Brogan at the beach
Bryson and Brogan
Happy 2nd Birthday Brogan

Yummy cake!

One Year!

It is so hard to believe that Brogan has been here a year already. It has been challenging at times, but he is an amazing little boy.
He has caught up on all of his delays, except for his speech. He started speech therapy this past week and the therapist said he has about a 6 month delay.
Brogan is very smart though, it is so evident in his actions and his receptive language.
We took him to the beach last month for the weekend and he did so well. Loved the sand and the water - it mesmerized him! He also slept well in the hotel room and I think that made me realize that he really now does feel secure and knows that we aren't going to leave him.
He is so big and REALLY strong. He loves to tackle Bryson (who is 3 years older than him) to the ground and sit on him. One bad thing about that is if he has one of his "terrible twos" tantrums, it is really hard for me to hold on to him to remove him from the situation.
Our poor cats are constantly trying to get away from him as he loves to tackle them too!
He and Bryson get along pretty well. Bryson sometimes (rightfully so) gets upset when Brogan just crashes right into whatever he is doing - just your usual sibling rivalry stuff.
Brogan loves music and to dance. He also loves to be outside and some of his favorite things are the sandbox, swinging and water - and of course giving raspberry kisses. Lately he loves to play with matchbox cars and Thomas the Train toys.
We have still kept in touch with the Canadian family that were in Aktau with us - in fact Rayn will turn two on May 5th. They may come for a visit in the fall.
We have also kept in touch via email with our translator. She is no longer working for the agency, but for her sister in the market in Almaty and working more on her foreign languages.
I hope one day we can take Brogan back there once he is old enough to understand everything.
We have found a handful of local families who have adopted from Kazakhstan over the last few years and have had two get-togethers. One little girl is Brogan's age and that will be nice to see them periodically especially as the kids get older.
We are busy and tired, but happy! Also very proud of our two boys.