December 15th

We visited Bass Pro today. I thought it would be fun for him to see all the animals on display. I was trying to figure out how to tell him what we were going to do. It's funny, you don't realize how hard it is to communicate with someone if they don't speak English. I didn't want to say we are going to see "stuffed animals" because I thought he might think I was going to show him "teddy bears". So I put in the translator "zoo but animals dead". What a dumb thing to say. The look on his face was priceless. I then showed him a taxidermy site and he understood. He enjoyed it, especially the fish which were in a huge floor to ceiling aquarium.

Sergiy is always wanting to help. Even if he is doing something, if he sees you working on something, he will stop what he is doing and come over and offer to help.
Deborah had asked me to peel some potatoes, so I got some out and started to peel them. Sergiy came over and offered to help. I thought, "Can this kid be trusted with a knife without cutting himself? What will people think if he slices his hand open and end up in the ER for stitches?" But I got a knife and handed him a potato. Silly me, this kid has peeled potatoes before. He was twice as fast as me and didn't leave much potato on the skin he peeled off. He was a pro.

I don't where he got his manners but I am really surprised. He will not start eating until you do. He always offers to do dishes. He folds every piece of clothing he touches. When I took him to try on some jeans, he will fold each pair after he takes them off. He never just lays them down or tosses them to the side. He makes his bed without asking.

He told me that he gets up at 7:00 in the orphanage, and bedtime is 9:00. That's a bit hard to do here. He has been sleeping till 8:30 am (I hate to wake him up) and goes to bed at 10:00.

Deborah and I took him to his first grocery store. It was fun to have him point to things he liked. Favorite: strawberry. He loves strawberry jam on his toast and tonight we bought him strawberry ice cream. He really eats everything. He didn't put carrots on his plate last night. That might have been because I didn't take any and he followed me. But so far, he has liked everything Deborah has made. We were told in training don't be surprised as some kids eat like horses and hoard food while others eat like birds. So far he eats smaller portions than most kids and doesn't eat a lot of junk even when you offer it. I bought him a pack of M&Ms and he ate half and put the rest in his pocket. We have a basket of small packages of crackers, cookies, snack type things and he chose a juice box. Go figure. But we were told they aren't used to a lot of sugary stuff, they just don't have it available and so far, he doesn't seem interested in it.