First Week at Home

Hi Everybody! We've been home a little over a week now and a lot has been going on. Here is everything from my (Joel's) perspective. Grandma and Grandpa Fritsche (aka Babushka & Dedushka) were here to greet us when we got home and spend a week with us. The boys really enjoyed their time with them. As you can see from the attached pictures, the boys got haircuts right away. They did so well at the barber shop. We'll definitely continue to get their haircuts there. The barber is great with them.

Last Sunday was Slav's birthday. I think we successfully communicated to him in Russian that it was his birthday. He was very excited to learn that he turned 5 that day. Now he counts to five in English all the time. Even Sergei can count to five! We had a nice birthday celebration with ice cream cake and birthday cards and balloons.

We spent a few hours at the St. Louis Zoo on Monday of last week. The boys had fun trying to feed the giraffes and trying to feed popcorn to Mama & Papa. We'll definitely be going back to the zoo, especially since it's less than ten minutes from our house and FREE. We also made an outing to the Mills Mall where the boys got to ride the carousel. They thoroughly enjoyed that as well as a look at the animals and fish at Cabela's.

The boys are behaving fairly well. Sergei gets into trouble when he touches something that he knows he should not. Slav tends to throw very loud screaming fits when he doesn't get his way. We usually have at least two of these per day. When he screams and cries his punishment is having to sit by himself on his bed. He does not like this at all. If he continues screaming (which he tends to do) he gets a spanking on the behind. I have not enjoyed giving the spankings, but I feel they are necessary. Slav knows that he should not be screaming at the top of his lungs continually, but he chooses to continue doing it. Thankfully the fits tend to last no longer than five or ten minutes. Unfortunately right now he is throwing a fit because he refuses to share anything with Sergei. We have explained that many of the toys belong to both boys, but Slav has a very difficult time with this concept. We will continue to work on this. I am really working hard to have Slav listen to me and look at me when I call him, especially when he is in trouble. I have lots to learn as a Papa.

As far as eating goes, Sergei is our little champion eater. He eats almost everything that we give him. He has eaten sausage, various soups, various yogurts, oatmeal, bread, cheese, pizza and numerous other things. Slav on the other hand is a very picky eater. He loves sausage (breakfast sausage and types of dinner sausage). He does not like to try new things. Saturday morning I made waffles and Slav didn't want anything to do with them at first. I snuck a little bit of syrup onto his lip, then he realized that he would like the waffles. Slav absolutely hates eggs. He wouldn't touch them in Russia and he won't here either. Sergei loves them. We think Slav will warm up to typical American foods as time goes by. He ate some chicken fingers at the Vlad Inn at first, but then only wanted fries. He refused to eat McNuggets at McDonalds in Moscow. I made him try a bite, then I could tell that he didn't think it was all bad, but he didn't want to let on that he didn't hate them. He is already warming up to breaded chicken strips, so we hope he'll do the sam with other foods.

All in all, things are going very well. The boys have enjoyed playing with their cousins here in our neighborhood. I think that this will be really good for them, especially since Clarion is spending this first year home schooling them. We were worried that the boys would be afraid of our dogs, but after a week, we are convinced that it is the other way around. The boys tend to treat the dogs well, but the dogs definitely fear them.

Our prayers go out to everyone in the Houston area, especially many of our loved ones who are still without power, including Mom and Dad who returned home Friday. Thanks for continuing to pray for us and our family. We appreciate all of you love and support! We'll write again soon.

Love,

Joel, Clarion, Slav & Sergei