Great Time at Grandma and Grandpa's

Our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house went great. We had a wonderful "Welcome Home" party with a big bounce house water slide and a fabulous cake. The boys loved playing on the water slide and everyone who came had a great time. We enjoyed seeing everyone and were especially glad that the 4 Ukrainian sisters from Gainesville were able to make the trip down to meet James and Vitali. James and Vitali had a great time meeting their cousins Sydney and Owen and they found out that Grandma and Grandpa's house is lots of fun. They both liked borrowing Owen's 4-wheeler.

Our lives have settled into a comfortable routine for all and we are so proud of the boys' progress. We have been out to dinner a few more times and are so glad that the boys can manage to sit nicely in their chairs and eat their meals. We have visited a few parks, a few friends' pools (they like the pool variety although they still enjoy their own pool at home) and an indoor bounce house park. They both have new big wheels that they enjoy riding "fast". They went to the dentist today and the dentist was very impressed with their behavior.

The most used English phrases by the boys are: "where is it?", "I found it", "I got it", and "Come here." They know a lot of animal names and food words and are always talking about what is "big" vs. "little" (especially in regards to each other). They seem to understand much of what we say and we think they will be saying much more in English soon. On the 3 occassions that we encounted a Russian speaker James was not so excited to hear his language - he acted as if the language had a negative association for him whereas Vitali doesn't seem to care either way although he intenty listed to the 4 sisters' Ukrainian nanny, just soaking it in. They are interested in learning and we are thinking that we may look at a very part time pre-school program for them soon.

Both boys are hooked on wearing their sunglasses and know all about sunscreen. A few weeks ago Vitali finally decided that he likes the dogs and they have fun taking the dogs for walks. James has started noticing letters and can count to 10 in English. He really likes reading books with Mama and Papa before he goes to bed at night. The queen mattress that came out of their bedroom was in the garage waiting for a new home and we decided to put it down on the garage floor for them to jump on. That was a great decision since it gives them a place to legitimately jump since they are constantly tempted by the furniture. We don't have any big plans on the agenda coming up...just James' birthday in Sept.

Making Major Progress

(Paul writes as Jessica sleeps after another busy day)
After weeks of lots of love and working with the boys it seems as we have turned the corner and things are getting easier by the day. Both boys are fairly compliant now and are getting with the program. Even the food issues have gotten progressively better as they are more willing to give new and previously rejected foods a chance. Both boys now enjoy playing with Papa (without Mama), especially football tackling/WWF style wrestling on the front lawn. These little guys like to play rough.

After weeks of waiting our boys finally visited our pediatrician. We were reassured that both boys looked good and that a full battery of blood tests were necessary to check immunizations and to be on the safe side for other typical ailments often seen in children adopted internationally. The trip to LabCorp was not fun, especially for Papa who restrained both boys. The technicians who drew their blood were even better at their job than we could have imagined, but Papa was still rattled by the time it was all over. Of course neither boy showed any signs of being upset after only five minutes of playing with their new cars in the lobby (Mama's idea). Maybe Mama should have brought a new car for Papa too.

We were feeling adventurous so we took the boys to Macaroni Grill last week around 5pm to avoid the crowd. We were impressed that their excellent behavior that we had observed in Ukraine restaurants had not changed. We took them to Sanibel Island by boat this weekend and played in the sand and tide pools, they loved it even though it was hot. Afterward we went to our favorite casual resturant, The Lazy Flamingo, and then Dairy Queen for some plain vanilla softserve ice cream cones. That went so well, we can see that we will be going again soon.

This last picture we had to post as this really cracked us up. James wanted to ride his bike outside but wanted to keep wearing his Superman (he calls it Kusitman)pajamas on - cape and all. We thought "why not?" So he happily rode around the driveway in his PJs.

Their English is really coming along and we think they understand a lot of what we say to them. Some of the English words they are using are so heavily accented or are new sounds they are developing that it is hard not to smile when they use them as it is sooooo cute.

We had a really great and fun weekend with the boys and are looking forward to the experience we will have with them next weekend when we take them to Jessica's parent's house in Melbourne. We have been home for one month now and are hopeful that the boys are ready for the excitement of this out of town trip. We have eased them into activities outside of the home and think they are ready...we'll see.