Days Five and Six

Sorry it's been a bit, life and children have a way of eating up your time.

Let's see. We had a nice long excursion. We hit a bookstore and toystore. Kids needed more to do. So we got some books to help learn English and math. Toys were some puzzles, forms for play-doh, something like and Erector set (cost a small fortune) and some little bobble head action figures, oh and colored pencils.

Walked all over. Toystore was 1.5 km, so touch over a mile. Seemed longer. We did pass a place for pizza. We stopped there for lunch on the way back. Kids seemed pretty accustomed to walking. Pizza was interesting. Pepperoni is salami. They did make a pretty good Hawaiian pizza. They had an interesting pizza with Salami and a garlic sauce. Good overall. I've got pictures of that.

I had forgotten our Latvian phone at the apartment and came home to find Bruno had called three times. I called him back and he wanted to meet in an hour to have our Latvian power of attorney notarized. This required leaving the kids alone. It was 15 minutes away and would take about 15 minutes so we would be gone less than an hour. We figured the older kids could handle it. They did, sort of.

We had gotten a harmonica at the toystore. Aleks and Dite fought over it. Aleks went into the bathroom, came out naked from the waist down and peed on his sister's bed. I guess we knew how he felt about that.

We got home moments after that happened. Nauris had placed Aleks in his room and when we got in there we could tell he knew he was in trouble. I guess I'm thankful that it wasn't worse. We had misgivings about leaving them alone, I suppose it worked out, we won't be doing that again. Bruno talked about using Victorija here as a sitter for the work we need to do tomorrow at the Ministry of State (or wherever we get the kid's new passports)

Dinner was leftover soup from the night before. It really was excellent. Potatoes, ham, onions, peas, carrots, garlic. The quality of the produce is very good, and very inexpensive. 25-50% less than Iowa typically. I look at a price and then realize that that's for a kilo. 2.25 pounds. Some things are stupidly cheap. Onions for .60E a kilo? Potatoes for 1E? (per kilo again) Hell, the good pork roast we got was 3.80E a kilo. 2 dollars a pound? It's not that cheap in Iowa.

Aleks misbehaved and wouldn't stop, so he got a time in, in his bed. Then at dinner he wouldn't stop trying to eat by puting his fork handle in his mouth. So off to bed again. He wanted to make it a game and a joke, right up until I told him his father was angry. That changed his demeanor immediately. He realized it wasn't a joke..  I asked him (thank you translator app) if he was ready to eat his dinner. He was and we ate without further incident.

I think my youngest boy suffers from a lack of individual attention. A couple years in an orhpanage and in a house with 7 kids, I think sometimes he got to do whatever he wanted, a bit too often. Well, even in our house of five, he will have a whole lot more hands on than he is used to. Surprise! He won't know what hit him.

I showed a touch of temper today, chewed on Jaenelle for being snippy. Jack for tattling and arguing. Nothing too shocking, just a raised voice and sharp tone. I need to be careful considering the Latvian trio's past, but it's probably a good thing for them to see that there is a limit to my patience and that when reached, there are consequences.

Had another outing to the Central Market. It ruwas raining a bit and cold. This place really is great. Pork roast, bacon (we have to slice it, so it can be nice and thick! JOY!) Chicken, Bussel Sprouts for 1.50E a kilo! Milk is expensive as is juice. About $2ish for just 2 liters.

Wendy made Orange Chicken stir fry. Sort of Chinese food. It was good but Aleks again wanted to make a fuss over dinner. He wanted to eat the rice with nothing else and nothing on it. Considering the nutrients are in the veggies and meat, that wasn't going to fly. We ate and he picked at it. Eventually, he ate the vegetables and rice. Strange he didn't want the chicken. Whatever, he ate and again had reinforced that good manners and eating what is placed in front of your was the rule.

Dite and Nauris have been willing to push it a bit during school I pushed them to do math they didn't know how to do yet. 4 digit multiplciation for Nauris and higher 2 by 2 multiplication for Dite. They flat out refused to do it. Even when I showed them they knew how to do the base skills for doing it. So it's good to see their personalities and that they are comfortable enough to show their own opinions and ideas. I know often that this can take months to appear with adopted children. To get it, any of it in a week? I'll take it. Even if they were a bit mad at me. So school didn't go as well as yesterday. Wendy did get a bit further with school with Aleks. He has been tough to engage. Neither of us were exposed to Pre-K methods in our teaching careers.

We are profoundly proud of Jack and Jaenelle. They really do soldier on when we need them to. They take the initiative to do their schoolwork and help out pretty much whenever we ask. Jack has had a moment or two, but nothing over the top. Jaenelle has been snippy a bit, but that could be hormones as much as anything.

We had some photos developed to use for the court meeting tomorrow. Pictures of the new house. It took an hour and Jaenelle had come with me. We talked about stuff. A good bit about how happy she was with the adoption. She really does like her siblings. Especially Nauris and Dite. Aleks is a handful but he's a good kid, and both she and I think he will grow up into a nice and fun person.

We did go to the theatre on Sunday with the kids' foster parents. Paukojam un Smaukojam. Basically a tale of two rabbits. Pauk and Smauk. Lilita said it was a story and songs from her childhood. Her sponsor paid for the tickets for all of us. She brought her 4 other children. She said they didn't fully understand that Nauris, Dite and Aleks were gone. I was a bit confused but she said it's better they don't really know. She said she was happy her children had found a family and that all children need parents, but for her other four, there was really no hope. That is sad. I've got pictures of us dressed up and you can see the other kids.

The play was excellent. Even if I couldn't understand it. The two leads, played by women (though I am sure one rabbit was supposed to be male) were really talented. Dancing like crazy (remember this is a kid's musical) and singing loudly. The male players could really sing, and there were times it was at least eight part harmony. There were 10 or 12 players in all. Kids loved it.

Took the kid's out for pasteries after the play on Sunday. Some places were closed on Sunday. Almost all stores in Riga close. Not grocery stores, but some restaurants and cafes. Found a place, Costa Coffee, more or less their Starbucks. They had some tasty pasteries and we got the kids hot c hocolate. It was really rich. The Latte Wendy ordered and Mocha I ordered came in huge mugs that were the size of large soup bowls. 40E for coffee and dessert. EEEK! Oh well, it's only money and the kids don't go to plays with us every  day.

It's really been a great time. I told the older kids the chairman of the orphan court was coming tomorrow. I told them she would talk with them. I told them they should tell the truth. Theoretically, if this went badly, that would be it. They would send the kids back. Might only make us stay a whole lot longer (weeks more) to have us bond more and work out the kinks. I don't think that will happen. I think it will go well. I did ask Lilita to ask the kids if they
still wanted to go to America with us or go home with them. It's sort of putting them on the spot, but they all said they wanted to stay with us. So that day I didn't cry with joy. I could turn it into laughter. I laughed/cried several times. It is crazy to think that we've got these kids for the rest of our lives. Sound crazy, but sounds good to me. Only thing that makes me sad is that they will move out all too soon. Oh well, I'll take what I can get for however as long as I can get it.

Time to put my crazy kids to bed. They are in their jammies with teeth brushed and are now running around like madmen. Time to help my wife. :-)