Friday, October 17, 2008

Day Fifty Three – Tired, But No Complaints

Well, if anyone is still following the Giorgio family blog, the news after nearly a week at home is overwhelmingly positive – except for the sleep deprivation, of course. Peter has been a dream, but that may be just my (Todd) hallucinogenic recollection of the last few days. He's been waking up at 3.30 and we're working on various strategies to deal with the early mornings. But we're hoping that this morning's result will persist – he woke at 3.45 and crawled into bed with us. We all slept until 6.00 – pure luxury compared to the 3.30 train-playing, book-reading mornings we've experienced earlier this week.

Peter's interests appear to be no different than any other 3.5 year old boy. Trucks, cars and tractors are all fascinating. He's been very interested in a 16 piece tractor puzzle and some flash cards with tactile components (thanks, Diana and Paul!). Riding in the car remains an exciting event. Sherri bought some pumpkins earlier this week, including small ones for Max and Peter. Peter has been carrying his around the house and holding it up with the announcement of 'pumpkin!' for the last couple of days. It's one of his new English words applied correctly and consistently!

Communication has been a non-issue. We are able to get the critical points across and are working on the routine stuff. While we were in Ukraine, Peter never said much. But here, it's non-stop chattering. I (Todd) took Peter for a walk around the lake the other day and he never stopped talking! By translation, I didn't understand a thing he said, but, hey, if he's pointing to the fountain and jabbering away in Ukrainian, well, I get the basic idea.

Peter's fruit eating, observed in Rivne, hasn't changed. He rejected cinnamon toast for breakfast the other morning and grabbed his half-eaten apple instead – he's the healthiest eater in the Giorgio family, for certain. He chomps a banana every morning (today topped off with a hard-boiled egg) and eats all of the grapes and strawberries you provide. One morning, Peter took a nibble of a chocolate donut and put it back in the box!

We visited Peter's new child care center on Thursday in preparation for next week's 9a-to-3p plan. Peter warmed right up to the facilities, riding a pedal car and wanting to stay and check out the outdoor playground. The other children and the caregivers seem very nice and welcoming, so we're expecting a good outcome here.

Last night (Thursday) was a real pleasure. I (Todd) came home to find the boys running laps upstairs with occasional interruptions for wrestling or other boy stuff. We had an easy dinner concluded with some of Miss Tina's beetle candies. She sent them for Max with a mandate for sharing and that plan worked out great. Max felt extra special, Peter had his first beetle (a square pretzel topped with a melted Rolo topped with a pecan (yum!)) and everyone had a fun dessert (thanks, Tina!).

Aunt Lori and Sweet Pea are here tonight and Peter can't decide where to focus his attention. He has come a long way from his hesitation with the orphanage yard dog in Rivne – he was giving Sweet Pea the attention (and head-locks) of a boy unafraid of dogs. He was exhausted by 20.00 and essentially put himself to bed. I am sure that there are many challenges ahead, but we are so grateful for a relatively easy week one in Nashville.

2 comments:

Holly said...

Thanks SO MUCH for the update! We've been wondering over here how things are going and have talked about calling, but didn't want to disturb. Ours is on Fall Break M and T, so if Peter wants to play with an older chid, give us a call!

ArtworkByRuth said...

Z called cinnamon toast "Sin on toast", so glad things are going well!