Jonas is Getting a Little Sister!

Jonas has been ours for 1 1/2 years as of today. He's amazing and hilarious and creative and the sweetest son ever. And now he's getting a little sister! That's right...we're adopting again...this time from China! Check out our new blog HERE, and if you'd like to help bring her home, please consider participating in our Puzzle Fundraiser. Just $10 will help "Bring Home Our Missing Piece!" Check it out HERE!

One Year

Today is Jonas's first Adoption Day! We've had an amazing year with our darling son. I wanted to document some things, so here goes...

Stats:
-30 pounds (gained 7 pounds)
-36.5 inches (grew 4 inches)
-2T/3T shirts and 2T pants (was 18 month size)
-size 6 shoes (was size 5)
-fully potty trained (but not at night)
-eats everything

Activities he's done in the past year:
-DU gymnastics class
-Music Together class
-JCC art class
-Progresh ski lessons
-Skyline soccer
-Denver Rec swim lessons
-Early Intervention tutoring for language
-Stephen Knight Center for Early Education preschool (Ms. Kathy Lange's morning class)

Places he likes to go regularly:
-Wash Park
-Denver Children's Museum
-Denver Zoo
-Denver Botanic Gardens

Places he's visited:
-Michigan (Holland and Traverse City)
-Chesterfield, Missouri
-Orlando, Florida
-Dallas/Fort Worth
-Berkeley/San Francisco
-various places in Colorado

Favorite things:
-fruit (especially grapes and clementines)
-movies (especially Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Despicable Me)
-riding his bike
-cars
-sharks
-the color green
-ice cream and suckers
-his friends TJ and Lela

I post picture of Jonas almost daily on Instagram, so go HERE if you want to keep up with our life as a family of three!

Visit Instagram for Your Jonas Pic Fix

Please visit aubreekeys on Instagram to see almost daily picture 

postings of our dear Jonas, who is doing great and growing like crazy!

Three Month Report and Signing Off

Jonas has been with us for three months; I can hardly believe it! He seems like such a little boy instead of a baby now. In the past month alone, he's started using two words together, he rode a camel and a llama, he caught his first fish, he started playing on a soccer team, he started gymnastics class, and he got his first haircut (today)! We love our son more than ever, and we can't imagine life without him.

After this post, I don't plan on updating the blog anymore (maybe once a year on St. Patrick's Day?). We're too busy enjoying life. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind and post if I feel the urge! I'll still take tons of pictures and put those on my Shutterfly site (www.aubreekeys.shutterfly.com), but I'd rather be hanging out with Jonas than sitting at my computer.

Here is the three month update:

Favorite Foods:
-pretty much the same as last month (mostly fruit)
-Pediasure (we give him one every day)
-pizza

English Words Jonas Knows (since last month):
-home
-doctor
-open
-upstairs
-owie
-star
-stuck
-movie
-bowl
-keys (a very important one!)
-boom
-truck
-duck
-cooking
-hot
-ear
-upside down (he says "up down"-it's adorable)
-work
-potty
-water
-teeth
-walk
-flower
-swimming
-moon
-napkin
-thirsty
-car
-two
-broken
-water
-hello
-pizza

Favorite Things to Do:
-go swimming
-point out airplanes (he hears them even from indoors and wants to go see them, and when he's outside he yells extremely loudly and points them out)
-gymnastics class (especially the trampoline)
-soccer practice (he's decent at dribbling and kicking!)
-music class
-go on rides (like at amusement parks or fairs)

Habits:
-nap is earlier now-around 11:30am-still just over an hour long
-has to be the one to turn the lamp on and off for reading books at night
-has to be the one to turn on the fan/heater downstairs before bed
-loves to help and do things himself
-falls asleep around 8pm, wakes up around 6:30am

Habits We Are Working on Breaking:
-whining when he wants something
-calling other ladies and men "Mama" and "Dada" (he's trying to figure out how they can be parents of other children but not him)
-sometimes having a meltdown when he doesn't get what he wants or has to wait
-having to immediately go upstairs when he wakes up

Our Favorite Things About Jonas:
-still gives spontaneous kisses and now asks for a hug "hu" at random times throughout the day
-turns everything into a "guitar"
-the cry of excitement that the whole neighborhood can hear when he hears/spots a plane
-the way he has become such an important part of our family in just three short months!

Thanks for reading along on our journey to Jonas. Please contact me if you have any questions about the adoption process (especially in Kyrgyzstan). Oh how life can change in just a few short months!

Jonas's Room

The decor for Jonas's room was built around this shyrdak. These Kyrgyz felt rugs, which are handmade and traditionally used in yurts, are made from two sheets of white felt which have been dyed, cut into identical shapes, and reassembled into a mosaic-like textile of interlocking patterns. They come in a variety of beautiful colors, but this gray and cream colored one is very common. I noticed it on my first trip to Kyrgyzstan, and that's the image that was in my head as I planned his room. I bought it at the market when I went back for the court visit, and now it hangs above his dresser next to his closet.

Jonas's room is yellow and gray with a gray and white chevron pattern and espresso-colored furniture. My parents came for a weekend back in February to help us put the room together before bringing home our son. I think it turned out really cute! My brother Justin and sister-in-law Cindy hung Jonas's name letters and helped hang the wallpaper border when they came for his Baptism.

Though Jonas's bed is currently downstairs next to ours, this is how it would look if it was in his room with the rest of his chevron stuff. The glider from my parents is one of my favorite items; we read him books there every night. It's a cozy little area with the rug and little lamp and table.

This is the other side of Jonas's room. It's sort of a little play area. He loves to do various activities at his table and point out the pictures he knows from the alphabet letter stickers on the wall. He also uses the chairs to reach books on the top shelf.

Jonas has a pretty well stocked toy and book shelf. The top of it holds his traditional Kyrgyz hat (a kalpak), a family picture, and a book of photographs from Kyrgyzstan. Above the shelf is an awesome Mother's Day present from my parents. You can click on the picture to read the plaque.

This shelf contains pictures I took in Kyrgyzstan (at Lake Issyk-Kul, Burana Tower, and up in the mountains), along with some decorative items from both Kyrgyzstan and Moscow (where he was born).





I love Jonas's room, and I'm grateful for everyone who helped fill it with so many awesome toys, books, clothes, and furniture pieces. I think he loves it too!

Two Month Report

We were traveling to Orlando on May 17, so I never got the chance to write a two month report post. Here it is!

Favorite Foods:
-fruit (especially grapes, strawberries, and bananas)
-crackers
-cheese
-yogurt
-macaroni and cheese
-applesauce
-hot dogs
-juice and smoothies (that's how we get the vegetables in him!)

Foods Jonas Dislikes:
-pretty much anything not listed above

English Words Jonas Knows (since last month):
-shoes
-guitar
-no
-up
-down
-Dada
-clean up
-ball
-hot
-help me
-snow
-strawberry
-meow
-roar
-basketball
-more
-apple
-dog
-stay
-again
-stop
-choo choo
-baby
-juice
-bath
-book
-ready

Favorite Things to Do:
-chase birds and squirrels
-point out and pet dogs
-copy what older kids do
-swim
-swing
-anything related to music/instruments
-climb things

Habits:
-nap is only about 75 minutes now
-only about 10% potty trained right now (we've let it go-he's not interested)
-says "no no" and shakes finger at things he's not allowed to touch
-only sucks his thumb at night or when really scared (now sticks all fingers in his mouth when mad)
-says "hi" and then "bye bye" to everyone in sight multiple times
-points to items he recognizes in books or on screens and then points to the real-life object (like lamps, airplanes, dogs, etc.)

Habits We Are Working on Breaking:
-saying "no" to everything
-whining to be picked up
-hugging anyone who will let him, including complete strangers (still)
-sometimes having a meltdown when he doesn't get what he wants or has to wait

Our Favorite Things About Jonas:
-he calls us Mama and Dada now
-spontaneous kisses at random times of the day
-the helmet that earns him extra smiles from strangers and keeps his head protected
-how eager he is to learn and how proud he is to show what he knows
-that it feels like he's been part of our family forever!

He still wears the same size clothes, and I don't think he's actually gotten much bigger, but sometimes he looks taller or chubbier, and he may actually be at the 25 pound mark now. We love you little Jonas!

Guitar Crazy

Jonas is obsessed with guitars. Anytime he draws something, such as with chalk on the sidewalk or with markers on a library craft project, he declares that it's a "guitar" (though of course it's just a bunch of scribbles!). When music comes on somewhere, he sometimes yells "guitar," and he's usually correct!

In Orlando, as I was putting sunscreen on his leg, Jonas wanted some on his hand. When he saw the design that came out, he yelled "guitar!" I had to laugh and take a picture, because it actually kind of does look like one!

There were some games by the pool at our hotel, including this giant Connect 4 set. Jonas took out the bottom bar and turned it into, what else, a guitar!

I blame Zack. Jonas wants to be just like him, and so of course he loves guitars! He's kind of taken over Zack's ukulele as his own child-sized guitar. I guess his plastic green toy one just isn't realistic enough. Let's just hope this obsession doesn't mean we have to add even more guitars to the music room collection in years to come. (Just kidding-there are worse things he could collect!)