Two Busy Days

For all of you with a blog addiction, I thought I better get posting.    Yesterday and today have been two very busy days running from inspector, to orphanage, to copier store, to inspector, to orphanage, to court, etc.  We have left both days about 8am and return to the apartment at 7pm.  We also moved to another apartment today, but we will only be here until Sunday, when the apartment that Luda really wanted becomes available. 

Lets start with Thursday.  We woke up and left to go to the orphanage to see the little girl.  We reviewed her file with the Deputy Director and then the Orphanage Doctor.  They then brought her in and she had a big smile, but kind of looked away shyly.  The Director had spoken with her the day before to explain we were coming and the first thing she wanted to know is if we were seeing the boys as well.  Someone tried before to only adopt her and this was denied.  She came in and we said hello.  She looked through our scrapbook though we did not have much time to communicate.  The Deputy Director then took her back out and asked if she would like to be adopted by us and have us become her new Mama and Papa.  They came back quickly and we could tell by the expressions and smiles that she had said yes.  We only saw her for a bit and then we had to run some errands and pick up some toys/gifts for the kids when we saw them later in the afternoon.

We came back to the little girls' orphanage and spent a few hours getting to know her.  We drew pictures (she loves to draw), we played with a Play-Doh fruit salad set we brought along.  She really like that.  We watched a bit of Cinderella but that didn't hold her attention.  We then drew more pictures and then played Go Fish with Care Bear Cards we took along.  We also gave her gummi bears.  All the kids like to share and will give Mama and Papa one everytime they take one.  She does like to take charge and was impatient with us opening the Play-Doh and the cards and grabbed them from me.  Next time we meet, Luda will have to explain to her that Mama and Papa do not like that and she must wait and be nice.  Luda also had a book to test her development, reading and reasoning skills.  I believe the book was a 4-5 level and she could not read some things and had a hard time explaining (finding the right words), so her vocabulary is not as developed.  She also pronounces words the easy way or wrong way because she was not corrected or taught properly when she was younger.  I think she is a bit further behind her age then the boys, because she had spent more of her early development at home with her biological parents.  I think she will be a quick learner though.

After we visited her, we stopped at the boys' orphanage for some paperwork, but it was not ready, so we only had a brief visit.  We were able to put together a rocket ship kit that was like a Konnectx set or a Lego set with the boys.  Holy cow were they excited about that.  Both boys were very analytical and detail oriented.  The project had to match the picture on the box exactly.  Sounds like we have some future engineers on our hands.

Today we visited the boys for a couple of hours.  They rambled down the hall dressed in head to toe denim with a playground ball each under their arm.  We were allowed to take them outside for playtime and bonding.  We kicked the ball around a bit and chased each other all over a small section of the grounds.  These two guys really like the attention!  They were swinging from the playground equipment like monkeys.  We taught them how to count to three using some games.  We'll have to continue with the counting on another trip.  After running around, we settled down with some peanut butter crackers that Heather made the night before.  We're not sure that they had peanut butter crackers before but they sure did like them. We also gave them some vitamins discretely disguised as gummi bears. After snacks we gave the boys the trucks we bought them in Kyiv.  There was a Land Rover for A**** and a open top Jeep for C*****.  Immediately they were enthralled with doors that opened on the Rover and the flip down windshield on the Jeep.  I caught C***** doing a quick comparison of his Jeep to A****'s Rover.  I think when we get home we'll have to get some Tonka trucks or Fisher Price trucks because these guys know how to "play" with their trucks.

Interestingly A**** put down his truck to curl up against my laptop bag like he was sleeping which was cute.  He then spotted Heather's magazines and led C***** through the picture advertisements.  An advertisment with a dog standing on a pool table caught their funny bone.  A**** has a very deep gutteral laugh with a giggle finish to it that you can't help but to laugh along.  C***** is a giggler and when he giggles, he giggles a lot.  They are both very sweet and funny.  We'll have to find better magazines than "Better Homes and Gardens" to read through when we get home like "Trucks" and "Motor Trend."

We spent more time on the swing sets and jungle gyms until we settled on a big slide set off by itself.  There were three slides all told and many climbing ladders and ramps to the top platforms.  Platforms we use loosely because one platform was missing entirely and one was mangled so badly we did not want the boys to walk on it. Thankfully there was one good platform for the boys.  We were on that apparatus for over an hour alone.  The boys were yucking it up for the camera. A**** loves to have his picture taken.  He was posing for pictures by propping his head up with his hand and elbow and C***** was imitating his older brother.  Both boys had to see the digital display of every picture that I took.  The point and shoot camera we have with us is doing well but I would love to have my DSLR from home.

We did have to correct each boys behavior once during our play time.  Both instances centered on the mangled platform.  Both boys had gotten closer to the platform than we liked and we warned them each not to go further.  A**** stepped out on the platform and disobeyed our instructions so he got a timeout.  He did well in timeout and seemed to understand that he did something wrong from Papa's expressions and actions. In no time he was back to playing with C*****.  C*****'s timeout for the same offense was a bit different.  Papa had to reinforce his timeout position twice which led to C***** crying with both hands over his face and sobbing.  It was painful to watch him cry.  After some time to reflect, Moma and Papa reassured and hugged C***** and cleaned him up to play again.  Both boys made subtle moves towards the bum platform again which were met with "Nyet."  We think they understand the mangled platform is off limts now.

During our time we noticed that the boys were dressed for playing outside in late fall with cooler temperatures.  Each had thermal long pants underneath their thick denim jeans, flannel shirts and heavy denim jackets aka "the dreaded jean jacket."  The actual temperature was somewhere in the 70's.  The boys visit was great and we look forward to tomorrow's trip.

After our visit, we ran errands all over.  Back to the inspector's office, switch apartments, to the copy office, to dinner and to the big market.  The newest pictures of the boys are uploaded.  Can't wait to see M***** tomorrow. Luda has been great.  She is definitely on her game and is very organized.  She seems to have good repoire with the inspector and the orphanage staff at the boy's home and girl's home.

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