Back To School....Middle School that is

Well Andy's 1st day of 5th grade was great! He loves his teachers and so do we and we are very pleased with the school. There is another student in his class who is also from Ukraine! What are the chances. I told Andy "man God really watches out for you" and he replied, "yep, He sure does"
and smiled.
And that about sums up how we feel right now. I look back and this time last year--well this time last year we were on the beach in Ukraine...but as far as 1st days of school goes this time last year was so much different.
Last time on his 1st day of school he only knew a handful of English. He had only been in the States a few weeks. Its so crazy how time flies. It feels like we've been here forever and yet its not really even been a full year.

Yesterday Andrew and I celebrated our Anniversary. And I remember on our last anniversary we were eating pizza at the beach in Ukraine. Andy spoke maybe 10 words in English and yet we laughed and had fun...well, I remember it that way at least...my blog may say otherwise. lol
Anyway, this year we celebrated and Andy bought me roses--is that not the sweetest thing.
He told us, I have an anniversary surprise for you--out come a dozen roses. Is this kid golden or what.

This morning I was complementing Andy on his school work and how he'd already written down the full week's assignments (something he forgot a lot last school year) and he just looked at me and said "well yeah, I'm getting older and that's what you do" as if, of course. He even looks older. It's bittersweet because I want to keep him a 'baby' forever, but its so amazing to watch him mature. He explained to me how the teachers said they have more freedom this year bc its middle school and how of course with freedom comes responsibility. I swear when he said it he grew an inch. Before I know it he'll be taller than me.

Life's going well. Andy is more settled than ever. We had a great summer and as Andy so quickly agreed to before, I think, Man, God really watches out for him.

"Mom Guilt"

"Mom Guilt". Someone should tell all new Moms @ the extreme amount of guilt they will feel upon entering Motherhood. Guilt over any and everything at any given time. This was a surprise to me. I mean I expected a little but all the time? Something must be wrong with me. Here's a nice little example to show u how nutso I can be. I told Andy we would try to go to the library after VBS today. What I didn't think @ is the reality that we don't have time today. See I take little trips to the Magical Kingdom-mom version. Where I am super Mom and can do all things with no time constraints. I invent these super fab agendas in my head and bc in the magic kingdom they work I am comletely devasted when I am back in the real world and can't fit it all in. Luckily I don't divulge all my "splendid" plans with Andy, otherwise he'd not only be stressed but also dissapointed. So here I sit feeling like a failure bc not only can we not go to the library (which he only wants to go bc I'm making him read lol) but I also couldn't pick him up so he's riding with the neighbor and her kids bc I had to do some work. *sigh* the part that makes me nut is that he is best friends with the neighbors and they are like family. And, in fact she usually picks them up. In reality as I am drowning in my guilt the rational part of me knows he would rather be wherever the boys are. So if they r with her that's where he wants to be. If they r with me, that's where he wants to be. I know all this so why am I still feeling like a loser? Good question. No one can seem to ease it. Well, that's not true, I only tqalked to andrew as he worked and he wa super busy so he just looked at me as I half talked and half thought and trying to help smiled saying "its ok.". Ok? No I need more than that-so, I call the mom help hotline-my mom. That def helped. However I was only relieved from this guilt after talking to my sweet son. He was happy and so excited that instead of going to the library for a little while today we r going to try to go next week with the neighbors, downtown. That got me a hearty "cool. Love you Mom. Bye.". Insert relief and a smile. What I didn't tell him was my loftyh plans of taking the train to the downtown library! Nevermind its blocks from the trainstation...there I go again

The Day After...

Well this morning I woke up and thought...oh well, so we are still here in Ukraine and our flight home leaves in a few hours...without us. And in my sleepiness it felt quite normal, we've been here so long that being here feels more real than leaving. Kind of like a mirage in the desert, that's what getting home is right now--haha.

I am better today, man I was a case yesterday. I kept crying, I was getting on my own nerves :)
But today I've accepted it and there are worse things in the world. So we have another week.... The flat is in a better location than the one in Simferopal only in the sense that we can walk to an internet cafe, grocery, stores and McDonald's other than that it's not so great in comparison. There is no TV/DVD and we can't hop on and off of a bus like we could in Simferopal. All things considered being stuck in Simferopal would feel much more like home. But, I'm not complaining...ok maybe a little, you would too.

Today we decided to try letting Yuri play kid games on the computer so he could come to the internet cafe with us, rather than us each taking turns. We were worried at first that this may pose a problem since over half of the people in here are playing violent computer games and some look Yuri's age or younger. However, so far it is working out very well, other than the fact that Yuri won't let Andrew help him when he is stuck nor ask a stranger--not because he is scared to ask but because he wouldn't feel smart. You think I'm kidding but I'm not. He likes us to know that he is smart--he says this.

Speaking of smart, yesterday Yuri informed Galya that he is smarter than us. She laughed but we know he means it...that makes us laugh. He is learning, slowly but surely. We have told him that although we may look like fools here we know what we are doing in America. I'm sure he is thinking "Yeah right." He is currently grounded from ice cream while in Kiev. This was due to the fact that he got off of the train at a stop (that was not ours) on the way to Kiev--after being told not to more than once. He thougth it was really cute and ran--he doesn't think it's cute now that he can't have ice cream. I will say that I didn't count on being in Kiev so long so it has now become a slight punishment for me as I don't want to eat it in front of him (which is amazing because I didn't even want it til I realized I couldn't/shouldn't). Yesterday he kept trying to say he would do things if he could have ice cream or he'd say he was tired because he didn't have his ice cream. It's cute...kind of...ok it is but it is bad. We love him but man has he got some attitude. It is kind of funny because he asked us through the interpreter "why ice cream? can't you take something else?" We had to laugh because it was a fair question. Unfortunately it has to be ice cream because the bike is already gone so we don't have much else to leverage... so for now....ice cream it is.