In blogger world I think people always wonder what the right ending point is for one blog and when it might be time for a new blog.  As my title here indicates, I have decided that it is time to move on from MSN spaces.  You see, one thing that I have not blogged about has been my new love--the perfect Christmas gift from my husband. Yes, it is my new ipod touch.  One thing I found out very quickly is that for some reason msn and the touch do not play nicely with one another (go figure).  E-mail was almost impossible to read and posting to the blog, well that really was impossible.  So me and my touch have decided that its time to dive into google. 

You will now find Wilson World exclusively on blogger.  You can visit us at http://ourwilsonworld.blogspot.com/

I'm sorry to ask you to update your feed readers and favorites, but I think it will be best for all of us.  The touch will be very happy (and that makes me happy). And, there will no longer be any excuses for not commenting on the blog as blogger is very friendly to all of you in blogger world.

It also feels like I have found a nice ending place for for this blog as we reviewed a very challenging 2008 and now it is time for a great 2009.

See you all at blogger!

What an eventful year! We experienced both trials and blessings in 2008.  Take a little stroll with me through the year. . .

January

Following the adoption paper trail, waiting, Tori saw her first movie -- Alvin and the Chipmunks

February

More waiting, Nicolas 3rd birthday (in Russia), and snow angels

March

Annual Cherry Blossom Festival, Tori's 5th birthday (just look at that chocolate cake!)

April

The trip of a lifetime, court day, more waiting, making new friends, Gotcha Day -- Nicolas has joined Wilson World!

May

Becoming an American Citizen, Meeting new cousins, adjusting to life

June

The month of Tori -- dance recital and pre-K graduation. Meeting the Connors!

July

Summer FUN -- need I saw more?  Theme parks, swimming and lovin' life

August

Happy 16th Anniversary, Girls day out in NYC, Becoming a Terrapin, Wendy's ## b-day

September

First day of school!

October

Wendy proposes her dissertation (yeah!), Slade spends a few days in the hospital, Bat family, Slade wins the talent award (we're still not sure what the talent was?), Slade turns ##

November

Could life be any more busy? playing in the leaves, NC for Thanksgiving

December

Nicolas' first Christmas, winning the Christmas decoration award, Wendy's trip to the hospital, Santa arrives!

I know that we will not experience another year quite like this again.  Slade and I really learned who was in control of our lives -- and it is not us! What a great and yet terribly stressful journey in Russia.  I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend a significant portion of the summer at home with the kiddos having fun.  I am so excited about my new position at the University and the experience it brings.

In 2009, I think Wilson World could use a few less major changes to our lives.  I hope we can steer clear of hospitals all together! And I am so very glad that Slade has vacation time again -- I hope he gets to use it for a little R&R this year. I cannot wait to finish this degree and become Dr Wilson (Lord willing!) and the celebration to follow!

Wishing you the very best in 2009!

Can you believe that I had such a long hiatus from blogging during the holiday season?  Well, it is for good reason.  I haven't really been on the computer much these past two weeks.  You see, two weeks ago today, I was in the kitchen completing all my holiday baking including a few batches of peanut brittle.  That is when my holiday drama began.  Note to self -- peanut brittle gets very, VERY hot.  In an attempt to save a bowl from spilling, my hand caught the very hot candy. This resulted in a very exciting ambulance ride to John's Hopkins hospital and a few days in the burn unit.  My life is so exciting!  So, my hand is now healing fine, bit it has kept me off the computer.

Slade has also decided that peanut brittle is off the holiday baking list.  And, my hopes of morphing into Suzie homemaker have all but disappeared.  Each time a nurse asked me highest level of education, I was so embarrassed -- yes I almost have a doctorate and yet, I'm not quite bright enough to NOT catch boiling hot peanut brittle with my hand.  For this reason, and the fact that I have been terrible with the weekly updates, I think I will be leaving my blog feature "recipe for success" in 2008.  I hope you have enjoyed it, and I will try to think of something as equally fantastic for 2009!

We met Nicolas for the first time.  I cannot believe how time flies.  It is surreal to think that last year at this time I was in Abakan Russia.  I can only remember being tired, anxious and overwhelmed by the whole experience.  I was there to meet my son!  Wow, what a Christmas wish.  Now,  he is getting to experience his first Christmas at home.  Here's a little stroll down memory lane with a few pictures from trip #1 that only family has seen until now. .. .

Then

Now

Look what Slade has been up to at work!

It has just dawned on me that I have yet to post about Nicolas most recent visit to Kennedy Krieger for his developmental update.  In addition,  we have now met with Dr. Glennen at Towson University (she is the speech and language pathologist who studies language development in adopted children) again, so I have even more developmental news.

Our meeting with Dr. Davoli occurred at the end of October, and I think Nicolas is progressing very well. As I mentioned before, he is talking in 3-4 word sentences now.  Mostly -- "I want" or something in relation to going bye-bye -- the boy loves to take rides in the car.  He has stared playing independently and will play for hours on the floor with his cars.  In terms of cognitive development,  she rated Nicolas at about 61%.  This again is another improvement.  He gained 3 percentage points from where he was in July (58%).  She had mentioned that as long as Nicolas kept growing 2-3 percentage points per visit that we probably had not reached his plateau.  I am encouraged by the development.  At this point, Dr. Davoli, who specializes in International adoption did not think we would see another large jump that some adopted children experience when they first come home.   I think we probably saw the largest jump in July.  In terms of his behavior though, we are certainly still seeing some behavior that we think is adoption/attachment related.  I suppose that it may take some time for this to really stabilize and it has only been six months.  Dr. Davoli wants to transition Nicolas out of the adoption clinic and into the Fragile X clinic at Hopkins.  I do hope that she can pull some strings because their assessment is that we would not be able to come into the clinic until the winter of 2010!

We met with the language study team at Towson last Friday.  Nicolas did really well for about the first 20-30 minutes.  Dr. Glennen noticed his difficulty with transitions, and I am noticing it more and more now myself.  Whenever an activity changes or he enters a new situation, it takes him at least 5 minutes to adjust.  This is often accompanied by crying and usually mild tantrums.  Again, Nicolas did very well.  This time, he would point to pictures and he would play with the items the therapist was using.  It did frustrate me when they got to colors.  Nicolas knows his basic colors (red, yellow, blue, green), but when she would ask him to point to the red bear,  he would point to whatever bear he wanted.  This was later in the testing, and I think he just gets testing fatigue.  He really only has the attention for 15-20 minutes, still.  Nicolas did have a breakdown at the end at which point he proceeded to hit and scratch me.  He even tried biting me but he was not getting the response that he wanted.  I finally ended up sitting him in a corner of the room with my back to him, and allowing him to scream it out.  I'm not sure that this was their preferred method, but Nicolas did calm down and he was ready to go at that point.  They did mention that he is doing much, much better than when we first came into the clinic in May (of course, Nicolas would barely even be tested at that point).  She gave me some preliminary findings which were great -- much higher than I even expected.  I cannot wait to get the written results.  I'll be sure to give you an update when I do.  We will continue with the language study this spring.  I am actually really glad about this.  I was afraid that Nicolas would be disqualified from the study because of his diagnosis, but he will continue in it, completing one full year.

Wow-- well I think that just about catches us up for Nicolas.  In January we have another round of appointments,  first with the dentist, then a urologist and finally with the Dr. Kauffman in the Fragile X Clinic (a record review only). 

I have been checking the weather channel frequently because I am convinced that a tornado has struck my house and does not appear to be moving.  Unfortunately,  there are no reports or tornados in my area so I am left to believe that the holidays have the same effect as a major weather pattern.

We had a great time over the Thanksgiving holiday visiting Wade and Penny in North Carolina.  The driving wasn't bad because we decided to wait until Thanksgiving Day to leave our home and the trip home had us back before 1pm.  You'd think that that 1/2 day would have given me enough time to get our lives "back to normal" but I feel like the more I try, the harder it gets.

The Thanksgiving trip has also appeared to reek havoc on Nicolas and caused him a little anxiety.  I can always tell when we are having "potty" problems that life is in a little turmoil -- these are the times when Nicolas regains some of his control by deciding that he will no longer use the bathroom but is content with the pull-ups! Frustrating for Mom (and Dad).  He has also started throwing incredible temper tantrums again.  We have not seen the likes of these tantrums since Russia and our first weeks home.  It is during these fits that he will kick off his shoes pull off his socks and scream at the top of his lungs.  These fits can be started by, well anything really -- especially if he is not getting his way.  Now,  I must add that usually I either cannot change the situation or I really have no idea why he is having the fit and spend the next 10 minutes going through a sequence of events to figure out the problem.  For instance,  last night we had to see the doctor.  When we arrived in the exam room,  full out tantrum with the shoes and all.  He was not even consoled when the nurse gave him stickers.  I determined his fit was because the nurse would not share her thesascope -- the doctor did and life seemed to be fine. 

I also thought about the whole Thanksgiving trip from Nicolas' point of view.  We woke him up very early in the morning, put him in the car with many of his things.  We then took him to a strange place where the people there just loved and showered attention on him. And, it wasn't a month prior that these same people came to visit him at his home.  Now, when I think in these terms and knowing that Nicolas has only been with us about 6 months,  I think we may be experiencing a little attachment anxiety.  Really, the experience is not that  different from when Slade and I visited Nicolas in Russia and a few months later brought him back to the states.  Poor little guy.  It took Slade and I too long to figure this out but when we did we just kept telling him that we will never leave him (or he's stuck with us :)

Guess what -- no pictures -- I've really got to get with the program -- soon!

This week I went to conferences for both Tori and Nicoals  -- and boy did I learn a few things about my kids:

• Tori has decided that she will no longer be called Tori -- instead she wants to use her full name, Victoria.  It does have 4 syllables you know.  She will allow me to affectionately call her Tori Bell and Tori Badori, but for the most part -- Tori is out, Victoria is in.
• Nicolas on the other hand has learned his name - Nic.  Who knew?  His teacher told me that he will say his name -- I was in shock.  He will never say his name at home.  As soon as I got home, I tried it out and sure enough, he refers to himself as Nic.  Ok -- Nicolas out, Nic in.
• Ms. J, says that Victoria just cracks her up.  Her comment "you know, Victoria talks to me like she thinks she is an adult.  And some of the things that she tries to say are just amusing."  Ah, yes, that is my daughter a 16 year old caught in a 6 year old body!
• I asked Victoria what her teacher would say she does the best at school.  Her response -- everything, mom.  Well, sure enough, her teacher says she is doing just great in everything.
• Nic's teachers are impressed with his progress.  He is using 3 word sentences now much of the time.  When he stared in September, he only used one word, didn't yet use "yes" and was very shy with his speech.  He is really doing great in this area.  Here are some of his favorites:
• We go bye-bye?
• Where's the bus?
• Come, on Mom
• What is this?
• I want it?
• His teacher also informed me that I have a problem on my hand.  Oh no, now what?     It appears that my son really does take after his namesake -- he is a womanizer!  (I think my family knows what I mean)  He already has several "girlfriends" in his class that are on the lookout for him each day.  He has also learned that if he flashes his smile -- most women will do whatever he wants.

All in all -- some great teacher conferences.  Hope you have a great Thanksgiving.  I promise pictures on the next post.

I can tell that all you Washington, DC drivers followed the RULES this morning -- Thank You.

My commute -- 25 minutes!

Well,  that's the time it took me to get to work this morning! And, let me just say that I completely understand road rage at this point. 

I was so looking forward to today, too.  You see,  Tori's school is out this week for Thanksgiving which means that I only have one drop off at Kindercare.  No snacks to pack, no book bags to prepare -- it was just up and out the door.  I couldn't have asked for an easier morning with the kids.  I got both the kids situated at Kindercare and I was ready to hit the road before 7:30.  Since the schools are out this week,  I was prepared for an easy commute and I expected to be at work by 8am. 

That's certainly not how it happened.  First,  there was an accident on RT 50.  the traffic was backed up to my exit off of RT3 -- it was easily a 10-15 mile backup.  Once I passed this accident and was on the beltway -- historically known for terrible traffic,  I was zipping along.  I thought to myself -- something must be wrong with you can drive faster on the beltway than on 50.  I take my normal exit at Greenbelt Road, and surprise, surprise -- ANOTHER accident!  Is everyone just so excited for Thanksgiving?

So, for those of you who were with me in the traffic this morning,  I will leave you with a few of my RULES:

1. If you see a long line of traffic in the exit lane, do not drive another mile and then expect me to let you in the exit lane.  This is one of those times when you need to follow the leader.  Didn't you learn this in Kindergarten?
2. Do not follow the wrecker on the shoulder and then expect me to let you in -- Do you really think you are THAT important?
3. Do not look, gawk, or otherwise care about the accident on the side of the road -- Hey, weren't you the same car that just drove behind the wrecker because you were in such a hurry and now you are moving at a snail's pace to catch a peek?
4. When you are at an intersection and it is obviously backed up,  do not pull into the middle of the intersection and block traffic.  We will all get our turn, remember patience is a virtue!

Boy was that cathartic and much more productive than my throwing my coffee cup out the widow at you this morning!  Have a GREAT Manic Monday!