John's Birthday

Today is John's birthday, so the kids had a great time making it memorable. We served Papa breakfast in bed this morning. Of course, that also meant that we all got to eat OUR breakfast in bed too. I made sure that the Malt-o-Meal was extra thick this morning so there wouldn't be too much of a mess.

Then, I piled the kids in the car and headed off to Walmart to buy Papa his birthday present. He is pretty boring to buy for. He wanted earphones. *Jumps up and down with excitement* *not.* Well, he liked them, so I guess that's what's important. *shrugs* What he really liked was the kids' rendition of "Happy Birthday." He was all smiles as the kids belted out "Happy Birsday Papa, Happy Birsday, Papa, Happy Birsday, Papa..." It was cute, and they were so excited to watch him open his present.

John took the kids sledding again this afternoon. I wish I would have gone with this time, because Aleksa actually gathered the courage to slide down the hill BY HERSELF today, lots and lots of times! This is huge for her. She's our scaredy-cat when it comes to this kind of thing. She has come sooooooo far in the few months she's been home. It's really hard to really describe it. When she first came home, we had to carry her everywhere. She was scared of seatbelts, the car going over bumps, sharp turns, rough playing with Papa, heights, unfamiliar bathrooms (!!!), etc. She wouldn't go into the Playland area at McDonalds, swing by herself at the park, go down the slide by herself, etc. Now we've gotten her to go swimming, and to slide down a hill all alone! I'm so excited for her! She's just doing great.

The other day I needed to look for a word in the Russian dictionary to tell the kids what something was. This was the first time in a loooooooong time that I've needed to do so, and when I reached for it, Liana said, "This book says, 'Ni zhalvatsia.'" "Ni zhalvatsia" means, "don't complain," which is a phrase we had to look up quite often when they first came home. We could never remember it ourselves, and so had to look it up all the time. It cracked me up that that was the association she had with the dictionary, AND that she remembered how to say it at all. She's lost so much of her Ukrainian/Russian. Yesterday I asked her how to say "ear," and she said, "I don't know, I already forgot it. I speak English now." What amazed me was that she said it in perfect English.

Speaking of, I was just telling someone today that they are still confusing me/I "Me want some..." They also can't use the future tense in English yet. They still use "budu/budesh/budim/budit." So, they'll say something like, "Me budu go to the store." "I'm going to go to the store." Or, "Liana budit play games" for "Liana is going to play games." Otherwise, they really are coming along. Adam still struggles harder though, and it seems like if he isn't 100% sure of what a word means, he won't repeat it or remember it. We really try to make sure he knows what new words mean. The chapter books we've been reading have helped his vocab a ton. Right now we're in the middle of "The Wizard of Oz." They are on the edge of their seat. Today Dorothy threw the water on the Witch of the West, and they are dying to know what happens next. The tin man and the scarecrow are still lost. (The book is a little different than the movie...)

Anyway, I'm tired. Time for bed.