Sunday surprise

At night when we tuck Andrei in, we tell him about something that will happen the next day, so Saturday night we told him there was church the next day. He said he didn't want to go, so we told him there would be a surprise at church (I thought the Bible Bucks store would be open - if you read your Bible, you get Bible Bucks and can buy something). He got all excited and said - Jesus? and proceeded to act out Jesus flying down from heaven and then getting crucified on the cross. (I think that was it - we weren't really clear on the whole thing.) We were trying not to laugh and at the same time saying, no, no that's not the surprise. Then he said it was sad when Jesus died, but it's okay because "Jesus Hooray! chu-chu balit (little hurt)" - I'm guessing because he rose from the dead. It was very funny.

So the Bible Bucks store was actually not open, so we didn't have a surprise for Andrei. Also, Jesus did not fly down from heaven.

Then Brent came home after second service and said we did have a surprise for him. There was a family visiting that was starting a Russian speaking church in Milwaukee, and we thought Andrei might want to talk to them. So we brought him in and introduced them. He said hello, how are you, and then asked what part of Russia Andrei was from. Andrei said - no, not Russia - I'm American!
There were a lot of people around so we went into an office to talk more privately. We asked the man to ask if Andrei had anything he wanted to tell us, and Andrei covered his ears and ran out of the room. lol I guess not. The couple said they understood, and that he was probably confused by the whole thing. We chatted for a few minutes and then headed back home. He was acting a little sad, so we were sure to tell him - "No more Detsky Dom (orphanage) - only America - a long long long long time." and Andrei said "Yes, good bye Russia, all English, allllll English."

I guess he wants to stay :)

They like me!

I sent some Russian chocolate to my favorite chocoholic-podcasters - Dori and Val from More Hip than Hippie and they reviewed it on their last podcast. :)

Glad you liked it, ladies!

Saturday picture post

Making cookies


Taking the wagon for a walk


Homemade drum set - with chopsticks for sticks

Andrei-isms

Andrei: I don't love you! (ie - I'm angry)
Brent: Why?
Andrei: Z
B: ???
Andrei: Z!
B: Ohhhh - Y - Z
Andrei: Yeah - Y and Z!

Me: Thank you
Andrei: You're welcome. No Blah-blum.

Andrei: Does Papa love Andrei?
Brent: Yes
Andrei: Does Papa love Mama?
Brent: Yes
Andrei: Does Papa love the cat?
Brent: NO!
Andrei: Papa! Please?
Brent: No - papa does not love the cat!
Andrei whispering to me: Shhh - papa loves the cat - it's a secret!

Andrei to the cable guy: Bye bye - I love you!
Cable guy: Uh - I love you too, kid.

Andrei fell off the chair and hit his ear on the wall so Brent gave him a cold piece of celery to put behind his ear. After a few minutes he takes it out and stares at it in wonder, looks back at Brent and then at the celery.
Heyyy! Good job papa! Thank you! :)

Andrei: Look! Come with me - I have a suprise to show you!
We follow:
Andrei opens a random cupboard or goes into his room (that has nothing changed from the last time): Suprise!!!!
Us: ... ?
Andrei: Good job, Andrei?
Us: Uh, sure, good job, Andrei.

Question 1b

Comment from DramaMama

Two related and new questions. What do you miss the most about your life BK (before kid)? How do you and Brent escape, individually and together, now that you're in the AK (after kid) era? I know you've talked about having to plan your life around Andrei, but is there something specific you miss out on? I know I miss quiet sometimes. Even when Mo's quiet, I still am not b/c quiet means trouble and I've got to get up off my butt and find him!!

What do I miss the most? Being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want. Being able to lounge around all day if I feel crappy. Shopping, which I actually hated to do - now I miss it.
How do Brent and I escape? Well, we both work, so that's an escape I guess. Not really a fun one, but it's away time. As far as Brent and I getting away together - well, that doesn't really happen anymore. I'm okay with that. This is a season, and it won't last forever. It makes the few minutes alone so much sweeter and more valuable - like if he's watching a movie, we can chit chat or watch a different movie on the laptop. Before I went back to work we'd have some time after Andrei went back to bed, but now I pretty much go to bed at the same time, so we just steal a few minutes through the day when we can. Andrei still can't understand when we're talking to each other, but I know that won't last for long.
Something specific I miss? Going to the movies, I think. Brent and I used to go quite often, and now we haven't been since before we left for Russia. Actually I'm going to take this time to vent about Marcus Cinema too, because the one movie I was willing to get a sitter for (big stretch for me) is not being shown at any Marcus theater until later. I really wanted to see this on opening night so there would be no spoilers. Argh! Oh well. Not like I have time to browse media on a regular basis either, so maybe I'll be able to keep myself in the dark until we can get around to seeing it.

Andrei read a word?!

I barely believed it when Brent told me!

We got cable today, and when I was away at the Ladies' Christmas Party, Brent and Andrei were trying to find something to watch on TV. Brent was flipping through the channel guide where it lists all the TV shows and Andrei pointed out that Avatar was on. No picutre, no Avatar logo - just the plain word.

The boy will never cease to amaze me.

Question 2 and 3

From Holly

- Does Andrei love to be outside and beg you to go out all the time or can he be amused indoors?

- Have you officially started school? Do you have a set amount of time your spend on school everyday or are you waiting until his language is all caught up? I'm totally curious about this. Do you have to register somewhere as being a homeschooler so nobody thinks your kid is just chronically truant? :) Do homeschooled kids have to take year end exams to make sure the parent is actually teaching them something?

Outside? Yeah he loves going to the park and taking his wagon for a walk at least every day. It has been warmer - well not for you maybe - around 35 every day the past week, so we try to get out as much as we can. We can't let him outside by himself yet, which I think frusterates Brent, but he doesn't know where he can and can not go yet. Hopefully by this summer he'll be able to have more freedom.

Homeschooling. Yes, you do have to register with the state stating your intentions as a homeschooler. No you do not have to take yearly exams. This is only for Wisconsin though. Every state is different and some are more strict than others. In Wisconsin you have to teach at least 875 hours during the school year and focus on the following subjects: Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Reading, and Health.
If by "officially started" you mean sitting down and doing book learning, then no, we have not officially started. He is obviously learning every day with English. It will be a while until his language is caught up to his peers - probably a year or more. I'm not sure what approach we're going to take yet - I'm still researching and learning myself really. There are so many curriculums and theories and types of homeschooling - we need to find what works out best with Andrei and me and our family. I'm really leaning toward a super relaxed style, which Brent is not too fond of, but we'll see. He is learning, that is for sure.
I'm actually reading a few books on the subject right now, so I'll probably be posting more about this when I'm finished with them.

Question 1

Comment from DramaMama

Has anyone that doesn't know you asked a stupid question? What I mean is, lots of adoptive parents get questions about why you don't know what your kid likes, or if you think he wants to go back or whatever. I'm sure the people who do know you ask stupid questions, but thankfully you forgive us, right? =) The other questions I always ask people are the same. What's the best part? What's the worst part? Most interesting? Be honest...there has to be a 'worst' part! As an outsider, it's all interesting to us...but we might not get to see the hard parts. If I think of more, I'll write later...

I don't think anyone has asked me any really dumb questions. I think all of the questions I've gotten are genuine, even if they're not always exactly PC. I'm trying to think and I really can not think of any dumb questions. I like talking about our adoption, so I think everyone around us knows everything about us already. :)
Ok - best part? I think my favorite thing is seeing Andrei learn new things. When he says a new word or talks about things we did today it makes me suprised and so proud of him
Worst part. Um, being spit on. That doesn't happen anymore really. But I learned that it was my thing that pushed me over the edge. And I'm ashamed to admit my less than Christ-like behavior when it did happen. But like I said, that doesn't really happen anymore. So now I think the worst part is all my stuff being touched and gone through and upset. Don't touch my stuff! :)
Most interesting. Well, nothing is boring anymore - lol. I think the most interesting thing was actually being in Russia and experiencing life. I love travelling and seeing new things. Now we're just trying to create normal again - whatever that may be. :)

So, anyone else have questions? Ask away! Even if you think they're dumb ;)

No, mom, he's the good guy!

I think I might have been the last person on the planet that hadn't seen Return of the Jedi, but just in case you don't want the ending spoiled, don't read on.

Andrei watched for the first time last week, but I fell asleep, so when he wanted to watch it again, I figured I'd actually finally get around to watching it.
Sometimes Andrei has a hard time following movies, for the obvious reason that he can't understand the diolouge, so when Vader came on I said Yeach - he's bad! Andrei kept insisting that he was good, and I just assumed that Luke killed him in the end, which would logically make Luke the 'bad guy' since he did the killing. (I told you I had never seen it!) Ok, so I said again, no, Vader is bad, and Andrei went into this tyrade and started acting out the whole ending - complete with the light sabers, electricution, falling down the hole and Luke crying at the end. It was very comical. Then when the actual scene came on he made sure I was watching the whole time because it happened just like he acted out.

See, mom, Vader is the good guy!

Pictures

King Andrei


Sledding at Volrath Bowl


Blowing bubbles at the JMKAC ARTery


Some of the park




Andrei pointed out to me that we say cheese when we take a picture and that was the same as his sandwich - so here's a pic of cheese and cheese


Caught off guard

One month parentversary!

I see I haven't posted in a while. Yesterday was our one month anniversary of being legal parents (even though we've had him for slightly longer, the paperwork says the 11th)

So. Where to start.
Andrei is doing so well. He's probably adjusting quicker than we are. Being parents is.... different. Very different. It seems strange to plan my whole day around him and waht we can and can not do together. Brent and I used to go to movies, go out to eat, watch violent war movies, now we're staying home and watching ABC vidoes (actually Return of the Jedi right now - so that's better than cartoons). I could eat whenever I wanted, not make dinner if I didn't feel like it, take a nap in the middle of the day. Not any more. It's not bad. It's just different. Takes more thought and planning.

Actually with all of our problems in Moscow, I'm suprised we can leave the house at all. Yesterday we went to the store and he wanted some candy, but when I told him no, he cheerfully said 'ok' and we left. Ok, well it took a minute or so, but there was no tantruming. Being around lots of people still overstimulates him, but we were able to go to children's church last week without melting down last week. Hopefully tomorrow I won't have to bribe him out the door.

His eating is good. He eats almost everything we serve, at least a 'chu-chu' (little) bite. His favorite foods are french fries, apples, oranges, carrots, and ice cream.

He is so much of a boy it's shocking to me. I didn't have any brothers, so no experience in this realm. He loves Starwars, Avatar, and Spiderman and acts them all out. Right now is the big fight between Luke and Vader, and I can just see the excitement on his face - he keeps telling me to watch along. :) But he assures me that it ends okay.

His English is coming along well. He knows almost all of his flash cards, and we communicate well. We get our point across eventually. I think we might be at a little bit of a standstill at the moment because we do communicate so well. He has little incentive to learn more words. I could see how school might be a good thing in this situation, but he's definately not ready for 1st grade. I think if he had more friends he would want to talk more - his current best friend is two, so there's not much talking going on. Actually Moses has picked up some of Andrei's Russian.

I still have to find an attorney to do our readoption, but I don't get much time at the computer without Andrei bugging me to play his Diego game or Alphababy.

I feel okay about my role as a mother. It is strange, like I said, but I'm so glad he's here with us. He's very concerned hat we're with him all the time and he knows where we are. If one of us is working he talks to the other about us.

I don't have much else to say. Ask me some questions and I'll answer them :) I'll post some pics later when I get my camera cord.

Ya nee pa Ruski, Ya Eng-ga-lish

"I'm not Russian, I'm English" (I had no idea we moved to Europe)

Andrei now counts in English better than he counts in Russian. I had to help him today remember what four was.
Weird.

Also, we've been home for 2 weeks today.

A fresh start

Happy New Year everyone! Have you broken your resolutions yet?

Since we left for Russia (almost a month and a half ago) I have not been keeping up with balancing our checking account. We've had money in there from our adoption loan so we weren't worried about the balance, so there was no pressing need to stress about budget when there was so much else going on.

But now it's January 1, and it's time to get back down to business.
I started a brand new Quicken file and started all of our accounts over fresh.
I also made a debt repayment plan, and according to my hopes, we will be out of debt the end of 2010. I don't know the exact figures, but we're probably around $38,000 in the hole right now.

A big chunk of this will be paid off from our Adoption Tax Credit which we will take advantage of this year. The rest of it will be almost completely paid off from my income. Brent's check will go for living expenses, my check will go toward debt. This is what we did when we had our business loan which we paid off in just under 3 years.

So here's our loans, and when we hope to pay them off:
Credit Card: April 2008
Car loan: Fall 2008
Small Adoption Loan: Summer 2009
Large Adoption Loan: End of 2010

We also still have a good start at an emergency fund, and we're able to still increase that and our retirement funds while still paying off this debt.
So, even though we're under so much debt here, I'm confident in our situation and our plan. Maybe we can even start saving for #2 soon...