My superheroes..

Harry's trips "home" to the apt. continue to go very well. Each day he learns more English, and is getting a glimpse of what "normal" family life is like. We are learning his likes and dislikes as far as food - though the likes appear to outnumber the dislikes. As for clothing, he still won't wear jeans. Something tells me THAT will change once he gets home! He loves fruit of any kind. He's eating tons of bananas (his favorite thusfar), apples, pears, & oranges. He likes pasta with sauce alot, and loves chicken. He doesn't like peas though - and today he used his spoon to remove all the peas from his soup, and placed them in a ring around his soup bowl, on the plate that it was sitting on. He still hasn't taken nap yet, so I'm not exactly WHAT he does those three hours when the whole group supposedly sleeps (from 12:30 to 3:30 daily), but each day he and Skip lie down on the pullout sofa and watch cartoons. It's as close as he comes to a nap. The thing is he does rest, so, that works for me. And, as you can see, he and his entire group got scalped a few days ago...It' looks cute except for the hideous way they leave the bangs long... I'd been tempted to cut them, but, the thought of trying to keep him still long enough has caused me to reconsider.

He and Skip have begun a tradition of a pillow fight after rest time, and they are pretty good about stopping when I ask them to - about five minutes after they start. Just enough time to get them silly. He very much enjoys the trolley ("trarm-vi") ride to and from the BH each day, and insists on sitting near the window so he can press his face against it, and watch all the exciting stuff like cars, buses and trolleys going in the opposite direction whiz by. He sits and stares at them - in a trance like state, often singing quietly as he soaks it all in.

Their favorite pastime together however has been "Superheroes". They both tie small blankets around their necks, and run around the house doing all sorts of "boy" things. They run, chase, yell, jump (when they think we're not looking), makes weird sounds, and try to scare us. They could do this all day if we let them. After a half hour or so my head starts throbbing from the insanity, but I suppose I should get used to this behavior as this is just good old boy stuff.

Today it warmed up enough to play outside, and while I cleaned up a bit since the owner was showing the apt. to a prospective buyer at 6:00 p.m, Mike took them out to the playground. They came back with red cheeks and soaked clothing, but had a lot of fun according to Mike.

Each day is a bit less enthusiastic about returning to the BH, but he still goes without any major fussing. I suppose it's a good thing since it would make the visits very difficult. I just hope that soon we won't be worrying about visits!

Since the apt. was being shown to someone today, Irina suggested we again go bowling after we brought Harry back. It again, was a good distraction from our decision making, and worrying, and when we were done, we all went for a quick bite at a fast-food place nearby. It was mobbed! The first time we came here, in Dec. 2006, there was never anybody in the place. Today we had to wait for a table! All 8 of us ate for $30.00 and the food is really good! Of course now we're ready for sleep since we ate too much. Tonite we turn the clocks back, so tomorrow, instead of waking up to darkness at 8:00 a.m., we might actually get up when it's light outside! I'm not complaining though, I can't remember the last time we got to sleep 'til 8:00 consistently for more than a few days, and I think since we all got acclimated to Angarsk time, we've slept that late almost every day.

Of course, if you could see the way these two superheroes run around all day (with us not far behind them), you'd understand why sleeping in is so important!