I'm Sorry, Okay!?

As much as I would love to fill everyone in on my travels, the boys, and share a bunch of pictures... it takes quite a bit of time to blog! I have pretty much been going to bed right after the boys too, so very little computer time. And as you will hear about in a moment, I have been busy with other essentials as well.

Okay - where to start? I think I will have to again skip out on our London and Moscow time for sake of keeping this post manageable. Maybe a few pictures though!

Eli and I checking out St. Basil's, Moscow

At the GUM - love the Ergo!

The boys having their first McDonalds!

Even Eli ate a whole burger!

So the flight home went as well as could be expected I guess. We needed to leave our Moscow apartment at 2:30am, and Eli was sick that night so I only got 1 1/2hrs of sleep before starting the trek home. I would say that the boys slept half of the plane ride time home and we would find something entertaining to pass our airport time (food, walks, toys, etc). So we arrived in Calgary just before 5pm February 10th (got home at 2:30am Feb 11th). Made it relatively quick through customs and then were welcomed by Beth's family and a Calgary adoptive family that brought their little girl home last summer from the same orphanage as the boys. It was very awesome and I am so thankful they were there, cheering and welcoming with some small gifts for the boys.... and to take some pictures since I was so 'out of it' to even remember to pull out my camera (that's what about 5hrs of sleep in over 2 days does to a person you know). It was a great way to commemorate the boys' arrival to Canada.

Sleeping on the plane

Welcome to CANADA! (Calgary)

The first couple days home I was pretty much a wreck. My body was rebelling in every way, much resembling how I felt our first trip to Russia - except then the only thing I had to manage in a day was to go to the orphanage twice for about 1 1/2hrs each. All I wanted to do was sleep, cried when I was awake, and couldn't eat. My goal for day 2 home was to simply make lunch and supper. Day 3 I went to church with Emily, Cameron, Alexis, and Eli because I just felt I needed too. And it was wonderful - just feeling the support of our church family was strengthening. Aaron stayed home with Carter and Alexander because they simply weren't ready for a big group setting.

Day 4, Monday, I was finally feeling back to myself and things seemed manageable again. We had a doctor's appointment for the boys. Most things looked well, just will have to see an occupational therapist regarding Carter's one foot. And had to take stool samples to check for parasites - quite yucky, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Haven't gotten the results back yet but the boys for sure have pinworms so decided to treat for that tonight rather than make them wait another week. Good thing I have the meds on hand since it is what I use for deworming puppies! The boys are quite itchy and I don't need it to spread to everyone else...

Tuesday I finally managed to do laundry! Wednesday I went through the nine boxes of boy clothes I had and picked out about 14 outfits for each, then put back away three boxes of summer clothes. Thursday it was off to the optometrists. Eli will need to have eye surgery in Edmonton in order to correct his left eye which crosses inward. Until then he will need to have glasses, so we will pick those out next Wednesday when we are in Grande Prairie seeing the dentist. I am certain we will have many follow-up dental trips too since Alexanders teeth are all rotten, even the big ones in the back - and I am sure that Carter and Eli will need filling as well. Good thing God gives us two sets!

And that bring us to today and me finally managing to stay up and blog since my husband let me sleep in this morning with Emily having no school.

Overall the boys are doing very well. They appear to do just fine when we have to go out to appointments and detour from our home routine. Everyone is now also sleeping well in their own beds. I slept on the floor the first two night with Eli in Alexander and Carter's room, but neither Eli or I would sleep all that well. The third day I decided to introduce Eli to his crib and he is doing wonderfully. The only problem we initially had was with Alexander in that he would wake up and get out of bed in the middle of the night - so after getting in trouble for that two nights in a row he is now sleeping through the night.

English is coming along slower than I expected it would. Alexander and Carter speak Russian all day to each other, so don't try so hard to communicate in English with everyone else. We make them say some words in English like 'come, more, water, please, look, up, and help' and Alexander is just now trying to use them without being prompted, but Carter only parrots what we tell him to say. Alexander is doing well with understanding us with a little charades to help, but Carter usually has no clue. Carter also starts to cry whenever someone sits down at the supper table or gets ready to go outside before him - like he thinks if he is not first he will be left out all together. Alexander is starting to eat a little slower too (from absolutely wolfing his food down disgustingly) and we make him wait at the table when he is done eating while the rest of us atleast near finishing. I thought I would have more of a problem with the boys having to wait while I prepare food (since they never saw food being prepared at the orphanage) but that too is going fine. They will come check out what I am doing, but know it is coming soon enough. Oh, and while I am talking about eating - what messy eaters! I mostly feed Eli, or give him simply things to feed himself - but the other two, yuck! We have now switched to putting Carter in a highchair, and it is tempting to do the same with Alexander. Also have switched to using sippy cups all the time with them (after repeated spills by Alexander) until they can understand English and learn how to be more careful. Good thing Cameron and Alexis love to vacuum!

As for interacting with Emily, Cameron, and Alexis - things there too are going really well. They all like to play with each other for a while, and then separate out at times too. We haven't really had any jealously issues and Emily actually told me that it was more fun with the boys than she expected it would be. We are limitting 'the boys' to upstairs in our house so they haven't been in Emily & Alexis's room, and have also made Cameron's room off limits so he still has a place to play lego, etc. At times Emily and Alexis also camp out in Cameron's room to play something without the boys. Until they learn English I have decided to exclude them from some things (like going downstairs or playing lego) so that I can instruct them on what they can and can't do and know they understand. It really is a full time job pretty much just watching what they are doing or getting into - and none of the boys are interested in TV at all, so no easy baby-sitting there either :)

We have now taken to bathing two kids a night each night except for Sundays. The first time I bathed Alexander and Carter (in Moscow), they were both really scared. I had the same response from Eli. I don't know how they were doing it in the orphanage, but however it was it had them all really scared. By the second bath Alexander and Carter no longer cried, and they now ask for a bath and play for an hour with ease. Eli too finally had his first bath tonight without crying and even played a little.

As for testing limits, Alexander has definitely eased up on that. He still doesn't obey at times, or tries to wait until we get up to make him obey (which he is finding out still counts as not obeying and gets a punishment). Both Alexander and Carter can be pretty whiny/throw tantrums at times too - like when they don't get a toy they want, etc., but are too learning that they are often rewarded with a 'punishment' for that too. The tantrums though have also lessened in intensity too - from throwing, banging heads, kicking, screaming, and biting things - to half heartedly throwing toys (which gets a negative response from us) or hitting a couch or the air.

So overall everything is going really well and it has only been 8 days home. In other ways it has been a really long 8 days. I have gone from going to bed usually at around midnight to averaging going to bed at 9:30-10ish. Having about one main task for the day is about all that I can manage to get done - and Aaron is still home! The luxury of personal time is pretty much gone, and Aaron and I were pondering tonight what things will be like in a few years when they are older and in school :)

As for prayer requests - learning English is pretty high on my list! Growing in attachment to us and making it past all of the doctors & dentist stuff with ease would be great too. And of course, the boys growing swiftly in their knowledge of God (we read a toddler bible every night but I don't think they understand a word of it yet - and sing 'Jesus loves Me' every night too since in Moscow but they mostly just giggle through it).