He finally said it!

This picture is actually from yesterday. I was surprised when he took his hat off to see that he had gotten a haircut! The mom in me was like "wait, nobody asked me if I wanted his haircut!" But he didn't seem to mind even though he had been telling us that he wanted to have a mohawk like Jackson did last summer and now that's not really possible. Maybe by summer it will be long enough that he can do a short mohawk. I would prefer him not to go to school with one but he can wear his hair however he wants in the summer. And he looks so cute with a little buzz cut. Plus his head is so soft and he lets me rub it when he is playing video games on the laptop :)

More fun times with the iPod.

This is from today. I had bought a puzzle ball from the toy store and we put it together today. But more exciting than the puzzle ball is that today FOR THE FIRST TIME VLADIK TOLD ME HE LOVED ME! Well, actually a couple weeks ago Keith tickled him and told him to say I love you mom for him to stop, which he did, but I didn't count that. Today was of his own free will. We were watching Scooby Doo, that I had downloaded for him, on the laptop when it started to beep because the battery was low. I had brought the charger because I knew I was going to be at the orphanage a long time today. So we went and plugged the laptop in and the couch nearest where the plug was was occupied by some other kids so he stood up with the laptop sitting on the windowsill for a while. Then the kids left so I pulled the couch a little closer to the plug and put the laptop on it for him to watch there and he said "Mom sit". So I obliged and he snuggled up to me and said "I like Mom" and I put my arm around him and squeezed. Then he said "I love Mom". SO HAPPY!!! I couldn't count the number of times I have told Vladik I love him and I was starting to get a bit sad that he hadn't said it back but I reminded myself that it would happen and it did! If you think about, how many times in the last 5 years that Vladik has been in the orphanage would Vladik have had someone tell him they love him or him tell them he loves them too? Probably never. Living life without being told you are loved everyday must be tough. But Keith and I plan for Vladik to never go another day in his life without knowing and hearing that he is loved.

A picture looking out the balcony of my new apartment. The store with the yellow front is called Two Geese (in Russian) and there are pictures of two geese everywhere. It is a cafeteria style restaurant. They don't have a ton of selection but the food is decent, the beer is CHEAP, and one of the girls who works there actually speaks a little English so she can tell what each of the food items are.

Another picture off the balcony of my new apartment.

This little hut is actually a food stand. This is the place where we ordered the pancake/burrito things using the digital camera. I went this morning to get some for Vladik and the girl working there was new so it took her a minute to figure out why I was showing her a picture on a camera and then took her another minute to find the right entry on the computer/cash register. I had to show her the pictures a couple times but I ended up with a correct order!