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The summer is a blur. I worked a lot, the kids were in camp, and we spent lots of time playing hard. We went to Great America, met up with another adopting family in Kentucky, went to the pool and beach, and saw as many kid movies as came out. Sergei learned to listen a little better, and tested his counselors with his cute smile and beguiling ways at Lifetime Fitness. Macha made it through her sports camp, which she thought was boring, and Ksenia had a good summer at art camp. We frequented the beach and rode bikes, went swimming almost every day. The kids' social behaviors are calming down, although you probably wouldn't want to sit through a restaurant dinner with all three. I'm trying to spend more alone time with each one of them.
I love the way the kids make sense of their world. Six-year-old Sergei was reciting the holidays he knows. There is
Christmas
Not-Christmas (Valentine's day)
Easter
and then he started chattering away about "Patrick's Day." On St. Patrick's Day I sent them off decked out in green T-shirts from Target, and made green eggs, green milk, green butter, and other appropriate items for St. Patrick's Day, just for fun. Well, Sergei started talking about "Sponge Bob Day" and that he was sure there WAS one but he didn't know WHEN. To him, Patrick's Day had to celebrate Sponge Bob's best friend, Patrick.
We are celebrating 8 months!! Macha is reading (third grader), Ksenia is giving an oral presentation on the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova tomorrow, and Sergei knows half the alphabet by letter name and all of the pictures.
Sometimes I stop and wonder that I didn't even have a referral at this time a year ago! WOWOW!
So we've hit the 7 month mark. All of the things I was expecting have happened: they all three speak English, they can do simple math, they are happy and active and fun and displaying many expected behaviors (in fact, less negative behavior than I expected!) My eight-year-old, who embraced everything in America with a passion (riding a bike: four days! climbing a tree: two long, scratchy hours! pumping a swing: about a week!) and has been taking classes nonstop, at her request, trying tennis, ice skating, basketball...is starting to have lots of friend trouble in school. Her teacher put it succintly: "When she got here she was a novelty. Now she is another social force to be reckoned with." Meaning: she's no different from the other kids now. They make fun of her, ostracize her, tease her. Partly it's her personality, and partly it's that she misses social cues. It just reminds me how many hours we need to spend still learning these things...
My six-year-old jumped on the back of a woman at the pool at the fitness club Saturday because she was playing with her son and it "looked like fun." I was trying to explain to him we didn't know her, when it dawned on me that every single person he's met in the last seven months he didn't know! He is constatnly being introduced to new people in my wide family circle...so I need a new way of explaining who's new and it's OK to interact with, and who's new but we don't know!
