Evan was tested for Township Preschool

I took Evan today to get tested to see if he would get accepted into the free township preschool that is part of the local school here in town. I definitey want to get him into this program since they offer Speech Therapy as part of the program. Evan's speech has improved to some degree, however, there are many times we all can't understand a word he says. He understands everything that we ask him, however, when it comes to him talking and expressing himself to us it is like he is still talking in Ukrainian to us since none of us can understand most of what he says.

The teacher that evaluated Evan today, asked me if I can understand him when he talks. I told her that I can understand the basic everyday language such as anything pertaining to eating, drinking and bathroom needs. She said that Evan definitely qualifies for the preschool program and will get the Speech Therapy that he needs. I am so excited. Evan is so ready to be in preschool and it will also help him prepare for Kindergarden for the following school year.

Easter and Egg Hunting Fun

The boys had lots of fun dying Easter eggs and finding eggs at the egg hunt we took them to.

We surprised the boys with new bicycles for each of them on Easter morning. They all have been sharing/fighting over the one preschool size bicycle that we had for Andrew before Steven and Evan came home. So we felt it was the right time to get them all bicycles that they could call their own and grow into as well. They all were surprised and love their new bicycles. Our sons are quite the active boys and definitely need something to burn off their energy.

Andrew of course knew the drill on Easter morning and was quick as lightning gathering up handfuls of eggs at a time as I was trying to help direct Evan and Steven find some eggs on Easter morning. After church service, we went over to Robert's families home and had Easter dinner. Mom mom and Pop pop surprised all of the grandkids with an egg hunt in their yard. There were eggs every where. The boys had fun finding eggs and opening them up to eat the candy inside.

Behavior issues at church

Over the past few months we've been challenged with behavior issues in church with the boys. They don't want to go into their class room without me being with them the whole time. I could understand in the beginning, soon after we brought Steven and Evan home, however, being that they are older, and understand the routine of church and knowing that Steven and Andrew go to school fine with no issues on their own, we just don't get it.

Part of the problem I think is that they are so close in age that all 3 of them wind up in the same class room in church. This is not good, since, when the 3 of them get together they start goofing off and not paying attention to what is expected of them or what the teacher is saying. This was one of the main reasons why I don't want Steven and Andrew in the same grade. They are so much better individually and they focus and behave much better when they are on their own.

It's getting frustrating dealing with the same behavior issues week after week and myself missing the service because of it. We've taken privelegdes away, put them in time out, used incentives for the correct behavior....and still end up with the same misbehavior. Please keep our family in prayer. Our patience is running thin and we are open to any kind of parental advise.

Gardening, Tree Climbing Boys and bonding

Steven climbing our apple tree.


As Alla our translator would always say, "Boys will be boys." Today, we spent a lot of time outside getting the garden ready for planting. The boys love digging in the dirt, therefore, they were more than happy to help me prepare the soil for planting. They helped me rake and dig up the weeds that grew over the winter and early spring and just digging holes anywhere in the backyard they had the desire to dig. Of course I was doing my best to keep them focused on the garden but at times I just let them go even though we had a few divets in our yard.

At one point a wiggly worm appeared and Steven, being the bug lover that he is, picked up the wiggly worm. This little worm open the door to him first sharing with me about some memories of the deskydom (orphanage) and of his birth mother and birth family. Here I am digging and pulling up weeds when he starts to tell me of the worm him and his "brothers" (other boys in the orphanage) from the orphanage found in the orphanage garden. He then went on and told me a few other stories about what he remembered about his birth mother and family. I was surprised, but yet thankful that Steven was so open and free to express his memories and his life in Ukraine. Periodically I would ask some questions, wanting to find out as much as I could (since he was ready to share) and mostly to make sure that his experiences were positive ones. I am pleased and am thankful to say that he was treated good in the orphanage and that he has positive memories of his birth family. I was surprised when he talked of his birth mother that he showed no emotion (positive or negative) when he talked of her. I made a point to mention that his birth mother loves him very much and I'm sure she misses him and Evan. He didn't react the way I thought he would. He just kept talking and kepting playing in the dirt like I was talking about a stranger. I know he was young when he entered the orphanage, about 3 and a half years old, however, it surprised me that he remembered so much and was willing to share so freely.

Evan hugging the apple tree.

Later on that afternoon, we walked up to our apple tree in our yard and were checking out the buds on the trees. Since the branches were low enough to the ground the boys of course started climbing up the tree. I used to love climbing the trees in our yard growing up, and remember hiding from my brother, David, by climbing to the tippy top of the tall oak tree in our backyard. He was so furious that he couldn't find me that day since he was supposed to be watching my sister and I that day. Anyway, here are a few pictures of the boys climbing our apple tree.

2 More Cavities Filled - 4 more to go

Well, we barely made it through this appointment. Steven was more wiggly and was losing his patience during this visit at the dentist. Whether he was nervious or got tired of his mouth having a contraption in it to hold it open or just plain scared of the drilling sound...but he had a harder time at sitting still. The dentist finish filling the cavities, thank goodness. All the while, I was doing my best to calm him down and talk to him, hold his hand, while I was sweating it out trying to keep my cool at the same time.

Our pediatric dentist is wonderful with children and ever so patient. I don't know how she does it day in and day out.

Well we have 4 more cavities to fill before we can relax. I set up another appointment to get the rest of them filled. Hopefully the next appointment will go a little more smooth.

The Greatest Circus on Earth

Steven and Andrew's preschool put on a play, "The Greatest Circus on Earth". It was so adorable as the children all had a different part. Steven was a biker bear, which entertained the crowd riding on tricycles and Andrew was the strongman...imagine Andrew (one of the smallest kids in his class) the strongman. Andrew gets nervous infront of an audience, believe it or not, since at home he is the comedian of the family. Here are some pictures of Andrew, Steven and Evan posing for the camera hamming it up before the show. Too cute.

Mommy & Poppi

Isn't this picture so adorable. The boys were trying on Daddy's shoes and Ukon hat. Too cute.

Steven and Evan have notice that at times Andrew will call me Mommy instead of Mom or Mama. Both Steven and Evan picked up on it and would call me Mommy from time to time. I prefer them calling me Mama since that is what I am used to with them and Andrew. It just reminds me of how we became a family and our first few months with our children.

This week Evan assumed that since changing Mama to Mommy was the correct thing to do, he changed Papa (what they call Robert..means Daddy/Father in Ukrainian)to Poppi. It is so adorable to hear him call Robert, "Poppi". Andrew and Steven picked up on it and now are calling Robert, "Poppi".

Steven Started Preschool

We started Steven in preschool a couple of days a week to get him familiar with the structure of school and what will be expected of him once he attends public school in the fall. He sees how Andrew goes to school and how we pick him up every day at the preschool to bring him home. It's been obvious that Steven has taken a liking to the school when we pick up Andrew and now since Steven is fluent in English we thought it would be best to give him a feel for school and what is expected of him. This way it will help to prepare him for September when he will start first grade. Of course we are still homeschooling the other days Steven doesn't attend to get him up to speed for first grade since he is skipping Kindergarden.

The teachers, Miss Debbie and Miss Brittnay have been wonderful to Steven and very helpful with redirecting certain behaviors of his into the proper behavior. They tell me he is a quick learner and a very sweet boy. Thank you Miss Debbie and Miss Brittnay for all of your help with Steven and Andrew!

Daddy's Birthday -Tubing in the Poconos

We surprised Robert for his birthday and took him tubing in the Pocono mountains for the day. We all had a ball of fun. At first it didn't look like there was any snow on the ground until we arrived at Jack Frost Mountain. There was plenty of man-made snow there, which worked just fine. We arrived early in the morning, which was perfect since there weren't that many people on the slopes and the snow was still on the icy side, which zoomed us down the mountain at top speeds.

Can you believe I forgot my camera! UGGH! I would have loved to take some pictures and videos of Daddy especially, laughing histerically all the way down the mountain. Too funny. Evan was so funny, how the tube just about swallowed him up. He looked like a turtle sitting in the tube since he would hide his head down in the tube and then pop it up when he was done tubing down the slope. After our 4 hour time frame was up, we were all exhausted. It was a good thing we got there early since the crowd starting rolling in and made our wait in line a bit longer.

Cavity Fillings for Steven

I was not looking forward to this appointment, however, I knew it had to be done. Steven got his 2 cavities between his 2 front teeth filled today. He did pretty good for the most part. He cooperated for the dentist and was a little apprehensive at times, but he got through it. Praise the Lord! I'm not sure who is more tired, him or myself.

We set up the next appointment for 2 weeks later to fill some of the molar cavities. Boy, I'm looking forward to having these dental appointments behind us. I'm sure Steven is too.

Do Me...Do Me!!

I know the title sounds funny, but that is what the boys were saying over and over to Daddy as he was taking turns picking the boys up over his head and spinning them around and then tossing them into the couch. The boys couldn't wait until Robert picked them up again and flipped and spun them around over his head just to toss them into the couch. Too funny. Robert go his work out today.

Dedicating our children to the Lord

Today was a special day for our family since we dedicated our son's Evan and Steven to the Lord. They had all of our family members that were in the service including Mom mom and Pop Pop come up on stage along with the other families with their children while Pastors Gary and Faye Whetstone prayed over the boys/children and families. During that time the Ukrainian couple that we met last month ran up on stage to translate what the pastors were praying to Steven and Evan.

It was emotional to think back at all that God has brought us through to bring our children into our families. God is so good! Thanks be to God.

Children's Hospital Check up & Testing

Well, we finally had our check up at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia with an International Adoption's Pediatrician along with an Occupational Therapist to test them on their developmental fine and motor skills along with their speech as well as their overall health and get some bloodwork done.

It was a long 5 hour appointment. They brought a Russian/Ukrainian translator into our examination room to help with translating the doctors and therapists questions, however, we only used her service for explaining to the boys to prepare them about getting bloodwork drawn, which was at the end of our appointment.

Both the therapist and the pediatrician were floored that they didn't need the translator and at how healthy Evan and Steven are and that they are right at where they should be developmentally, since many kids that have come from an orphanage are developmentally behind at least by a year or two.

When Evan was being tested on his gross motor skills by running up and down the hallway he was so funny how he would run at top speed toward me with a huge smile on his face and would run into my arms and give me a huge hug each time. Then, Steven and Andrew started doing it as well. Evan was just too funny, that we all had a chuckle from it.

When it came time for the bloodwork, the translator explained to them what was about to happen in Russian/Ukrainian to prepare them. They did a full work up on them both and put Mommy through a work out holding them down. I felt so bad for them and was about to cry myself. Glad that's over.

Andrew's 5th Birthday

We just celebrated Andrew's 5th birthday...can you believe it...he's 5 years old. WOW! Time flies. We had his party out at a tumbling place where they had trampolines and gymnastic equipment for kids their ages. WE all had a ball and Robert and I even got into the fun and was bouncing around on the trampoline and I got stuck in the foam pit and had difficulty trying to push myself up to get out......I know I'm starting to show my age.

Robert getting in on the fun.

Steven I knew would love the trampoline especially since he is our acrobat. He loved it so much we had difficulty getting him off of it when it came time to go into the party room for food and cake. He kept trying to escape back into the play area and jump around some more therefore we had to have someone stand guard at the door so he or any other kid wouldn't escape.

Evan with his amazing strength had fun playing on the rings. To our surprise he held on for a bit while Robert pushed him until he flopped to the mat. Then up he went and wanted to go again.



Andrew had a ball jumping on the trampoline as well as jumping off of the platform into the foam pit. Check him out in action in the picture below.



The party was a success and everyone had fun.

Steven and Evan weren't too keen about watching Andrew open up all of his presents since they are used to taking over his toys and were like vultures lurking over Andrew's shoulders waiting for him to step away from them so they could dive into the toys. I tried to explain to them that it was Andrew's birthday and these were his toys. I told them that if they wanted to play with them they would have to ask Andrew if it was okay to play with them. Well they didn't like that one bit and Steven kept coming up to me and asking to play with them, I kept trying to explain that it was Andrew's birthday and these are his toys so he will have to ask Andrew to play with them. Steven didn't like that answer and started whimpering at the table. Andrew started to be bratty about it and then I proceeded to explain to him that one day it will be Steven and Evan's birthday and they will get a lot of toys and you won't. I explained that if he shares his toys that he will teach them to share their toys when it's their birthdays.

Well that seemed to go in one ear and out the other until about a half hour later Andrew came into the kitchen and GAVE Steven one of his toys and GAVE Evan one of his other new toys. It floored us all and I even asked Robert if he prompted him into giving his toys away. Robert said that no it was all Andrew's doing. I am so proud of Andrew for giving up 2 of his new toys to give to his brothers. I then made Steven say thank you and give Andrew a hug. How cute it was to see the boys hugging for once. Steven was thankful and so was Evan.

Dentist Check up for Steven

Well, Praise the Lord that we made it through our first dentist appointment with Steven. Unfortunatly we found out that Steven has 8 cavities. Yes, I said 8 cavities. The amazing thing is though that 6 of the cavities have temporary fillings with decay still underneath the temporary fillings. Why would a dentist go to the trouble of filling a tooth without getting the decay out of it?

Steven did really well in the appointment and when I found out that the other cavities have already been filled, I realized that this wasn't the first time he has been to the dentist. I know that the orphanage would have a dentist come into the orphanage to offer his service to the children, but with the 2 obvious cavities in Steven's front 2 teeth I figured he never visited the dentist in the orphanage.

We scheduled his next appointment for filling his front 2 cavity we made in 2 weeks. I hope that goes as well as this one did.

Met a Ukrainian Couple at church

We met a wonderful Ukrainian couple that our pastors introduced us to after church. They sat down and chatted with us and the boys and talked to Evan and Steven in Ukrainian. Steven seem very shy as the man was talking to him and asking Steven questions in Ukrainian. Steven quietly answered him in English responding "yes" instead of "da" (yes in Ukrainian). It surprised me to see Steven answering the man in English instead of Ukrainian being that he was speaking to Steven in Ukrainian and only being home for a month.

The couple gave us their phone number and said to call them anytime we need to chat or translation. A few days after meeting them, I was getting a bit apprehensive of our soon to be dentist appointment for Steven, wondering how he is going to respond without being prepared. Then I thought of the wonderful couple we met at church and decided to call them. I explained to them of our up and coming dentist appointment and wanted to see if they could help Steven prepare for his appointment by explaining to him on his level what was to be expected and what is expected of him during our visit to the dentist. I had them on speaker phone to make sure that Steven is responding to his questions and again noticed how Steven answered the gentleman's questions in English when he was being spoken to in Ukrainian. That to me is so amazing. To answer in English when being spoken to in your native language and only being home for a month.

We are so thankful for this couple and for all of the help they have given us with just barely knowing them ourselves. Thank you, Pastors Gary and Faye Whetstone for introducing us to them.

Home One Month and a Snow/Ice Day

Smiling Brothers....at last!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I took the boys and myself to get their haircuts. The boys had fun getting their haircuts while sitting in a play police car while watching cartoons. The boys look so handsome with a fresh new look. Check them out.

Our cuties



The boys including my husband had fun in the snow or should I say ice last week. Robert would give each boy a turn to be wizzed across the yard on the ice and with the slight downslope in our front yard they would slide pretty far. Evan would ask when Robert was at work where was "Outide Papa" or outside Papa was. Evan loves the outdoors and screams when he has to come inside. both Steven and Evan have a very stubborn side and with an attitude but on the flip side they are extremely lovable and want as much love and affection as one could give them.


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Papa Wizzing the boys on the sled...."Outide Papa" as Evan would say.


WHOO WHOO!!

Slip slide and away Evan!

We work on our schooling during the weekdays and Steven is now saying 3 word sentences when he does talk in English. He tries so hard and really wants to learn. He loves being the best at what he does. He now knows about 20 animals, 20 body parts, 6 colors, many food items, can count up to 13, knows many letters' sounds and recognizes about one third to one half of the alphabet letters. He told Andrew "No toys in the kitchen" (something I always say) this morning which surprised Robert and I and he was telling Andrew to repeat after him and say "Excuse me" after Andrew burped at the table. We all smiled and laughed that Steven was correcting Andrew and telling him in English to repeat after him by saying "Excuse me".

Steven is becoming more and more affectionate with me and wanting more one on one time with Mommy. He is even calling me Mommy and Robert Daddy now. At times he wants me to baby him and wants me to help him get dressed, even though I know he can do it himself. I have to keep reminding myself that Steven is younger emotionally than his physical age and needs more affection from me since he missed out on so much love and attention in the past years.

There were a few times where I had to put Steven in time-out for misbehaving and trying to teach him of the concept of time-out was tougher than teaching a 2 or 3 year old partly because of the language barrier. He of course didn't want to stay in his room and for me to lift or drag him back into his room to keep him in time-out for the 5 minutes was a chore for me since he is so big and heavy to lift. He finally understood and stayed in his room until his time was up and I made him appologize to his brother/s or me for whatever the issue was. He certainly has a stubborn side to him that rises up from time to time.

Evan is doing great! He is more babyish than Steven or Andrew. Emotionally he reminds me of a 2 year old but mentally and intellectually he is a 3 and a half year old. He is my cuddle bunny. He is always hugging my legs when I'm fixing food in the kitchen for a meal, trying to hug me when he's eating, and he loves to try and push me down on his bed to play and get tickles from Mommy when I am trying to change his clothes. His legs are super strong for his age and he has a lot of power behind them. He is such a cutie but I can tell he will need some speech therapy since he slurs through the words or phrases I say slowly and want him to repeat. He is bonding well with Andrew and visa versa. Every once in a while they go at it, but not as much as it was in the past.

Andrew is doing much better in school and at home. He is not stressing out every time it's time to get dressed...just once in a while. For a while there it was every single time he changed his clothes he would whine and cry and get upset because he refused to pick out something to wear. When I would pick it out he wouldn't like my selection and always seemed to want to wear the dirty food crusted clothes he wore the day before to school. Well you know that wasn't happening if I could help it. It would take him 45 minutes to get dressed in the morning with constant crying, whining and frustration. There was always something wrong with most of his clothes, according to Andrew,that it was really wearing Robert and I's patience level down drastically. Talk about particular with his clothes....Many times I wanted to scream and sometimes I did.

We started using the timer when the boys start to fight over a toy. My friend Jen with twin boys Andrew's age suggested putting the timer to manage the boys taking turns. Boy that has helped quite a bit with keeping the atmosphere more peaceful in our home. At times now Andrew will come up to me and ask for me to put the timer on so he can get a turn with the saught after toy. Praise the Lord for progress.

Stunned on Steven and Evan's Progress - 3 weeks home

Steven the Strong Man

Over the past week I've been working with Steven and Evan on their English as well as playing school to bring Steven up to speed to get him ready for Kindergarden in September. I've been playing games with flash cards, doing ditto sheet activities to practice their skills, having them watch learning videos and listening to childrens songs in the car. On Sunday of this week we pulled out the children's cd with the alphabet song on it we played it in the car and put it on repeat so it would keep playing that song only over and over again. Robert laughed and joked about how Steven must be thinking that we are trying to brain wash him or something. The only one that was singing along was Andrew, however, to my surprise Steven was listening intently. That night after dinner Steven came up to me and started singing the ABC song in English. When he got to the letter "G" my mouth dropped to the floor and had a shocking look on my face. I was floored to the point where I startled him to stop singing. I then proceeded with "H, I" and he then sang along again and sang up to the letter "P" on his own. I still am shocked at how quickly he picked up half of the alphabet song in just maybe an half hour of listening to the song. On Monday of this week, Steven and I practiced singing the alphabet in Shoprite as we were doing our grocery shopping together with Evan. We also practice counting items into our basket and he can now count on his own up to 10 with ease. Evan is counting along with us and to my surprise he can count up to 5 on his own in English. Steven's School Work

I have also been working with them on their colors, shapes, matching items and now that they know how to count from 1-10, I'm working with them on recognizing their numbers. We played a flash card game with the numbers 1-5. Each time they got the correct name of the number they would get an M&M. They both were all into the game trying the best they could to get the next one correct to get an M&M and a high five from Mama. If they got confused at which number it was they would count the number of lady bugs on the card. I was surprised how Evan was recognizing the numbers and counting the objects as well as Steven did. I've also been playing a cd that we purchased before we adopted Andrew (but never used) to help them with their basic communication in English called "Rush into English" Russian to English for Children CD by Teresa Kelleher (Tender Loving Communications). It's a cd that gives instructions in Russian that they will say different phrases in Russian and then say the same phrase in English and for them to repeat what is said. I must say, that I am very impressed with the cd. It's very simple but amazingly they repeat in both Russian and English. The cd has different phrases for feelings, home, family, colors, numbers 1-10 and beyond, school, bathroom terminology, and food. I wasn't sure if they would sit still and listen to the cd therefore I brought my laptop into the bathroom to play it for them while they played in the bath tub. You should have seen the look on their faces when they heard their language spoken and the English equivalent. To my surprise they both were repeating the phrases and listening intently. Evan will repeat and mimic just about everything the lady on the cd says. Steven is more apprehensive about speaking it out loud as carefree as Evan is. Steven speaks in a lower voice when he talks in English until he feels confident he is saying it correctly, then he is much bolder with speaking the phrase. I am simply amazed at the progress they are making in such a short amount of time. Steven is now saying phrases such as "Excuse Me", "I'm Sorry"(HUMM??? I wonder how he learned this phrase so quickly?), "Come On", "I love you", "Wash your hands", "Bye Bye", "Please", "Thank you", "on the pillow" and a few more.

I must say that the phrase book that taught us phonetically how to say some common childrearing phrases has helped the transition of becoming a family. The book and cd is called Ukrainian plus Russian Phrases for Children (specifically designed for adopting in Ukraine or Russia to help with the transition). . Definitely a must get if you are traveling to Ukraine or Russia to adopt a child/ren. It certain has made the transition much smoother.

Evan enjoying dressing in Andrew's costumes

Evan is wanting to be held more and more from me, which I love hugging and cuddling with him, however, in a way I want to baby him and cuddle with him as much as possible but in another way I don't want him to expect me to carry him around everywhere. In the orphanage, the children are taught very early on to be independent and self reliant and to take care of themselves to make the caretakers' job much easier since they are out numbered by how ever many children. We have also made quite a bit of progress since Ukraine on eating and our sleeping schedules. Robert and I learned within the first evening of having all 3 boys in our care that they strongly do not like to go to bed even when they are totally exhausted. Since learning this the first night we used this to our advantage to get the boys to eat when it's meal time. There have been many times when I call everyone into the kitchen to sit down to eat (in Ukrainian and English) that Steven and sometimes Andrew will mimick each other when they protest coming to the table since they don't seem to like the looks of what's being served. So Robert and I started telling them if they don't eat then they'll go to bed immediately. Well they all don't like that one bit and it usually works to get them all to sit down to eat. We communicate with them a mixture of English and Ukrainian when we tell them "if No Kushai then Para Spat" (If you don't eat, then it's time for sleep). Every now and then one of them will test us to see if we are serious and when we start moving their chair to take them to their room they scoot it back in to the table to eat. Then they end up eating their whole plate soon after that. It's funny to see them try to test us to see if they can control the outcome, but they usually find out differently.

My Silly Monkey Andrew

The other day I told Andrew how I noticed how much bigger he has grown recently since he has been eating more, he then commented to me, "Well, I don't want to go to SPAT (Sleep or bed). It's funny to hear Andrew use some Russian/Ukrainian phrases around the house when talking to us or the boys. Robert will tease Evan just by saying the word Spat Spat Spat if Evan is refusing to eat....cause Robert know's how easily Evan will get upset that he can't get his way and then quickly eat the rest of his meal. Now the boys are saying the word "Spat" to each other at the meal table to keep each other on task for finishing their meal. It's funny to hear them tease each other if one is not eating then the other will say, "Spat, Spat, Spat". Well it seems to me they all got that rule down pat. The past couple of evenings have been a huge improvement in our bedtime ridual. I think they all are finally settling in and understanding that everyone goes to bed at the same time every night. When I was putting them down for a nap they wouldn't go to bed in the evening anytime before 10:00pm, therefore, I stopped putting them down for naps so I can get them on a normal bedtime schedule of 7-8pm. Thankfully once they are down they usually are down for 11-12 hours (with an occasional trip to the bathroom during the night). Even though they are exhausted, sometimes we have to pick them up to take them to their rooms since they protest going to bed. Of course all the while they are kicking and screaming since they want to stay up and play more. But once they hit the pillow they are out. The past couple of nights they have actually went in their bedroom themselves and didn't protest as much. Last night and tonight I've been singing to them softly to help relax them going to bed and them seem to enjoy it...fancy that? At least someone enjoys my singing! LOL! Tonight after kissing them all good night and telling them that I love them, I sat down near the door in their room (since Evan won't lay down unless I'm in the room)and I started singing "Jesus loves me", however, I added Steven, Evan and Andrew's name in the song. To my surprise after singing it a few times, I hear Steven get up out of his bed (the room is pitch dark) and walk over towards the door. I'm thinking he is going to take off into the living room and protest going to sleep, where here he comes over to me and takes my face in his hands and kisses me on the cheek. I was floored again. How Sweet!! Steven doesn't usually initiate affection towards me but will receive it when I hug and kiss him...but over this last week he has initiated kissing me twice without me asking for a kiss and has come up to me and is hugging me back with an actual embrace rather than wet lanky fish arms that barely touch you when hugging him. Quite a big improvement all the way around...Praise the Lord.

Happy New Year 2009!

Steven, Andrew and Evan wanting to help Daddy

Happy New Year everyone!

We kept it low key and stayed home for New Year's Eve and spent New Year's Day getting the house and Steven and Evan's room organized. Robert finished assembling Steven and Evan's new dressers and bookcases for their room and the boys all joined in to take part in the fun. Here are a few pictures of the boys helping Daddy.

Evan really got into pretending he was helping Papa assemble the dresser

Evan was very comical and hamming it up in front of the camera. I must say, Evan just melts my heart with his adorable self, all of his expressions, his personality and his affection he gives to me. I questioned when we were visiting him in the orphanage how difficult it would be to bond with him once we got him in our care since he always seemed to be so independent and stubborn at times. Don't get me wrong, he is still very independent and stubborn at times, but Evan and I have bonded very well with each other. He is so funny with all of his facial expressions that I can't stop taking pictures of him. Here he is in rare form.



Silly Evan

Cheese!

I Love You This Much!!

I Don't Know??

Evan Hamming it up.

I thought it would be fun for the family to break out the fondue pot to celebrate the New Year as a family. We did it last year with Andrew for New Year's Eve and it was hilarious to see him practically swimming in melted chocolate. It turned out to be another big hit at the Millilo household. We dipped pineapple chunks, banana pieces and sliced apple into the chocolate marshmellow fondue and boy was it tasty. As soon as Andrew saw me preparing the fondue pot he got so excited he was squealing with delight and jumping up and down. Of course Steven and Evan didn't understand what was going on but Andrew did.

Enjoying Every Minute...Like Who Wouldn't!

It's going to be a while before I come down from this chocolate high!

YUMMY!! Smachno!

Once Steven and Evan understood what to do with the fondue sticks they wanted the fondue pot next to them the whole time. Of course we all took turns passing the fondue pot around the table and Steven and Evan were so anxious to dip their next piece of fruit that they were trying to climb over the table to get to it. I told them to sit down and to repeat, "Mama, please pass me the chocolate fondue". It was so cute to hear them say that phrase so quickly. They are so adorable.


Fondue Firsts

Fondue Fun!

Earlier that evening as we were putting our coats on to go outside Steven burped, covered his mouth and said (in English) "Excuse Me". I was floored. First of all I remember telling Andrew a couple of days ago to cover his mouth and say excused me when he burped but didn't realize Steven was so intently listening that he remembered what to do and what to say. I praised him and told him how proud I was of him. Also, I overheard Steven tell Andrew, "Come on" as he was trying to get Andrew to come over to play with him. He also says on his own "Bye, Bye" and he surprised me again when I was putting them in bed recently by saying back to me, "Love you"...after I told him in Ukrainian and in English that I love him. Again to my surprise that same evening, Evan said it to me the best he could in English with out me asking him to say it, "I UV OO". How precious are they.

Yes we have our challenging moments as a family (like what family doesn't)....but it's times like these that make it all worth while. Happy New Year Everyone!!