3 Days later...

Three days later and I'm back in the internet cafe with Andrew and Yuri. Except now Andrew is playing the car game with Yuri...ah my two 'boys.' :)

My Mom has some crazy connections and I have to give her a big "Thank You" because somehow the woman managed to get our fingerprints cleared and back to the Embassy on Friday--INSANE--they weren't supposed to be back until the next Friday (7 days later). The only catch is that the Embassy here was already closed...and suprise...they are closed on the weekend and wouldn't you know Labor day is Monday. I'm actually laughing as I type because like I said, at this point getting home almost seems like a pipe dream. Sigh, oh well.



Amazingly enough the boredom has turned into relaxation...kind of. There isn't a lot to do if you make up your mind to stay around the flat, which like I said we think is better for Yuri...some sense of normal life... so we read, play, eat, walk around, go to the computer lab...and do it all again until bed time. Exciting huh? All in all though it's really not bad. We are going to the Embassy first thing Tuesday morning and hoping to get a flight back on Weds. So we have our fingers crossed...but I'm not getting my hopes up.



I will say Yuri has come into his own here in Kiev. I think he must be starting to relax a little and be more of himself. I don't really know how to explain this but it seems he is just more comfortable here than in Simferopal. Which makes us wonder if perhaps he thought he would run into someone he knew or something? I dunno, I mean we are talking about a boy who insists he is grown up, even though he still makes car noises when playing with his car toys :), and although we just introduced him to Jello a day ago thought he knew how to make it himself. We bought pre-made jello and then decided he'd get a kick out of making it...we were right. It was so funny because he kept telling us how we weren't doing it right--we couldn't possibly know since, you know he's smarter than us and all--have I told you that story? It really is funny.



I realize that I haven't filled you in on a lot of things about Yuri and what he likes, how he acts... so I am going to try to give you an update....Here goes...



Yuri loves all things cars--loves them. This is not something Andrew got him into, although of course Andrew couldn't be happier. They go around pointing out cars and saying which are their favorites. Yuri's way of saying he loves things is to either make a motion to show his heart pounding (learned from Andrew) or to say "I love you? No?" Which in his world means do you love that? He hasn't learned how to use the phrase "I love you" quite yet. I mean he knows "I love you" but he doesn't realize that you can say "I love that...car or toy" without saying the full "I love you." It's cute.



We've decided that if Yuri was on a stranded island with only 2 things available to him it would be his bike and ice cream. To him, those 2 items make the world go round. When we talk about going to America and what will be there he always makes sure we remember to add the bike and ice cream.



Yuri's English has improved more this week alone than the entire time we've been with him. We got a little pocket translator that can say the words in Russian or English (and it was actually quite reasonable) and it has been wonderful. Yuri loves to play with it. He is starting to communicate more in English and try to learn words. We are very pleased. He understands a lot more than he can say. For some reason he likes the word 'trashcan.' I don't know why--maybe because he just learned it? But he will walk around repeating it in a sing song manner almost..."trashcan...traaaashcan..then quickly trashcan..." We just shrug and smile, ok, so he likes trashcans...interesting.



Yesterday we were in McDonald's and he burped--it wasn't loud but he proudly smiled and said with outstretched hands "Excuuuse me whole McDonald's."

"Whoa! Good English buddy" Andrew replied. How did he learn that? We didn't teach him the word 'whole,' nevertheless it was great. It's the simple things :)