Day 10--November 4, 2008

Day 10—November 4, 2008

(1:00 p.m.) The sun is shining today!!!!! It is the first time since we arrived more than a week ago. It was so nice to be outside. When we went to see Aidar, they had him dressed to go outdoors (we have learned from seeing his written medical records that his name is spelled with an “i” and not a “y”). Yea! We brought bubbles today, and he loved chasing them and trying to pop them J He also liked to pop them when John was blowing them, and getting the stuff all over John’s face. He even pretended like he wanted to lick it. YUK! We also brought another car to him, but he wasn’t as impressed with that. He still likes the little bowling set we bought for him. It probably cost us about $3.00 tops—go figure, right? He figured out that it’s tough to set up the pins on carpet, and it’s tough to set up the pins in the driveway, but it’s easy to set them up on stairs outside. He took that initiative on his own, which I think is pretty smart for a four year old who doesn’t get out much. John took him on the monkey bars and let him hang for just a second, and Aidar got nervous. Wait until Karis shows him how it’s done. She flies across those things!

We learned Aidar’s last name today (it was on the written medical records, too), so it was nice to see that. There are various characters in Russian that don’t exist in English, but the doctor translated his last name for us, thank God.

He is catching on really well with signing, although he does not yet call to us with sign language. He will copy my signs as soon as I do them, and when I ask him to show me something, he does it well. He is learning more everyday. Occasionally, he does get the “enough, already with the sign language” feeling and won’t do it for us. He definitely knows “no”, but does not always respond to it, the sneaky little guy J We’ve shown him “stop”, and he is really good about listening when our tone of voice changes (e.g. when he is about to walk around the corner in the driveway). I’m not a doctor (nor do I play one on TV), but he seems to be very smart, mischievous, and healthy in so many ways.

We went to another grocery store today, and guess what? We found chicken! We hope we can cook it in our (one) pan. The price wasn’t too bad (unlike cereal, which is almost $8.00 per box). We also found cereal bars, a staple of our diet in the U.S., and frozen vegetables. We still don’t know when we should change our tickets to go home. Our documents are not complete (we’re waiting on our home study and background checks), and we can’t get our US gov’t document (Petition for Adoption) until they get our home study. So, it may be a while before we get a date for our court hearing. I would hate to have to come back two more times (and we certainly don’t have the cash for that kind of travel).

(9:00 p.m.) We saw Aidar late this afternoon, and showed him the videotape from this a.m. He was mesmerized. He is becoming more and more comfortable with John and me. He is not as diligent about putting his toys away before getting more (something we’re sure the orphanage instilled in him just to keep order with so many children). And he likes to push the envelope on disobeying us (e.g. turning the lights on and off…and on and off….and on and off).

OK, so you know I can’t cook. Try throwing in directions in Russian and a Russian microwave, and you know I’m in serious trouble. We figured out how to defrost the chicken in the microwave, and we thought it looked like water in the picture for the sauce, so we made due, fried the chicken, boiled the veggies, and it all actually came out pretty good. And we’re ready to try again tomorrow.