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!!