John's Blog

Sunday, August 01, 2004

 
I have something a little different for today. Instead of a journal-like chronological exposition on the day’s activities, (I had fun waxing eloquent there!) I will write a little about each of the children instead.

ADAM (Meesha)

He is the oldest, so I suppose we can expect the fastest learning from him. On the other hand, it is generally harder to learn languages as you get older. Either way, he was the first to say a full sentence of English. During our evening visit today, Shelly understood that he wanted a balloon. She got him to say “balloon” and “please”, then gave him one. Then, he wanted another balloon. So Shelly counted to two in Russian, and then in English. Then, she told him to say “Two balloons, please, Mama”. After a little bit of coaxing, he finally tried it, and he did a great job! (Mala dyets!) We both made a big deal of it, and definitely indicated that we approved of his effort. It was great fun.

It is a little harder to read him than the other two, but he seems to be just fine with us for now. We decided to take away the Pocket PC and the digital camera for most of this evening, because he pretty much was ignoring us when we would let him play with those. BUT, he looks plenty happy (and shy like a 9-year-old-boy) every time we give him hugs and kisses. Once or twice while I’ve been holding his hand, he has sort of hugged my arm. I like that. (He even kind of petted my arm once, but I think it was because he’s not used to hairy arms (most ladies don’t have hairy arms.))

I picked him up to give him a hug during the middle of our evening visit, today. Then, I decided he should get on my back and let me run around with him. This was particularly interesting, since he didn’t know what I was doing, and we haven’t progressed to the point where I can tell him to get on my back. Sooo… I sort of shuffled, spun, and flipped him around until he was finally on my back, piggy-back style. Then, I took off running. He certainly sounded like he was enjoying it, and I could tell there was a grin on his face. I wanted to keep him up there for a while, but I got pooped after several minutes. So, I tried out some Russian, “Papa oostala.” He energetically said, “oostal”, a few different times in different sentences. At least HE’s clear on the fact that I’m a man. Obviously, I’m rather confused about it, since “oostala” is for tired girls, and “oostal” is for tired boys. (I’m pretty sure I heard Liana giggling about that one, too.)

LIANA (Vallya)

She seems the most versatile in moods, and has many interesting quirks. One of the things she clearly likes to do is to bother her brother. It was almost hilarious this morning when Adam was taking pictures. He had asked Aleksa to stand in a certain spot, so he could take her picture. While he was doing this, Liana stuck out her elbows, and humorously “tip-toed” behind Aleksa in order to “sneak” into the picture. She also did the same sort of motion tonight, when she was wandering away from us to grab something out of the garden that they have there (which we think she wasn’t supposed to be doing).

Liana thoroughly enjoys being held. Both Shelly and I have held her for 10 or more minutes at a shot before things needed to change for different reasons. I also had her on my back and ran around a few times. When I’m holding her, she likes to reach for high things, and pulls leaves off the trees when she can reach them.

I think that of the three, Liana is the most “obvious”. By that I mean that she doesn’t hide things either as much or as well as the others. Whatever good behavior she’s got sticks right out, and whatever bad behavior she’s got is right there too. I simultaneously think this is good and bad. Good, because it’s a whole lot easier to correct things when they stick out so clearly. Bad, because we can’t really do much about it for a few more weeks at the least. (Language barriers are a big headache!) The other two are either better at hiding behavior that is embarrassing or could possibly get them in trouble, or they are less able to communicate through their physical motions. *shrugs*

ALEKSA (Zeena)

If cute was the contest, she would win. Even when she’s afraid of me picking her up, or is “swatting” at us, she still manages to be cute about it. Once I’ve been able to regularly get hugs from her, we’ll have to deal with those things. She also said “Mamka” once, which is a derogatory for mama, but Liana piped up and said “Eta Nee mamka! Eta Mama!” (Which means, “She is NOT mamka. She is mama!”) That was very cool from Liana, and Aleksa hasn’t said that a second time.

She still won’t hug me when I ask, but they occasionally come. I managed to sort of hold her for a little bit this afternoon, but I think she is still afraid that I will put her on my shoulders. She kept asking me to put her down (or at least that’s what I think she was saying since she kept looking at the ground, and half-heartedly trying to get there, while saying many things with “papa” mixed in.) HOWEVER, she gives great little kisses on the cheek when we leave them.

Aleksa also does this interesting little run that is very hard to describe. Every time we walk in to get them for a visit, she sort of puts her hands flat toward the ground and holds her arms straight while running toward us. Sometimes she will turn around and run back, then come to us. I’m not sure why, but it might be that she saw Mama first, then saw me, then came back for Mama. *shrugs* That doesn’t bother me much. If they all just poured on the affection without getting to know us first, that would signal some possible problems later on. So, I fully expect that a few weeks from now, she will want to give me hugs.

Oh! She *really* likes talking to me. I keep telling her that I don’t understand what she’s saying, and that I speak English, but she keeps on going. We have a little Ukrainian booklet with a small dictionary in the back. Sometimes, she’s holding it possessively and we would have looked up something if she hadn’t been. Anyway, the cover has a picture with some geese on it. This morning, I had pointed at them and said “birds” a few times. Later on, she saw a pigeon. So, she called for “papa” and said a bunch of something or other. In the midst of the chatter, I am sure that I heard her say “bird” at least once. We asked Vika whether there was anything that she could say about a bird that would sound like “bird”, and she assured us that there wasn’t. So, Aleksa has the privilege of being the first of the three to speak any English!

I guess that’s enough for now. Talk to you later!

Aleksa teaching Papa Ukranian?
Liana and Papa

Comments:
John,

Thank you for posting so much detail about the three. It is great to get to know each of them through you and Shelly's postings.

There is a Ukrainian/Russian word that sounds out like this: Mommashka.....I wondered what it meant as our girls said it a lot (they spoke Ukrainian and the boys spoke Russian). So, I asked a Ukrainaian and a Russian person what it meant. I was told both times that it relates to mommy in English. It is a more endearing way to say Mama in their language. Maybe Aleksa meant it that way and just isn't saying it correctly. I don't know just a thought. If you hear it again, maybe tell her mamashka instead.

Keep the postings coming!!

Brenda
 

One more thought John!!! We were told by some missionary friends who live in Ukraine that a common finger jesture there to look for and will want to stop is this: the thumb will be between the index finger and the middle finger. If you see this it means something worse than our middle finger and of course you would want them to stop it. Just something we learned the hard way and yes, had to stop!!!!

Oh, the little things in life we all need to learn about other customs!!!

Brenda
 


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