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.