Beautiful Fall Day

Today was another perfect fall day. Sunshine and no coats needed. We all piled in the car and went to my dad's house to rake the rest of his lawn. The kids just love the leaf-blower, and had lots of fun "helping." ;O) Aleksa had fun not helping, as she did last time. Dad sat under a tree in the yard watching the rest of us work, and more than once I looked over to see Aleksa sitting close beside him just hanging out with Grandpa. The leaf-blower makes a loud racket, so neither of them could really chat, but they sure chummed.

This morning I made pancakes. This is the second time since we got home that I made them. The first time I made them nobody liked them. (The girls were still in their "picky-eater" stage.) This time, everyone gobbled them down. I'm not sure that I mentioned it before, but the girls' pickiness about what they eat has worn off. Maybe it was just the stress of getting used to everything. Probably. They're all over it though, as is Adam's tendency to beg for seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths... :O) He can still pack the food away, but food isn't at all an issue anymore. The worst he's done with food is putting a handful of candy in his pocket the other day at the farm. Pretty typical nine-year-old-boy stuff.

This afternoon instead of Aleksa taking her nap with Mama, Papa sprawled out on the couch with her. She's soooo easily "out." All you have to do is lay still with her for about three minutes and she's out. When she comes up to us and says, "Mama, ya ni tired" ("mama, I'm not tired"), that means it's naptime. Anyway, it was fun to see her snuggling with her Papa... I don't think John has had the chance to nap with her before, so I know he loved it too. She's definitely a snuggler, and it is so fun that she loves to be held and slept with. She comes up to us more and more often to tell us she wants to be held "like this; a baby" as she rocks a pretend baby in her arms. Then she makes baby gurgle sounds as we scoop her up and rock her. We know our days are numbered for such opportunities, so when the come, we take 'em! It is so nice to see her doing that at all with as worried as I was about her attachment to us when we first came home with her. She still likes strangers too much for my liking, but she's doing soooo great on all other fronts.

It seems like we've hit some kind of plateau with their English-speaking. Their comprehension is amazing, but they haven't made a lot of progress with their speaking in the last week or so. I've been told Month Four is a magic month, but I was also told that for Month Three. With them having each other to talk to, I'm sure it might take a little longer than most other families' Ukie kiddos. *sigh*. Liana did learn her Sunday School memory verse for this week, if her teacher can understand her. The verse is, "The words of the Lord are pure words." Liana has a speech impediment even in Ukrainian with her "r's" and "l's." Besides that, the "th" for Russian/Ukrainian speakers is tough because there is no sound like that in those languages. So, Liana's verse sounds something like, "Da wodes of da Wode ow pew wodes." Gonna hafta get the video tape out again... ;O)