Roman in May 2006 on the left and in March 2007 on the right.

Anyways, things are great! Roman had his first visit to the National Zoo about a week ago. To the adults, it was kind of disapointing because there where not many animals out, but he and his cousin, Haylee seemed to really enjoy it. Roman continues to amaze me every single day with his grasp of the english language and with everything he does...he is getting so big and changing every day.
And, Roman is going to turn two years old...yep, that's right...TWO YEARS OLD in just 2 weeks. And, on April 30th, he will have been a U.S. Citizen and home with us for a whole year!! Are we having a party? You bet we are having a party!! It is going to be his birthday/gotcha day/coming to America party since they were all within days of each other!! I can't wait.

Grandma Joann & Papa Tack already gave Roman his present...his big boy bed!! And, what a COOL bed it is. A bed with tons of cool accessories to go along with it. He is so excited about it and loves to climb on it, but his crib is still in the room too and we are going to make the transition soon. We tried last night, but I kept hearing "boom boom boom" and when I went in, he wanted to be picked up. Then, he cried and did not want to go back to the bed. Alas, I was too tired to deal with it, so I put him in his crib. He is down for a nap right now in his crib too...I figure we will try converting to the bed in the next few days.

Now, you may ask "why are you switching him to a toddler bed?" He is not climbing out of the crib...in fact, he seems perfectly content to be in there. Here's the main reason...Mommy will be having surgery in late May and should be careful about hoisting the 32-lb kid in and out of the crib. Hence the conversion to the toddler bed. This way, we have almost 2 months for him to get used to it...and he won't freak out while Mommy is in the hospital and Daddy becomes his primary caregiver.

The next question you might ask is "what surgery are you having?" Actually, I am donating a kidney to my amazing Mother-in-Law (MIL). She had a kidney transplant many, many years ago and recently that kidney failed. She had surgery last week to take out her original kidneys that were giving her trouble and as long as her recovery goes well, she will be receiving my extra kidney on May 29th!! We went through lots of testing and amazingly enough, I am the "perfect donor". We will do one more blood test a week before the surgery to make sure that her blood doesnt reject my blood (the first test was great)...then, the surgery will be the next week.

I am so excited that I am able to do this for her. My MIL is one of the most amazing people I know. She has so much strength & courage...it is so inspiring. I can't wait for her to start feeling better and start enjoying her retirement. Her failing kidneys and health made her retire early...now hopefully soon she will be able to get out and have some fun with my FIL :) So, anyways, please be thinking about us as May 29th draws near...I will keep you posted on any delays.