His first day...

Once Lex (that's what we're calling him or Alex as Austin insists that Alexy sounds too girly!) found the Nerf Dart Gun's and had the big war with Austin and Devree he seemed to warm up and feel more comfortable with us. He then went out and rode on the tandem bike with Kambree. He doesn't know how to ride a bike but I think he'll conquer that this week. We just need to get some flat tire's fixed so he can try.
We made sugar cookie. My kids love to snitch the dough so I gave a pinch to Lex, he made a terrible face and promptly spit it back into the bowl!
Rylee kept yelling at Austin as he was snitching cookie dough and then Lex imitated her yelling "Autin, Autin" in this funny high pitch voice. So even in a different language he can already tease the girls!

 

 Then Alex wanted to take some pictures:

 Self Portrait:

He ate breakfast well and didn't even mind my zucchini soup for lunch (unlike my own off spring) but when I served roast for dinner he was repulsed. He turned up his nose and shook his head. Maybe they don't eat a lot of meat over there? He did try a bite but didn't finish it. He just ate his mashed potatoes some carrots and lots of peaches. He finally tried a baked and frosted sugar cookie at the end of the day. I wasn't sure he'd give my cookies another chance after spewing out the dough earlier?
We had Anastasia and Alex come over and translate for us. We learned his favorite color is white, he likes to eat pasta, hash browns and Borsch. (Some sort of cabbage/beet soup that Anastasia told me to not even try making as Americans just don't know how to make it? )
I asked him if there was anything he wanted to tell us or ask us and he told us that his Dad died when he was four and his mom left him in the city when he was six and a lady from the orphanage found him and he's been there ever since. He has an older brother that is 25 and visits him once a month but cannot live with him. Anastasia says' you have to have a lot of money and a house and a job to get a child out of the orphanage and it sounds like his brother doesn't have any of those things. I asked:
W: Do you think your mom will come get you from the orphanage?
L: No, she isn't nice.
W: Did she hurt you?
L: Yes.
I do have a copy of his visa from when he was admitted to the orphanage and he looks like he is three or four? So, unless Mom left him with the visa she would have had to "checked him in" somehow and given them this information so I don't know if he knows the whole story?
We went to a Ukrainian church meeting where they gave the children a lesson on gratitude and praying. They had all the orphans sit up front and Lex reluctantly sat with them. Then at one point they were asked to make a card expressing gratitude to someone. Lex was the first one done and asked to bring his card to me. It says Thank You and something about this is my family. Then he wanted to sit with us and wouldn't go back to sitting with the other orphans.

At one point a little orphan girl sat on Rylee's chair and he stood up and started shouting in Ukrainian at her. I don't know what he said but he certainly defended the fact that that was Rylee's chair and that little girl cannot sit there!
He taught us the name for baby is "lala" and that's now what we call Rylee. She's okay with that because she'll admit it, she is the baby! I'm afraid this nickname might stick?
At four o'clock (he can tell time) he made ice cream licking charades. Like, "Okay, you said at four we'd have ice cream!"  Luckily they did serve ice cream before the meeting at four where they explained basic rules to the orphans.
He wanted to go home right after the ice cream. He'd make a triangle with his hands and say "doma" (home). We explained through a translator we needed to stay and hear the rules and he rolled his eyes and huffed. We made it back to the meeting room where I had left my bag to save our seats and he sat by the bag. Rylee tried to move my bag and sit by him and he said "No, mama!" So apparently he wanted me to sit by him? (I think he likes me just fine.) After the torturous half hour of listening to the rules which he made clear he thought intolerable we went "doma".
He's been up since four this morning and has had a difficult time sleeping. I could hear him toss and turn and he got up about three times to go to the bathroom. My alarm clock went off at five. (I thought I'd go to the gym-nope not today!) and he was so happy to see me. He came and hugged me and greeted me with a  "mama" and then immediately showed me the Game Boy he found in Ry's room. He wanted to know how to play it. It actually held his attention for about 45 minutes. Which is the longest thing that's held his interest next to Nerf Guns and video games.
Right now he's checking out all our board games. He opens them checks out the pieces and puts them back. I tried to show him play dough, nope, coloring with markers, nope, he just seems to be bouncing from thing to thing and he just can't take it in fast enough. He LOVES electronic things and shooting things.
It's now 7:40 I had to stop and make breakfast. Lex ate 2 bananas, 1 apple (core and all) two large helping of eggs (he helped me make them, he had never cracked and egg and tried punching it - it was quite funny) and toast.
Did I mention that he has on size 3 shoes and his foot is the same size as Rylee's and she wears a 5 or 6? We're going shoe shopping first thing this morning.
Over all this has just been amazing. I do hope he'll settle down in a bit, it's a bit exasperating how he jumps from thing to thing but he's very good about cleaning up and putting things aways so it's not like he's making huge messes or anything.
He certainly has his opinions about food (and has to sniff everything) and things he doesn't want to do -  like go to meetings. He was very excited to learn he would not be going to school. He may not be as excited after spending the day with a boring "mama" but we'll see. Wish me luck. He's now out on the scooter and it's on 7:55 am!