Well, Rob and I have survived our first week and a half as host parents. We had been told that in the second week the kids might start to test us and we’ve had a couple of small discipline issues but nothing too big yet. The kids have started to huff and puff some when they don’t get their way. We have school (“skola” in Latvian) every morning when we go over our English/Latvian flash cards and some days go better than others. Sometimes one or both of them won't want to participate so I have to say “no skola, no poola” meaning “we no go to pool if you don’t participate in school.”
Kristine is the drama queen and biggest pouter. We’ve learned to expect pouts if she can’t go to the pool at her specified time or if she’s not ready for bed when it’s bedtime. The other night she kept coming back downstairs after we put them to bed because she didn’t want to go to sleep yet. She’s funny…she’ll always drag Olegs with her and he’s more inclined to follow the rules but follows her just to see what we’ll do. They’re just like most kids their age, they laugh and giggle at bedtime and beg and plead for us to let them stay up. Each time I threaten them with no pool if they don’t follow our rules. So far, using the pool as leverage has seemed to work. I don’t know what we’d do if it was wintertime. LOL!!
Olegs & Kristine pick on each other just like brothers and sisters do. There was the time a few nights ago when Olegs filled up the bathtub for his bath and he left for a second to get his towel. In that split second, Kristine moved in and stole his bath so we had to break up a shoving match. We consoled Olegs and told him he could be first next time. Little things like that we can deal with. Overall, these are two really super kids and we have grown to love them so much. Our bathroom looks like a lake each time they take a shower or bath and we just don’t care. They leave the milk out on the table and the cereal box open after they eat and it’s okay (yes, we go back and ask them to put it away and they do). Having kids in the house is a wonderful thing.
Today was my first day back at work since Olegs & Kristine got here so Grandmother’s caregiver, Cheryl, watched them for us. It was a pretty hectic day and all I could do was think of getting home to see the children. What an awesome feeling to have them run up to me and hug and kiss me when I walked in the door. This is such an incredible experience!
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