Misc ramblings

We're closing in on Month Three, and I have been tickled pink that my kids still think that cleaning is fun. They still fight over who gets to vacuum and dust. It's just amazing. (*woe is me*) ;O)

Also, Adam has been really wanting me to let him figure out how to do the laundry (he loves machines and buttons and loud noises...) So, today I taught him the joys of sorting clothes by colors, figuring out hot/warm/cold water, etc. I wonder how long these joys will last! ;O) I think I started doing my own laundry when I was just a couple years older than he is though, so I don't feel *too* bad.

Of the three, Adam keeps his room the neatest. He makes his bed without being told, and he really takes pride in keeping his room clean. He didn't start out that way, that's for sure, but the longer he has been home, the more inclined to keep a tight ship. Fine with me; if he ever marries, his wife will love that about him! (His bookshelves are a mess though... I guess he figures as long as it isn't on the floor, it is clean).

I had a lot of chores to do this afternoon, so I didn't have time to nap with 'Leksa. I layed her down in her bed and let Liana and Adam play quietly in the other room. I wondered how it would go since the last time I tried that, she screamed her head off because she was scared of being alone. It lasted about five minutes and then she started crying. I put her on the couch with the rest of us in the kitchen and she was out within a couple minutes as usual. She has to have someone within earshot at all times, but preferably sleeping right there with her. (I prefer that too. Nothing sweeter on earth than to have a little girl hug you as she sleeps.)

Speaking of, when I wake them up in the morning, I usually sing "You Are My Sunshine" to them. Aleksa listens and then will sing the last word in each phrase with me. Kinda cute. I've been calling her my "Leksa Lou." Adam has started calling her that too, and I have to chuckle whenever he says it. Just something about a non-native-English-speaker adding a "Lou" to someone's name. Cracks me up.

Adam's fish tank had been a little yucky, so John has changed it a few times recently, and we wound up having to take all the fake-foliage out. Hopefully we can put it back soon; his poor fish is bored to death. We were worried that the slime on the sides of the tank was making the fish sick, and when we told that to Adam, he got all "parental" and went over to the tank, stroked the glass and cooed at the fish telling it that he loved it and that he needed to get better, etc. He's such a softy. He's a father-hen to the girls (ok, mostly to Aleksa); he loves animals; he loves to be touched and to touch, etc. He also has said that he wants ten children. Five girls and five boys. I told him he'd better be a lawyer or doctor then, because that was a lot of mouths to feed! His response was, "Ya smart, Mama; ya smart!" as he tapped the side of his forehead. Yup, he is!

Ok, speaking of "yup," my Liana has picked up my bad habit of saying that. Grrr. Only when she says it, it sounds like, "Yop." The Russian word, "dah" for "yes" has been one they've hung onto the longest without changing, so this new "yup" thing sounds funny to me to hear instead of "dah." They haven't yet used the word "and" yet either. Some of the most common words are the ones they have hung onto the longest in Ukrainian/Russian. They still don't use the English personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, they, we), though the rest of the sentence might be in English. Exceptions might be for phrases that we use all the time like, "I love you." Then they'll use the pronoun, but probably only because they have learned the phrase as a unit, and not because they constructed it themselves.