One, Two, Three, “Nor-ga”

So everytime we visit Harry, we use some excuse to ask him “Skol-ka” (How much, or How many) as we play, just to see what he knows already. 99.9% of the time, his answer is “Nor-ga” meaning many. Hmmm, okay, well that was fine since generally we were asking him about large quantities of items…on Sunday he had 4 little cars in his hands, and so I asked him how many…the response, “Nor-ga” “Nyet” (no) I said, then asked again. “Nor-ga”…hmmmm

I held up three ballons and asked how many – same response “Nor-ga”. This time I counted with him, “Adem, Dva, Tree” Da? (Yes) I asked him. “Da, tree” Okay so he knows three….hmmm A few more “tests” of his counting ability all with the same results – “Nor-ga”. So I asked Irina, our friend, to find out what was up with that.

She told me the caregivers told her, that the program they are in was only designed for children up to 3 years old. They are actually only taught, 1, 2, 3 many. So, for the kids like Harry who are still in BH 2, at age 4 (there are at least 4 kids I know of that are older than he is – two are 4 years 7 months), they simply begin to fall behind. Because of the overcrowding, this is their fate. While the caregivers do great things with them, they simply are equipped for these older kids…

Anyway, yesterday we weren’t able to visit Harry, but today we had a great visit. We spent the morning in Irkutsk notarizing our papers, and then dropped them off at the courthouse. We are waiting for a date for the hearing – so PLEASE continue to pray for us as we get ready to return to court, and the judge!

After our morning in Irkutsk we came back to the apt. for lunch and then went to see Harry after their afternoon naps. He was very happy to see us and immediately stopped what he was doing and came running. We spent several hours with him, watching a Mickey Mouse DVD (he says this PERFERCTLY), blew bubbles – another HUGE hit, did some drawing, played with balloons, and then the boys just let loose and played together. They are beginning to REALLY have fun together. Harry is no slacker, and is very rough, but Skip has been VERY patient, and hasn’t once gotten upset with him. Today after Skip was tickling him to the point where Harry didn’t want him to anymore, I told Harry to say “Stop”. Well sure enough, he shoved Skip playfully, looked at him and said “Skip. Stop!” He’s learning! He enjoys his daily treats – a bottle of apple juice (he still puts the whole bottle in his mouth to drink – too funny), a little bag of fruit snacks, and either a few cookies, or candies. In fact, I have a few pictures of him sprawled out in front of the DVD player, with his feet up, juice in hand, and snack in the other…
Skip continues to catch up on his schoolwork, and is doing well with it. He is learning lots of Russian, and Science remains his favorite subject. He sleeps well at night, but is up early (6 – 7) while going to bed between 8 & 9. While he’s transitioned, he still gets tired during the day, and days when he is very active, as he was this afternoon, he crashes big time. That