is healthy which is great!! His first shots were not a hit with him and he was rather peeved at mommy , thanks to daddy who was out of town at the time. He weighs 27.5 lbs and is 32 inches tall, with a 5 1/2 x-wide shoe and 12 teeth. Oh my! He will eat you up if you are silly enough to put your fingers near them. The Dr. says he is the 93% for his height and weight, so basically he is the size of your average two year old. We finally made it to the Stride Rite store to get his first pair of walking shoes and the lady measured his foot and showed us the "only" pair in his big size and put them on his feet faster than you could say Boo. Don't think that has happened again. He curls those toes, arches his foot and basically makes this part of getting dressed the part you wish someone else had. Once you get them on, then watch out!! He thinks he can run and he really almost can but it usually results in a meeting with the floor. When he is not walking/running in them, Mr. Beaver is busy trying to eat them. He is getting our money's worth out of these shoes, that's for sure!
My brother and his family came from Dallas and celebrated Easter with us at our parents house. My mother who is recovering from back surgery was in good spirits and we all had a really good time. Berik made out like a bandit as usual and had alot of Easter goodies from daycare and as "responsible" parents we "helped" him eat those candies he couldn't quite master.. lol!
He is obiviously an outdoor kind of guy and when not outside spends alot of time looking out all the windows and screen door. He loves to swing, water plants with daddy, ring the wind chime and eat dirt, or sticks or leafs etc.. you get the drift. He definately requires 100% attention outside. We took him to the fair/BBQ cookoff and he got to sport ,a giant foam cowboy hat, which I am sure he would have ripped to shreds or eaten if given the chance. We visited my brother and his family in Dallas this past weekend and it was absolutely GREAT!! We left here around bedtime and 4 hrs later we were putting him in the pack and play and he slept the rest of the night! He did really well sleeping and napping and we were very pleased! We went to the Arboretum, which was spectacular and Berik had a great time playing in the bullfrog sprinklers. He absolutely loves anything to do with the water and bathtime is alot of fun. He has finally learned to stick the foam animals on the tub wall instead of in his mouth, which is a huge milestone for us. His other accomplishments since the beginning of March, would have to be.... he can lock and unlock the gate to the utility room, he will share and feed you cheerios, he will give you kisses,(nice slobbery ones) and he can get on and off his ride/walk toys. We think he is doing great but do have a person coming by the house next week just to assess him and make sure he is on target.


Last but not least, Berik's FIRST BIRTHDAY was a big hit!! I made a monkey cake in honor of Berik, who is quite the monkey, a regular vanilla sheet cake for those who didn't like chocolate and a pint size cake for Berik complete with chocolate frosting. Berik looked stunned as all 27 of us gathered round to sing happy birthday. We helped him blow out his "1" candle and then showed him how to get that frosting and the rest was all him. After licking his fingers several times he figured out he could just put his face in it and you can see how that turned out ! All and all we had a really good time and thanks for all the gifts that I told you all were not necessary but you brought anyway. We are using them of course, just as fast as we can.

Finally, we had completed our first post placement report and we will get it apostilled this coming week and then send it on. It was really nice to have our social worker, Beverley, visit with us and see Berik. Only 17 more to go! We were so busy we never made the hair cut visit and still haven't had his pictures taken but look foward to that this month. We are busy, busy, busy, bonding with Berik so forgive us if these posts are far and few between.