a little bird

Well, on Thursday the kids had a Halloween costume parade at school this morning. It was fun to go watch. It reminded me of my childhood. The boys were in awe as they watched all the kids in their costumes. They both decided they wanted to be pirates. We had one pirate costume that BoyTwo was going to use. We just needed one for BoyOne. I sent huz and BoyOne on a little shopping trip together that night. They had a lovely time. BoyOne was way excited to show me his costume when they got home. I have a great picture of him in it.

Thursday afternoon BoyOne went on a L O N G bike ride with my neighbor. I won't advertise where exactly they biked to, but take my word for it: it was far. He was in heaven. I know that when he had a family he was fortunate enough to have learned to do many things somewhere along the line, bike riding being one of them. He has told me that the orphanage does not have any bikes that he can ride. He misses doing that. Sad. So many things we take for granted.

BoyTwo is hilarious. He is always being a goofball, making us laugh, doing these funny little dances. Today he did something, I don't even remember what, and I told him no and he flipped me off. Apparently that is a universal sign that is learned and acceptable at a very young age in Ukraine orphanages! I spoke to another host parent the other day and asked how things were going. He said they were well but added that one of his Ukrainian visitors had flipped him off too. It was kind of funny. Surprising/funny. Anyhow, I had to have a little time out with him. Later on he flipped huz off too! And then on Sunday, he flipped off my brother in law. I remember when Two went through a phase where she was flipping people off. She had picked it up from somewhere at age 3 (yikes!!). Luckily, it didn't take long to break her of that habit.

We are still having fun, still enjoying this experience. It feels like they've been here for much longer than 5 days. I don't want to get to the halfway mark though because I know that time will go fast and they'll have to go home before I know it.