So many many things...

When I haven't posted for awhile, I'm always overwhelmed with the amount of things I want to tell you which inevitably means I don't post. ;) It's a vicious cycle.

This past week has been really rough. The boys have been tired. And even though I'm doing my best to get them in bed earlier, it's hard to fit everything in between getting home from school at 3:45 and going to bed at 6:45 (the goal). With dinner, homework, and baths...well, it's just hard. It's hard to balance having the boys experience new and fun things and knowing how much they need to rest and destimulate (I am positive that's not a word) over the weekend.

This summer, the boys got to see fireworks but only from the car as we were driving back to our hotel after a wedding reception in Cincinnati. It was a great experience, because they got to see fireworks but it wasn't overwhelming since they couldn't hear all of the noise and we weren't surrounded by people. But they really sort of missed out on the fireworks experience, you know? Last weekend was the annual Forest Park Balloon Race here in St Louis. It is an experience not to be missed, and we really wanted to take the boys. The balloon race is on Saturday, but the night before they have the Balloon Glow where they fill up all of the balloons at night. It's really pretty and an amazing sight. However, the Balloon Glow doesn't even start until 7pm, and then there was a fireworks show at 9pm. Mark prepped the boys on Friday morning that they would be coming home from school and resting so we could see fireworks that evening (we didn't think they'd understand the balloon part at that point). When we got home from school, we had a quick snack and then I sent them to bed and they slept for 2 hours. Yes, they're that tired when they get home from school. We planned on picking up hot dogs at the park (note to self: $5 per hot dog is a bit extreme--next time eat before we go!) so as soon as Mark got home we headed to the park.

It was already dusk by the time we got to the park, and all of the balloons were filled. The great thing with this race is that for the Balloon Glow you get to walk through and see all of the balloons up close--Zhenya even got to sit in a balloon basket! They liked all of the different colors and Dima loved reading the letters off of all of the balloons. Around 8:30pm, they started deflating the balloons and putting them away, so we found a spot on the balloon field and sat down. The fireworks were perfect for the boys' first fireworks show. They were big enough to be really cool, but not so large and loud as to be overwhelming.

The best part of the evening for me: Dima was sitting in my lap for the fireworks show, and he was completely relaxed. If you remember, when we first got home (and for a few months afterwards) we had a lot of problems with Dima stressing out over anything new. Completely understandable, but it's so amazing to see where he's at now. He leaned back against me and just watched the fireworks and laughed and smiled--so relaxed and comfortable to be out somewhere, doing something completely new, with his mama and papa and brother. I love to see that trust develop--he knows we are not going to take him anywhere that will hurt him, and that we are not going to take him anywhere and leave him (which is really probably the bigger issue for him).