Misc. kid stuff plus measurments

August 1, 2004 Sunday

It felt good to sleep in. The roosters outside woke us up, but it felt good not to HAVE to get up. I had showered last night (my first hot shower since we were in Kiev). (John was much better at figuring out the water-heater than I was.)

We had bread and cheese for breakfast (mmmmm good!) and “multivitamin” juice. (Mixed fruit). Great stuff, no preservatives in any of their juices or other foods. Everything is all natural.

Our visit with the children went really well again. They were all excited to see us but Aleksa didn’t want to come to Papa right away. She bee-lined straight to me though. We gave hem bananas for their snack again and they gobbled them down. Aleksa seems to always finish her snack LONG before the other two do. She pretty much inhales it all. Misha/Adam had fun with the camera and we took several pictures of the other boys in his groupa. (Plus a few of a little boy named Maxim who always makes his way over to us.) Adam loves John’s pocket pc to. He’s a great kid.

It took a little bit to warm Liana up today, but once “warm” she was hot! She spent most of the time with us being held by one or the other of us.

We measured them all per Grandma’s Orders and they were so tickled at the thought of new clothes on the way. Adam asked to be measured up first. He was the happiest about the clothes. He and Aleksa have worn the same clothes every day since the second day we saw them. Liana had on a pretty pink dress yesterday, but only after we first got there. She had been running around in panties inside. Today she was back in the shorts, no shirt, and goofy blue hat that she hates, and is happy that we let her take it off. Misha-Adam likes green he said, but he also said he likes red, brown and yellow. Any color, he said. Here are his measurements:

Waist: 21 ½”
Chest: 24 ½ “
Waist to floor: 31 ¾”
Back of neck to waist: 13 ½”
Shorts length: 15-16”
Hips: 24”
Shoulder to shoulder: 15”

Liana told us that she loves red and pink and bright colors. Here are her measurements:

Waist: 21”
Chest: 21”
Waist to floor: 25”
Shorts length: 11-12”
Back of neck to waist: 12”
Hips: 22”
Shoulder to shoulder: 12 ½”

Aleksa said she wanted a yellow dress but when we asked her what other colors she liked she said she liked them all. Here are her measurements:

Waist: 20 ½-21”
Chest: 21 ½”
Waist to floor: 21”
Shorts length: 9-10”
Hips: 22”
Back of neck to waist: 10 ½-11”
Shoulder to shoulder: 12”

Aleksa let me wash her neck today. She’s had the same dirt on the crease of her neck since the day we got here (Thursday). She wouldn’t let me wash it yesterday, but she did today. I also put a bandaid on her mosquito bite. She liked that. I gave one to Adam’s skinned leg too. I only had two, so I had to bring Liana’s later when we came. She liked that I didn’t forget.

The kids are terribly shy about saying/repeating anything in English. If they weren’t around their siblings/peers maybe we could get them to say more. I bribed Adam to say, “two balloons please, Mama.” He said it with an accent, but he said it! (Of course, Mama wasn’t about to give it to him until he said it, so he figured it out pretty fast!) They usually just smile and act shy like we’re asking the world of them and *maybe* they could say it but they don’t want to try something so strange! Vika had a migraine tonight, so our evening visit was the first solo flight. We did great, though when we got out of the taxi, Adam met us at the gate (he’d been watching for us), and when we came into the grounds, he still stood there expecting Vika to come out of the car too. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized it was “just us” tonight. We really did fine though. I was sooooooo thankful for having bothered learning as many phrases as I did before we got here. The kids speak a smattering of Russian and Ukrainian, but Vika has been speaking only Russian to them and they have understood her completely.

Liana was really clingy to us once she got over her initial shyness. She had to be held by one of us at all times. I was glad to know how to say “Mama’s tired” so I could put her down without her wondering why. She gave John a kiss on the cheek today for the first time and John was pretty giddy about that. She definitely is a Papa’s girl. Tonight she let me rock her like a baby and I sang to her. She held my eye contact for a little while, but only when it was her idea. She didn’t like me initiating touching her back at all at first today, but, later, an American couple from Dallas came over to see how we were doing, and while we were talking, Liana stood there stroking my hair and back. I was thrilled. I’m most concerned about her than any of the others as far as attachment, though it is Super early to know that for sure, and she has made great strides even in these few days together. She’s much better when there isn’t a lot of other “excitement” going on around her. (As in other children being rowdy). She’s easily overstimulated.

Aleksa let me put her on my back for a ride, and Liana let John do the same. I held Aleksa for a long time and she finally asked me why I wasn’t getting tired. I took that as my permission to put her down. She is very articulate for her age. She knows her colors, shapes, etc. She can name anything in her colorbook that we point out to her. (Of course, we have to ask Vika if she is saying the right things, but she has, I guess!) She told us there was a line of triangles on the crayon box, which there were. She also told us the cat (they wander everywhere) walked like a dog (which it did!) She told us the cat was licking its paws, etc. She is quite the chatterbox, and she has done more talking to us than either of the other two have all put together. It’s gonna be rough on her to not be able to make herself easily understood once we get home. She has lots to say. Good thing she’ll have her brother and sister to talk to! Aleksa said “bird” for John and “book” for me today. She loves the Ukrainian phrasebook, even though it doesn’t have pictures. She carries it around with her, or pretends to read it by herself.

John and I had some Zone bars for lunch and some delicious banana juice. (Our new favorite juice in the whole world. Those who are traveling soon need to try it, and also the peach juice, which is awesome.)

After lunch, we took a walk down the street. I wanted to sneak some pics of peoples’ yards full of flowers. We noticed that the man-hole in the middle of the street has no cover. Children play out here all the time. There are broken bottles everywhere. But the plants and flowers that people have are beautiful.

The taxi driver said “choot-choot” a few times while talking to Vika. I knew a sentence from my “Russian for Adoptive Parents” tape that used it, but I wanted to know for sure what it meant. It means “a little bit.” So! When the taxi driver picked us up from the orphanage tonight (we were alone, remember), she said, “Ni hooligan?” (Our only phrase we say to each other practically.) To which I answered, “choot-choot” and she thought that was a riot. She’s my kind of people. (“Ni hooligan,” remember, means “behave yourself”)

Don’t know if I mentioned it, but yesterday Vika sang “Ladrushki, ladrushki” for my camera. (It’s like a “Patty-cake” song.) They were just talking about that song in our adoption group a few months back, so I was tickled to hear it, and to catch it on video with a translation.

Tomorrow we have a busy day of running around. We leave the hotel at 8:15. This region is a good one for quick adoptions, I’m told, so hopefully it will continue to go smoothly. The other couple we were talking to said they’ve had a few snags since their two kids have two half-siblings in a different region, so they’ve had to deal with three different regions: This one, the children’s birth region, and the region where the half-siblings are. (They had to get permission either from the half-siblings, or from some officials in their region to be able to split the sibling group. Sticky situation.) They seemed a bit appalled that we changed the kids’ names, but I’m sure they won’t be the first. Their kids are Tatiana (Tanya) and Andrei (Andy) so, their kids won’t be too bothered at school. Misha, Valya and Zena would stick out like sore thumbs or be punched out in no time flat. Our Warrior Princess would give them a run for their money though. The name definitely suites her personality in many ways! ;O) We wanted to keep the flavor of their birth country, but we didn’t want it to be terribly obvious that they weren’t “from” the U.S. Plus, if they ever go back to UA, they can use either of their names, since Adam is also used here in UA as a name, and Liana and Aleksandra are obviously Russian though all three of them “sound” like normal American names.

Enough babbling.

Da zaftra! (Until tomorrow!)

Love,

John, Shelly, Adam, Liana, and Aleksa

Eating bananas
Aleksa on the run!