A day at the Little River

...That's it's name. I just call it, "The Creek".

On Saturday we all hopped into the car and headed for The Creek. Everyone had a good time.


We found crayfish, caught some minnows, and the kids all had a blast riding down a channel someone had built of stones so that the water flowed through it a little deeper and quite fast. It looked fun and I wished it were deep enough for grown-ups!

Vitali and myself sat on the warm stones for a while so he cold warm up. He is so scrawny that he gets cold pretty quickly. (on a side note: we weighed him the other day and found that he has increased from 29 lbs when he first got here to 36 pounds. He's still really skinny so that should tell you something!)

Isn't he a little darling? I love this little guy!

You may remember Misha and his troubles with sensory issues. Those two words flow off my tongue so easily now that we have studied and worked hard to handle the strange behaviors and reactions that occur when you don't prcess sensory information in a healthy manner.

As I expected, Misha was worried about the creek. The bottom is covered with stones, the water is moving and chilly, there are visible fishlings swimming in it and water skaters zipping across its surface. Now, for those of you who don't know about this kind of thing, this next part may not sound very motherly to you.

Misha was worried but was tiptoeing along holding my hand. After a while I asked him what he was afraid of. "Slipping and falling into the water." he said. Not missing a beat I let go of his hand and gave him a gentle shove which sent his little life-jacket clad self into the two foot deep water. He popped right up and I smiled at him. "See?" I said. "It's ok to fall in! The water is fun!" He gave me a surprised look, smiled, let go and was off for a fantastic time. I never thought it would be so easy. He has improved so much!!

Here he is crawling into the channel to sail himself downstream for the hundredth time!
And here comes Max for another round. That's Steve behind him cooling his head. He was helping the little ones stop at the end of the channel so we didn't lose anyone further downstream!

The lovely Annette liked looking for crayfish. She never caught any, though. You kind of have to touch them for that. Unless you have a plastic cup, which we didn't. Look closely and you'll see she just lost one of her top teeth the day before !Ivy is our little dolly.

And here are all six, sitting a a fallen tree. Vitali was very nervous about the tree at first but then he realized he could handle it and decided he was pretty awesome to be sitting up so "high"!

Left to right are: Annette (6), Hannah (8), Vitali (4), Ivy (3), Misha (6), and Max (8).

Time to go!

Now, that was fun!

Melissa

In the Future...

...Anonymous comments will be deleted unless I like what you say--then I may keep them. If you sign your name and I still don't like what you have posted, I may still delete your comment. It is our blog, our children read it as does our family; I am all for a good discussion (really!) but an anonymous virtual tongue-lashing will get you nowhere but dumped.

Sorry for the negative nature of this post ! My last post drew two people who seem to think that children in orphanages would be better off there than in families that do not suit the opinions of these self-appointed "Orphan Police". I deleted one, the other is still there.

Melissa

Ohhhh, Vitali!!!

Our sweet little Vitali is known for his very short-term willpower. He really wants to be good but sometimes he just loses himself! Today has been an exercise for my patience.

Today Vitali has had two spankings, is wearing socks on his hands for the day to remind him that he is not a boxer, has had a dab of hot sauce on his tongue ( for lying), and had to spend some time in the corner. And that was all before lunch!

Ohhh, Vitali, I love you, you little sweet guy!!!! Someday we'll all laugh at the bald patches on my head where I have pulled out all the hair one to many times in exasperation!

I just have to keep remembering that even though Vitali is four, his maturity on any given issue can fall anywhere between that of an 18-month-old to a three-year-old. He is doing better all the time, though! And most of the time is sweet as can be! And often when he is bad, Steve and I have to turn away from him several times during his scolding to keep him from seeing us laughing. What a funny little guy he is!

Make sure to read the Father's Day post below. I posted two posts today. I have certainly been slacking off!

Melissa

Fathers Day for the father of six!

Father's Day is so much more exciting with six children!! The kids all piled on Daddy in bed the morning of the big day. They had been eagerly awaiting the moment to give dad his treasures for three days and when the moment it arrived, it was an explosion!

... Superman boxer shorts from Misha, a hose nozzle from Ivy, a bag of goodies from Hannah, water shoes from Annie, comic book character pajama pants from Max and my favorite--this appropriately-worded shirt from Vitali, who can't read but nevertheless managed to pick out the perfect gift to remind Dad specifically of him:

What is it about boys and things with wheels!

If anyone were to look at my front yard tonight, they would know that I didn't take any lawn-mowing pictures today! I took a bunch the other day, though. How could I resist? It was so funny!

We took our push-mower into the shop to get fixed and while it was there we asked about a rider. To make a long story short, Steve was quite the hero around here when it arrived! I mean, the boys were impressed that we had a push mower but now a riding mower? What could be more exciting?!

We live on about an acre of land and as Steve buzzed around the ever-shortening grass, Max was there, marching ten feet behind all the way.

The girls joined him once in a while:

But only Max stuck it out to the end!

He was barefoot and sweaty but as happy as could be!

And when it was done, everyone took turns going for a ride. Vitali practically shot off of the front step where he had been sitting while keeping a very close eye on the process! ( I am sure he would have walked the whole lawn too but we couldn't be sure he would stay behind the mower!)
What fun!!

Melissa