Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Cruise recap
The boys really did have a great time on the cruise, as did Mark and I. By the end, we were ready to go home and I think a 7-day cruise was just about perfect. We had increased incidences of bedwetting on the cruise due to increased water intake, and for future cruises I will invest in the "unlimited laundry" option (you pay a set fee and the cruise staff will do unlimited laundry for you for the week). That would have been much better than washing clothes out in the sink 4 days in a row. I did take detergent packets for the sink, so I was prepared, but it would have saved me a lot of time and frustration to not be washing things while on vacation. :)
The boys ate...and ate...and ate. And we weighed them the last day of the cruise and they had maybe each gained 2 lbs. I need to somehow get them to sit still for several days and load them up with food. Dima ate waffles with chocolate syrup nearly every morning (and no, they don't get anything near that at home) and they both had soup, fruit, an entree, and dessert every night. They are definitely good eaters--they're just also good metabolizers! LOL
We left from Ft. Lauderdale and visited Grand Turk, Tortola, St. Maarten, and Half Moon Cay. We ended up not doing any shore excursions and just spent LOTS of time on the beach, which we all loved. The boys have, however, decided they don't like the taste of saltwater. ;) I was really impressed with their swimming abilities and their confidence with their water wings--they were comfortable in the water even when they couldn't touch at all. Take the water wings off, though, and watch them sink! That lack of body fat means they don't float. ;)
The boys took 2- to 3-hour naps each day to enable them to stay up at night and see the evening show. Since we had the early dinner seating our shows didn't start until 9pm and there is no way I would let them stay up that late without a nap. Dima liked the singing and Zhenya LOVED the dancing. During one of the shows, after every song he would turn to Mark and ask "more dancing?".
All in all it was a really great trip and I would definitely do it again!
The boys ate...and ate...and ate. And we weighed them the last day of the cruise and they had maybe each gained 2 lbs. I need to somehow get them to sit still for several days and load them up with food. Dima ate waffles with chocolate syrup nearly every morning (and no, they don't get anything near that at home) and they both had soup, fruit, an entree, and dessert every night. They are definitely good eaters--they're just also good metabolizers! LOL
We left from Ft. Lauderdale and visited Grand Turk, Tortola, St. Maarten, and Half Moon Cay. We ended up not doing any shore excursions and just spent LOTS of time on the beach, which we all loved. The boys have, however, decided they don't like the taste of saltwater. ;) I was really impressed with their swimming abilities and their confidence with their water wings--they were comfortable in the water even when they couldn't touch at all. Take the water wings off, though, and watch them sink! That lack of body fat means they don't float. ;)
The boys took 2- to 3-hour naps each day to enable them to stay up at night and see the evening show. Since we had the early dinner seating our shows didn't start until 9pm and there is no way I would let them stay up that late without a nap. Dima liked the singing and Zhenya LOVED the dancing. During one of the shows, after every song he would turn to Mark and ask "more dancing?".
All in all it was a really great trip and I would definitely do it again!
The cruise in pictures
These pictures are post-Club HAL, the kids' area with lots of fun activities (aka free babysitting ;)). After this first night, the boys were begging to go up there every day. My little pirates:
We tried really hard to fatten the boys up on this trip. Absolutely unlimited food, and we encouraged ice cream after lunch AND dinner every day (provided their behavior during the day was acceptable--they both lost ice cream one meal). I think they're ready to go on a cruise again just for the ice cream!
We tried really hard to fatten the boys up on this trip. Absolutely unlimited food, and we encouraged ice cream after lunch AND dinner every day (provided their behavior during the day was acceptable--they both lost ice cream one meal). I think they're ready to go on a cruise again just for the ice cream!
The cruise in pictures II
First time in the ocean...
They LOVED it!!
Learning to play pingpong with Papa and Grandpa (Papa had some interesting expressions during the lessons):
The cruise in pictures III
No sensory issues here...
Swimming in the ocean some more: 
The beach bums
The beach bums
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Third time's the charm
In the past couple of months, I've had two near-misses in regards to car accidents. The first was on the highway driving to work when someone decided it would be a good idea to go from the entrance ramp to the express lane, crossing 4 lanes of rush-hour traffic, without looking to see if there were any other cars in the way. Yeah, mine was in the way! I slammed on the brakes and swerved slightly to avoid hitting the guy (who never even noticed!!) but I couldn't move too far because there was a big suburban just behind me on the left (who, thankfully, was paying attention and also braked to avoid hitting me).
Later that same week, I was driving in the city and a parallel-parked car put on their blinker to move out into traffic. I moved over a lane so they could get over whenever they had the opportunity. But, no--they didn't want to move into traffic--they chose to turn across traffic and nearly t-boned me. Again, being the alert driver I am, I swerved and avoided a collision.
From the title, I'm guessing you've figured out that I can only avoid so many people before one of them decides to hit me. ;) Driving back from Florida this past weekend, a guy sideswiped my mom's car while I was driving. From reading the above, I'm sure you're thinking that at least some part of all of the near-misses and the accident must be my fault, but indeed I was in my lane and driving just like I was supposed to be--and I have 4 witnesses (although I wouldn't consider two of them to be reliable ;)) to back me up.
Good things: no one was hurt, my mom's car was still drivable--after Mark spent two hours trying to reattach the bumper (which he did--yea for Mark and Walmart and zip ties!!), and the other driver was insured
So what does Dima decide he's going to tell his teacher when he gets back to school? "Mama hit truck." Nevermind that we just spent 7 days on a boat!! LOL (And I did correct him that the truck hit mama, not the other way around. ;))
Later that same week, I was driving in the city and a parallel-parked car put on their blinker to move out into traffic. I moved over a lane so they could get over whenever they had the opportunity. But, no--they didn't want to move into traffic--they chose to turn across traffic and nearly t-boned me. Again, being the alert driver I am, I swerved and avoided a collision.
From the title, I'm guessing you've figured out that I can only avoid so many people before one of them decides to hit me. ;) Driving back from Florida this past weekend, a guy sideswiped my mom's car while I was driving. From reading the above, I'm sure you're thinking that at least some part of all of the near-misses and the accident must be my fault, but indeed I was in my lane and driving just like I was supposed to be--and I have 4 witnesses (although I wouldn't consider two of them to be reliable ;)) to back me up.
Good things: no one was hurt, my mom's car was still drivable--after Mark spent two hours trying to reattach the bumper (which he did--yea for Mark and Walmart and zip ties!!), and the other driver was insured
So what does Dima decide he's going to tell his teacher when he gets back to school? "Mama hit truck." Nevermind that we just spent 7 days on a boat!! LOL (And I did correct him that the truck hit mama, not the other way around. ;))
Thursday, October 23, 2008
At my wit's end (not anymore)
**This is the post I started a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to go ahead and post it for other adoptive parents who might run into the same thing, and also for myself to see how Dima has progressed and gone through different stages. All of this happened at the end of September/beginning of October.**
In the past couple of weeks, Dima has been exhibiting some new behaviors at school. Namely, I was called once because he bit a boy and then this past Monday he spit on a teacher--his former teacher that he likes!
What's baffling about this is that we have NEVER seen these behaviors before. Not towards us, not towards Zhenya--not even to other kids when we were at the orphanage with them. In regards to the spitting, we found out that there are a couple of other boys in Dima's class who have been spitting. The problem is they haven't been caught, so Dima sees them doing it and not getting in trouble and thinks that's the way kindergartners are supposed to behave. The biting incident is still a little puzzling. The kid he bit (on the forearm) only had 3 teeth marks on one side of his arm. My suspicion is that the boys were playing and he grabbed Dima around the head and caught him in the mouth. The boy who was bitten told the teachers and the principal that it was an accident, so...who knows. And Dima's English isn't good enough to explain it in detail (although he does now know "no eat people, Mama" LOL), he can tell us what he did, who he bit, and what the consequences were.
But lately we're just seeing a lot more disobedience at school. He's still an angel (more or less ;)) at home so I'm baffled. Is he testing something? Is he testing us? or his teacher? Is he trying to see if school is the same as the orphanage (in terms of how they respond to his inappropriate behaviors)?
In the past couple of weeks, Dima has been exhibiting some new behaviors at school. Namely, I was called once because he bit a boy and then this past Monday he spit on a teacher--his former teacher that he likes!
What's baffling about this is that we have NEVER seen these behaviors before. Not towards us, not towards Zhenya--not even to other kids when we were at the orphanage with them. In regards to the spitting, we found out that there are a couple of other boys in Dima's class who have been spitting. The problem is they haven't been caught, so Dima sees them doing it and not getting in trouble and thinks that's the way kindergartners are supposed to behave. The biting incident is still a little puzzling. The kid he bit (on the forearm) only had 3 teeth marks on one side of his arm. My suspicion is that the boys were playing and he grabbed Dima around the head and caught him in the mouth. The boy who was bitten told the teachers and the principal that it was an accident, so...who knows. And Dima's English isn't good enough to explain it in detail (although he does now know "no eat people, Mama" LOL), he can tell us what he did, who he bit, and what the consequences were.
But lately we're just seeing a lot more disobedience at school. He's still an angel (more or less ;)) at home so I'm baffled. Is he testing something? Is he testing us? or his teacher? Is he trying to see if school is the same as the orphanage (in terms of how they respond to his inappropriate behaviors)?
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