Progress

It has been 3 weeks and we are all adjusting to our new patchwork family. Things are going well and I thought it would be fun to note some places where progress has been made with the new boys.

1. Vitaly (who now says he wants to go by his name Andrew) decided he wants an American name. I don't know if everyone can break the habit of calling him Vitaly but we will give it a shot.

2. Andrew (Vitaly) said "love ya" to me as I walked up the stairs this week. I almost tripped and fell but had to smile for quite some time after that.

3. This morning before church they both put on white shirts and Andrew (Vitaly) put on a TIE! He wants to look like Daniel. He watches carefully as Daniel passes that Sacrament at church and today he said "good job" to him as he passed to us both times. It was cute.

4. Speaking of shirts, the boys are leaving them on more often now. They used to take them off at the first hint of being hot but I kept asking, "where is your shirt?" Now they just instinctivley put them back on. Today after church everyone changed and Andrew came upstairs with his shirt unbuttoned and a shark tooth necklace that someone got in Hawaii and looked a lot like Crocodile Dundee. What they won't do to look "cool."

5. They are fuguring out the toilet. Now they flush the paper and usually actually flush and are doing well. I did walk in on Spencer this week in the middle floor bathroom and he was sitting down on the actual toilet (seat and lid behind him). I cringed several times and hopefully Tyler explained that we only have to lift the toilet seat when we go #1.

6. Last night Andrew (I still want to call him Vitaly) prayed at family prayer. He said the whole thing and didn't crack any jokes. It was very very cool!

7. The house distruction has slowed down considerably. In the first 2 weeks we had a number of things break from the curiousity crew that we brought from Ukraine. They had to try everything and aside from the broken window from the baseball and the 4 wheeler crashing into the deck that I already mentioned, my other favorites are the ceiling fan that no longer has a pull chain and the lock on the storage room door that was locked from inside and we couldn't get in for days. I finally had to take a hammer to the doorknob and remove it since it is less expensive to buy a door knob than call a locksmith.

8. Andrew (Vitaly) is beginning to help out with the work willingly, when it is his idea. I was trying to saw down a broken branch from one of our willow trees and he ran up and said "no, I.. I" so I handed him the saw. He tried it for a minute and thought it would take way too long and so he asked for the ax. We tried that for a minute and the visions of danger wouldn't leave me alone and it was too heavy for him anyway and so I started to put that away and he said "one momient" and ran and got a minuature garden hoe. He hacked at the branch for a long time (my sawing would have done the trick much quicker :) and finally after giving up on that and trying a hatchet the tree gave up the branch and he was so proud. He couldn't wait to show the older boys the branch he cut down when they got home.

9. English is coming. Both boys are surprising us with good word combinations. It is probably a little slow since we are pretty determined on helping them retain their Russian but they are having fun putting words together and taking pride in being understood. Yesterday Vitaly found a key outside (yes maybe the one for that storage room door) and held it between his thumb and forefinger with the rounded side up. When he approached me I thought it was a snake he was holding and I don't like those and so I jumped a little and backed away. He laughed and said "Mama, scared, key" and we all had to laugh.

10. The eating is normalizing a little. They still like to eat non-stop but we have made a little progress on having them eat a little more at mealtimes and a little less the whole rest of the day. Some foods that they would normally push away, they are trying and liking and so the pickiness is easing up a lot. This week is Vitaly's birthday and I am anxious to see what he wants for his birthday dinner. He drew a picture today of the birthday cake he wants and it is pretty much a wedding cake but HEY! we survived Ukraine where I could never find a cake mix and so I can make a blue wedding cake that says "Happy Birthday Andrew" and has 12 candles stair-stepping down the cake. I think that I had better set aside a few hours for that project. :)