Saturday, Sunday and Monday

We've settled into a routine lately over here.  We wake up and spend a few hours relaxing by ourselves, visit the boys and M for a couple of hours and then head back to the apartment for the day.  During the week we spend the afternoons with the kids and get back to the apartment around dinnertime.  From there we spend time reading, watching the two TV channels we can understand, make some dinner and respond to emails and blog.  We live such an exciting life now!  On weekends we start earlier with the kids and we are back at the apartment early enough to walk into town for a meal or shopping.  Our apartment is centrally located and it's an easy walk to the downtown area.  We haven't gone exploring that much in Simferopol and the sites are not that really spectacular unless you like scenes of old smelly buses and traffic.  A few of you have asked for pictures and we'll try to oblige you as we can find some scenes of interest.

On Saturday we finished building the Lego motorcycle with the boys much to their enjoyment.  C had first crack at playing with the bike which left A in a fit.  Both boys are competitive but A reacts much stronger when he doesn't get his way.  We'll be spending some time with A on understanding the sharing concept.  A's fit was quickly tempered with 10 minutes on the swingset with Mama.  C was off in his own little world playing with the toy motorcycle.  Papa held back to let C play by himself until the motorcycle decided to "fall" apart.  Lego projects don't seem to be made to stand up to our boys.  This unfortunately made A's time with the motorcycle difficult.  Without superglue or duct tape Papa could not get the pivot point for the steering or the front wheel to stay together for very long.  A seemed to enjoy working with Papa to get the motorcycle roadworthy again.  We had another sharing incident with A and C over the swing later in our time with the boys.  A and C are 14 months apart which is similar to the time between my brother and I (Andrew).  If my experience with my brother is any indication we are going to have a few interesting years coming up.  We'll definitely have to protect M from the boys ganging up on her like me and my brother did to our sister.

At M's orphanage we spent some time at the playground and then watched the end of a football (soccer to us Americans) match held on the orphanage grounds.  M polished off the rest of the animal crackers we bought the day before.  All threes kids have excellent appetites.  It's a shame that M's orphange does not have better outside facilities for the kids.  There are very few benches and poor playground equipment outside.  Obviously older children do not need the same equipment that the boys have at their orphanage but there is really nothing for the kids to do outside except play on the crumbling concrete walls.  The weather was beautiful so it's a sin to be indoors in a cold, dank orphanage lobby when you can soak up some rays outside.  Weekends at M's orphanage are less hectic. There are a large number of kids that stay during the week to attend classes and then leave on weekends to be with family. The orphans are the only ones left on the weekends.  M is great.  We spend a lot of time teaching her english and reading through first words books.  It seems very simple but we have to start somewhere.  M can only take so much before her eyes start to wonder elsewhere.  We try to teach in spurts and mix in fun stuff like craft projects.

After visiting the kids we ate dinner at Pizza Celetano downtown. The Pizza Celetano in Kyiv has an English menu, the one in Simferopol does not.  We were able to crudely communicate our order to the counter person well enough to have a good meal. Our first meals of the day have been between 2 pm and 3 pm lately with a light dinner in the early evening.  Both of us have been satisfied with our food intake so far although both of us have lost 10-15 pounds.  Foreign language menus and the exercise of wrangling two young boys helps the pounds come off.

Sunday was a repeat of the day before only that the boys were late getting outside and when they did come out they were wearing winter hats.  We didn't think it was odd because the caretakers dress the kids very warmly and it was a little cooler than the day before.  C was scratching his head when we noticed that he had significantly less hair than he did the day before.  Overnight both boys had their hair cut short.  They both look better although they will need a quick shape up before they are introduced to the professional hair stylists in the family when we get home.

We had a few more competitive moments between the boys and C was very upset that the motorcycle was not in our bag of goodies today. We were able to take over two swings so each boy could swing.  We don't understand much of what the boys say in Russian but we can decipher the taunts that they say back and forth.  One will same something about swinging higher and faster than the other and the other will talk about counting with Mama or singing the ABC song (although only Mama and Papa can actually sing it).

M was outside playing with her friends when we arrived.  We sat back for some time and let her continue to play until she was ready to bring us into her group.  We gave her some treats to share with her friends which were welcomed graciously.  We were surprised that she was playing mostly with kids 4-5 years or more older than she.  The group settled down to put the three puzzles together that we brought.  We didn't have a lot of alone time with M but it was good to see her interacting with the other kids at the same time.

Luda came back from her visit with her family for a couple of days in high spirits in spite of a five hour bus ride back to Simferopol.  Heather and I ate a late lunch downtown and made it home before the increasing winds made the walk too unpleasent.  We had to turn back the clocks one hour Saturday night and of course now the days turn to nights much more quickly.  By 6 pm it is pitch black now.  Note:  We are now 6 hours ahead from EST until the clocks are turned back in the States.

Luda was up early on Monday to go to court to visit with the Judge. The Judge was not available today and Luda will try again tomorrow.  Luda was able to pick up our approved files from the SDA from the train station so all was not lost today.  Our updated homestudy also arrived in Kyiv today.  Thanks Joni and Michelle for the time and efforts in helping us out.  We are still waiting on the Visa Center in New Hampshire to wire over our updated visa approval form which should come tomorrow.  We had pizza again today for lunch at the shopping mall.  Heather said it was the best yet here in Ukraine.  I was indifferent.  We also picked up a beading kit for M's visit today.  She loved it. She also loved the new jeans and turtle neck that she tried on today.  She is going to be stylin' when she leaves the orphanage.

It was cold and blustery today. We should have brought hot cocoa for the kids but they were stuck with juice boxes and peanut butter crackers instead.  M didn't care for her crackers so Papa had to clean up the rest. Yummm. The boys devoured their crackers and didn't come up for air once they started on the juice boxes.

Since it got darker earlier today we had to bring the boys in earlier.  At first they protested but we found a nice spot in the lobby and A laid in Papa's lap and reviewed our photo book of our lives back in the U.S.A. while Mama and C worked on puzzles.  Both boys got some alone time with Mama and Papa but we were no further apart than a coffee table length.  A and C laughed hysterically at the mention of babushka.  We don't know why but they did multiple times.  Don't be offended babushka's back home if they laugh when we introduce you.

Paka