Rain, Rain, go away!

Okay, cabin fever has set in. I have not left the apartment since we got here and neither have the children, except for J.Michael, who went to the market with Daddy. For every one post I have 10 in my head that I would like to write down, but time does not permit. So much to record of these early days…every minute is something new and precious. Andrew enjoys watching the videos we took of them at the orphanage and over the past 7 days. It is cute to hear him call himself Andrew on the videos.

Kathlena is staying busy. She likes to help mommy with everything, cooking in the kitchen, doing laundry and playing hide-n-seek with the boys. She does not care too much for nap time or bedtime but is doing much better. She fights the sleep but once down gives up quickly. She and J. Michael have really bonded. She runs from him saying “neyt, neyt, neyt” (Russian for “no”) in this high-pitched girly voice that really says “chase me, chase me”. She even comes to him and puts her arms up when she wants him to hold her. She and Daddy are becoming good buddies…she was not too sure about him at first, especially when he hasn’t shaved. They played the smooth-rough game with one side of his face shaved, and she got tickled. Her laugh is so adorable that we all just start laughing when we hear her. I want to record it for my phone ringer! Now, she has decided Daddy is pretty fun to play with and loves to give him kisses.

Andrew is every bit the sweet little boy we saw that first day at the orphanage. We have lots of re-training to do with him, but he is so good-natured and teachable and responding well to us. He loves to be held and get kisses from both Mommy and Daddy. Emily does really well working with him on his words and translating his Russian to us. I am amazed how much Russian she has picked up in such a short time. It has been a real blessing for us and for her to be here on this trip to be able to bond with her brother so soon. Andrew is a hard working helper…we mopped the kitchen floor and he was a great help. He stuck with it until the job was done then hung his towel over the radiator…I think he has done this before.

Some of Andrew’s favorite words are Chicken Noodle (which he would say every time I would open the food cabinet at the hotel Dvina and now he has named his monkey Chicken Noodle), mashed potatoes, Momma, Papa, Wasawski (from Monster’s Inc.-he loves and has watched this movie more times than I can count!), wash hands, and bananas. What has been so hard for me is to see how very thin he really is. He weighed in at barely 37lbs. He is literally skin and bones. His appetite is growing though each day. It is hard for me not to over stuff him, but we are pacing ourselves. He really loves meat, yogurt, bananas and—you guessed it—Chicken Noodle. Andrew also loves raw potatoes—go figure Uncle Todd! You now have a raw potato eating buddy. Andrew has had lots of fun playing with his new truck and magnet set. He is so imaginative. In the mornings he stays in his bed and talks to himself—practicing words and singing songs. His favorite song to sing is a song from Veggie Tales, “Jonah”, that we brought with us. It is the song the kids are singing in the van at the beginning, “First aid, in the first grade …nanana nana” He learned the tune after hearing it once. He has an amazing memory and loves music.

Well, we hope to be able to go to the circus Mon. night. We are not sure how Kathlena will do as it is 3hrs long and is in the evening at 7pm. She is usually in bed by 8pm, but hey, it’s the circus in Moscow—how many chances will we have to do this again? Plus it means we get out of the apartment…yeah! We will see…Alex is going to check on tickets for us. We will try to post more pics…David is working on video, but we have run into some technical problems between programs and computers and lack of internet access to help diagnose the problem. He is trying another program and making some progress. It is so fun though, as Daddy works on video Andrew wants to be in his lap “helping” and watching the videos…another techie in the making. We cannot have enough of those in the family!

I am adding to this post before David heads to the coffee shop to post online. We woke up today and it is beautiful outside. We will definitely be getting out of the apartment today. I am hoping we can walk to the Kremlin; we are so close to it! Everyone slept well…got to run everyone’s up now and hungry!