"one out of 3 ain't bad"

Today has been a pretty quiet day. We hung out at home spending time together in the morning. After lunch we went to the market. We are trying to get the children to pick out things they like and ask to put them in the cart. It is not going very well. All they do is shake their heads and make funny faces. Maxim only wants chocolate and Sasha wants sunflower seeds, other than that we are on our own. Ray will try anything but Maxim and Sasha are not very excited about anything. Maxim will eat something George calls baby meat sometimes, but yogurt, tangerines, and cocoa puff looking cereal is about all they want to eat. They will refuse to eat if they do not get what they want. They have very strong wills. They get mad at us a lot.

After lunch we went for a walk to try to buy Sasha boots. We were about 4 sizes too big with the boots we brought her. At least we tried. We found the first store with children’s boots and Sasha refused to even try on one pair. She wanted sandals and we told her it was too cold. The Lady in the store kept trying to help her decide but Sasha would have no part of it. We went to 2 other stores before we found a pair she would try on. She wanted boots that looked like an adult’s with heals and such. After all of the shopping for girls shoes and his help asking directions we thought we would get Maxim a toy (it also helps pass the time). Most of the walk home all Sasha did was complain and pout about the fact that she did not get a toy and Maxim did. On the last trip we said that we were thinking they might be a little spoiled but we did not have a clue. I will ask again… how can children for a country that is poor; have grown up in an orphanage that has very little turn out to be sooo spoiled?? They will go in the other room, into the bathroom, to their bed, and pout and pout and pout. It is almost too cute, we usually end up laughing and that just makes it worse. They get really mad when we laugh. They are starting to drive Ray crazy, he is always trying to get them to behave. We have been getting him to just let them pout and ignore them; they will be OK when they are ready.

Bedtime was a little hard tonight. Maxim and Sasha did not want to go to bed. They tried to run around and hide. Ray went to be and smiled and then made a “aren’t you glad I am good” look. After we turned out the lights Sasha was crying a lot so I sat with her until she calmed down. I think they are finally asleep.

I think we may have bitten off a little more that we can chew. Really, they are great kids. We just need to figure out something to do to pass the time. We are all getting cabin fever and we end up picking on each other.