where does he LEARN these things?

At dinner tonight we're just hanging around eating our pizza - out of nowhere Nathan says "hello, baby" - in a deep Barry White type voice... we all just cracked up!!! I have NO IDEA where he would have heard that! Brian doesn't walk around saying that LOL!!

Moving back to "regular blog"

As of tomorrow, April 1st - no fooling! - I'll be again posting on our family blog

www.trio-to-quad.blogspot.com

So be sure to bookmark for at least semi-regular updates on our family of four! Thanks for reading about Nathan Genya's journey and please continue to read and post comments!

Debbie, Brian, JJ and Nathan

Weekend Update

Ok, I know it's Monday evening but the days go so much quicker now! It was much easier to blog where there was nothing else happening in life! :)

Saturday I had a meeting to attend in the morning so Brian had both boys. He took them to a few places he "had" to visit. He wishes he had the camera along when they were at the tire store and Nathan was carrying the biggest/heaviest tire, JJ the next heaviest and Brian the lightest! They got their jackets dirty but had fun! Then they checked out the equipment at a nearby auction and had a ball doing that also. Lunch was at a friends gas station where they had the "juiciest hot dogs ever!" -- Nathan settled right into the "boys outings" just fine!

Elena and her husband and girls came out Saturday afternoon. Thanks for coming, Elena, and it was GREAT to meet you all and we look forward to visiting you soon! Probably the biggest surprise was that Nathan didn't think he was in America yet as apparently in America it isn't COLD! Boy will he be disillusioned! We got a snowfall Saturday night! When Nathan saw it starting he yelled "stop!" (didn't work). We got about 6" of wet, heavy snow!

As mentioned we had a heavy, wet snowstorm Saturday night so Sunday morning it was all white! I'm not sure what he thought of it - but in the afternoon JJ, Nathan and I had a snowball fight outside where he liked the throwing more than the being hit! He "told" his dad all about it!

Today Nathan & I played outside for awhile in the afternoon, after he helped me with some cleaning and laundry in the morning. He got to visit Grandma E's house for a bit while I went to the chiropractor - he's very excited that he has "two grandmas" -- he says that alot! Tomorrow my SILs and I are having a "salon/spa" day so he gets to spend a number of hours there along with his cousin Sophia.

His vocabulary is coming along very nicely. Every day there are more words he's speaking - he continues to understand most of what is said to him in English - and not just by Brian and I but others too. Yesterday's phrases were "are you hungry?" and "are you okay?" - I think his first sentence was Friday tho "Candy (cat), come here!" That he says about 500 times a day! He loves the cat and wants to always be petting her, carrying her or sitting by her. She is tolerant (and could hide if she wanted) but she also tends to sleep with him bed each night so I think she likes the attention! Nathan also can almost say the entire "common table prayer" with us at mealtime and still gives a big "amen" but not QUITE as loud lately!

Tonight Nathan got an early bath -- while JJ was working on some homework Nathan was sitting by him with a pen and paper -- I thought writing on the paper. Nope, he was writing all over his ARMS! Like a self tattoo!! But when I said "oh, wait until we show your dad!" he was not at all happy with what he had done and wanted to immediately take a bath! I wasn't even mad, JJ and I thought it was funny actually! But apparently Nathan knew his dad might have a different opinion. So he did manage to scrub most of it off himself in his bath and there were barely any marks to show his dad! LOL

So as we finish one week at home I continue to say it's going "better than expected". We are trying to keep somewhat to routine and welcome visitors into our home but aren't venturing too many places with him yet. Wal-Mart will be awhile yet! ha, ha... but overall Nathan is adjusting so well and continues to amaze us with how smart he is. He loves to figure out how things work and is getting much better at remembering the "rules" of the house and not getting into trouble for the infractions! And he sleeps great! To bed by 8:30 - wakes up between 6:30-7:00am... His eating is becoming more American every day - little more picky, little less quantity... but we are experienced with this this with JJ as many of you know so we deal with it!

JJ and Nathan are getting along - they don't really "play" together but do tolerate each other without jealousy and each sort of just do their own thing right now. They do like to gang up against dad when wrestling tho so that bonding will come in time! JJ loves to hear Nathan talk so often has him repeat things just so he can laugh. They share a room and now the bunks are up again so Nathan has a dresser and the room looks much nicer and bigger. JJ gets the top bunk and has settled in with about 50-stuffed animals. Nathan has the bottom and prefers just to have Candy with him.

By the way, I now have WIRELESS internet access in our house so the laptop is getting put to use! Yeah!!

Ganging up on dad

First Wisconsin Snowfall!

Friday pictures

Nathan and Cousin Sarah (also his godmother) making animal balloons






JJ playing DS - Nathan Genya watching (not touching actually! yeah!)







He LOVED Grandpa's hot rod -- kept saying "mine!"








Nathan's first Wisconsin Fish Fry! Had two yesterday -- lunch and dinner!! Yumm (well, maybe Brian and I were more excited about it than Nathan was!)

Stop Pop Clop

A quick note for my faithful readers to let you know we're doing okay! I have heard from many of you that I was like a daily addiction and need to keep posting! I'll do my best!

Yesterday we went to the playgroup at school and Genya did very well. He was the oldest but played nicely with the children and followed the directions of the teacher when needed. This morning when we took JJ to school he thought he was staying and wanted to take off his coat and put it where he had yesterday! Yesterday he also did his first church service – the afternoon Lenten service and followed that by the soup/sandwich dinner. He did VERY WELL in church so that was nice! This morning we went to the chapel service the school kids have on Thursdays and again he did very well.

A funny story from Tuesday night at dinner. JJ wanted a type of cheese that we didn't have in the house (shredded cheese) – Genya was listening to the conversation and went to the fridge, opened it up and showed "zay zay" – Cheese! It was the string cheese but he knew what we were all talking about! Last night at dinner he had to have exactly what JJ had also! Overall the boys are getting along well. We let JJ have the choice if Genya plays with his toys or not and he's being very grown up about that. They don't really "play" together but they do interact well. I think Genya's excitement over a big brother is a little more than JJ's over a little brother. The kids at school have all been very good at greeting Genya but worried that they don't speak Russian. Today they were trying to tell him to stop running in the halls while I was talking to JJ's teacher – I said the Russian stop and English stop are the same! They said "oh, ok!"

There actually isn't that much to report – we just are going about our days and finding our rhythm. The morning routine we're still figuring out but it's coming… How to fill our day also is coming. I also, unfortunately, am trying to catch up on mail and get our taxes ready so that's taking some of my time. But today we have some kid visitors after school so that should allow me some time to get it done.

The title of today's blog refers to what Nathan Genya is calling Brian – "pop" generally, but likes to now say "pop clop" (from the Dr. Seuss book) and sometimes adds "stop" to the saying.

We did play outside today for the first time since the rain has stopped. He liked the fort and swinging. We still have to get the boys room arranged – the beds made back into bunks so we can get Genya's dresser in so I have a place to put his clothes!

Elena is planning to come out Saturday to visit so we should be able to find out more what Genya's thinking of all the changes in his life and we can go over some of the "house rules" better. But he is doing much better than he had in Russia – more space and more activities are helping for sure! Next week we have our social worker coming for a check in visit on Thursday and Friday we have his appointment at with the team at the International Adoption Clinic that is part of Children's Hospital in Milwaukee. We should have a better understanding of his health as well as many other things after that visit. They will have a translator as part of it also and will evaluate his speaking in Russian to help determine how his English will develop. I'm looking forward to this all. (other than the blood draw they'll be doing but at least I don't have to do that!)

We also have to figure out what we're going to call Nathan Genya – right now he's either name or sometimes both – but sometimes he'll say his name is Nathan, sometimes Genya. And he answers to both… But the "JJ" – "Genya" thing is getting confusing (yell at the wrong boy!) so we'll see!

I have now made it though the pictures we haven't downloaded so will be posting some from Moscow and home…

Pictures from the past week+

Picture from this morning -- I guess they're settling in ok! (watching cartoons)







The piles of mail waiting for us on our return!









Last link on the chain! We can LEAVE RUSSIA!!







Kathy, this is why pigeons should NOT sit on heads, especially bare ones!







Eating pizza on the hotel room floor!









Philip with Genya








What do you read this sign to be?







KFC in Moscow

He thought he was hot stuff!

Helping the street crew wash the poles and street

Lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, Moscow

Another famous Red Square building

I should look up the name of this famous and beautiful building!

Carrying across Red Square

Red Square pictures

Nathan Genya & dad @ St. Basil's

Nathan Genya and mom at St. Basil's

With Andrew at the airport in IRK

All ready for the airport and to LEAVE Irkutsk!

First Day

As mentioned, we were ALL awake from 3:30am on… good thing JJ had an "arranged skip day" today!

I put away Christmas decorations, unpacked suitcases and did laundry, JJ played his "Spore" computer game that he had received for Christmas but we couldn't get working before we left – thanks to Uncle Billy for getting the computer ready so now he can play it! Genya explored the house and found the few "weapons" we had in the house – if you would have asked me I would have said we had none but he found a plastic sword JJ had received at Logan's birthday part and also the Nintendo "gun" for Duck Hunter game… He also found some "Lightening McQueen" toys, including all the CARS cars we have and played with them quite a bit on and off through the day. He enjoyed the basement, especially the toy tractor he can ride on, and was quite good at not touching Brian's toys that aren't all put away.

Grandma came around 1pm so I could sleep a bit – I know I napped at least an hour. When I woke up I thought I was in Russia yet for a few seconds! Total disorientation! Grandma and Genya got along very well – she wound up being here all afternoon as we had some visitors and then I had to go meet with my dad for a bit to go over some business items.

I am keeping educational TV on for the background noise and to help him start with the English transition. Later in the afternoon my nieces Samantha, Carissa and Sophia (and their mom Aunt Sarah) came to visit as well as Pastor Pries and daughter Sarah came… They all played nicely together – Genya liked Samantha best it seems – and he spoke a few new words in English. I think the more we get him with other kids it will come as everyone says will happen. He just doesn't like to sit down to read books much or "work" on educational things so I have to figure out some strategy on our days to come.

Lunch was cheese pizza for the boys and I had my frozen Weight Watchers entrée – back to reality eating again! I am about 2-lbs lighter coming back from Russia than when leaving so all that walking helped combat the full-fat foods! Dinner was eaten in shifts – JJ was "so hungry" I made him dinner, Genya was taking a bath so he wouldn't fall asleep too early and Brian and I ate a little later. Genya ate a little bit but then was dozing off – a little after 7pm I put him to bed… Sang to him again like I had done in IRK but only two songs before he was asking to be put down. He was then OUT! JJ did a little bit of homework but since it's going to rain Tuesday I told him he could do much of it at school tomorrow as he'll have no outside recess. We then read for about 15-minutes before I couldn't see anymore. I fell asleep about 8:30pm and JJ shortly afterwards next to me in my bed. Brian's Uncle Bruce was visiting so once he left Brian came to bed, moved JJ (not as easy a task anymore!) and fell asleep also. I slept great until about 10:30 when I watched Leno and then fell asleep again until about 4am – Brian and I were both a little awake then – but then JJ came in by us and we all three fell asleep some more. Genya woke at 6:30am so I got up too, then Brian and JJ woke and we started day #2. A 6:30am wake up time is MUCH more manageable! Hopefully we'll all be adjusted soon!

Today's goal is to get our finances caught up to date – the piles of mail waiting for us took me over 1-hour to go through yesterday so I'm down to one big stack of "to handle" and a bigger stack of "to read" (magazines mainly!)

Brian was happy to be back at work yesterday. My dad is leaving for California/Arizona today so they had lots to discuss before his departure. Brian forgot his chiro appt tho so will not get in until Wednesday – he'll be happy to be back in line soon! We're settling in and the long stay away from home is already becoming a very distant memory!

I'll try to post some pictures from Moscow soon – one thing at a time! J