Cookie Mess!

This afternoon I had the kids make cut-out cookies. What a Disaster Zone. First of all, this morning one of the kids ran off with our kitchen timer, so the cookies turned out rather crispy. When I pulled them out of the oven they asked, "Crackers, Mama?" I figured though, that with a dollop of frosting, the "crackers" would be ok. ;O)

Then! I put the canister of flour on top of the fridge away from little hands and apparently I put it up there carelessly. I had to go into the freezer for something or other and you guessed it, the canister fell on the floor. Flour EVERYWHERE. I instantly had a flock of little kids wanting to "help" clean it up. Mess, Mess, Mess.

This evening I had them frost the cookies, and that was a big disaster too, but they had a blast. John helped mix the colors for the frosting, and being the curious soul he is, he decided to mix the food coloring colors together to see what kind of shades he could come up with. Nasty ugly purple (Sorry, honey, I thought they were hideous!). Then the Sprinkles. Oh what fun they had with sprinkles. I think we're going to be finding sprinkles in nooks and crannies until 2020. But, of course, they loved it, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. They were really good today. Everyone got along, everyone was cooperative, lots of memories made today.

The only trouble of the day was how slooooow the girls ate their lunch. If they aren't terribly thrilled with the menu, they will usually drag out the meal for as long as they possibly can. They are actually discussing this topic on my "Older Kids" adoption board right now, so I have a few tips on how to speed them up a bit now. We'll see...

With all the attention I have to give the older two with their school work, I have been feeling like little Aleksa has been "out in the cold" without her mama. I've been trying to include her in a lot of what we do, but there is only so long I can hold her attention too. I use puppets a lot when I explain new words or concepts, and that helps, but... So, I break things up with reading books here and there, but I still wish I could be a few places at once. At naptime I slept with Aleksa on purpose just because of that. I'm going to try to do that more often.

Once Liana's Tylenol wore off, her nose was still pretty tender this evening. I don't think it is broken since the swelling went down so fast overnight, but who knows. I hope her eyes don't blacken, but I appreciate the heads up from the one who posted below about their little girl's eyes taking a few days to blacken. We might just wind up taking her in so I can find out whether or not her nose had been broken before or not. Might not ever get the chance to find out otherwise. We'll have to think on that one.

Our kids' favorite word is "smatree!" ("Watch/look!") We hear it about five million times a day as a preface for something they just plain HAVE to show us. Tonight, the girls actually started saying "watch" instead. It kinda made me sad. Earlier, Aleksa was singing one of the many songs she knows from Ukraine. This one was something about a dog, and in it she was apparently to count to 10. (If it rings a bell with anyone, I'd love to get the words to it somehow!) She got to 6 just fine in Ukrainian, but then when it came to 7, she said, "seven" and then finished counting in English. The number seven sounds similar in both languages so it was an easy number to transition with. That kinda made me sad too. I got the song on video though (poor girl was on the pot when I taped her though. Sorry Aleksa, you should get inspired to sing elsewhere if you don't want Mama to tape you on the potty!)

Because I was curious about the counting thing and switching languages with Aleksa, tonight I asked Adam to count for me in Ukrainian. He did the same thing, only it wasn't number 7. He didn't know he switched languages either until I started counting with him. Then he sort of pantomimed his brain being all scrambled up. Can't even imagine! It has to be soooo frustrating for them! I've heard that at about 2-3 months home, the kids will be officially "language-less." Meaning, they won't remember their Ukrainian (well enough to be fluent), and won't know English yet (well enough to be fluent.) It will probably take longer than that for us since the kids have each other to talk to and reinforce their first language. So sad that it will be gone soon. I really do feel bad about that. You lose your language and you lose your culture. Imagine us Americans speaking French. We would not be the same kind of people. I know, I know, just get over it, Shelly.

The kids' certificates of citizenship came from Immigration today. They are soooo pretty! Very official documents, having seals, signatures, the kids' pictures, etc. Plus a letter from the President that actually made me cry. They got their US passports a little while ago. Next stop is to get their SS numbers and then we're done with all the US stuff. Our kids possess soooo much with their citizenship here. So many have died trying to obtain it. I truly hope that some day they will understand what an enormous gift and privilege they have being Americans. They do have dual citizenship with Ukraine at least until they are 18. I hope they always keep their Ukrainian citizenship too, but I'm not sure if that is even possible. Never heard exactly how that works.

Some people choose to readopt their children in their state and get them a US birth certificate, but I don't see any reason they'll need it. Ukraine doesn't require it. Our adoption was official before we ever came home. They'll have a SS card and a US passport - and those are the only things they'll ever need for proof of citizenship, job employment, etc, and if those aren't enough, we have their official "proof of citizenship certificate" as of today. I'm proud of their Ukie birth certificates. They were born in Ukraine, they should keep their Ukrainian birth certificates. I've heard that it would help us on our state income taxes for this year if we did readopt, but I think it is silly, so I don't want to do it.