One Year Later

It is hard to believe that a year has gone by since we first saw our dear boys. We agree that we cannot imagine life without them now. They have taken over our hearts and minds and infiltrated our souls in ways that must be familiar to other parents, but which are new and so precious to us.

They are thriving with love and attention and a family. You can see how excited they were on Halloween to be a scary tiger and lion. In fact, they practiced their "Trick or Treat" (Okay, for Sergey it was just "Trick Treat") for weeks. On the actual evening in question, Sery was totally into it and showed a hitherto unseen stamina for walking from door to door downtown to ask for candy. The boys also obligingly roared for people who commented on their costumes. Meanwhile, I find myself changed--I actually suggested to people at the office that maybe we shouldn't be quite so scary this year. Maybe some cute little black cats and pumpkin decorations... My coworkers wondered what happened to me.

The last skylight leak was fixed this weekend, and Gil, the labrador, is now taking walks for ACL repair rehab. So this year is like a total repeat of this time last year (when the opposite skylight leak had to be repaired and Gil was on rehab with his other knee), except we're actually here instead of in Kazakhstan. We're trying to adjust to colder weather and rain. Last week when it snowed, the boys were totally excited and happy. It has been a while since I have felt that way about snow, but Sue just smiled and took the boys out to catch snowflakes on their tongues. After a while, I admit, I got into it too. Children may give us gray hairs, but they also keep us young.

We have also instituted some fun family rituals that the boys really count on, like Friday Pizza night and Sunday afternoon movies with popcorn. We have also tried to come up with some good family games. We have tried animal charades, but 1) it revs them up too much before bedtime, and 2) Lonya has an unfortunate tendency to announce what he is portraying before he starts. It's kind of like their Hide and Seek, where they like to hide and then pop out just as you are walking toward them to announce "here I am!" No amount of explaining the point of the game seems to help. But it is endlessly fun for them anyway, so we play it.

One other thing about television...we limit what they watch, but they are starting to like what they do get to see. Lonya loves to identify with the villains, for some reason, and talks endlessly of Cruella DeVille, wicked stepmothers and the tiger, Sher Khan. We kind of hope that's a phase. Sery, on the other hand, at two and a half now, has shown his greatest attention span ever when we have happened to come upon football games while channel surfing. The other day he watched for nearly half an hour and cried when the channel was changed. And he didn't even know the teams. This must be a guy thing.

One year ago yesterday, two little waifs came into our lives and now it feels like they've always been here. In our hearts, they have.