Tag Archives: Reed

First Road Trip

February 8, 2011 Molly 6 Comments

We took the kids on their first road trip this weekend. Our dear friend Amy has been taking care of our dog Josie since late October. She and her family have been giving Josie lots of love and the best care possible. I really can’t thank her enough… it means so much to us to have someone take on that ball of energy for three months and love her like their own dog.

Well, this weekend, we went down to Texas to pick Josie up. I was looking forward to seeing Josie, Amy and her family, and enjoying the warm weather! It was a longgg drive down to Texas– 10 hours of driving time, which translates to 12+ hours with two kids and 2-3 dogs. Everyone was very well behaved. We had some crying over potty breaks and being bored, but they were very good overall. They had a great time at Amy’s house, even though we were there for just 16 hours, 10 of which were sleeping time. They learned about nerf guns and trampolines and tractor tricycles. I did not take ANY photos at her house, because I am terrible like that. And distracted, making sure that Cache, one of our other dogs, does not pee on her curtains.

This is how we burn energy and pass the time in the car… dancing to Paul Simon.

We had to drive through “Ok-la-co-ma”.

Lena is showing you all of her signs. She was being quite funny in the car, “telling” me stories about birds and cats flying in the window and “telling” me about a train taking a bath in the rain.

This is how we roll. (Thank you, Babushka Lola!)

Talking to Babushka.

We learned that if she is upset, you can just get my mom on the phone and that will cheer her up.

She does much better in the car with her shoes off, so she can play with her socks and toes.

Trying to pet Josie.

Josie is settling back in nicely. She seemed a bit shocked that we were there, but she seems happy to be home. We did not have enough room in the car for her crate, so she is crate-less until Amy brings it up. So, tonight, she wandered into the bathroom as the kids were taking their bath. Lena said “Josie!” And then Ilya said “Iz okay. We’re takin’ a baff.” Ilya cannot say Josie very well at all, so he calls her “Zosie” or “Zogie” or even “Zo-zee-ce.”

Everyday Life

Funny Friday

February 4, 2011 Molly 3 Comments

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.

Everyday Life

Some More Photos and a Video

January 31, 2011 Molly 12 Comments

I am feeling too lazy to write something, so I am going to share some photos. Isn’t that why you all read my blog anyways?

This is what we do most weekday mornings… play-doh! It can entertain them for awhile. We purchased the “fun factory” off of Craigslist a couple weeks ago and that is great. It is a lot of little toys, so they get a few different ones each day. It is so messy, but it keeps them occupied and is good for their sensory input.

I walked in on Ilya the other day… removing Lena’s socks. Here he is putting them back on, after I said “what in the world are you doing?” Not that I really cared. Just baffled why this is amusing.

See! I put them on!

I took a video of the kids saying some words. I wish Ilya was a bit louder! You can easily hear how Lena does not say most words well, except for “mama” and “papa”.

I often include an extra cute photo of Lena, because she loves to pose for me. Well, Ilya and I took some photos the other day. Of course, it was in the evening, with the flash, but isn’t he adorable?

Everyday Life

Happy Game Day!

January 29, 2011 Molly 6 Comments

Everyday Life

One Month

January 25, 2011 Molly 2 Comments

We’ve been home for one month. Kind of hard to believe and kind of feels like longer. Like really, Miss Lena was such a little terror just one month ago? All of her behavior has improved so much with routine and time.

Like I mentioned, Lena is really adjusting. She rarely gets upset at all anymore. And when she does, it usually because a need needs to be met… sleep, food, too hot, too cold, scared, etc. It is no longer out of grief or for attention. She is thriving. Every night, she sits on my lap and cuddles with me and asks for kisses from me and her papa. Throughout the day, she frequently climbs on my lap. When it is just the two of us, she is often content to just sit on my lap and watch me work through emails. Or like she did tonight, just sit on a chair waiting me while I screenprinted a t-shirt. One of her challenges is that she hates being left out. So even if she is happy playing with me one minute, if papa and Ilya are taking the dogs out, she wants to go too.

Ilya is still adjusting, yet he is also flourishing. As the rest of us sink back into life, he is still figuring out his place. He is still learning what we expect of him. His vocabulary continues to grow like crazy as he repeats everything we say. He talks or sings non-stop, in a crazy mix of Russian and English. He is so creative too. He sometimes calls us “Mommy” “Poppy” and “Lainey”. Other times, she is just “Len”. He adores his Papa so much that when Papa comes home from work, we girls are deafened by ear drum pounding screams of “Papa’s home! Papa’s home!” He asks his Papa to carry him constantly, which led Papa to ask me one day, “when do kids no longer want to be carried?” He can really be fun or really wear us out or both.

One of the biggest challenges for us, adopting two child who are very different, is how we treat them when they are together. Despite just 11 months apart between them, they almost always have very different reactions to situations. The way we treat them needs to adapt for each of them, but that does not always go over so well. For example, Lena needs to be carried more often, which makes Ilya jealous. With Ilya, he will take the time to play with toys like puzzles by himself and Lena likes to copy this behavior, but gets frustrated when she cannot do them without one of us helping her. And sometimes resorts to trying to get in the way of Ilya doing his puzzle.

Just another example. One photo of the three of us, but when I gently pulled his hand down, trying to get a better photo, he got angry and started pouting.