Broken Nose?

Well, there's sure never a dull moment at the Fishers' house these days! It looks like our Liana might have broken her nose. Maybe, maybe not. John and the kids were at the park this evening, and while they were getting rides in the wagon, it tipped over during a sharp turn, and Liana wound up on her face on the pavement. Instant bloody nose, and instantly puffed-up and swollen. At bedtime it was pretty black and blue already, and quite tender. She did blow her nose without screaming, so who knows if it is actually broken.

We called a nurse-hotline and were told not to bring her in (since she didn't have trouble breathing, and wasn't crying anymore, etc.), but to watch her closely in the next few days, and if it starts looking worse, if she starts acting not herself, throws up, etc. then we should take her in immediately. Apparently you can tell after five days just by looking at it if it is broken, and if we think so, we should definitely take her in. I don't quite get why the long wait, but they said that they said that if there needs to be surgery that the doctor can see better what is going on in there after that long. *Shrugs.* It wouldn't surprise me at all if it is broken. In fact, my gut says this is the second time her nose has been broken. Her nose just seems a bit wide at the bridge, but of course that could be genetics. But, if it was broken before, it would be easier to break now. Either way, MY POOR LITTLE GIRL HAS AN OWIE!!!!!

She was very concerned about having to go to church tomorrow. We assured her that there wasn't any church tomorrow, so she wasn't going. She said that everyone would laugh at her. (She sure didn't like the looks of her nose after she saw how swollen and bruised it was). Guess that means running my errands tomorrow is out. Poor little kid. I layed with her until she fell asleep tonight, and I couldn't help but cry just a little. She was extra clingy and vulnerable. I feel soooo bad for her! I love those kids so much it just makes my heart hurt. I cry just thinking about how much I love them. Just doesn't seem possible to love them so much!

Speaking of crying, Aleksa cried as much as Liana did all the way home. It scared her reallllly bad, and the poor girl was left to herself until we could get the bleeding to stop on Liana's nose, and to "assess the damage" and calm Liana down. Aleksa shut herself in the bathroom and cried. We scooped her up and sat her next to me, and then had her hold Liana's head on her lap. That made her feel a little better, and once Aleksa quit crying, she gave Liana a big "I'm-so-sorry-you-got-hurt-but-please-don't-do-that-again-'cause-it-freaked-me-out" hug.

Lets see... what else happened today. School stuff went well again. After a few hours, Adam sort of glazes over though. We have to take a break or he just can't get anything new to soak in. Today we worked on learning more body parts, and finished up learning the shapes. I led them all over the house looking for shapes. Ovals, rectangles, triangles, circles, etc. are all over the place if you just keep your eyes peeled! (Our toilet bowl, btw, is oval-shaped!)

I took the kids to see Dad today. When I told the kids where we were going Aleksa said "Grandpachka is a good grandpachka." (In Russian). It was so cute. As much as I love "Mamachka," I think "Grandpachka" is much cuter. The kids were really really really good at his house too. Might be because he happened to have the tv on, so they were glued to the tube for a few minutes.

Oh yeah, Aleksa is feeling better today - no fever, though she did throw up once. Can't figure that one out. She has her appetite back, and is her perky self, but she just had to upchuck. It was weird. I'm so thankful she and I didn't have it as bad as Adam did. He was out of the game for a long time!

Uff-da this is getting to be a long post. Too bad I keep thinking of things to add to this thing. I don't want to leave anything out though! You know how I am!

We were at Good Will today on a book run. (I just love spending a buck or less on good books!) At the check out, the lady asked me what language the kids were speaking, and when I told her it was Russian/Ukrainian, she started rattling off a few words that she knew. She said "Good morning," "thank-you," "please," etc. I asked her where she learned it and she said that a few years ago she bought a dog that was actually from Romania and only knew Russian commands. So, as a family, they learned some Russian so they could "talk to their dog." I thought that was hilarious! That's some kind of dedication! (And one SPOILED DOG!)

Way past my bedtime. Signing off...

Aleksa sick

The older kids were a million percent better behavior-wise today. Adam and Liana were extra snuggly and affectionate today and cooperated all over the place. We have some Really Awesome little kids. They just have "off days" like the rest of us I guess. No ink on the carpets, no paintings hung outside. No sippy-cups contaminated. It was a great day. Except!

Aleksa is not feeling well now. She had a fever of 102 before the tylenol/whatever-it-was kicked in. Poor little kid. She asked to take two naps today, and was pretty much a dishrag all day. I had both girls sleep in the same bed for one of the naps and I layed with them. It was so nice to have two sleeping little girls snuggle with me, (a little slice of heaven!), but it made for my nose to inevitably itch like crazy since I couldn't move my arms. I used poor Aleksa's head to scratch it once or twice. (Shhhh).

I took Adam and Liana to Patch Club tonight and left John with the little patient. I don't think he's ever been home alone with Aleksa yet, so this was a great chance for some quality time - even though she was sick. John said they read lots of books together.

Patch Club had "backwards night" tonight, so the kids had to wear all their clothes backwards. That was a toughie to explain to them; they thought I had lost my mind. (I'm sure they were relieved to see everyone else wearing their clothes backwards too!) I didn't get a chance to talk much to the leaders, but they said they did "fine." Hopefully they would have told me otherwise! It is so hard to find out from the kids what went on, but we picked out a few words like "chocolate" (for the treat), and "outside" for the game. Who knows what all happened! When I came down to get them, another boy was helping Adam write some answers in his Patch book. Nice that he took him under his wing a bit; (wasn't surprised, the other boy is a great kid!) Liana was wearing a fancy necklace that apparently another girl had given her. SHE LOVED it! I'm sure we'll have a hard time getting it off of her!

When we came home tonight, I took note of the backseat. I almost couldn't believe my eyes. We have two carseats back there! Such a beautiful sight. I just can't believe we have little kids!!!!! :O) :O) :O)

Adam and Liana have wanted to stand out on the lawn every night this week waiting for John to come home from work. Liana has also been waking herself up extra early so she can say goodbye to John in the mornings before he goes to work. Hopefully he'll STAY at work from now on, but there hasn't been any news of a lift on the rotating lay-off.

I'm missing going over to my Dad's. With everyone being sick, John needing to take the car to work, etc., I haven't had much of an opportunity to get over to Dad's recently. I feel awful about that. Dad, I miss you! I guess our blessing of having all these kids has the negative of not being as free and loose anymore. I hope you're ok, and I hope you know how much I love you and that I wish I could be in more than one place at once to help you out some more. I'll try to get over there soon to mop that floor. (((hugs))) The kids have begged more than once this week to go see Grandpa. I got your note, btw! Thank you! xox

Ok, now that I'm all emotional and bawling my head off, I need to put myself to sleep. Aleksa's tylenol should wear off at about 2:00a.m., so it is going to be a long night of checking on kids. Night!

Porchlight Painting

Adam has been a handful today. He and Liana got into a knock-down-drag-out fight this morning and when I made him kiss his sister and say he was sorry, he bit her cheek instead. Couple of those kinds of things today.

This afternoon I happened to point out one of the small oil paintings that we picked up in Ukraine to Adam. He was very proud of it since it was of Ukraine, etc. This evening Liana let me know that earlier Adam had hung that painting OUTSIDE on the porchlight. (I've been letting the kids play outside in the yard without me there a few times recently.) Anyway, I suppose he thought that porchlight would be a place of honor, but it freaked me out. (What ELSE is out there???) He also put our ladybug project outside too. He definitely keeps me on my toes!

Sorry this is so short. I'm exhausted!

Art Projects

I woke up not feeling the greatest yet, but I still made the kids some eggs for breakfast. Big mistake. I hate eggs anyway, but when I'm sick, well, GROSS. I got to my last bite and then had to drop my fork and make a mad dash to the bathroom. The kids' eyes really bugged out when I started gagging. I feel ok now though, and I'm sure I'll be completely better tomorrow.

All three kids were extra good this morning while we were "doing school," so I broke out an art project to do today too. We made 3D ladybugs out of construction paper and then made a mobile out of them and hung it in the kitchen. It's just too cute. Even Aleksa made one, though she had more fun dumping the glue all over herself. Actually, all the kids loved using their art supplies. Afterwards, Adam was still experimenting with the paper punch and was punching holes in a piece of junk mail. I didn't think much of it until Liana told me that Adam had punched a hole in his shirt too. *sigh*

"I Mama was talking!"

After church was over, John called me from the cellphone to see how I was doing. He put each of the kids on the phone and I quickly realized I'd never heard my kids' voices on the phone before. I cried!!! They're sooo sweet! They chatted on about this and that and the little I understood, I responded to. It's so wild that we have regular conversations all the time in two languages. John and I speak English and they speak Ukrainian, and yet we usually understand each other perfectly well. (They understand us a lot better than we understand them!)

John told me that after they got off the phone with me, Liana ran over to Babushka and said, "I Mama was talking!" Can you believe it!? ENGLISH!! A SENTENCE!!! And one she had to construct herself instead of relying on ones she's heard over and over like, "shut the door please!" *Proud Mama here* :O)

Still not feeling well. I threw up again this afternoon and I have a doozie of a headache. John goes back to work tomorrow, so hopefully I can sleep it off, whatever it is.

Lonely

Looks like I might have the bug Adam just got over. I woke up feeling really yucky today. I got the girls bathed and dressed, and then decided to go toss my cookies. So, poor John is taking the kids to church by himself today. I'm sure they'll be fine, but he was a wee bit nervous about it I think!

This is the longest I've been alone in the house since before we left for Ukraine. I don't like it. The house is sooo quiet. Reminds me way too much of how quiet the house used to be and how very, very alone I was in it while John was away at work. (Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for my hubby, but he didn't make quite as much racket as the kids tend to do!) I wish they'd hurry up and come home. I want to break up some fights in the livingroom or something.

(btw, I added another picture to the post below in case you missed it.)

First Visit to Grandma's House!

Today was sure a great day!

Adam found some battery-operated-I-don't-know-what's-it while playing outside. He said it was in the street, but who knows. (*gulp*) Anyway, it had wires and a flower with a light inside that lit up. He stripped the flower off and had a ball playing with the batteries, wire and light all afternoon. We'll have to rig up some cool science experiments with him in the weeks ahead. John's wheels are already turning.

Tonight we took the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the first time since they've been home. We stayed a whopping 3 1/2 hours and they did really, really well. They got to go play at the park midway through the visit, and they got their all-time favorites to eat for supper; pizza and ice cream! Aleksa got sidetracked and had a little tinkle accident on Grandma's carpet outside the bathroom, but she sure tried hard to make it in time (I saw the dance she did trying to hold it in. I had to giggle to myself about how cute it looked... Sorry Aleksa!) Good thing Grandma had some extra clothes for her... and some carpet cleaner! (She must have stocked up on that stuff knowing we were coming!)

Speaking of clothes, I got to look through the patterns that Mom Fisher had for little girls. Talk about FUN. The girls are at the stage where if you want to dress them alike in frilly foo-foo pink, etc., we'd better do it NOW while we can still get away with it. I've been daydreaming of trying to sew some matching dresses for them myself, so I was able to borrow a really cute pattern that looks relatively simple (yeah right). We'll see how it goes, but I really hope they turn out. I just can't believe we came home with two girls! How FUN is THAT?! I feel like I've hit the lottery or something!

I forgot to mention that last night when I tucked the kids in, Liana told me I was a "big princess" and she was a "little princess." What a smart girl she is! (That's my kid!) Then I called her "Princess Liana Valentina" and she loved it. She asked me what my name was and I told her it was Shelly. She said, "Princess Shelly" (though she can't really say my name right), and she decided that was not really a good name for a princess and let me know that she didn't like my name. I told her I didn't blame her because I haven't ever much liked it either. So, she thought up some new names for me. She listed off some that she liked. She liked Victoria, Tanya or Marina, but she decided on Marina for me. Okie dokie! So, tonight when I tucked her in, she called me Princess Marina. Alrighty then!

Speaking of princesses, (Ok, this is a stretch since this isn't really about princesses, but it is about dressing up fancy), Mom Fisher gave me a wrap skirt that she had been given in a box of fabric or somewhere, and when we got home, I put it on over the top of my clothes. It was way too small, but then I took it off and wrapped it over my head like a middle-eastern dress to show the girls what they could do with it themselves. The girls had a blast playing dress up with it for a little while before bedtime tonight. I'm definitely going to have take the advice to go to Good Will to buy up some of their gaudy clothes for the kids to play in. They LOVE that stuff.

I got to thinking today of how close we came at one point during our adoption process of veering away from Ukraine altogether. The process had gotten more difficult just as we were trying to make the decision of what country to adopt from, (as it has again, unfortunately). I had mentioned this to another friend who had adopted from Ukraine, and she said, "Shelly, yes, Ukraine is getting more and more difficult, but if you feel like God is leading you there, then just trust Him to take care of the details." (THANK YOU JULIE!!!) Those weren't her exact words, but I hadn't thought of it that way before, and ever since then, I KNEW we were going to Ukraine. I'm sooo thankful we didn't chicken out. I know there are lots of readers out there who are still in the preparing-to-adopt process. Please don't lose heart with all the negatives floating around. If you know your kids are in Ukraine, then put on that mother-bear mentality and go fight your way to get them. Walk through the fires, man your battle stations, do whatever, but GO GET YOUR KIDS. Sweet little children like these are out there, and they need you very, very much...

Children from the orphanage (Btw, these are three of the children whose shoes I posted a picture of while we were in Ukraine.)

Adam's Groupa

Free Ice cream and Clutter Stress

Mama ustala. (Mama's tired.)

John took the car in for an oil change and took Adam with him today. The "guy" there struck up a conversation with him and Adam and John explained that Adam was just learning English, etc., and what the situation was. The guy treated them to free ice cream cones in the adjoining convenience store, and then John bought extra cones to bring to "us girls." They aren't used to a lot of sugar, so I'm sure these helped contribute to the kid's "high-energy" levels today. It was sure nice of him though! You don't see that kind of treatment around very often! Pretty cool.

I keep forgetting to mention that at the One Month anniversary home I put the girls' clothes back into their rooms. They've handled it just fine, and it is a relief to not have to be so in control of what they wear. They don't tantrum about their clothes as they did when they first came home, and they aren't changing their clothes a half-dozen times a day anymore either. They must be settling in!

The toys are still in the kitchen, though, except for some "quiet toys" like the girls' dolls and Adam's legos, books, etc. It is a blessing to have the toys out of their rooms from the clutter perspective too. The more cluttered their rooms, the more wound up they get. Same goes for the rest of the house, so I have to keep on my toes. Mess=stress to them, so I try to keep it neat, but with three kids constantly needing attention, it doesn't always happen, so I'm thankful that at least their bedrooms stay nice. Also, the tv has stayed in our room now. They only get to watch one video maybe once a day or once every other day. I can't imagine the chaos of what it would be like if we gave them free reign over the remote. Scary.

The room that gets me the most frustrated though (aside from our own!), is the kids' bathroom. In order to keep that room clean I have to scrub it down at least twice a day or it starts to stink. (And I only have ONE boy!) I've gotten great advice from our "Older Kids" adoption group, but it still makes me crazy to have to clean the bathroom that often. I had been letting the kids clean it (they LOVE to clean the bathroom), but they were having way too much fun squirting the squirt-bottle, so I had to start doing it myself. The best advice I got was from someone who mentioned the obvious to me: Squirt the bathroom down myself and then hand a kid a washrag. Duh. Another "no duh" suggestion I've gotten was when I mentioned that our kids were putting their used tp in the wastepaper basket. Answer? "Just take the wastepaper basket out of the bathroom for a few weeks." Oh. Yeah. Duh, Shelly.

Anyway, off to bed. I'm exhausted. Sorry if this post has seemed like rambling babbles. I suppose they ALL are babbling though, so nevermind. ;O)

Failures, Progress and Transformations

Lots of testing again today from Adam. This morning I told him to get dressed three times, then he decided to only put on pants. So, I sent him back into his room and the next time I checked he was wearing his pajamas. Sent him back again and he was in his church clothes. (Yes, he did know that he wasn't supposed to). Then I sent him in to have John deal with him because I was getting Way Too Upset with the child and to deal with him myself. (I think I sounded something like this... "John, your son is going to be killed unless you get out of the shower and handle this one.") John worked his Papa Magic with him and Adam came out of Papa's room very remorseful and told me he was sorry and gave me a big hug. *whew*. Bad parenting on my part in that situation. I shouldn't have let him get to have soooo many chances. That just makes for a more and more and more and more upset Mama when he doesn't do what he's told. Game should have been over when Chance One didn't pan out. Mama is still getting the hang of this stuff.

The older kids are doing great at sitting at the table and doing their schoolwork. When they first came home getting them to sit still at the table was a next-to-impossible feat, and getting them to actually do school-type work was like pulling teeth. They seem to enjoy it now, but I'm a lot more relaxed about it and they are a lot more relaxed about US. Plus, I'm trying to make it seem more like an impromptu "wouldn't-it-be-fun-if-we-did-THIS-right-now" type of a thing. The LeapPad has been a god-send. The phonics program we bought for it has helped them a LOT when we sit down with them "at the table" and work on it officially. They are already both noticing words that start with different letters, etc. (Some of the words are Ukrainian, but they are getting the concept down. Like "dyeduska" they knew, started with a "D." Sounds right to me!

Also, midway through breakfast this morning they were all three having a hard time eating all their eggs (who could blame them! Yucky!), so we played a game of "I'm thinking of things that are the color ---." It seemed to make the last few bites a little less horrible, and it snuck in some more teaching time for colors and vocabulary for common "stuff." Other "snuck in" lessons come in when Adam gets to practice his counting at least six times a day when we do his leg stretches. We have to count to 30 twice, three times a day when we stretch his heel tendon, and he's getting really good at it. He even correctly said his "th's" today several times. (Usually thirteen and fourteen sound exactly alike when he says them.)

Tonight we all played hide and seek. It was soooo much fun, but Aleksa gets so excited that she simply MUST holler out where she is, or where anyone else is that she happens to know about. Her older brother got a little frustrated with her about that!

Aleksa is still doing really well bonding to me/us. She doesn't push my hands away when I stroke her back or hair, and even craves it now. (She would let me hold/carry her around while we were in Ukraine, but she hated to be "touched.") She looks me dead in the eye for longer stretches of time, and has more than once just today needed comfort only from Mama. She's come a long way in an amazingly short amount of time. She was the one I thought we would have the most trouble with once we got home. Her temper in UA was realllly bad. She's now a happy little girl who just loves to be tickled, held, play with her dollies, etc, and very rarely has had tantrums or any real disobedience issues. And she's smart as a whip. She's doing great at learning the alphabet and can count better than I expected so soon. She also loves to sing songs (English and Ukrainian) and is basically an all-around great kid. Not at all the warrior princess she *definitely* was in Ukraine.

Liana is a completely different person now too. I was looking through some more orphanage pics today and the Liana in the pics is NOT the Liana we have here at home right now. It is amazing to me what a transformation she's undergone. The scared, skinny, gaunt little girl at the orphanage now has quite a twinkle in her eye, a ready laugh and rosey cheeks. She's just beautiful. I'll have to post some pics from the orphanage that never got put up while we were in UA. Some aren't the most flattering, but you can see the transformation if you compare some of the current pics (Sept 13 post) with these.

Liana July 30
Liana August 4
Liana August 6

Talkin'

Adam is feeling much better today. His fever is gone and his appetite is back. He's still looking pretty gaunt, but I'm sure he'll get his rosey cheeks back by tomorrow.

We had a meeting with the ESL teacher at the elementary school today. She is going to have a meeting with the principal and another teacher tomorrow or the next day, so we'll see what kind of a plan we can work out. In the meantime she gave us some really nice resources.

Both Adam and Liana have speech impediments in Ukrainian, so it will be interesting to hear how they are going to sound in English. Liana can't say her "sh's" and her "r's" aren't rolled; they're like a "w" sound. The word for "OK/good" is "kharosho," but she says, "khawosso." So far she hasn't been able to say those sounds in English either, but hopefully we'll get that all taken care of. Adam also has troubles with his "r's." Sometimes if they are in the middle of a word, he'll say an "oy" or "w" sound instead of the "r." We're seeing that most obviously as we are teaching him his numbers. The number "four" turns into something like, "foy." Lots of work to do!

Today when I told Liana to put her socks on, she looked at me all frustrated and said, (in Ukrainian/Russian), "Mama, you called these 'put-your-socks-on!' These are SOCKS!" and then said something with an expression on her face that I presume meant something like, "Would you please make up your mind and quit trying to confuse me half-to-death?" Cracked me up.

John and I noticed that there has been a huge difference in their behavior even in just the last few days. We don't have to watch them quite so intensely lately. I even took a nap this afternoon without the baby monitor on, and nobody was killed, maimed, or damaged in any way. And the carpet is still a light grayish blue. In most places.

Liana found a pinecone today that she carried around with her for the rest of the day. She loves the smell of it, and was soooo excited when we explained that if you buried it, it might become a big tree. Time to hide all digging tools.

Food is no longer an issue at all for Adam (though the last few days haven't been the best time to judge that since he's been sick.) He routinely refuses certain foods, and doesn't insist on having seconds, thirds, etc. He eats everything on his plate 9 times out of 10, but doesn't get freaky about it anymore. We haven't found any hoarded food either. Nice to have that behind us for the most part. Now if only Liana and Aleksa would start to like milk... They're our 'juice' or 'water' girls.

Adam and Liana have shared quite a bit with us about their orphanage and pre-orphanage lives. I sooo wish I could understand more of what they were saying, but I want them to keep on talking about it to reinforce their memories. It sounds like they had some fun times along with some very bad ones. I video taped some of Adam's stories today. We really need to start burning all our pics and videos onto cd's. My sister lost her hard drive yesterday to a "Poof!" so I'm a little paranoid about computers now. I needed the wake up call.

I'm exhausted. Time for bed!

Mama Memories

Adam was a little dishrag again today. Fever, chills and nausea on and off all day. We had to take all the kids in for some shots, and thankfully he was able to do that without any trouble, but when we tried to stop at the grocery store this evening, he let us know that there was no way he would make it. John and the girls shopped while I sat in the car with Adam. He's got a great sense of humor. We silently watched as a lady pushed her shopping cart *really* hard into the "cart corral" and then the cart at the back started rolling out the other end. It kept right on rolling into the parking lot. Adam broke the silence with a "bye-bye."

That just reminded me of another little story that none of you will care to hear, but I want to jot down so I don't forget it. We were getting into the car the other day when an empty Mt. Dew can rolled end over end all the way down the street headed our direction. The kids wondered what it was, so we paused at the edge of the lawn to wait for it. The Mt. Dew can stopped dead in its tracks right at our feet, with none of us saying a word until Adam piped up, "Privyet!" ("hello!") as if it was a little puppy. (Ok, I told you you wouldn't care about that story. Had to be there, but I really want to have that little memory etched somewhere, and here's my spot for that!)

We had to exchange our Leap Pad thingie for the second time today. They keep breaking. Not sure if it is our kids, or the toy, but this is the third one in just a few weeks! We love it, so we don't want to be without it, but it is getting embarrassing to walk into Walmart these days!

Speaking of breaking things, I was checking in on a website of a family in our adoption group today and noticed that they have a separate section called the "Destruction Calendar." You click on the individual days and you get to see what the kids broke that day. It cracked me up! I can SOOO relate to that! (And I might just have to start paying more attention to what things our kids are breaking!) Here's the link if you're interested. They celebrated their "two months home" the day after we celebrated our "one month."

The kids' English is coming along sooo well! More and more words are being replaced all the time, and their comprehension is really expanding to things outside of what is right there in front of us. Like while I was doing laundry today, I told Liana that I wanted her to bring me her blankets and sheets and without any hesitation, she went and got me just what I asked for. I was really surprised, since her blankets and sheets weren't right there to point at and then talk about. Can't remember if I've mentioned it or not, but the kids can say their ABC's for the most part. They need a little coaching right around the letter H, but after that they're home free. Except for Liana; she can cruise through the alphabet and then say the whole rest of the song too. The other two come awful close, but not as clearly and consistantly as Liana. One day they can all do it, the next day they stumble. So, they don't have it down pat yet!

Speaking of songs... (boy, and I thought I had nothing to write about tonight!), tonight as I was tucking in the girls, Liana asked me to sing the song about the "sky." I thought a minute and then remembered that "Twinkle, Twinkle" has that word in it, so I started singing it and both girls heartily started singing it soooo sweetly. They didn't get the words right at all, but it brought me back to somerthing that one of the people in our adoption group had written a while back when he heard his son sing that song in bed, and how thankful he was to have adopted an older child and what an amazing experience it was. I couldn't agree more. All these wonderful "firsts" we're experiencing are so precious to me, and to get to hear their reactions to their new world is amazing. Like when Liana held her first gooey marshmallow at the cook-out a few weeks ago and said it was like boogers. How hilarious, and how cool to get to be the one to introduce such "wondrous things" as marshmallow snot! (Hope none of you are eating while you're reading this!) ;O) I look at my kids now and think, "Yikes, I was soooo against adopting for so long, (it took me a few years before I could even SAY the word 'adopt' without bursting into tears), but if things would have worked out and I would have gotten pregnant, I would never, ever, ever have had these amazing, smart, hilarious, and completely adorable little kids." Good thing God is such a great family planner! We couldn't have ever had three kids that we could love any more. We're very, very blessed.

Messes!

I already mentioned in my last post that Adam was sick. He threw up this afternoon before supper. All down the hall, on the wall, etc. I've never used my carpet shampooer so often as these last few days! I used it earlier this morning when, after staying out of the livingroom/kitchen for more than five minutes because I was talking to John about his lay-off, one of the kids got out a popsicle, and then as they ate it (in the livingroom, which is off-limits for food), it melted allllll over the carpet. (Of course, no one was willing to fess up, but Aleksa had a very red and sticky face.) It wasn't a regular popsicle either.. It was one of those fruit-types that are bright, bright red. Don't worry; everyone is still alive and well at the Fisher house. ;O)

After the girls got up from their naps, Aleksa didn't make it to the toilet in time, so I got to clean up that mess too. Three ucky messes in one day. That's a record for our house. Maybe we'll call Month 2 the "Month of the Carpet Shampooing." We'll see! (I hope this is the end of it for a while. At least 'til we go shopping next... we're running out of shampoo!)

I noticed today that the kids are almost always calling each other by their new names now. In fact, Aleksa slipped once today and called Adam "Misha," and Adam informed her that he wasn't Misha anymore. He's the most proud of being Ukrainian of the three, but he's also very happy to be here in America, and proud as punch to be an American. I hope that never changes!

They're really starting to use a lot of English words now, but they are "Russifying" some of the English words they know. Like today Liana asked for some bread, and so she asked me for some "breadchik," and later "breadichka." That's just one that comes to mind, but they are doing that all over the place.

I read Adam a long version of Cinderella this afternoon, and it was one that he had already known, so as soon as he's a little more perky, I'm going to take a video of "his version."

I'm exhausted. Time for bed!

Stressful few days

Yesterday the kids did great at church again, although after church was over, Adam got really wound up when one of the adults tried to tickle his sides. That was all it took to get him waaaay overstimulated and wouldn't calm down. A man came up to me and told me Adam was being naughty, and told John he needed a spanking. *Sigh*. (Btw, in case you're curious, NO we did NOT go home and spank our kid.)

It is now midafternoon of Monday, and as a typical busy-to-the-max mom, I cannot remember anything else about yesterday anymore. It's a good thing I've been writing my blog entries in the morning when "yesterday is still fresh."

Today John went off to work again after having been layed off last week. Well, when he got to work he discovered that he was also layed off THIS week. How is THIS going to be paying our bills I wonder? *trying not to worry, but when there are suddenly three extra mouths to feed, it is a little difficult* Also, Adam woke up with a fever and told us that he threw up in the night. He's been a limp dishrag all day. Poor kid.

Anyway, the kids' naptime is up, so off I go again!

Squirt Guns

Yesterday my brother gave us his couch and we gave him ours. Great trade for us since his was a nice sectional. Adam happened to find a squirt gun in my brother's van as they were shuffling around the furniture, and my brother gave it to him. My first instinct was to say "No Way, Jose." But, he is a boy, and boys love squirt guns, so I got over it and let him have it.

A few hours later Adam had put some red-dye-looking "stuff" inside the squirt gun barrel and squirted it all over the girls' room. After nearly strangling him to find out what the red stuff was, we found out that Adam had taken my red pen with the ink-cartridge (liquid-ink-type), broken it open, dumped it into the squirt gun, put some water into it, and then had a good ol' time.

It took a loooooooong time of scrubbing and carpet-cleaning, but we got most of it out. Miracle of miracles. Mama was not impressed with his curious streak yesterday... ;O)

One month home!

Well, we made the One Month Home mark today! They say that the first month is the hardest. Whenever anyone ever said that before we adopted, I wondered what exactly that meant... Let me see if I can summarize.

- The kids have tested us and tested us and tested us. Not only on behavior, but on trust. "Will they really always love me?" etc. A "scared-you-might-not-love-me" child can be a TERROR as far as their behavior goes. The plane trip home is proof positive of that for us. Aleksa's hitting and pinching and screaming and biting have almost completely subsided. Now we have Liana triple-dog-daring us to make her do what we ask of her. They have tested where all the Lines are in our relationships. They have had to hit up *hard* against many behavior rules and we have had to go over and over and over some of the same things. If we say "no" to one kid, the others will purposely and immediately do the same thing just to see "what will happen." This is normal "kid" behavior, but most parents get to gradually deal with their kids as they go from infancy to toddlers, and they get to usually deal with them one at a time on different levels. We have three kids testing us full-force all the time. That has gotten lots better, but there is still a long way to go. The first month we are all still really trying to get to know everyone. Though we loved them the moment we saw them, we didn't KNOW them yet and they didn't necessarily love US immediately. That takes time, and our relationships have been hard-tested and our love from our kids has been hard-won.

- The kids are way too easily over-stimulated. For example, last night the kids went to the park. When they came home, we happened to get a visit from the grandparents. The kids WOULD NOT settle down. They were putting clothespins on grandpa and grandma's faces, stuffing animal crackers in their mouths, etc. No matter how often we told them to settle down (or even SIT down), they absolutely would not. Adam took off with grandpa's shoe when they got ready to leave, etc., etc. This doesn't happen as often as when they first came home, but it still happens. I know a lot of kids get hyper, etc., but the first month home, this happens a lot, and with the language barrier, the relationship barrier (you are still getting to know them and them you), and the "everything is new" factor, it is VERY hard to control. Trips to my dad's house can be really tough if we bring all three. They feed off of each other's energy levels and then they are constantly stuffing things into Grandpa's face and touching/picking up all of Grandpa's Stuff. (Sorry Dad!)

- All three kids, though their ages are 4, 6 and 9 come home developmentally like 2-yr-olds. I don't mean that they are idiots, I just mean that everything is as new to them as things are new to a 2-yr-old. If they are given crayons or markers, they have to break them and color all over anything with them. If they have glue, they want to spread it all over the table, their hands, etc. Markers have to be tested on the couch or their bodies. Give them a pen and they have to carve some writing into their much-sanded-and-stained-handmade-by-mama-and-papa-and-Uncle-John headboard. If you give them stickers, they will put them all over their bodies, their sibling's bodies, the wall, etc. If you give them a sippy-cup... (Ok, I won't go there.) If they find the cleaning supplies, they'll squirt half a bottle of cleanser on the wall/sink/wherever. If you give them a toy, they'll disassemble it or break it, just to see if they can. They are like 2-yr-olds in 4, 6 and 9-yr-old bodies. DANGEROUS. They have to smell everything, touch everything, pick up everything, taste *most* things, etc. I was not prepared for the amount of things we would have to take away from them or how quickly or easily they become overstimulated. When we gave them pencils, they would chew them up and literally take bites out of them. Not just the eraser either. Wood-in-the-mouth type of chewing. *shiver* Give them bandaids and they'll be all used up by the end of the week. One bottle of shampoo lasts only a few days. Liquid soap is a toy too. Ours lasted one day. (We use bar-soap now). One roll of tp lasted 2 days at first. We're now up to about one roll every five days. If I disappeared into the bathroom myself for more than 5 minutes, someone winds up screaming. Basically, we've had to watch them Every Second. All of the above has gotten a LOT better the longer they've been home, but these things still happen with regularity.

- There is also a TON of extra work involved. We adopted three, so that won't be the same for everyone, but I was shocked at how many dirty dishes and dirty clothes three little kids would add to the work-level. Not to mention vacuuming. I did luck out though in that our kids LOVE to clean. They will dust, vacuum, rinse their plates, etc. It is also amazing how much food we are buying. Not only housework, but getting everyone bathed and dressed and teeth brushed and read-to and fed and played with, etc., etc., is a HUGE life adjustment. I was busy before we adopted, but it was a different kind of busy. It was an "at-my-own-pace" busy.

- I almost forgot to list the language issue. Really, that is the least stressful thing about the first month. Most people would consider the language issue a big deal, but we communicate well enough, and they understand a TON of what we say. (For instance, at the lunch table today I kept looking over at Aleksa and I finally said, "Boy, Aleksa, you really did cut a lot off of your hair." She gave me an embarrassed grimace, patted her bangs, and said, "Izvini (I'm sorry), Mama." They aren't speaking a whole lot of English, but are they ever understanding it!

I've mentioned before though, that this isn't "hard," that I'm just "busy." I still stand by that. Hard isn't what we're going through. Hard is what we have ALREADY gone through to get these kids. Hard is wondering why God isn't letting you have children that you desperately want, when all around you people are "accidentally" getting pregnant and are upset and ungrateful about it. Hard is when the free world keeps asking you when you're going to "get busy and have kids," even though you and your hubby have been trying to do so for years. Hard is miscarriages, years of infertility, doctors, vitamins, supplements, hormones, drugs and "bbt's." THAT is hard. Hard times are when you can't sleep at night because of how much you are grieving. These days I'm out as soon as I hit my pillow, and I don't wake up 'til morning. Not hard. We're just busy... and we've never been happier.

Cooking Day at Grandpa's House

Today was Cooking Day at my Dad's house. I told Liana about how Grandpa didn't have a lot to eat, and she was instantly very burdened for him. She told me that she didn't have very much to eat at the orphanage either, and that this was bad. So, I put her in the car (the other two stayed with John), and we went grocery shopping. We walked into the store, and Liana said, "Grandpa needs pizza, Mama." (She LOVES pizza). All through the store she kept saying things like, "Grandpa needs some bread," or "Grandpa needs some juice," etc. Like she knew just exactly what someone who is hungry wants. She was very pleased with the pile of food in the shopping cart, (and even insisted that we buy Grandpa a few treats!)

When we got to his house, she opened up his refrigerator, and sure enough, he didn't have very much in there. "Mama, he has so little!" And then started putting things away. She's my little sweetie.

We cooked and cooked, and Liana helped put together the meals on the plastic plates to put in the freezer. I made the frozen pizza for all three of us to eat (Grandpa, Liana and I), and she ate 5 pieces while Grandpa ate one (he hates pizza, but she insisted that he'd love it), and I ate two. Liana loved sampling all the foods we made, and especially loved SAUERKRAUT. She sat and ate the kraut right out of the can, finishing off half a can all by herself (and begged for more, so we opened a second!) Later when John and the other two came over, Liana let Aleksa try some, and SHE loved it too.

(Btw, Aleksa's texture thing has subsided greatly. She eats a lot better now. She loves pizza, toast with jam, etc., etc. She eats better than Liana does now, though neither of them like hotdogs or macaroni and cheese. Weird.)

Late this afternoon we took the kids to the park to fly kites. They had a great time running around. They definitely got their exercise!

Speaking of exercise, John noticed yesterday that he has been hiking in his belt lately. I guess he's been on the "three-kids-diet" for the past month-and-a-half, and it has started to show!

Running late again... gotta get off this thing! (These aren't the greatest pics, but if I post a picture of one, I gotta post one of each of them, right?)

Kites!
John with his kite
Aleksa's kite
Aleksa
Liana's kite
Adam tying his shoe

Errands and the Gimmes

Today we dragged all the kids all over town. I had to find Adam some navy pants and Liana a navy skirt for their first night of "Patch the Pirate Club" at church tonight. I found Adam his pants, but there doesn't seem to be any such thing as a navy skirt for a little girl anymore. Good thing Grandma said she'd make her one! The older two were ready to go long before Aleksa was this morning, so Adam and Liana took it upon themselves to help Aleksa get her teeth brushed and her hair brushed. I had to grab the camera for that one. Couldn't believe my eyes.

We stopped at my Dad's house too during our errand run, and Adam helped himself to one of my dad's toys. I found it in his pocket while we were out running around. So, we all piled back into the car and I had him knock on Grandpa's door, return the "stolen goods" and say he was sorry. I patted him down for the rest of our stops today, and we'll have to start remembering to do so until we can fully trust his sticky fingers. (That isn't the first time he's taken things... Once at the grocery store in Kiev, and another time at Grandpa's house.)

Speaking of the "gimmes," it seems like it doesn't even matter what it is, the kids just want it. We found one of John's enormously-thick programming books on the girls' bookshelf along with a stack of his Computer/Science magazines. Definitely not good reading material for a 6 or 4-yr-old. (John was proud though, that his little girls might want to take after him!)

We also took the kids through their first car wash today. They loved it, and just as we were coming out of it, the kids wound down their back windows. John couldn't resist putting the car into reverse for the kids to get a little "wind blown" by the blow-dryer-thingie that still had a few seconds left on it. The squeals from the backseat were worth the effort... *tee-hee*

Gotta run! We have a million things to do today!

Getting Aleksa Ready
Aleksa at Walmart
First Carwash
First Patch Club Night

Aleksa's New Haircut (!)

Tonight while I was making supper, I got out the hair clippers to do John's hair after we ate. While I was busy cooking, Aleksa opened the box, got out the scissors, and you guessed it, played beauty shop on her hair. I thought I was the bad hair-cutter in this house. Nuh-uh. Aleksa takes that prize now.

I grabbed the camera and taped a video and snapped a few pics. Her sister and brother made fun of how funny she looked, and I think that was "lecture" enough for her. She cried and cried. I didn't bother with a lecture of my own; I'm pretty sure she learned her lesson.

Not sure how we're going to fix that haircut, but John thinks we should just leave it and let it grow out on its own. It does make for a good conversation-starter...

Aleksa's Bad Hair Day
...and another shot

Pictures, Names, and McDonalds

Today John and I made some prints of our "First Fisher Family Photo" (on the front page of our website), and the kids loved seeing our picture put in a spot of honor in the livingroom. I've been dying to do that for a while, but I just haven't had a chance.

When I showed the kids the prints while we were in the car on the way home they asked if that was taken at the orphanage. I told them it was, and then Liana asked, "are we going to the orphanage right now?" I assured her we would NEVER be going back to the orphanage. They were all relieved, and they all started listing off things that they didn't have at the orphanage that they do here. Most of the things were food. I asked what they ate there, and they said soup that was yucky. Not sure if they used that word, but they pantomimed throwing up when they told me how it tasted. They all agreed that the orphanage was not a good place and that they were glad to have a family now. Kinda heartbreaking.

The kids are still confused about the "Say" thing, but they are also confused about some other things too. This morning I was passing out the kids' clothes, and Aleksa realized that her socks were missing. She said, "Mama, die menya (give me) 'put-your-socks-on'" I thought that was funny until I asked Liana what her sock was and she said it was a "put-your-socks-on" too. I had a good laugh about that. (I think they have it straight now! We'll see!)

John and I took the kids to McDonalds Playland for the first time today. John went inside and played with them (good thing too, or Aleksa would have never gone in). We had the whole thing to ourselves, and they LOVED it! At one point I had three little kids peaking down at me at once all screaming, "Mama! Mama!" I got all teary-eyed at that too, and I wish I could have bottled up those few minutes to be re-run whenever I wanted in years to come. "Cherish the moment" is my motto these days!

The kids have lots of pet names for each other as well as their given names. The more syllables/letters added to the end, the more affectionate the name. I wrote them down, and I think I have them all collected now. Here they are:

Adam, Adamichka, Mikhail, Misha, Mishka, Mishunka, Misichka (prefers Adam or Misha/Mishka)

Liana, Lianichka (first "a" stressed), Lianka, Valentina, Valya, Valka (doesn't like this one; they only use that on her when they're mad at her), Valuchka, Valenka, Valushka (Loves to be called "Liana Valentina" but also "Lianichka" or "Liana Valushka")

Aleksandra, Aleksa, Alekska, Sasha, Sashka, Sashinka, Sashichka, Zinaida, Zina, Zinka, Zinichka (loves to be called this, but will tell you that it is "Aleksa Zinichka")

None of them are/were ever called by their given birth names. Adam can't even pronounce "Zinaida." The only one comfortable with their birth name is our "Valentina." Btw, one of the reasons we gave "Valentina" the name "Liana" instead of to Zina is because of the name meaning. "Liana" means "My God has answered me." So, her name means something like, "God has answered me with a Valentine." I love it! Aleksandra means "Defender of Mankind" and her middle name has something to do with a dove. Not quite as meaningful, but if she ever complains, we'll just tell her we could have let her be a Warrior Princess all her life... Oh well. Adam means "Man" and Mikhail means "Who is like God?"

I'm running late this morning, so I'd better run!

Dress Up Night

Tonight I remembered that I had a dress that I wore in my big sister's wedding when I was about Liana's size (I was 5 years old). I hauled it out and put it on her, and then gave Aleksa a dress that another little girl from church gave her. They LOVED them, and felt like princesses. Gonna hafta dig up some more dress up clothes! Enjoy the pics!

Liana holding picture of Mama in the dress
Mama's Princesses
Prince and Princesses
Excited Princesses
Ukie Princess
Ukie Royalty
Ukie Royalty2
UkieRoyalty3
UkieRoyalty4

Secret Drawer Revealed!

My brother John and his family came over today for a visit. His son and family were in town for a few days so everyone wanted to meet the kids. It was a realllly nice visit!

This is the same brother that helped build the kids' beds, so we thought it would be fun to finally show Adam his "secret drawer." Adam was wondering pretty hard why Uncle John was being so nosey about his clothes drawer and was *almost* a little grouchy about it. When John started to tip the drawer, his eyes got really big like "do you know how long it took me to fold those???" John pulled out the Secret Drawer and Adam was on his belly in two shakes wondering where he got that. His puzzlement turned to delight, and then no one could wipe the smile off his face. It only got broader when John opened up the envelope inside that held his Secret Dollar. He gave Uncle John a nice hug and then Adam took the envelope and proudly strutted down the hallway. It was his first dollar! He went out and showed everyone. Then went and got a magic marker to write his name on the envelope. It wound up saying "Adam Fmmmmm" (We're working on it!) THEN, he grabbed his bottle of Elmers glue and then glued the envelope shut. Extra security? Not sure, but he was sooooo excited about it all. He tried to make Liana come down and see his drawer, but she was too comfortable on Papa's lap in the livingroom. Aleksa got to see, but I don't think she much cared. She was busy playing with her 4-yr-old cousin Kiana. Later on, it was fun to see Adam explain his secret drawer to his grandma. I knew what he was talking about from his great body-language and sound effects. Plus the glow on his face. One happy boy there! (Btw, if you don't know what I'm talking about, we have pics of the "secret drawer" on the June 4 entry on the main News Page).

A bit on language... When we try to get the kids to repeat what we say, we say, "Say ---." So, they say, "Say ----." It's pretty funny. As my brother was leaving, they all said, "Say bye-bye!" John and I have role-played how you are supposed to respond, and even translated the word "say" for them, but they still say "say" in front of a lot of things.

Tonight we got the kids out of the car and as I brought Aleksa in, she looked up at the sky and said, "Look how many stars, Mama!" (In Russian). So I started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to her. When we got inside, I heard her sing, "Swingkle, Swingkle..." down the hallway. Too CUTE!

Picnic!

Today we took the kids to a biking activity/picnic through our church. The family hosting it lives right off of a major bike trail here, and so they had lunch at their house as well as some other kid activities like a trampouline, four-passenger bicycle, swingset, sandbox, etc. The kids had a great time and did reallllllly well. There were lots of other kids around and we were glad to have them start to get to know some of them outside of "church" where it would be more difficult.

Liana didn't get sick all afternoon inspite of the heat. She played harder than the rest of them even.

Aleksa did great except that a big dog walked into the livingroom where she was playing with another girl, and she started screaming. She wound up in the closest warm body's arms (a man she didn't know), until I came in and took her myself. I can't wait for the day that she won't do that, and only wants "Papa or Mama." I know the day is coming, but we just aren't there yet.

Adam helped himself to two sodas that he didn't ask for, plus the water and juice that we gave him. (Though we weren't thrilled he did that without asking, we do know that just about any 9-yr-old would be tempted to do the same if they didn't usually get pop at home.) He left the food alone, which we were surprised and glad about. In fact, he didn't even eat all of the food on his plate. That's the second time in three days he did that. We're coming along!

John took all the kids to the grocery store to give me a break plus to give me time to clean the bathroom, etc. (When do moms get all their housework done!!!???) I haven't had the chance to dust or vac. our bedroom in I-don't-know-how-long... Plus everything that we have realized is contraband from the kids gets put in our room. We have stuff everywhere. It is driving me CRAZY. (I hate clutter). (You'd never guess that looking at all the other pics of our house on this site... I realized recently that ALL the pics we've posted of our house have some kind of mess in it! Too funny... I really need to post a "clean house" picture or two to prove that it does happen!!) Every time I stay in our room/the bathroom longer than 3-5 minutes someone winds up crying or bruised! John is layed off this week, so I'll be able to "get at it" now, but what about when he isn't!? There are definitely things to iron out as far as our daily routine goes!

Liana took her last pill tonight. Good to be done with that!

Adam's haircut, books and park

Well, I made the attempt at Adam's hair today. I tried to be *very* conservative in how much I cut off since it would be easier to fix if I did. I don't know who was more scared; Adam or I. When John came home I asked him if it looked like Adam got a haircut. He said, "It does around that ear." Apparently Adam's haircut wasn't so hot either. lol!

Jo, you asked what I read to the kids. Well, the younger two LOVE a book called "My Big Word Book" by Roger Priddy. My sister-in-law picked up that book for the kids, and it is AWESOME! It has 1,000 "essential" words to teach the kids; everything from clothing to family to food to animals, etc. It is spiral bound, the pages are sturdy, the pictures are great; I love it. Otherwise, I spent my spare $$'s at Good Will picking up childrens' books for a while and accumulated a bunch that way. The favorites are Dr. Seuss (smart kids!) "The Cat in the Hat" is Adam's favorite, and he will ask for it by name. Pretty much anything with great pictures are a hit. Today I read a bunch of fairy tales out of one book, and they all recognized "Little Red Ridinghood" and started to tell me the story in Russian. I made them stop --- I had to go get the camera to take some video. They each were proud to "retell" the story to me, and one day they'll love to have these *really* cute clips. (Ok, at least Mama will!) :O)

Everyone was in a great mood all day long. Aside from Liana still not feeling well, they were all really good today, and Adam was extra affectionate and huggy-kissy to me telling me I would "always be his mama" and he would "always be his son." (Our little chit-chats are sinking in!! Yay!!!)

I'm not sure if I'm just hormonal or what, but Aleksa came up to me and said, "Up, please, Mama" and I got all teary-eyed today. She's said that lots and lots of other times and even learned that in Ukraine, but for some reason I thought they were the sweetest words I've ever heard today.

We all headed to the park after John came home from work. Did I mention we have fabulous kids? Adam helped Aleksa up onto the jungle gym and pretty much looked out for her most of the time there. He's a great big brother. I sure hope that never changes! There were a couple girls a little older than Adam that were playing at the park too. Most other boys would have started playing the "that isn't my mom" game, but Adam still wanted to swing with me and holler, "look, Mama" whenever he did something neat. He did look pretty longingly at the girls' bicycles, but other than that, he still played with his little sisters and his Mama and Papa. I have to really relish these times; I know they may be short-lived after hanging out with "typical American kids" for a while. For now, he's tickled to have a family. We're thrilled to finally have children, and they are thrilled to finally have parents. What a wonderful, wonderful day.

Health and Language

Liana woke up throwing up alllll over the place. On her bed, on the floor, down the hall, etc. Nice start to the day! She started perking up around noonish and then she asked for oranges. Lots of 'em. She even joined the other two for a tickle fight on the floor (see pics posted yesterday). I was getting worried that her lunch wouldn't stay down, but she didn't throw up again for the rest of the day, and even ate all of her supper - spaghetti!

The clinic called to say that Adam's stool sample needs to be redone because two vials in one pack didn't have the same stool in it. (From the same bm.) Apparently he tested positive for giardia too, and they want to make sure. Looks like we get a week of Adam throwing up also.

Adam had his PT appointment yesterday. They gave us some stretching exercises that he should do a few times a day so his tendon in his leg will be loose enough to make sure it will grow at the same rate as the other leg. The doctor said the scar on the back of his heel looks like it was from a surgery to help correct the tendon. Adam had told us previously that that scar was a dog bite, and then yesterday he told us it was from a bomb while he was in the "militia." WhatEver. I got the creeps from that one. I sure hope he doesn't do that a lot, and I Sure hope he doesn't actually believe them. Since this is the first "crazy lie" we have heard (understood?), I just have to keep reminding myself that he is a nine-year-old boy who loves to play, and loves drama and loves to have sympathy, etc.. It's so hard because we can only know our children "to a point" right now with the language barrier in the way. Very hard to know exactly what is going on in their heads.

Speaking of language barrier, I talked to the ESL coordinator at the University the other day (was it yesterday? It's been so long ago now!) She is actually my old Spanish teacher from high school, so it was fun to reconnect. She is working up some contacts and resources for us and will get back to us.

The ESL teacher for the school district we're in finally got back to us yesterday. She is also rounding up some resources for us, and is going to get back to us with some of the answers to our questions.

It is stressing me out that we aren't doing anything formally with their schooling yet, but John keeps reminding me that in the grand scheme of things, we haven't been home long at all, and that the kids need US more than they need English right now... and truly, their English is coming along nicely. The advice from the district is "put them in school right now." (Came from the lady I talked to previously and this one as well.) I'm sure that in a normal situation that might be the best, but these kids have everything BUT a normal situation. When I think of how vastly their lives have changed in these last few weeks, it is amazing to me that they are settling as beautifully as they have! Don't want to rock the boat. They need some stability and lots and lots of TLC. The ESL teacher understood better once I explained their situation a little better.

We are reading to the kids probably 2 hours + per day. Adam LOVES to be read to, so that's a big relief that we don't have to fight him on that. Right away in the morning all three are in the mood to read, so I don't mind putting off breakfast an hour to get some reading time in. Believe me, they let me know when it is time for them to eat!

Tonight we had to run over to the clinic to get some more vials for Adam (!), and on the way home we stopped at Krispy Kreme. (Just so happened that the Hot Light was on...) The kids Loved watching the doughnuts bake, but the smell made Liana's tummy turn again and she wouldn't even try them. Since Mama didn't want a mop handed to her, we made our stay pretty short...

Speaking of our trip out tonight, I had a sad moment... The kids LOVE airplanes, and get super excited EVERY time they see one. Well, this time when we went outside to go to the clinic, a plane was flying overhead and instead of them shouting "SEMALYUTE!!!" they said, "AIRPLANE!" Great that they are making progress with their English, but it is also sad to see their birth language fade. It's like a part of them is dying and they don't even know it. Can't explain it, but it is like they are becoming different people. I need to take more video of them chattering. Their Russian/Ukrainian is going to be all gone before we know it.

Bunch of Pictures

Here are a bunch of pics we took today and yesterday. We actually got Liana to eat something today. Lots and lots of oranges. ! (Some of those rinds are her brother's though...) (Hopefully this works... John usually helps with putting up the pics...


Adam getting tickled
Adam and Aleksa... Awwww!
Adam and Aleksa Hugging
Aleksa's Nasty Haircut
Liana's Haircut
Liana's Oranges
Liana and Mama; Pajama Night
Pajama Night

Sick Liana

Last night John and I were planning on taking all the kids (fun to say "all") to church for a special service of a music group that was coming in to sing. On the way there, Liana threw up allllllll over the place. She was a regular Mt. St. Hellens. Poor kid. So, John turned around and dropped Liana and I off back at home and he took Adam and Aleksa himself. Liana has hardly eaten anything all week because of her meds. She eats a good breakfast *sometimes*, but other than that, she doesn't want anything. No bananas, no yogurt, no nothing. We tried to make her eat something last night for supper and look where it got us!

Anyway, I threw Liana in the bathtub and then as a special treat, I let Liana wear MY pajamas, and then I put on John's pajamas. (I had one of his t-shirts and then his Cat in the Hat loungepants). (He's gonna hate that I am blabbing that he has Cat in the Hat loungepants.) (Oh, well.) (I should say that I bought them for him and he had nothing to do with them.) ;O) Anyway, Liana giggled up a storm when I told her that now Papa has no pajamas tonight and he will shiver, shiver, shiver. We put puzzles together and snuggled and chattered until everyone else came home. Btw, while we were snuggling, Liana said, "Shut the door, Mama." IN ENGLISH!!! :O) Earlier I had just brushed my teeth, and she said, "brush your teeth, Mama?" They're learning!!! John and I agree that she is the most motivated to learn and use her new language.

Adam has been testing me and testing me all week. Yesterday I told him what he needed to wear for church, and he pitched a fit about it, and then when he put it on, he wanted to put on his tie with it. (Trust me, it wasn't a "tie" outfit.) So, I told him he couldn't wear it. Then he took off all his clothes, threw them in the garbage and stood there telling me that I wasn't his mama and that he wanted to go back to the orphanage. Oy. We had a little chit-chat about thankfulness and complaining. I reminded him of how many clothes he had to wear at the orphanage and then asked him how many he had to wear here. He got quiet, and still pouted (he's our "sulker"). He absolutely hates to be corrected, and takes it like we don't love him. Drives me CRAZY! Can't wait til we all speak the same language, times like these it would *really* come in handy.

Aleksa is still making lots of progress. Last night when I tucked her in bed, she turned both cheeks for me to kiss. (They kiss both cheeks in Ukraine). Then, she offered me her forehead, then her chin. Then each palm, then each finger on each hand. Then she had to kiss me on all those places too, and then gave me a giant bear hug. She's such a sweetie! (Then I had to kiss her Cabbage Patch doll.) (She made John kiss her too!)

Speaking of dolls, Liana has named hers Sveta, which I think is too cute. Not sure why, I just do. I guess I just wanted to add that so that I don't forget it.

I know I've been slacking at posting pictures, but when I write up my blogs in the morning, I'm in a race against time before the kids wake up. Plus, my camera is usually in the kitchen/livingroom and not here where out computer is. Then it takes time to download and shrink them, and post them. I'll try to get a few up soon though. Except that Aleksa looks funny now and Liana looks a bit ghost-like from feeling like she's gonna puke any minute. *Sigh*

I just had a kid knock on the door, so my time is UP. ttyl!

First Haircuts for the Girls

Well, I finally got around to mustering up the courage to try cutting the girls' hair yesterday. Liana begged and begged for a haircut like the lady on the box that the hair clippers/scissors/etc. came in. I was kinda glad because the lady's hair was the exact length that I wanted to cut it. (Just past chin). I told Liana that that was a LOT of hair to cut off and that she might not like it once it got cut. She assured me that she did want it that way... So! Off it came. And I LOVE it. She looks so sweet, and it cut the scraggly part of her hair off. I got half-way through the cutting though, and she needed to go take a looksie. She came out of the bathroom bawling her head off. I laughed at her when she told me she was done. (Only one side of her head was done!) She cried all the way through the rest of the haircut, and then afterward went and cried some more on her bed. After that though, she was fine, and never said a word.

Aleksa on the other hand, didn't care what on earth I did to her. Figures that SHE'S the one whose haircut I actually botched bigtime. I could say it was because she kept moving around and I snipped when she moved, but it wouldn't be very honest! Poor kid looks funny now. Another right of passage for Mama. Aren't all mamas supposed to mess up their kids' first haircuts? I could have let Grandma cut them all, but I really wanted to do their first cuts... come what may. I was too chicken to cut Adam's though. Maybe tomorrow...

Labor Day

Sorry this is a late post. I slept in longer than I should have this morning, so I didn't have time to blog before the kiddos woke up. (The kids are *supposed* to be napping right now, so I'm safe for at least few more minutes!)

Yesterday we visited my dad (all of us, John included.) It felt good to get over there as I haven't been able to go over very much since we got home from UA. Gotta get over there for another cooking day pretty soon. Maybe John's layoff rotation is a blessing in disguise for now. It will give me a chance to get over there and help out more. We took the kids to the park across the street from Dad's house after our visit, and that was fun.

Then we went to Walmart for a few necessities. Actually I went to Walmart, while John and the kids rode around in the parking lot while I shopped. Adam's Sunday pants are pretty short on him, so I picked up another pair (they are actually too big, but that's what belts are for, right?) I also poked my nose over at the LeapFrog/Pad stuff. Gonna hafta invest in one of those asap. As much as they love pushing buttons and things that make noises, this might be just what the dr. ordered!

For supper we went to John's brother-in-law's friend's land and had a cook-out with the rest of the Fishers. The kids had fun running around and playing. Well, Liana threw up on the way out there, so she probably didn't enjoy herself all that much, but once she got some more food in her tummy she started feeling a little better. The trouble is nothing sounds good to her, so it is *really* hard to get her to eat. Four more days of puke-cleaning left before her meds are done.

The kids are really starting to replace their Russian/Ukrainian vocabulary with English words. It is truly amazing how fast they learn. Adam sings "Old MacDonald" now, though he doesn't get all the words right. He loves it though, and the ride into the country yesterday inspired him to sing it at the top of his lungs every time he saw a cow. Liana sings a "1-2-3" song, and Aleksa starts to sing the "A-B-C" song on her own now, even when we're not singing with her. She can say the alphabet up to G very clearly, and she can count to 8 pretty well, but not perfectly every time. (Aleksa can count to 20 in Russian). John and I try to make it a point to sing together while we are in the car. Not that we don't sing other times, but it just makes for a nice built-in family time to teach them songs. The kids love it anyway, and they will ask for certain ones to be sung over and over and over again.

At lunch today, the kids begged me to let them vacuum their rooms. I told them they could but that they had to pick up their toys first. Deal. (!!!) They did a great job too. I hope they never change their minds on how fun vacuuming is... Mama HATES that job! Sssshhh...

Btw, Sharon, (my sister), I read your comment below, and I can't tell you how many times this week and last I thought about how Mom would be laughing at me for getting two picky eaters as "pay-back" for how bad I was to her.

That's all for now! My little nappers are starting to stir!

Lucky Mamachka

We didn't see any creepy-crawlies in their hair this morning, so we decided to go to church again. The kids did really well, and I don't think Liana stuck her tongue out at anyone this time. One of the boys at church gave Adam some stuffed animals and a picture of himself, and Adam was THRILLED. I came into his room tonight and saw the picture of Eric on his wall.

Anyway, the girls wore the dresses that Grandma made them. They have little pockets in the front that Liana took one look at and told me that they were just the right size for a cracker (animal cracker). Soooo, I thought that was cute, so they each got an animal cracker for each pocket.

We've made lots of progress this week with food. Adam is still asking for seconds, but most of the time he just asks for it to see if we'll give it to him; not that he actually wants it. He has left food on his plate more than a few times this week, and that has been a BIG deal for him. (Cleaning up yesterday's Bug Epidemic, I found a banana under a couch cushion that Adam had stashed. Who knows when. Ugh.)

As bad as yesterday's pill-taking was for Liana, she BEGGED for it this morning. Couldn't figure that one out. On a whim I had her just try to swallow it with juice. It went right down. (OOPS, sorry, Liana, I should have tried that yesterday with you!!!)

John took the kids to the park this afternoon while I stayed home and tried to take a nap. (What are those again?) Liana wasn't feeling well from her meds again, so she came home early. She knocked on my bedroom door and when she came in she shyly said, "ya khachu staboy." ("I just want to be with you.") Talk about melting my heart! Who needs naps anyway! Way overrated! So, Liana and I read books, cuddled, giggled, and then started supper. (She loooooves to help in the kitchen!)

I made Adam clean his room tonight and he pitched another fit about me and John not being his mama and papa. He just is soooo worried that we don't love him. We had a little chit-chat (as chit-chatty as I can be without speaking much more than baby-talk Russian to him!) about how I'm his mama and John is his papa, and that this was his house etc., but that Mama doesn't like rooms that smell like "foo" and since this was ADAM'S room, and not Mama's, that it was his job. It ended with a tickle fight where I sat on him and tickled him until he told me I was his "mamachka." Trust me, he needed that. Plus, I can't be called Mamachka too many times a day! ;o) (And yes, he did clean his room).

Things are progressing with Aleksa. She's bonding more and more with me, especially when I play that I'm her "lalichka" (little baby). Now when the others are in trouble, she doesn't get mad at me for getting after her siblings, she lectures THEM for being naughty to "Mamachka." (Did I mention that I LOVE when they call me that?) ;O) We still have a little ways to go, but she has made some huge progress this week with her bonding with us, and each day is better than the day before. The hitting that she used to do to us at the orphanage is completely gone now even when she is angry or scared. She hasn't bit us for a while either come to think of it. Progress. Yay!

It almost hurts how much I love those three sweet kids. I've gotta be the luckiest person in the world.

Bugs

Well, this has ranked right up there as far as far as "Ewwy" days are concerned.

This morning I collected the last stool sample from Aleksa. Yay! I thought I was completly done with Yucky Things! Nuh-uh.

The clinic called and let us know that Liana has giardia. *sigh* So, we went to pick up her prescription. No biggie. Getting the pills IN her was another story. Apparently they have a terrible taste, and this poor little girl gagged and gagged and gagged as she tried to take the pill smashed in her applesauce. I also let her eat jam right out of the jar. Didn't help either. When she gagged again I put the "hacked up" stuff in her apple juice. Didn't help. We finally got it all down her with some brown sugar too. Poor kid.

THEN. *Feels like the world's most incompetent mother here* Adam and the girls and I were snuggling on the floor playing, when I noticed, *gulp*, creepy-crawlies in Adam's hair. Upon further inspection, yup, he had lice alright. John and I never saw any when we checked in Ukraine, but we didn't check them *right* before we left. We even gave the lice solution stuff that we had brought with us to Ukraine to the orphanage before we left. We thought we were clean! (Note to PAP's: Check your kids twice. Once when you meet them and once before you take them home.) We never checked them again once we were home. Stupid, stupid, stupid. John and I instantly started itching feeling all skin-crawlly-like. We found just a couple on the girls, but Adam had many, many. I can't believe we've been home this long (and had a DR'S APPOINTMENT) and nobody noticed before now. *waaaaahhhh* This definitely makes me feel like the biggest loser of a mom. How could we NOT have checked again!??? *bangs head on desk*

So anyway, we had a busy night/afternoon of combing and washing and checking and rechecking and vacuuming and dusting and scrubbing and anything else I could think of. Plus itching all over just thinking of it.

And THEN, Liana threw up too. She didn't eat enough supper with her pill so she upchucked. On our bed.

If we weren't broken in as parents before now, we sure are after this day! Poop-collecting, pill-feeding, delousing, vomit-cleaning. Oy. What a day.

Clinic again, and tutor

Yesterday was a big Poop Collecting Day. The kids are proud poopers, and couldn't wait 'til they "had to go." I still have to collect one more sample from Aleksa, but other than that, I'm proud to say, all 12 vials of necessary "kakhait" has been rounded up. They couldn't wait to get to go to the clinic to drop it off. I made a big production of pantomime to show them that we would give the dr. the vials, and tht they would NOT poke them again (Adam was pretty freaked at first mention of going back to the dr.) I let him know that they would look at his arm (where the tb skin test was given), and that they would maybe want to "take a picture" of his chest, etc. (He did wind up with a bump on his arm). The dr. is going to review the immunization records we had given him earlier this week and then get back to us on Tuesday for what he things our protocol should be. My gut is they are going to give him the meds and the x-ray "just to make sure." That's what the other families I've talked to said happened with their kids. It has just amazed me how well the kids do in public. They stay right with me/us, and when we need to go, they go, etc. They are curious about everything, but boy have I seen some "home-grown" kids who have taken the cake in the naughty category. I'm sure proud of their progress in such little time, and how "normal" they truly are. We have been soooo blessed.

The first week of John back to work has been busy, but definitely not impossible. I've been dead tired at bedtime, but a feel-good-all-over kind of tired. Adam I think is having the most difficult transition to John working all day and has had some bed-wetting this week. Liana asks every morning not WHERE John is, but if he got anything to eat before he left. She sees me cook her breakfast, but Papa is gone before she sees him in the morning. She's such a sweetie. (Now to get her to stop sticking out her tongue in public!) ;O)

I've played phone and email tag this week with people to get an ESL tutor for the kids. I found a wonderful possibility through my cousin who is on the La Crosse county school board. This potential tutor has taught ESL for many years, and also has taught Russian, and elementary school. Sounds like a perfect match. She is newly retired, so this might be just what we are needing. Mary (my cousin), mentioned rattling our school district's cage a little to get them to help foot the bill for it. I hope that will work out as John is now on a rotating lay-off schedule (great!), and it is going to be pretty tight around here. We know lots of "regular" English teachers who we would have asked, but "English" and "English as a Second Language" are two entirely different ballparks, especially when we're dealing with a 9-yr-old.

Otherwise, I have been looking into curriculum to use at home, and also been talking to our school district. It looks like our school district is very obliging to homeschool families, and we can pick and choose what we want or don't want from the district. The district is willing to give us materials and resources to use at home, and I am welcome to come in for any of the kids' tutoring at the school. (They don't send out teachers to peoples' homes.) The lady I talked to said that their goal is to "get them into a classroom as soon as possible." Well, I'm sure that is THEIR goal, but ours is to "Get them used to a family as soon as possible while learning English as soon as possible." We will talk again to the ESL teacher on Tuesday to discuss things some more. I really hope the lady my cousin knows works out.

Breakthroughs with Aleksa!

Aside from the excitement of collecting poop all day from three little kids for the doctor, (!), I had great breakthroughs with the little one today. Can't even begin to tell you how relieved I am about that.

Grandma came over, and though she hung all over her at first, when I picked her up myself, she hung on ME for most of the rest of Grandma's visit. I was impressed. But! That's not all!

After John came home from work, he took the older two kids grocery shopping. (They were *very* good, John says!!!) (YAY!!!) Aleksa and I played and played and played. I took her to the park (no wagon this time; I carried her and we chatted all the way there). I made up a simple little Russian song and sung it to her over and over and over and over again while we sat on the swing together "Mama loves Aleksa Zinichka, Mama loves Aleksa Zinichka, Mama loves Aleksa Zinichka, you are my daughter!" (Zinichka is the most affectionate nickname for Zina). She LOVED it, (and so did I), and as we sat on the swing (spider style; face to face), we talked some more, and REALLLLLY bonded well. (OK, she bonded well to me... I've been bonded to her since the minute I saw her!) She snuggled into me like I was her pillow several times as I sung to her. For the first time she trusted me to climb the slide ladder with her (she's never wanted to go on the slide before). Then she said she had to go potty, so we went home (before she got inspired to find a bush!), and then we took out the trash together and sat on the steps and read some Dr. Seuss, and I "snuck" her some breath mint candy. She sang me some songs that she knew; (She loves to clap with her songs, and does it to the timing Really well).

Also, we played like she was the Mama and I was the "lalichka" (little baby). I asked "mama" for some water, told her I had a headache, etc., and she rubbed my head and smoothed down my hair, and cooed over me like I was a tiny baby. Anyway, she got me a pretend "tablet" for my headache, and put a pillow under my head and put her blanket on me. All that is SOOOO cute to hear in Russian! I wish there was a way she wouldn't lose her Russian somehow, but one day we'll wake up and she'll not speak it to me anymore. I just love to hear her (and the others) speak it. It is a much more descriptive, and affectionate and musical language than English. Adam speaks more Ukrainian than he does Russian, but they all understand eachother, and all speak a smattering of both languages. Please, please, please, anyone out there going to adopt, LEARN SOME RUSSIAN, you may have an awesome interpretor with you 24/7 while in Ukraine/Russia, but once you get home, your Russian will be ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for helping you all to bond. *climbs off soapbox* ;O)

Pretty much, this was an AWESOME day, and what fears I had with Aleksa are Poofed out the window. She just needed Mama to HERSELF for a while so she could bond. Really hard when two older ones are constantly hollering "Mama smaTREE!" (Mama LOOK!) I think I slept better last night than I have in a loooong time. Can't wait to see what today will be like!

Dr.Visits

The kids had their first US doctor visits today. Aside from Adam's slight palsy which we already knew about, the doctor said that the kids appeared WONDERFUL and were even on the US growth charts (except for Aleksa's height... she's a little short). He told us that if we were a family of US born kids and walked in, he would say, "what a great family." He even said that they appeared intellectually/emotionally very good also, and told us we were really, really blessed. (Already knew that, but great to hear from the doc!) Of course, we don't have the blood tests back, and Adam's TB test is already appearing like it will be positive, but we were told by dozens of other families to expect this because they are immunized for it in UA, and I even told the doctor this when we interviewed him before our trip. (Why is it that they so seldom believe a word you say though?)

Anyway, I get to collect poo-poo samples for them today, so This Should Be Fun. *sigh*

Adam started off the day rough. I had to wake him up for the appointment, and he was NOT happy about it. He told me he *wasn't* going to the doctor, and that he *wasn't* going to eat his breakfast, and that he *wasn't* going to get dressed. So, first, I told him, that he didn't have to get himself dressed because I was a VERY good Mama, and I could get him dressed myself. I hauled out his outfit, and proceeded to take all his clothes off of him. I put his shirt on him, took off his pj bottoms, and then came at him with a clean set of undies. That inspired him really fast to go change them on his own.

Then it was breakfast time. He wasn't hungry (!!!???) so he wouldn't eat. I was actually Tickled Pink about this because it is the first time since he has been home that he hasn't licked his plate clean. Must be getting somewhere in that thick skull of his that we will have food for him all the time. Yay! Anyway, he watched the others eat their breakfast, and I kept asking him periodically if he didn't want his yet. Nope. So, I wrapped up his plate and put it in the fridge. He hauled it out later on, and I never said a word.

Anyway, he was the biggest cry baby of the three at the doctor. Liana loved it aside from the pricks in her arm. They all three were given books and teddybears, and were very fussed over. Adam cried WATCHING his sisters get their ears looked into! He didn't want anything to do with the doctor! Oy. (How are we going to get this boy to the physical therapist next week?!!)

At the doctor, the nurses could NOT say the girls' names to save their lives. Liana wound up to be LION-a (Lion as in the animal), by one, and Lee-YAWN-a by another *shiver.* (I'd never even considered the "yawn" pronunciation; I sure hope that isn't a regional accent and our little girl gets called that by too many. It makes my skin crawl. Maybe we should stick with the "lee-ANNA" pronunciation that John likes.

Aleksa was "Aleksandria" (note the "-ia"), and also "A-LESS-ka." We've had several people call her that one recently, which we can't figure out either. Oh well!

Adam told me today that I would always be his mama and he would always be my son. AWwwww... Then a half hour later after I scolded him for smacking his baby sister in the head while they were playing, he told me he wanted the orphanage and that I wasn't his mama, and John wasn't his papa, and then he promptly took off out the door. Great. Now what? So, I told the girls to STAY inside, and I walked down the street looking for him. No luck. I came back to the house worried sick and he was playing in the yard. Game Over for Adam. He was laughing and giggling about his "trick" (he loves to play tricks; see previous post about sippy cups), and Mama did NOT think it was funny. He got in Big Time Trouble over that one. The girls were inside crying; scared half to death. I understand that he just realllllly wants to make sure of our love for him, and is insecure about us, etc., but he CAN NOT be running away from me. Period. Big trouble. Big. He promised to not do that again, and we wound up giving each other snuggles and hugs and kisses, but he'd better not EVER do that again! (At least not until he speaks English and can tell someone his name and address if he gets lost!)

Aleksa was super over-tired this afternoon/evening. She stood in the middle of Adam's room crying/SCREAMING and looking an awful lot like she had to go potty (holding herself, etc.) Well, I put her on the potty and she screamed even more. Overtired. She went, and then I tried to tell her it was bedtime. OY. You'd think I was telling her we were going to chop off her arm or something. She screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed. So, we went round and round for an hour and a half. I realized in the middle of the screaming that she was scared to sleep alone in her room. As soon as Liana layed down in her bed, she was fine. The bummer of it was that we kept Liana up a little LATER so that she didn't have to try to sleep in the same room with her screaming sister. OOps! Poor Aleksa hasn't ever had to sleep in a room by herself before. I'm an idiot. (I should have sent BOTH girls to bed early! ;O) )