A thursday in Siberia...

Last night fell asleep quickly, but Harry was awake til around 10! He was quiet, and a few times I thought he was asleep, but each time I checked he was just lying in bed watching the DVD I put on for them. At home Skip NEVER gets to watch tv or dvds in bed – one because there is no tv in his room, and two, because I don’t want him to get into this habit. Here, all things considered, we’ve let him, and now ‘them” watch a little bit. Partly as a treat, and partly because its just such a strange place for EVERYONE, and it’s more of a distraction than anything else. I’ve started reducing the amount of time I leave it on, but tonite, Harry was so quiet, I just let it play. When I finally did shut it off he was fine, and it took him another 10 minutes or so, then he knocked out. I went to bed right after…

I awoke from a dream about summer today, to find two pair of blue eyes shining brightly near my bed! For years I have imagined this moment and now it is finally real!

We discovered Harry’s dislike for Milk goes beyond drinking it straight up when I gave them cereal with sliced banana this morning. Banana is Harry’s absolute favorite food, and he first tried to just pick the slices out with his fingers. When I wouldn’t let him, he gave in and began using the spoon to carefully scoop up the bananas, and the occasional cereal, being careful not to get milk on his spoon. Skip ate rather quickly, and while I was dumping the little bit of milk left in his plate into the toilet, Harry got up and put his dish in the sink. I asked him, “Done?” to which he went into some long explanation. The only words I caught were “ne hochay molako” which means I don’t like milk. I thus poured out most of the milk and put the plate before him again. He asked, “ne noga molako?” “no milk?” then not waiting for an answer, began to eat. Getting some calcium into him will be an issue that we will need to address. These kids get NO milk in the Baby Homes and go on sweet tea as infants! Skip has horrible teeth as a result. One of our first visits when we are home will be to the dentist to see what we’re looking at!

After breakfast and morning routine the boys flew straight into their version of American Gladiator. I suppose in this instance, it would be Russian-American Gladiator. Armed with large square flannel-covered cardboard shields (the base from some folding storage crates I use here) and plastic bowling pins, they had a blast running around the living room – Harry chattering in Russian, Skip in English.

Their gladiator play gave me time for my own breakfast, dishes, and laundry and then by the time they had expended most of their energy, it was ready for school – 10 minutes earlier than yesterday, so we’re doing well. I got Skip started with Language worksheets and then gave Harry a tracing page with some upper case letters to do. I did the first, and he happily did the rest. We then did his name again – first we traced the name, then he wrote it. A big improvement even since yesterday. By now he knows once the printing is done he can paint. He proceeded to paint about 8 pages of animals. I love the painting book – we bought it here last trip. The pages are VERY thick, so perfect for painting. Each page has a large blank animal, then three suggested ways to color/paint it. He actually tries to copy one example! Skip moved on to Math, and Harry moved on to clean-up. I think he enjoys the clean up – wiping down the messy table, rinsing the water cup, etc. – as much as the painting. Go figure.

After a yogurt snack, we did the color game again. reviewing red, then blue. They like hunting around the house for the color of the day. It’s Skip’s job to spell or learn to spell the color and Harry’s job to learn to say it. It comes out “bwoo” but quite cute! After the color hunt we switch to shapes. The boys each colored a blue square and with the talking alphabet/number learning toy we have, we review circle and square, red & blue. Both boys enjoy this very much and its nice to see them working together.

After colors & shapes it was Geography for Skip and Harry just played with flip phone. We decided to leave our reading ‘til tonite, so we were free for the rest of the afternoon. The boys played with legos & etch-a-sketch while I prepared lunch, which was a variety to say the least. The boys had potato filled vareneki, meat filled pelmeni, cheese slices & sour cream for dipping. Skip wanted a hard boiled egg with his, and Harry had sliced tomato. For once there was very little complaining – no “ne hochays” nor “I don’t likes”, which was a welcomed change. It will be awhile before I can figure out what Harry does & doesn’t like, so there’ll be lots of experimenting. For dessert they had cookies. Kinda bland plain cookies with a hard/chewy nut center. We all like them and they’re cheap, so we buy them often. Forget Chips Ahoy, or Oreos here, it’s trial and error with the many varieties they have, but all turn out a little differently than what you think they might taste like.

It was cold today – or I should say “normal”. –20 at lunch time, but rising somewhat as the afternoon progressed. One of the things about weather here is that the warmest part of day is generally around 3 – 5 as opposed to noon-2 back in the USA. Skip was asking to go out, and I was considering it, but they were getting along well, giving me the opportunity to do little things around the house such as figure out why the desk light won’t work, sweep the kitchen, fold laundry, and work on lesson plans for Skip. I even got to pick my feet up for about 20 minutes and read before deciding I was getting lazy & tired so I’d better take them out. We walked about a mile to a slightly larger supermarket and picked up water, fruit, and of course, our daily ice cream. From there we went across the street to the very large bookstore and grabbed another painting book as well as another paint set. Harry flooded the last one, and while I recovered some of the colors, 3 of the 6 were black! While I was looking for the paints I noticed what to me was a kiddie cup. I picked it and realized it was something really, really cool. It’s a covered cup with a hole in the middle – for water while they’re painting. At less than $1 USD, I got two – one for each. I can’t tell you how many times Harry has spilled the cup of water while painting. Thank goodness there are no carpets! They may sell these in the US but I never saw them – I’ll let ya’ll know how they work tomorrow. Now I told both boys they could buy something as the bookstore also sells a good selection of creative & learning toys. I told Skip if it was less than 100rubles he could have it. He picked a slightly different style sled at 75 rubles. Now Harry on the other hand latched quickly onto a singing iron! Yes, a kids plastic iron that sings! Heaven help us! It was about 120rubles, so I figured I was still under $6 USD and both boys were happy. On the way home there were two developments with slides so the boys took turns using Skips sled to go down. Here in the winter, the kids ice down the slides so you FLY down and skid across the icy trail that leads from the bottom. We returned home around 5:00 and while the boys had their ice cream I started to get dinner ready.

Dinner was quick and painless. Leftover spaghetti & meatballs and raw carrot sticks. No complaints, no issues, no “ne hochays”. Since Irina was coming over after dinner to pick up gifts to deliver to the Ctr. for Adoption & Guardianship Department, I was glad to get dinner and clean-up out of the way early. The boys played really well again, but Harry was VERY whiny when not getting his way. When I’d reprimand him for something he’d then get more whiny, then fresh. It was more of a tired reaction than anything, so knowing he didn’t nap today, I got the boys into bed early. They were in by 8, but Irina came by right after I tucked them in, so it wasn’t’ til she left about 8:30 that they got serious about sleep. It took Harry about 10 minutes to lose the battle, and Skip was right behind. Yippee! I think I’ll put a DVD in my laptop and go to bed myself!
PLEASE keep the Ninnman’s in your prayers as they go to court at 10:00 tomorrow (Thursday 9 p.m EST ). This is their second court visit, and hopefully their last! It’s time for Nathan Genya to come home too!