Poopka

Poopka means poop and we had a very poopy day yesterday.  We got all of our stuff together and headed to Kiev.  I started feeling car sick on the way so I switched places with Liz so I could ride in the front.  Soon, we found out there is a smell worse than the stinky man who rode in the car with us when we first arrived.  It's called a "pook" which is a toot in English.  Alex had horrible gas and he was laying on Tanyas lap with his little bottom aiming right at Liz.  At that point during the day, we thought it was the worst smell ever.  But, we found out later that it wasn't.  We checked into our new apartment and Natasha left us for a few hours.  We went to walk around a little and eat dinner.  We were all by ourselves.  I can't order so Tanya has to do it when Natasha isn't here.  She usually orders whatever he asks for and he eats about 1/4 of it and we throw the rest away.  He wanted juice and they gave him a huge glass of juice - which is weird because everything they serve here is so small, except beer and this glass of apple juice.  Alex went to the bathroom 3 times while we were at the mall.  I was thinking that maybe he just liked to play with the hand dryer but you had to pay to go to the public restroom so I decided that we would just come home.  It was pouring so we walked home in the rain.  It was only about 5 minutes.  We came home and Alex went to the bathroom.  He told us on the way home that he was tired so I thought it would be a good idea to take a little rest.  Tanya was explaining to him that they could lay down and watch T.V. before Natasha came.  He didn't want to lay down and was crying and kicking his feet.  He did that for about an hour.  Tanya kept telling him things but I think it made it worse.  (more about that later)  Natasha came to get us and brought her sister Ina.  It was so much fun to hang out with both of them.  Really, they are so fun!  We went to some beautiful parts of Kiev.  There was a park where they have some little amusement park rides and the kids each chose which one they wanted to do.  They had a lot of fun.  It's really hard to know how to handle everything.  We aren't home so it's so nice to stay busy but I don't want them to think that this is what life will be like at home - spending money all the time, ordering whatever food they want, getting to do everything that looks like fun, listening to the TV and radio sooooooo loud, staying up super late.  I know the transition to normal life will be a little shocking.  As I'm typing right now, Tanya is watching TV on the loudest volume and Alex is listening to the radio in the next room as loud as it goes.  It's driving me crazy, but Liz says I should let it go.  I'm so thankful that she will tell me that!  Ok, back to yesterday.  After the park, we went to a huge mall.  It was so fun to walk around and see the different kinds of shops.  We didn't buy anything because it's all so expensive.  I have been wanting to buy a Bible in Russian to bring home with us so we went to the bookstore.   We asked the guy who worked at the store and he had no idea what we were looking for. He told us they had a "sex bible."  What????   I said, "God, Jesus." and Liz said "Holy Bible".  They took us to a section of the store with religious books.  We looked but couldn't find anything that looked like a plain old Russian Bible.  While we were looking, Alex came over and told Tanya "Hochesh toilet"  which means that he needed to go to the bathroom.  I looked at him and saw his expression completely change.  Then I looked down and saw diarrea running down his leg.  Then he started walking so it was trailing behind him all over the floor.  I was telling him to stop, stop, stop!!  So, he stood there and just kept going ALL OVER THE FLOOR.  Liz and I just stood there stunned at first.  Liz thought he had thrown up so she wiped his mouth with a towel.  We really had no idea what to do.  All four of the grown ups just stared at each other!  Liz and I started digging through our backpacks for whatever we had to clean it with.  Alex was just standing there looking at us and then what did we do?  Started cleaning and laughed to tears, of course.  Then he thought it was funny too.  I'm so thankful for his reaction because he could have stood there crying instead which would have made it 100 times worse. Seriously this was the grossest moment of my life.  I did ok, but gagged once and I don't know how I didn't throw up.  It was everywhere.  Mostly down 1 leg and all over his shorts, sock and shoe and the floor.  I couldn't believe the amount of paper towels, kleenex, toilet paper, and wipes we had in those 2 backpacks.  We covered every inch of poop.  Tanya was embarassed and immediately walked away and acted like she wasn't with us.  She was funny.  Natasha went to the store to buy kleenex and Ina went to the bathroom and stole a trash bag.  We wiped and wiped and wiped until we had it cleaned up.  It proably took 30 minutes.  We headed for the bathroom while Natasha and Tanya went to buy some shorts to wear home.  When we got to the bathroom we had to take off his clothes which spread the poop even more.  We rinsed his shoe and cleaned him up again.  He had to wait in there naked for about 15 minutes which he thought was hilarious.  Ina and Natasha do not have children yet and they were amazing!  Ina even carried the bag of poop rags and shoes to the bathroom.  We threw away the shorts, underwear, and socks.  Natasha and Tanya came back and they bought a towel because all of the clothes were too expensive.  So we wrapped him in the towel and headed out of the mall.  Tanya walked way in front of us the whole time.  He saw her and started running, yelling "Tanya".  So, then his towel falls off and he is naked in the mall.  Liz got to it pretty quick though.  Then he walked by us the rest of the way.  We couldn't wait to get home and get him and us in the shower!  So that's our poopka story and it was horrible.  Nothing worse can happen!  The shoes are in the washer now for the 3rd time.  I am going to make sure they are clean. AnnMarie - I know you have been so sad that you couldn't be here.  Maybe this will make you feel a little better :)

We are exhausted today.  We are about to go eat dinner.  Tonight I will post about our day today.  I'm dreading bedtime because it is exhausting.  Every night Alex doesn't want to go to sleep.  He has a fit when I tell him to lay down.  He will cry, kick his feet, throw pillows, and look at me very mean Although it's frustrating and exhausting to me, I know that he doesn't really understand what I'm saying.  The other night when Natasha explained to him what I was saying, he went to bed right away.  Tanya tries to get him to lay down but I have had the feeling that she is trying to scare him into obeying me.  Last night when he was having a fit, Tanya started to talking to him.  I understood the words "zaftra" and "internat"  which is "tomorrow" and "orphanage".  This was the first time that I knew she was trying to scare him so I told her not to say that.  I called Natasha and had her explain to him that he had to obey me and go to bed.  If he didn't he would not be able to go and have fun tomorrow.  I would stay with him at the apartment while everyone else went to have fun.  At first, he was pushing me and kicking me and wouldn't let me put the phone to his ear.  But, I am much stronger than him and I just held his arms and put the phone up to his ear.  After he listened to her, he was fine.  He went to bed pretty quickly after that.  He cried because the light was off so we turned it on and then after a little while he cried again because the light was on.  But other than that, he laid down and went to bed.  I hate that he feels so insecure about his future with us.  Not being able to communicate is hard.  Really hard!!!  I really wish we could understand each other.  They are both great kids with good hearts.  It's so hard emotionally because I know they can't help it when Alex is being disobedient or when I know Tanya is trying to manipulate him by scaring him, but it still frustrates me.  Then, I feel guilty that I am annoyed and frustrated.  I have been feeling like this less lately.  I'm really praying about it and asking God to keep my focus on them instead of me.  That changes everything because then I can see them through His eyes and look at them with love and compassion.  Most of the time it's great and I am so thankful that God has chosen me to be their mom.  Other times my selfishness gets in the way and my thoughts go all kinds of ugly places.  I'm thankful that God is showing me this and showing me how to overcome it too.  I want to love them just like He loves me!

Ok, here are pictures from today.  I had to post the pictures of the pooping incident because it was so awful.  I will come back and erase them someday because I don't want him to be embarassed, but for now - I hope you can laugh at our misfortune!  We did!

Ina and Natasha - such beautiful girls!

Random guy doing exercises in the park.

Tanya and Alex in the bumper boat.  There was no one to bump so Alex just drove it in circle.  At this point I was thinking "I hope he doesn't get motion sickness."  I would have actually preferred that to the poopka.

Tanya was so cute jumping.  They shot her up so high and she loved it!

This is the scene of the "accident".  This was after we cleaned up the poop.  It was all over the floor between the 2 baskets.

 

This is after the poopka.  That's Ina with the poop bag.  Tanya is walking as far from us as possible.  Liz carrying the poop shoe and dropped it.  The other one had poop on it too, it just wasn't as bad.

I bet Natasha and Ina are really excited about having kids now!

Alex was a great sport!