I would love to sit down and write you all a nice long post about everything that's going on, but I'm a bit short on uninterrupted time (right now I'm being serenaded by a very loud duo who are accompanying their singing with drumbeats using Lincoln logs). So instead here's a video, taken a few days ago, of one of Zhenya and Mark's English lessons. ;) If I'm not mistaken, when Zhenya throws his little "fit", he's saying "where, Papa?!?" in reference to the red button. :) :) By the way, this video clip cracks me up, especially the very end...
**Now to this evening...**
The boys are doing well, I just haven't had much time to post. I've spent the evenings trying to get other things done and blogging and emailing just haven't been happening, but we're all well for those of you who might have been concerned. :) :)
Today we went to the playground for the first time in a few days. It's been cold here but today was pretty nice--i.e., about 34 deg when we went to the playground. Tomorrow it's supposed to be a high of 17 deg. Yikes! I bundled the boys up bigtime (for those of you who've been to the UA orphanages, it wasn't that bundled, but close! ;) ) and we played for about an hour. I didn't take the camera and (of course) in hindsight I wish I would have had it. The boys have figured out a new part of the playground--a slide made of two parallel bars--and it was a lot of fun watching them play on it. And...Zhenya has figured out (after much coaching) how to pump on the swings!! He doesn't do it hard enough to keep himself going, but it's a step in the right direction. Dima still hasn't quite gotten the pumping down yet, but he is at least attempting to use his legs. ;) We do lots of puzzles and flash cards during the day, and we've taught the boys how to play memory (trying to make pairs from cards that are upside-down). We do it with our flashcards and with pairs from the actual "Memory" game. They're really good at matching, just not so good with the names of the actual colors yet (as evidenced in the above video).
5 comments:
He has already changed so much. I love to see how much progress these kids make once they get home. He is so precious! :) Keep those videos coming!
Our 10 days are up on Sunday! Woohoo!
How funny! He is so sweet and making such unbelievable progress! Don't worry, it is a good thing to never "see red"! We are hoping to get our INS approval in 2 weeks !!!!!!! I know you are busy now (and for the next 18 years!) but please keep posting, we really enjoy them.
PS. Aley leaves today for the march for life in DC. Please keep her in your prayers.
I haven't watched the video yet. Hoping to later today when our computer has cooled down a bit. It overheats easily :)
It sounds like the boys are developing wonderfully! Obviously, my only frame of reference is Michael. He can't pump his legs on a swing yet. Not sure if he even wants to learn. I love the game memory! So many things to learn with that game.
Too cute! It's so fun to watch their progress. Keep up the good work. You'll be so glad (very soon, actually) that you have videos like this, too!
This particular one reminds me so much of the time just after we got home with our boys. You'll be amazed at how quickly they'll pick up Engligh. Both our boys were English ONLY after only about 6-8 weeks home. Our older son refused to engage with anyone (including his beloved translator) in Ukrainian at that point and our little one wasn't speaking anything but baby babble. Even today, their progress is absolutely amazing. They still pick up a few new words every day, but for the most part, they're speaking in pretty much complete sentences now.
That is so cute! I love how he pulls out the color and looks at Mark to see if he got it. I was grinning the whole time I watched.
And guess what! We got snow! (only and inch so far, but central Alabamians can't be choosers)
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