Find the Cossack, round two!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
If its Picnics, it must be summer!
The kids are doing very well this weekend. Two BBQ's in two days, they seem to be able to take what dish out to them, including Ice-cream.
The first Picnic of the weekend was the year end one at Georgetown for the American Friends Program. Both Heidi and I had been paired with international students, Leslie from Paris for Heidi and Sagar from Hyderabad for Erik. Since the beginning of the adoption Odyssey we have been very neglectful friends but it was very good to see Leslie at the event.
On the way to the car the kids found a bunch of college students playing bean bags on the grass (the place had more sunning co-ed on the lawn than leaves in the fall). They started watching, then caddying stray bags and in 10 minutes they had control of the game.
Its a good thing Tanya is so shy and demure (that's a joke by the way), this is her own photo shoot style. Sasha and Christina both try out the football for the first time. Many firsts this weekend, like most; bean-bag toss (Corn hole as the NCC's call it), Frisbee and the afore mentioned "football of the American variety".
Friday, April 24, 2009
Happy Brithday Masha!
Happy Birth Day to you...Happy Birthday to Yuooooooo!
Happy Birthday Day to Masha! you are on our mind and in our heart!
We had a little impromptu Birthday party for our main Gal Masha at Five Guys in Chinatown here in DC this week. of course the kids supplied most of the revelry!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Easter Smester, where is the candy
Firstly I want to thank those of you who caught up to me to shame me into updating and those of you who just thought that! I get the message. Spring has sprung and look, our summer is on the way!
Easter, wow, what a long time ago we landed at Baltimore-Washington Airport. We can still vividly remember the dark first days as the test of wills began. I remember sitting on the family room floor at five in the morning desperately searching the Internet for some form of support group and listening for the first sounds of movement that would mean we had very angry, frustrated and confused intruders or rather prisoners trying to escape.
Masha has come through the shock of an injury (we promise the kids were not involved in any way!) and is now working on recovery. The patience part of healing is a little harder with the kids to contend with. She has been overwhelmed by the well wishers, flowers and cards. She is a trooper and itching to get back in the game.
The week of Easter was very strange, having Friday off, in the week after break. The kids are confused enough by the pattern of a normal week and now compound that with extra off days when we both worked and Easter on top of that.
Our Church held their annual eggstravaganza event and as it turned out the light drizzle did not dampen their spirits in the least. The netted about 5 lbs of candy and goodies between them. The older and faster two made short work of the egg hunt. They all enjoyed the kiddie carnival immensely.
The world must be a very strange place here, with wonder upon wonder around
each corner; dance classes, soccer, parades on Constitution Avenue with no less than Burt and Ernie compared to the seasonal monotony of their orphanage. With a steady methodical build up to each event on the calendar, carefully orchestrated to culminate in the musical play with a quarter of the 200 children performing for a smattering
of town VIPs and themselves.
The confusion is compounded since Masha is not speaking Russian to them, so explaining Easter was a little trickier. I don't know what the Orphanage interpretation of the passion was, but it was looked forward to when they understood that was ahead.
On Saturday night we took the kids to the Hanna Montana movie at a theaterplex in Crystal City. Sasha was singing along with a tune radio in English as we headed for the freeway, Tanya sitting on the edge of. Seat and Christina enthralled with what she could make of the story.
Flash! the kids ate spaghetti with sauce! I thought I was going to pass out!
Sorry for the delay in posting, but it is nice to know ya'll are stopping by to look.
Erik, Motrin is my friend
Easter, wow, what a long time ago we landed at Baltimore-Washington Airport. We can still vividly remember the dark first days as the test of wills began. I remember sitting on the family room floor at five in the morning desperately searching the Internet for some form of support group and listening for the first sounds of movement that would mean we had very angry, frustrated and confused intruders or rather prisoners trying to escape.
Masha has come through the shock of an injury (we promise the kids were not involved in any way!) and is now working on recovery. The patience part of healing is a little harder with the kids to contend with. She has been overwhelmed by the well wishers, flowers and cards. She is a trooper and itching to get back in the game.
The week of Easter was very strange, having Friday off, in the week after break. The kids are confused enough by the pattern of a normal week and now compound that with extra off days when we both worked and Easter on top of that.
Our Church held their annual eggstravaganza event and as it turned out the light drizzle did not dampen their spirits in the least. The netted about 5 lbs of candy and goodies between them. The older and faster two made short work of the egg hunt. They all enjoyed the kiddie carnival immensely.
The world must be a very strange place here, with wonder upon wonder around
each corner; dance classes, soccer, parades on Constitution Avenue with no less than Burt and Ernie compared to the seasonal monotony of their orphanage. With a steady methodical build up to each event on the calendar, carefully orchestrated to culminate in the musical play with a quarter of the 200 children performing for a smatteringof town VIPs and themselves.
The confusion is compounded since Masha is not speaking Russian to them, so explaining Easter was a little trickier. I don't know what the Orphanage interpretation of the passion was, but it was looked forward to when they understood that was ahead.
On Saturday night we took the kids to the Hanna Montana movie at a theaterplex in Crystal City. Sasha was singing along with a tune radio in English as we headed for the freeway, Tanya sitting on the edge of. Seat and Christina enthralled with what she could make of the story.
Flash! the kids ate spaghetti with sauce! I thought I was going to pass out!
Sorry for the delay in posting, but it is nice to know ya'll are stopping by to look.
Erik, Motrin is my friend
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Late Updates...
"Oooops, ouch, that's gotta hurt" department:
Well my first trip the the E.R. was a good practice session. Masha had a slip on some stairs at Church and she and I spent the evening and almost into Sunday morning at the George Washington University E.R.. I think "pride" was the greatest injury, but its gonna hurt for a while. Keep her in your prayers for rapid healing and patience 'till everything works well again.
Travels:
On the way back from the educational testing for Sash and Tanya on the 13th, we stopped by Bethlehem Pennsylvania and visited Rachel and Mike (Heidi's sister's daughter and her husband) and met their new addition. We were all amazed how well the kids took to the week-old Tamsin.
As they Blogged:
"We had a nice surprise last week when Heidi and Erik stopped by with two of their kids, Tanya and Sasha. We were amazed at how they took to Tamsin. Tanya gave her a bottle, wrapped her up and rocked her like an old pro. It was really cool to meet the kids we've heard so much about." (http://www.rmiriam.blogspot.com/)
Erik
Well my first trip the the E.R. was a good practice session. Masha had a slip on some stairs at Church and she and I spent the evening and almost into Sunday morning at the George Washington University E.R.. I think "pride" was the greatest injury, but its gonna hurt for a while. Keep her in your prayers for rapid healing and patience 'till everything works well again.
Travels:
On the way back from the educational testing for Sash and Tanya on the 13th, we stopped by Bethlehem Pennsylvania and visited Rachel and Mike (Heidi's sister's daughter and her husband) and met their new addition. We were all amazed how well the kids took to the week-old Tamsin.
As they Blogged:
"We had a nice surprise last week when Heidi and Erik stopped by with two of their kids, Tanya and Sasha. We were amazed at how they took to Tamsin. Tanya gave her a bottle, wrapped her up and rocked her like an old pro. It was really cool to meet the kids we've heard so much about." (http://www.rmiriam.blogspot.com/)
Erik
Late March
The kids are in school three whole weeks and bang-oooh, its spring break! These kids must be thinking this is a great place!
Well, not to let them backslide too much, Mama had a plan. Sasha was off to soccer day camp run by DC Parks & Recreation. The girls went off to Camp Masquerade, offered by the Girl Scouts. Here's their camp pictures:
We have been out exploring the different parks and playgrounds around town. Here they defy gravity in a kool rope jungle gym at Garfield park in S.E. DC.
Between playgrounds with their swing addiction. "Papa,Papa, one more.. one more.. one more (push)". 
Two of the upsides of orphanage life we see for these kids today:
One is a well-developed ability to share things. Conversely the concept of private property is a little underdeveloped.
Number two is, what I call the Timex effect – they take a licking and keep on ticking. I have seen Tanya fall off a swing and land flat on her back, after two and half tears she was right back in the saddle and giving her very chagrined and relieved Papa the "one more ...." routine.
Tanya and our intrepid friend Clinton, in a timed heat as Sasha cheers them on:
The day at the races. We took all three to a little 1/8 of a mile track at the Rec center to break in their new-to-the-kids bikes and training wheels. It was like an hour-and-a-half of amateur night at the NASCAR track. More spills and thrills than the Wide World of Sports opening credits. Each time Christina crashed, she would quickly remount while crying for another 20 meters of progress. After I adjusted the training wheels her success rate began to improve. At the end, Sasha is about to move on to unassisted crashing and I think the girls are well on their way to control peddling and braking (two out of three at a time).
Masha helped Tanya with this banana, raisin and pretzel caterpillar thing, that was made from a kids cook book Heidi brought home. The kids are getting more and more adventurous in dining, but they are a long way from curry and jalapeños. Most recently they made the jump, a blind leap of faith you might say, and tried a hot fudge Sunday. Wow, what a bunch of risk takers!
Well, not to let them backslide too much, Mama had a plan. Sasha was off to soccer day camp run by DC Parks & Recreation. The girls went off to Camp Masquerade, offered by the Girl Scouts. Here's their camp pictures:
We have been out exploring the different parks and playgrounds around town. Here they defy gravity in a kool rope jungle gym at Garfield park in S.E. DC.
Between playgrounds with their swing addiction. "Papa,Papa, one more.. one more.. one more (push)". 
Two of the upsides of orphanage life we see for these kids today:
One is a well-developed ability to share things. Conversely the concept of private property is a little underdeveloped.
Number two is, what I call the Timex effect – they take a licking and keep on ticking. I have seen Tanya fall off a swing and land flat on her back, after two and half tears she was right back in the saddle and giving her very chagrined and relieved Papa the "one more ...." routine.
Tanya and our intrepid friend Clinton, in a timed heat as Sasha cheers them on:
The day at the races. We took all three to a little 1/8 of a mile track at the Rec center to break in their new-to-the-kids bikes and training wheels. It was like an hour-and-a-half of amateur night at the NASCAR track. More spills and thrills than the Wide World of Sports opening credits. Each time Christina crashed, she would quickly remount while crying for another 20 meters of progress. After I adjusted the training wheels her success rate began to improve. At the end, Sasha is about to move on to unassisted crashing and I think the girls are well on their way to control peddling and braking (two out of three at a time).
Masha helped Tanya with this banana, raisin and pretzel caterpillar thing, that was made from a kids cook book Heidi brought home. The kids are getting more and more adventurous in dining, but they are a long way from curry and jalapeños. Most recently they made the jump, a blind leap of faith you might say, and tried a hot fudge Sunday. Wow, what a bunch of risk takers! 
They have all been making steady progress on schedules and rituals. Every night used to be a test of wills, and now it is mostly organized and peaceful(er). At first we had been trying to get them all in bed at the same time. This turned into a double bunk bed jungle gym time for three hours until we went to bed in disgust.
Older and wiser:
Our first trick was to stagger them into bed at 30-minute intervals and now add in picture books to let them unwind. This is the 80% solution but a whole lot better than where we started.
We had been warned that the kids will cycle into and out of moods. Yesterday, the girls came out of day camp in a rare mood. They drove Masha and I out of the library because of their active resistance. Because we could feel an ugly mood coming on, we headed for the car. Then last night, Christina and I had a little face-off over bedtime. The other kids stayed in bed (another big improvement over past chaos) as she and I went down stairs to settle it.
She is a very strong and persistent adversary, but with calm restraint we sat on the couch. She would try to get up, or bite or twist away and I would hold on. At a point we had a break through, but it made for a very long evening. It is really evident to us that she is carrying a tremendous amount of rage and frustration in that little brain of hers. Today she was off to camp for the last day festivities.
This weekend is the kite festival, the opening event of the cherry blossom festival. Two play dates, church, and of course two soccer practices for the girls to go to.
Jerry reports that Maxim is doing great, reporting 1 1/2's and 10 lbs. We look forward to his testing and lab results.
Thank you all for the kind words and deeds of support. All I can say that opening our heats and home to these kids has changed us in ways we could never have imagined.
As always, in his name,
Papa Dog
Older and wiser:
Our first trick was to stagger them into bed at 30-minute intervals and now add in picture books to let them unwind. This is the 80% solution but a whole lot better than where we started.
We had been warned that the kids will cycle into and out of moods. Yesterday, the girls came out of day camp in a rare mood. They drove Masha and I out of the library because of their active resistance. Because we could feel an ugly mood coming on, we headed for the car. Then last night, Christina and I had a little face-off over bedtime. The other kids stayed in bed (another big improvement over past chaos) as she and I went down stairs to settle it.
She is a very strong and persistent adversary, but with calm restraint we sat on the couch. She would try to get up, or bite or twist away and I would hold on. At a point we had a break through, but it made for a very long evening. It is really evident to us that she is carrying a tremendous amount of rage and frustration in that little brain of hers. Today she was off to camp for the last day festivities.
This weekend is the kite festival, the opening event of the cherry blossom festival. Two play dates, church, and of course two soccer practices for the girls to go to.
Jerry reports that Maxim is doing great, reporting 1 1/2's and 10 lbs. We look forward to his testing and lab results.
Thank you all for the kind words and deeds of support. All I can say that opening our heats and home to these kids has changed us in ways we could never have imagined.
As always, in his name,
Papa Dog
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