Wednesday June 20, 2007 Sand Box Day, and John begins to work

John was scheduled to be off of work all week, but he thought, and I agreed, it would be good to get started with some half-days and ease into the idea of “Daddy has to work”. I was apprehensive, to say the least. Nick and I have some wonderful moments, but we really haven’t found our way with each other, and I can’t “read” him as well as John does – either in the verbal language or the behaviors.

John generally gets up with Nick when he wakes in the middle of the night – he learned to call for “Papa, Papa!” very quickly back in Kyiv. I thought since John was going back to work, I’d see if I could comfort Nick. When he called just after 4:00 AM (I had been awake about fifteen minutes by then, that darn jet-lag!) I asked if he needed the bathroom (no), and then he let me rock him back to sleep. The next time (about thirty minutes later) he actually stood at his door calling for “Mama, Mama!” We rocked again and this time he lasted nearly an hour. Dennis was up not too long after that and we all had “kasha” (oatmeal) and banana for breakfast. Nick has started to refuse the oatmeal in favor of the banana, but goes along with the “four bites of kasha, then a bite of banana” program pretty easily. Dennis, still our eating machine, eats anything I feed him or put in front of him, whether or not it is intentional.

I cope better with agendas and deadlines, so although we don’t expect the boys to follow a strict schedule, especially three days into a new home and time zone, it was good for me to have a general plan of activities for the morning, at least until John was ready to help again. So the “plan” so far goes something like this:

They get up whenever they get up.
We eat breakfast (together preferably or separately if needed) consisting of kasha and fruit; bananas so far
Get dressed
Play in the basement
Snack around 9:30 or 10 Play in the neighborhood park
Lunch at noon – soup pretty much every day since Nick and Dennis both love it so much
Nap(s)

That actually worked pretty well. We had a nice time at the park, and Nick readily left when I said we could go to “nash dome” (our home) “kusit” (to eat) “skora” (soon) “illi” (or) “see-chess” (now). He chose “see-chess”. He was so excited about having “soup” that the twenty minute wait once we reached the kitchen was very difficult for both of them. I am happy to report no one died of starvation, and they dug right into the chicken and wild rice soup. Nick had some big behavior issues after lunch, though, and John was helping him to calm down upstairs when I realized with horror that we had left his stuffed tiger, Sabaka, at the park! I wrote a quick note to John, whipped a drowsy Dennis into a stroller and hastily returned to the park, sincerely praying that Sabaka would still be waiting on the bench where I had told Nick to put him that morning. A dad was there playing with his little girl, and Sabaka was sitting, a bit lonely, but intact right where we had left him. I was earnestly thankful. By the way, “sabaka” is the Russian word for “dog”. Nick knows now that it is a tiger and tigers are cats, but his name is still “Sabaka”.

John had set up the sandbox on the back patio without their knowledge, and we saved it for a special treat after their nap so John could be present, too. It brought big, big smiles from Nick!