Sorry, Everyone!!!!
Here are the long awaited pics! The kids are doing great. A few highlights were Deianna learning to ride a bike "with" training wheels and then last week taking them off. She crashed and scraped her arm up, but then got right back on! She is definitely determined in all she does. Also, this week she is trying to write words and usually never speaks in Russian. Even if someone speaks Russian to her she answers in English. She loves playing across the street with her neighborhood girl friends. They love doing gymnastics in the yard. She got a "naughty" note from school the other day for hitting and scratching on the playground. The teacher said it was probably more like "rough" play, but still we were firm. She was grounded after school to her room. She cried. The next day after school she immediately ran to the car with a huge smile and a very loud voice saying, "NO NAUGHTY NOTES"...."DEIANNA NOT NAUGHTY"....."GO OUTSIDE". She loves playing outside!!! She begs everyday to be able to swim, because she saw a rerun of the olympic swimmers. I signed her up for swimming lessons today. She is still shy around people she doesn't know, but the teachers at school say she is a hard worker and is getting along with her classmates. Honestly....I keep waiting for the "difficult" time or when the honeymoon is over. I would have to say that both Caleb and Deianna have adjusted better than we even imagined. 95% of the time, they are close to perfect...if kids are perfect....and the other 5% seems like normal childhood issues.

Caleb still speaks in Russian to Deianna a lot of the time whether or not she replies or not. He also sings in the bath tub at the top of his lungs. Tonight he was singing something about the toilet. He is so funny!!! Caleb has turned out to be very young in most respects. We have decided in many ways he is like a 3 year old in respect to touching sings that he knows he shouldn't, sucking his thumb at bedtime, and in regards to motor skills. He is very smart and is learning at record speed though. He has matured a lot since the orphanage. He is in Kindergarten and goes two days a week, all day. His teachers say he is endearing! Because his maturity level is very young, we have chosen to repeat him in Kindergarten next year. Because he did attend this year however, he is able to go to summer school which will help reinforce the things he needs to know when he repeats next year. He is also smaller in stature than the other Kindergarten children, so we are happy that they are allowing him to return next year at that level. His birthday is not until the end of August so this was another deciding factor. He is still trying to ride the bike with training wheels. He went to see his big brother play basketball in a tournament. We asked him if he wanted to play basketball and he said "no". So then we asked him if he wanted to learn to drive a car and he said, "yes". We also asked him if he wanted to use tools and he said "yes". We also asked him if he wanted to be a computer hacker and he said "yes". Not sure if he understood the hacker part, but he definitely is a "gadget" kind of guy. He knocked out his two front teeth running in the gym at school, fell at a department store stepping up on the curb and bloodied his knee and feel running outside on the driveway and scraped up his elbows, arms and legs all within about 3 days. He looked like he'd been in a motorcycle accident. Luckily the teeth weren't permanent and since then we have worked on using your hands to break your fall.

Again, it is wonderful to see them "just being kids", having more independence, but learning to take on new and exciting things in their new lives at American citizens!