Today was relatively "normal". The kids seemed happy for us to be there, misbehaved a little, but were happy we were there. Adam came running to us this morning too, so we felt much better after what happened last night.

I was both pleased and bothered tonight about some of Adam's actions. It appears that he is a normal 9 year old, wanting things to play with and to hold his attention. So, he will occasionally wander away from us (against our instructions) to play with some other adopting couple and their children (differen toys). One of those was a book of English words and pictures (boy, girl, mother, father, ball, cat, hand, face, etc.) I sat with him a read the words for a few minutes, and then had to give the book back. When I tried to do that, Adam clung to the book, and I really had to pull it from his hands. We then started carrying the children back to "our spot". Once Adam knew that he was going, whether he wanted to or not, he started running/skipping over there. I sat down and tried to draw some pictures and write the words for them, but that just didn't seem to cut it. Liana was interested in that, though. She would point at something on the quick point card, ask me what it was, then write a little squiggle on some paper. It was cute, but I know that the squiggles were not actually anything readable in Russian, Ukranian, or English (though it could have been shorthand ;oP )

Aleksa took me for a tour around the outside of the building this afternoon, and Liana wanted to go along for the ride. It was rather fun, but I have no clue what Aleksa was trying to say to me.

The other adopting couple, that I mentioned above, left after a while, and their kids came over to ask for some balloons. Adam really likes giving balloons to the other kids, which I think is a good thing, but I would really like to know why he does it, too. Anyway, I became a human pump after a bit. These balloons are next to impossible to blow up by mouth, though you can do it with a little hand-work added in. So, the kids would hold the open end of the balloon to me, then suck on the other end. This would result in the balloon sort of expanding inside their mouths, then extending out a little ways. They really got a kick out of this, so I ended up doing that for a while. (The bad part was that they obviously didn't care about spreading germs, so I really hope that I don't catch anything from this!) Also, while I was doing this, the two other children were calling me "Papa". I told them that I was "Mister", not "Papa". They understood that after I said it two or three times. I also made sure to blow up Adam and Liana's balloons first, even if these other children had been asking for just a bit longer. I'm not sure, but I think this had the desired effect of reinforcing our children's belief that they are more special to Shelly and I than any of the other children. (I also think that our kids get along better with these other two, because they all know that they have their own Mama and Papa already and aren't trying to steal us away.)

I know this is a slightly shorter blog than normal, but I can't really think of anything else to say right now. We'll be buying some clothes before we go to visit the children tomorrow morning, so that will give me something to talk about tomorrow for sure. (Oh! Liana asked for some socks tonight, and eventually got it across to me that I should give her my socks like I had done or Adam a couple days ago. So, I took them off (sweaty and all) and gave them to her. She tried putting them on, found out they were way too big, then came over and stuffed them in the leg pocket of my shorts while I was busy doing something with Adam or Aleksa. It was cute.)

Papa holding Liana