5 and a half days together...

From Rich: The boys are asleep and it is 8:30! We never thought that would happen. Wanting to go to sleep and the boys don’t seem to go together that well. Lots of resistance, this is the hardest time. That is until tonight. Jayne had a good idea, to just have them play quietly during their nap time. If they went to sleep that would be great, and if not, they would be more tired at night. It worked!!! It only took them about 15-20 minutes to fall asleep. Today was a really good day. Neither Vlady nor Alex really pushed the limits. We played mostly inside today. Today we gave them the set of toy animals, thank you Oralingua. We gave them quite a few toys at the beginning and we hid many others. So we now are giving them new toys periodically. They love playing with the plastic characters and cars. They are very imaginative and enjoy playing together. Many hours are spent running and hiding from one another. They love it when Jayne or I join in on the fun. We also made a tent out of a sheet and the couch, rocker and a couple of the dining chairs. They had much fun playing under it. Then they wanted to go on top of it, of course, why not? After “nap” and a snack we walked down to see the Tran Siberian train, well at least tried to. It was such a beautiful day we had to go for a walk but the train never went by. This afternoon Jayne and Stas went to go get some medicine for Vlady and Alex. They both have coughs and Vlady was complaining of an ear ache this morning. They love to take the medicine, this is very helpful. Today was also their bath day, they love to splash and play in the bath tub, but Vlady does not like for the water to get into his eyes. Sorry we did not post anything on the blog yesterday, both Jayne and I were very tired. It was a more difficult day. But as I said today went well. Yesterday we celebrated Vincent’s first birthday party. Vlady and Alex were very cute. They brought him our present and sang happy birthday with us, well we sang and they stood by us. They loved the vanilla ice cream Valerie had for the party. I thought maybe there would be a little left for Mama and Papa but not a chance. Thank you all for all of your wonderful comments, we also enjoy reading your comments to us. We miss you all and it helps to know that you all are thinking about us. I hope all is well with Oralingua, the staff and kids. I am glad that you are keeping the kids up to date, thank you.

From Jayne: Ahhhh, it’s 9:30 pm and all is quiet! It’s funny because Vlady will get up and be up – he is a morning person. And it takes Alexei a lot longer to get up and he is alittle grumpy in the morning – not a morning person. I’ll have to start making him coffee when we get home J (Mom would have liked that). At night, Alexei is usually the first one to fall asleep and then Vlady is not far behind. They really love playing with one another. Tonight we watched the Sound of Music. Vlady was interested. Alexei kept putting his hand on the Von Trap father and saying “Papa, Papa” and then putting his hand on the blonde haired women that was supposed to marry the father but didn’t and saying “Mama, Mama” They love it when Rich and I are happy together – when we laugh together or dance with one another being silly – they just watch us and kind of slyly smile. This family thing is so new to them – they are loving every minute of it. They seem to be starting to be more comfortable with us. Alexei puts everything in his mouth. Sometimes he’ll smile and I’ll see something in his mouth and say what’s in your mouth and he’ll shut it tight!!!! Tonight I saw something blue in his mouth. About 3 minutes later I saw him spit it out..it was a little piece of balloon that was on the floor. We realize that he always spits whatever he puts in his mouth back out so we don’t get too worried. It’s like he saves things in his mouth for a rainy day…he might have had to do this in the orphanage…really it was the only place to hide something valuable he probably realized. Yesterday for dinner we had another piece of smoked salmon…the boys actually do like it. That night they just didn’t want it for some reason. So rather than throwing out the skin and bits of salmon still attached to it, I threw it out our bedroom window for some stray cat to find (what a find!!)…so today I looked out this afternoon and sure enough a mangy grey long haired cat made it’s way over to our window area and happily ate his dinner! I feel so bad for all the strays around here…they look like they need some love and a bath. I’ll keep throwing out food for them. Every cat in the neighborhood will be meowing out there J

Alie, HI, we get back May 2^nd. It seems like an eternity. I hope you all are doing well!!!

HI Katie we are in room 136…it’s like a triple suite…we take up three room numbers but our official number is 136…we are way at the end of the hallway. It’s a nice location.

HI Ellen, It is sealed this coming Monday! Then we work on passports, medical apts., visas, and travel back. We will be back May 2nd! They will be Americans when the plane touches down at LAX!

Some new pics are to the right and down. Enjoy!! Oh, also, Rich and I will loose about 5 pounds by the time we get back. Not sure why but it’s hard to enjoy the food here…I don’t know if we are just so hurried b/c of the boys or what but we try to shove the food in when we can…I guess maybe that is another JOY of parenthood???!! All for now. I hear Rich unwrapping the Reese’s and my mouth is watering!

Thank you all for posting we love you all dearly and can not wait to get home.

Love, J, R, V, A, J