26 Months Home

Between my laziness and my flaky internet connection, I completely blew our "month-a-versary" post this month. I'm like five days late or something, and I've cringed every night going to bed not having updated, though I did go one entire day last week without any internet connection at all... Satellite connections are rather frustrating sometimes!

Ok, lemme get to the update before I rabbit trail and forget why I'm here. ;O)

I'll start with Aleksa since she's the one hot on the brain right now. She's been a little Stinker this month! She has been trying to boss around her older brother every chance she can get. She finds things about him that he's doing wrong and pounces. Frankly, it's driving me crazy. I keep telling her that Adam already has a Mama, and she isn't her. Not only does she nag him, but she'll yell at him, kick him, etc. Not sure where this kicking business is coming from. Evidently Little Zina is making a comeback! She's had to draw more pictures and "I'm sorry" notes to her brother this month than all the other months we've had her combined. Actually, it isn't just pictures, it is doing "something nice" for her brother to show him she loves him. All these months of flying under the radar and she's finally onscreen. That's good, I guess, because if we don't realize an attitude is there, we can't do anything to help fix it.

Aleksa has been really flying with her reading. She's not afraid to tackle reading signs, papers laying around, other stories besides her readers for school, etc. It took Adam and Liana a long, long time before they got to that point, and actually, in a lot of ways, they aren't even quite there yet. There still seems to be a hesitation to believe they CAN read signs, newspapers, other "nonschool" books, etc. Perhaps it's just laziness? Not sure, but Leksa thinks she can, is optimistic about it, so she does. She's also at a point in her readers that she won't put them down if she's interested in the story. She'll finish a weeks' worth of reading in one sitting. Liana is only finally at that point right now.

Liana... she's growing up, what can I say? *waaah* Yesterday we went to visit some friends who have also adopted from Ukraine, though a few years before us. It was nice to finally have met these folks in real life after having exchanged many emails, etc. Anyway, their daughter is Adam's age, and is rather a tomboy. Likes basketball, etc. Most of Liana's neighborhood friends are a year younger than she is, or a little less, so getting to play with a "big girl" was a treat for her. They were out shooting hoops, gathering sticks in the back yard to make a pretend bonfire, etc. Liana was in 7th Heaven. When we got home she told me we needed a basketball hoop so she could start doing "big girl things." Aleksa wasn't so interested in the "big girl" things when there were baby dolls to play with. She was walking around with a doll on her shoulder all afternoon.

Well, anyway, Liana is getting to the point where she's not a little girl, but she's not a big girl yet either, and it's making her feel rather out of place. Christmas is going to be tough for me this year. I have absolutely no ideas for her - other than the basketball hoop! lol! Whaddaya get girls that age?

Funny language story to tell on Liana. This is a hoot. Tonight Adam's stomach wasn't feeling the greatest, and so instead of dealing with Adam's very graphic descriptions of what was going on, we suggested that he just said, "I have diarrhea." Liana piped up and said that she thought diarrhea meant that two people were going to get married. ... Um, no. That would be "engaged." Who knows where that came from! lol!

Since Adam's funny language story is on this same vein, I'll add his here too... We also suggested that Adam announce that "Nature was calling" instead of telling us *exactly* what he needed to do. (What is it about 11yo boys loving to describe this stuff!?) Well, the next time nature called, he said, "Nature is Coming!"

The other day we heard him referring to our computer as the "Liptop" computer. John sure laughed at that visual.

I really need to post another video of Adam really talking. (Not just answering questions, but actually talking.) He's getting to the point in his language that people are starting to say that they like his accent. The second person has told me that in just the last few weeks. No one has ever said that before concerning him. He's the "hard-to-understand" one, and for the first year, he was tough to understand, let alone thing he had a "nice accent." It's been sorta shocking to me to hear people say they like his accent... I guess it's a nice spot to finally be in... he has struggled so hard to get here. We were all watching videos the other day of some that I took at just 5-7 months home. Uff, they were excruciating to listen to him talk, though I remember at the time being so proud that he'd come so far. Even Adam was surprised to hear himself stutter, stammer and struggle for words, etc. He didn't want to finish listening to himself; he asked us to shut it off. He's doing so much better now. Long way to go yet, but so much better, and it is so comforting to look back and see such progress.

He's been doing really well with his reading time too. Neither he nor Liana can read silently yet, which I think is rather odd, but they get lost in their thoughts if they don't read out loud. They just can't do it. Aleksa can read "in a whisper" but still not silently either. Adam has made good progress with his reading, but I know it isn't coming as quickly as with Liana because of Liana's grasp of the language. Adam will sound things out in a nonsense way, and assume it is a word. We have to really listen to him as he reads so he doesn't skip over those and to remind him that he's reading real live words that he probably knows, so to try again. Liana's mind can fill in the blanks with context, guessing word order, etc because of knowing how to SPEAK it so well. She'll often get away with only "really" having to read the first letter of the word to know that it must say since she's already familiar with an expression, phrase, etc. Adam still is learning all that, really, and so when he reads, he doesn't have the luxury of having the fluency to help him. Not sure if that makes sense. Still, his overall comprehension of a story is usually right on, so I'm not terribly worried yet. I ask him questions about everything he reads to make sure he "gets it." He might blow certain words here and there, but overall, he's got the picture. Still, Liana has blown past him in reading levels a while ago. Liana has read up through at least Week 32 (of 36 weeks) of her readers already here in little Week 8. We bought the next level of readers for her to work on when she's done. She loves books and good stories, and MUST know what happens next. She's got the reading bug, in other words. Yay!

Can't imagine life without our three. They've not been home very long, but they are just plain part of us. Some days are harder than others, but I sure wouldn't trade 'em for anything! I love hanging out with my kiddos and my hubby. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world than exactly where and what I'm doing right now! Life is good!