All's well

Hi there! So here is the two week report!! All is going well. It again is so nice to be home. We have done a few things in the past two weeks. We’ve had their first doctor apt. here, blood work done, visit to watch mama get her teeth cleaned, went to the bank, the post office and the library. We still have been hitting many parks to play on the gym equipment. We visited Oralingua yesterday to visit with Rich’s class and teachers. The boys were overwhelmed at first but soon warmed up and began playing. Thursday evening we will be going to Oralingua’s end of year program. The boys will really enjoy it. We have gone to dog beach twice, dog park once, and to Independence Park (swimming pool) once to see if they are comfortable in the water and they were. Rich got them kicking their feet and blowing bubbles and jumping off the side of the pool and we also went under the water once. They both did well. The blood draw apts. went pretty well. Of course they were really scared and cried. I was so nervous and Rich too. But they did it and were brave and got some stickers and then we took them to Coldstone Creamery for some ice cream. They even put one of the stickers on Jotsi’s butt when we got home that read “super kid!”! They also put a few on Babushka too. Tomorrow they both have dentist apts. They didn’t seem scared of the dentist when they went with me to my apt. Our dentist talked to them and gave them each a Hot Wheels car so they will be more than happy to go there tomorrow to see him, I think. They absolutely loved going to the library. Alexei couldn’t contain his excitement at all the books and a few times yelled “WOW!” For the first time at a library they understood that you have to be quiet, well except for Alexei! On Sat. the library is having a “transportation” day where they have a firetruck, police car, train, airplane, etc. and the boys will get to tour them. They will be so excited..it will really be fun. The boys are continuing to pick up English words and phrases here and there. They spontaneously sing the alphabet, Vladimir getting almost all the letters correctly and they both can count to twenty with a prompt here and there. We are working on colors now. Their favorite TV show is Super Why on PBS. They ask for it whenever the TV gets turned on. Their next favorite shows are Scooby Doo and Sponge Bob. They also like Spiderman on Sat. morning. They continue to eat us under the table – thank goodness for Costco. We are now starting to shop there. Rich and I have to get our bites in when we can as they eat really well and want to try everything. The only thing they don’t like is hot or spicy sauces. Fortunately for us they really like Mexican food, bean and cheese burritos, quesadillas, veggie tacos. The top food for them though still is yogurt and bananas. They enjoy running whenever they get the opportunity when we go to the park, or in the neighborhood when we allow them to walk without holding our hands…when we let go they run. We tell them to stop at certain points and they stop and wait for us. They really like to listen to “musica” in the car. Their number 1 favorite artist is Jack Johnson then a close 2^nd and 3^rd is Johnny Cash and Coldplay. They don’t like when we put on the radio, they tell us no! no! Then we put on Jack Johnson and they are happy and content. Vladimir will sometimes sing a few words too. They are getting a good wear out of all of their toys that everyone has gotten for them, legos, magnets, dominoes, alphabet magnets, etc., etc. They really enjoy toys (who doesn’t!). The boys seem to be more and more at ease with us and life here. Alexei is really nuzzling and kissing Rich and I which is soooo nice! He really wants to be held by us now. In Vlad, he really didn’t want to be held by us too much…he was unsure of us there. We measured their height up against a measuring stick/board and put the date by the mark on the board with their name. We will keep this up until they reach their adult height! Oh, Vlady may need glasses. He has 20/30 vision…not 100 percent certain of this…we need to go to an eye doctor to confirm. We got a plastic pool for the backyard and they were so happy with it! They love going in there and splashing around. They love taking their bath toys in the pool and squirting each other and any object around them. They still love exploring in the backyard too! They continue to sleep well at night time. Sometimes Alexei will wake up and cry until one of us goes in and comforts him, or cover him up and then he's quickly back to sleep. Other than that they are sleeping through the night. At night, we each read a book to them that they pick out and then they go to bed. Bedtime is not nearly as much as a fight now. They know the routine and usually they are so tired from the days activities that they go to sleep quickly. They don't talk as much to each other either here since Vlady is on the top bunk and Alexei on the bottom. Okay, my battery is beeping “low battery”… I’ll close here for now. Thanks to everyone for your patience with us and being so kind. We can't believe that it's only been about a month a couple weeks since we've had the boys. Life would seem strange without them. We love you all dearly.

Jayne, Rich, Vlady, Alexei, Jotsi