Day - what day is it anyway?

Another good day was had by all. However, I felt a little like the parent (or teacher, maybe?) in this book. It was one of my childhood favorites, but now the roles are reversed. You should check it out.

Let's just say that my persistence and stubbornness seems (it has) to be equal to one of the kid's traits of the same. Woowee, welcome to parenthood. This is going to be the ride of a lifetime. We're trying to figure out how to handle the rare tantrum when the kids don't know us, really, or trust us. It's challenging because we don't know how much compassion to display, when to give them a break because this has to be hard on them, or when we need to gather every ounce of German stubbornness and stand toe-to-toe. Really, things are really going well, but I don't want you to think they're perfect! They have done so well so far for what they've been through. And we think they are the smartest, funniest, cutest/handsomest kids ever. Sorry, but they're taken :).

We took a trip to the grocery store tonight and Kid #1 had a great time picking out cucumbers, then helping put the groceries away. And we created a schedule to help them know what to expect. We noticed that they were asking lots of questions about what time we eat, what time should they take a shower, etc. 

The kids don't seem to be used to praying before meals, so we thought a simple repetitive prayer would be helpful at first. So yesterday, we started and today they were trying to say it along with us. That is just one indication of how sponge-like their little minds are. We're still using Google Translate a lot, but we're picking up some words (although our minds are more like dried out pieces of shoe leather).

Another thing that tickled my funny bone: We have a small washer. The first one didn't work, so our landlady had another installed. And it's German. Does anyone else think it's funny that an American is using a German washer in Poland? No? Just me? Our balcony has a clothesline and we do laundry every day. Yet another change.

I don't know if I will post every day from here on out or not. It's mostly mundane days, but if I have time and at least one thing to write about, I will post.