If you have  been read our private blog while we were in-country, you heard about our first confusing language misunderstanding. One of the few foods we were allowed to bring to the orphanage was crackers. So we bought some Ritz-like crackers and took them with us everyday. We told the kids that they were crackers, which to 2/3 year olds, comes out sounding like “kaca”. Well, if you know the tiniest bit of Russian, you know that “kacut” is Russian for poop and that also sounds like “kaca” coming from a toddler. So, every day, Ilya would say, “I need/want (in Russian) kaca” and we would never know if he was talking poop or cracker, without his body language. Poor kid must have been very confused.

These little similar sounding misunderstands happen often in our house. Like when Ilya had just been home for a week or so and we were watching signing times. “Mom” was the word, but Ilya just kept signing “more.”

Last night, Aaron told Ilya that I was busy cooking. Well, Ilya could not stop talking about cookies. Aaron finally asked to bring the kids in there so they could see what cooking was. And that, unfortunately, it had nothing to do with cookies.

We recently discovered both kids prefer to have ice in their water, and the other benefit is that it slows Ilya down. Otherwise, he will drink all of his water before all of the food is on the table. Now that Ilya knows what they are called, he asks about them and talks about them a lot. “Eyes Cubes! Eyes Cubes!” He always has to point to his eyes when he does it too.

This morning I heard the kids talking as I got breakfast ready. I: “I want more applesauce please.” L: “Okay, okay.” Both: (Laughing) “Mama, mama” L: “Want more applesauce please” I: “Umm…. uh… ummm… uh…” L: “Okay, okay.” Can you guess who Ilya was pretending to be the second time? 😉

What makes us laugh about Lena is usually not her words. She does not say a lot of words very well still. But she is still hilarious. We had soup and bread a few nights ago. Lena dropped her bread in her soup. She was trying to fish it out with her spoon alone. She just kept pushing the bread and could not get it up on her spoon. After a minute of frustration, she let out a very guttural “gowwwwww.” Of course, I burst out laughing and she just smiled at me, like she had intended it to be funny.

These two keep us laughing, intentionally or unintentionally…

The time he “borrowed” my camera…

The time he took all the dog toys.